Jacob Foxx's Blog, page 54

Pines by Black Crouch

I burned through the second half of this book in one day. It is a grade-A thriller, superbly paced and well-thought out. The story has the feel of a Twilight Zone episode with a little bit of the creepy small-town crime drama of say Twin Peaks (which was the inspiration for the story).

Secret Service Agent Ethan Burke awakes in a small Idaho town severely injured and with amnesia. He isn’t sure what happened to him but later learns he had a car accident on his way into the town of Wayward Pines. He was sent there to investigate the disappearance of two other agents, investigating some obscure billionaire of tax fraud. During his recovery, Burke can’t find his ID and struggles to contact the outside world. Worry turns to suspicion, even paranoia as more and more odd little things keep happening to him. There is something wrong with Wayward Pines.

The isolation of creepy small-town is a powerful theme. Imagine an isolated community, American in every way, yet something sinister is taking place as well, hidden by suburban block parties, parent-teacher conferences, and Sunday Church. The people are living double lives, appearing to be middle America while also undertaking something evil. X-Files has had episodes like this with Satan worshippers, cannibalism, and of course small communities of aliens trying to live as humans. There is also the paper-thin veneer of the town, which reminded me of Twilight Episodes where the suburban or rural community isn’t real.

The protagonist, Ethan Burke, is an admirable, likable guy. His story is deeply compelling and fits well with his struggles in the novel. The secondary characters fill their roles well but you really do not get to see any of them develop much. This novel is Ethan’s story.

It did get tiring at times, following as Ethan struggled to find the truth and seemed to get injured over and over again. The mysterious power of the town hung over everything, which became frustrating the longer it was drawn out. Luckily Crouch’s book is a manageable 300 pages and gives you closure at the end.

The climax and big reveal at the end are satisfying but I don’t think will stand the test of time. I won’t spoil it, but the obvious influence of movies and TV shape it and might not really satisfy hardcore fans of X-Files and Twilight Zone. It might feel all too familiar.

This is the beginning of a trilogy and there is definitely some loose ends but I don’t know if I really am that interested in the sequels. The big reveal at the end will leave you in shock but also a little numb to whatever may happen afterwards. I wonder how it can get any weirder.

In the end I think I will read the sequel. Curiosity usually wins out.

I recommend this for people who loved Twilight Zone, X-Files, and Twin Peaks. It is also excellent for those who like classic horror movies about evils in small towns. Mystery and thriller lovers will also like it. Hardcore sci-fi fans may not be impressed largely because it borrows several elements from its predecessors. Still, it is executed well and worth picking up.

The post Pines by Black Crouch appeared first on Jacob Foxx.

Utopia vs. Dystopia: The Impact of Social Science Fiction

Speculative fiction is an excellent vehicle for social commentary. Rather than demonstrate the flaws of current society through contrived narratives, speculative fiction offers the opportunity to skip past all the contentious fact patterns to create a new world. Many works of social science fiction have stood the test of time and are required reading in high school and college English courses. Others are much more controversial but have proved effective tools in affecting social change.

Two potent narrative platforms for social commentary are utopias and dystopias.

Most works classified as utopian are more accurately eutopian meaning good places rather than utopian which is derived from the Greek for “no place.” The original Utopia, written by Thomas More, was so preposterous that most of his contemporaries probably found it an amusing place rather than a paradise. It included several satirical elements suggesting the fake country was not meant to be taken as his ideal society but a reflection in a fun house mirror. His utopia was an absurdity, not an exemplar for social change.

An example today would be the film Idiocracy. The main character travels to the future to find human intelligence has dramatically declined. The world is inhabited by the lowest common denominator with billboards for junk food, beer, and hand jobs. The President is a pro wrestling superstar who gives an address to Congress after firing a machine gun into the ceiling as part of his entrance. The entire society was the result of stupid people breeding while the most intelligent chose not to reproduce leading to a gradual decline in average IQ. It was not a perfect or ideal society, but rather an absurd one that pointed to some of the idiocy in our current society, namely the glorification of celebrities, sexual deviance, and the lack of regard for intelligence.

The eu-topian style, meanwhile, has been in disfavor for some time. Readers tend to see it as political propaganda. Some may feel they are being lectured or in some way manipulated. The future societies are the result of events that coincide with the author’s worldview, which undermines her credibility.

It is unfortunate given the many quality eu-topian novels out there. Works like Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed are deserving of greater attention.

Despite the hostile marketplace, I believe there are ways for more works to break through. First, stories that are closer to the original utopian (no place) concept rather than eutopian (good place) concept has a better chance of overcoming the propaganda stigma. Absurdity is better than plausibility. Science fiction isn’t particularly effective at this but the suggestion only applies to utopian stories.

Utopian literature can play the role of the concept car at auto shows. Most concept cars will never see the road. In fact, some are merely display pieces without an engine. They are put in car shows to generate interest in new design concepts. A great utopia presents intriguing new concepts, not the next model to hit showrooms.

Another way to get past the propaganda stigma is to avoid depicting the society as omnipotent. One way is to take a protagonist from the real world and place him in a small, remote utopia such as an island paradise. The conflict could center around the real world discovering the paradise and bringing corruption to it. Examples include The Road to Eldorado, Last of the Dogmen, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The other common structure is the protagonist being either a traveler or journalist such as in More’s Utopia. A reporter has more authority and the aura of objectivity that a regular protagonist lacks.

While utopian fiction is in disfavor, dystopias are widely popular today. Most Americans have read 1984, Animal Farm, and Brave New World in school. Some may have read More’s Utopia but more as a literary curiosity than a classic. Why do readers enjoy reading about bad places instead of good places? Certainly dystopian novels have agendas.

Modern dystopias tend to utilize common or consensus evils. The bad societies resemble the bad guys of history such as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. The evil society is simply amalgamation of bad things and are not meant to in any way resemble a plausible future scenario. Examples of this include the ludicrous societies of Divergent and The Maze Runner. The world famous Hunger Games sticks to a non-controversial totalitarian state that in some ways resembles the Soviet Union but never engages in a discussion on communism or the police state.

Modern dystopias, especially young adult dystopian fiction, tend to use flawed or bad societies as setting rather than the focal point. They are not absurd in the comedic sense, rather implausible. In some cases the dystopia is symbolic of a general evil such as the psychological pressures placed on young people to conform to societal norms. Many popular dystopian novels are classified as young adult novels, which emphasize themes of coming of age, etc. For example Divergent, is largely a story about defining one’s identity and breaking away from familial and societal constraints.

Along with the YA best sellers and movie adaptations, there have been some idea-based dystopian novels in the past few decades as well. Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy is an excellent example. MaddAddam is a graphic picture of a world dealing with climate change, dominant corporate power, inequality, and sexual deviance. It is neither implausible nor absurd. Others include The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

While we seem to disagree strongly on the nature of paradise, there is clearly some agreement on the nature of hell. The evils of totalitarianism, fascism, corruption, corporate greed, inequality, sexual exploitation, and religious persecution are familiar experiences to many of the 20th and 21st century. At the same time we seem unwilling to recognize the tremendous human progress that has taken place such as the dramatic increase in life expectancy, improved education, the end of colonial domination, and the expansion of liberal democracy onto several new continents. Deaths from war or internal conflict was in decline until recently, thanks to the Arab Spring and Syrian Civil War. Other than that troubled region, the world is in a state of historic stability and prosperity compared to previous generations.

Despite these facts, we just don’t seem interested in recognizing the progress we’ve made toward eutopia. Instead we fixate on our flaws and remain fearful of old habits coming back to haunt us. Maybe its time we spend a little more time examining what has worked in the past two centuries instead of what hasn’t.

Science fiction typically emphasizes plausibility in its world-building. However, to take full advantage of the great potential of the genre, authors must learn to build shadow worlds and absurd worlds to best relay their ideas without coming across as a propagandist. Such stories could resurrect the utopian subgenre and open up a whole new store of possibilities, allowing us to move away from revisions, reboots, and retreads of old stories. As a sci-fi fan, I would love to see this.

The post Utopia vs. Dystopia: The Impact of Social Science Fiction appeared first on Jacob Foxx.

Glasshouse by Charles Stross

A fantastic premise and high profile author brought me to Glasshouse. It did not disappoint. An incredible work of imagination with all sorts of far future technologies and concepts. More importantly, it is a thrilling story that is almost everything you want in what is a very original work.

The novel takes place centuries in the future, a time where we have mastered teleportation, brain backups, dramatic body manipulation, and interstellar space travel. The protagonist Robin is recovering from a memory excision, an operation that blanks large portions of one’s memory. Although he is disoriented, he is convinced somehow he did voluntarily to eliminate some painful memories of his past. He seems to have a very advanced version of PTSD. During his recovery, he meets Kay, his four-armed lover. Before he feels fully healed someone tries to kill him. There is something from his past coming back to haunt him. To hide from his would-be assassins, he agrees to be part of a massive social experiment on a distant space station where he agrees to live like a 20th century human being, a period they call the Dark Ages.

The experiment is for individuals wanting to recover psychologically in a safe place, which is a little strange. I wouldn’t think living in a period called the Dark Ages would be helpful for PTSD. Anyway, the simulated society resembles 1950s or 60s America, with men working, women staying home, Church on Sundays, etc. If you are a scientist, you’ll quickly notice the various problems with the experiment itself and realize the researchers behind it have no idea what they are doing. Rather than a plot hole, it is actually the first hint that not everything is what it seems inside the experiment.

From the start you see some nasty social commentary. The 27th century Robin and the others in the experiment are mystified at the many norms and practices of 20th century American society. The gender roles, menial jobs, religious beliefs, and social norms are nonsensical and outrageously constraining. The norms in particular are imposed through a scoring system, where individuals get points which convert to cash when they get out of the experiment a few years later.

You are scored individually and as a cohort, creating peer pressure from others for each member conform. A neighbor’s bad behavior affected your bottom line. The pressure is strong and many adopt to it right away, becoming obsessed with points. Robin, an all-round contrarian, calls them score whores. They are the self-righteous community leaders who get off on their moral authority.

Robin is quite a character. You meet him as a man first but in the experiment he inhabits the body of a young woman. He never really gets used to being a woman, which shouldn’t surprise male readers. While his memories are fractured and his personality is largely intact, his new body, gender, and role does have an influence on him/her. As time passes, he does begin to adjust.

He, and later she, isn’t interested in living with social constraints or conforming to anything. He is obsessed with getting stronger, refusing to be hampered by a weak woman’s body. The male side of him wants to regain the lost power and eliminate the fear and helplessness imposed on him.

As he learns the truth behind his past and the experiment, you see a wider conflict involving the infection of human minds with what is essentially a computer virus. Stross treats minds as computers, that are capable of being infected with viruses to change programming, including memories and personality traits.

The world-building is incredible but very difficult to understand. It took me until the 40-50 percent mark to start understanding what Robin was talking about. There are tons of neologisms and complex explanations that are difficult to digest. I was willing to try because I love a challenge, but many readers will be frustrated. Stross pushed me to my limit but fortunately he had an interesting story going as well.

Stross also fixates on sexuality and gender as THE major change in human civilization in the future. We will be able to switch or alter bodies, including switching genders almost at will. The concept of gender roles will be a thing of the past, a time when we were uncivilized brutes. To fully demonstrate it, Robin experiences sex as a man and as a woman. The urges and compulsions of a man are certainly different, as well as the approach to seduction.

Interesting but not what I wanted to read about for 400 pages.

Stross’s preoccupation with sex and gender roles was a little tiring toward the end, as if it was the only important facet of society and the only real difference between the 20th and 27th century. The obvious criticism of conservative Christian society was a little unfair or perhaps dated. The experimental society resembled a pre-1960s town where divorce was not a realistic option, women stayed home, and the most important thing was to be married and start having kids.

As a child of the 90s, I can tell you that this is not the dominant cultural values in America anymore. Far from it. Since the 60s, the divorce rate has climbed, fewer people are getting married or are getting married much later, and the birth rate is down. Christianity’s hold on our culture has been weakening for decades. Watch American television today and you’ll see things aren’t the same.

The ending was certainly interesting but came together rapidly. You also have to endure the unreliable narrator, where neural infections can alter personality and thoughts, sometimes permanently. The power of teleportation and “re-spawning” took away from the drama of combat and death, which was good world-building but bad for storytelling. Where’s the drama if you can’t die?

Overall, Glasshouse is very smart, well-written, and full of thought-provoking moments. I highly recommend it.

The post Glasshouse by Charles Stross appeared first on Jacob Foxx.

Update on Current Projects

The summer has been extremely busy, both in terms of writing and the day job. On the regulatory professional side, my client is in the process of a financing, which if successful, would move me into a permanent position with the company. That means more job security and a nice raise. 

On the writing side, I’ve been trying to work on the Mek series and building Prescient Sci-Fi. The Thoughtcrime Podcast is beginning to build a modest audience and I’ve gotten to talk to and learn from a number of new indie authors. The blog is trucking along as well with roughly the same amount of traffic as earlier in the summer.

The Fifth World 3 is complete and I finished revisions on The Fifth World. The first book in the trilogy will be re-released with the revisions and a new cover. The problem is cost. Prescient Sci-Fi is still in the financing phase and can’t move forward with a release until the Winter in early 2016.

Self-publishing or indie publishing is my preferred route for a number of reasons but since things aren’t moving fast enough, I’ve decided to shop around the Mek series to literary agents and perhaps find a traditional publisher for it. If there are no bites after eight or nine months, then it will be back to Plan A.

Enough about business.

I have three completed episodes of the Mek Series and am beginning episode 4. I’ve also decided to begin a new writing project, a sci-fi/legal thriller. I’ll have more details on that soon.

My first love is science fiction and it is what I want to write currently but it is not the only thing I want to write. For a while now I’ve had a legal thriller in me that I wanted to put out there but the idea was not fully developed. It was also important to finish what I started with The Fifth World and the Mek series. There have also been a couple ideas for technothrillers similar to Michael Crichton bouncing around in my head. Those are probably years off.

On top of that, I’ve finished three short stories and submitted two of them to e-magazines. No bites yet but I’ve definitely built up some confidence on writing short stories. For the first few years of this whole writing thing, I was only interested in writing novels or novellas. In the last year or so, I’ve started to see the value of quality short stories from both a literary and business standpoint.

I’ll let you know as soon as one makes it into an e-zine.

For now, it’s back to work on Mek #4.

J

The post Update on Current Projects appeared first on Jacob Foxx.

Review: A Shroud of Night and Tears by Lucas Bale

The gritty Beyond the Wall series by Lucas Bale has needed a third book to finally unify the various story lines of the first two novels. The third installment delivers, advancing the series into a wider universe vastly expanding the scale. Exciting, well-written, and complex, it is definitely worth picking up for those looking for a story that doesn’t involve teenagers rebelling against those oppressive adults and all their dystopian societies.

The novel advances the story of the protagonists in the first two novels. We learn that the Preacher is part of a vast conspiracy attempting to free humanity from the Magistratus. Only it is not from mere oppression. Shepherd is still a reluctant participant in the conspiracy, while Jordi, the boy who saw his home destroyed and his brother hanged, thirsts for revenge. We learn Weaver, an agent of the Magistratus, and Natasha, a wanted murderer, are stranded on the same remote planet, both sensing they’ve been caught in something bigger than a simple murder.

The third novel also introduces us to some new characters. There is Gant, the leader of a small group of survivors stranded on that same remote planet, all sent there as bait in some sort of brutal training exercise. In his group are Abraham, a quiet yet capable soldier, and Kayt, a compassionate leader and love interest of Gant.

Humanity is heading towards an apocalypse and somehow all of these characters have to work together if the species is going to survive. A Shroud of Night and Tears combines a space opera with the feel of a spy thriller, set in a well-designed future. While it is largely about survival, it includes other themes like living under oppression, brutality, faith, redemption, and a little political intrigue. However, you don’t get any of these in high doses. The best tags for it are space opera and sci-fi adventure.

The plot is very complex, shifting between a close and distant third person perspective of six different characters. It is a lot to keep track of but everything fits and works well together. The world building is not overly complex but detailed enough to give you feel for each of these worlds. Bale keeps the technical details to a minimum.

An unseen force drives events in the book, forcing the main characters to deal with a changing universe. They come from different backgrounds and struggle to cope with the threat of apocalypse. There is a sort of jagged alliance with little trust or understanding.

The clash of personalities was compelling at first but started to get a little bland in the second half. There are a lot of characters so it took some patience and thought to keep up with all the differing relationship dynamics. The interaction among the characters was pretty monotonous: “I dont trust you”, “yeah well I don’t trust you either”, “we don’t need to like each other to work together”, and so on. While the characters are very different on the outside, their inner monologues tend to parallel one another, taking away a little away from the dynamic.

For those that love complex plots and a large cast of characters (e.g. Game of Thrones), this book will definitely appeal to you. It is graphic at times, refusing to spare details. Nearly all the POV characters are also between 30 and 50 dealing with adult issues. In other words, it is definitely not a young adult novel. It was refreshing to read a novel that didn’t try the usual YA tricks such as a teenage protagonist, love triangle, and try to fit it into some poorly fashioned sci-fi setting (post-apocalyptic, dystopian, space opera). It is not that YA fiction is inferior, only that sci-fi has not produced a lot of quality adult fiction of late. You don’t need attractive young characters to sell books.

The Magistratus and their Peacekeepers are pure evil. They are ruthless and obsessed with power. Unfortunately, you don’t get to see much of any individual agents or leaders. Generally, I prefer a little bit of nuance and specific development of the antagonist but other readers may not.

When it comes comes to scale, A Shroud of Night and Tears is on a different level. The three novels are not balanced and don’t build gradually like other series. This makes each one unpredictable, something I greatly appreciate. I can honestly say I have no idea where this series is going.

There are some quirks to the prose itself. Bale uses apostrophes instead of quotation marks, not sure why. The descriptions are strong for the most part, and included some obscure words, forcing me to expand my vocabulary a bit. This is probably due to the fact that the author is British and I am an American. It may be the same language but there is a little distinction in the vocab.

A Shroud of Night and Tears is a very entertaining and satisfying middle novel of a series. Beyond the Wall really comes together with this one. The frequent shifts in POV and perspectives and repetitive dialogue took a little away from the character dynamics but it is still solid. It will definitely hit the spot for those looking for adult sci-fi, particularly space opera or thrillers.

The post Review: A Shroud of Night and Tears by Lucas Bale appeared first on Jacob Foxx.

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

My recent delving into the SF classics brought me to The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. I enjoyed Left Hand of Darkness and several of her shorter works so I decided to give this award winner a shot.

The social science fiction classic was very interesting but history has proven its utopian fantasy more implausible as the years have passed. Still, the book is beautifully written and has some keen insights into differing social organizations and cultural values. It was also refreshing to read some utopian fiction, which is pretty rare these days.

Shevek is a theoretical physicist from the planet Annares in the Tau Ceti system. He lives in an anarcho-syndicalist society that broke away from the nearby planet of Urras. Urras is much like Earth of the Cold War, divided between capitalist and communist societies with varying degrees of democracy and freedom. His desire is to break down the isolationist walls built around his home planet and unite with their sister planet around his groundbreaking scientific theory.

The Dispossessed was written and published in the midst of the Cold War in 1974. America lost in Vietnam, the economy was struggling, and communism was seen by some as a viable alternative to free market capitalism. There was also the Communist revolution in Cuba in the early 1960s, which is seen as a significant strategic setback right in our own backyard. It was a time when many doubted the virtues of America and capitalism more broadly.

The circumstances are important when reading this book because it explains Le Guin’s relativistic approach to capitalism and communism in the novel. She portrays both as flawed and violent. Meanwhile, Le Guin’s ambiguous utopia of Annares is more of an anarchical society isolated from the political and ideological struggles of the rival factions on Urras. There is no state or central authority but the economy is collectivist. All notions of personal property are eliminated, including the possession of children. All citizens are named by a computer system to ensure each is unique. Food is provided to all whether they work or not but shelter and other amenities may not be. There are no traditional families, as everyone calls each other brother and sister. Traditional marriage is abolished as is the rights associated with raising your own children.

Annares is not a perfect society or what many think of when they think of a utopia. It is a poor world in many ways, far less beautiful than Urras. At the same time, there is near perfect equality, no hierarchies of any kind, and an objective work assigning system where a person is given postings but can refuse and stay with a job in a different region. Commons provide food to anyone whether they work or not. No one keeps personal stuff like clothes, blankets, and other items. While there is some civil strife, war is all but extinct.

All this is to explain why it is described as an ambiguous utopia. Le Guin wasn’t creating a perfect world, only an alternative to those we are familiar with today.

The idea is clear, Le Guin presents a third way to escape Cold War conflict and both flawed ideologies. It is anarchy. Given the events since 1974 and my own knowledge of politics and economics, I had some pretty strong objections to her utopia.

First, her system is collectivist, which has failed every time it has been tried. Second, the system runs contrary to human nature creating serious friction among the characters in the novel. Le Guin sort of acknowledges this with the strong connection between Shevek, his partner and his children. They aren’t a family unit as we understand it, yet the natural feelings of love and loyalty are powerful. Somehow, they still obey the bizarre social norms and follow their work postings separating them for years at a time. There are also clear power relationships that are unequal as between Shevek and his colleague Sabul. It is difficult to accept Shevek ignoring all these powerful feelings and staying true to the collectivist system.

The society is an interesting and original one but it bares so much resemblance to the failed structures of Marxism that it simply isn’t compelling in 2015.

More importantly, anarchical factions are almost always co-opted by authoritarian ones. Marxism was in fact largely anarchical but has been used as the foundation for numerous nightmarish governments. It is unavoidable. Anarchy only seems to work in very small groups and for a short period of time, all without becoming more than a subsistence economy.

Finally, the relativistic approach to the political struggle on Urras (Earth) is obsolete from a historical standpoint. It is portrayed as a world where clashing ideologies are stuck in a constant struggle with no clear winner. On Earth, that is not the case. Communism has been persuasively discredited while free market capitalism is becoming the norm. The Cold War ended with one side emerging victorious in a pretty convincing manner.

The World has also learned a lot more about the Soviet Union since the iron curtain fell. We now know there was some distinct differences in the behavior of democratic countries versus communist ones. While Le Guin depicts both as willing to kill protesters, this was rarely done in the case of the Western world. Meanwhile the Soviet Union was willing to murder millions of their own people to maintain their grip on power. Both sides used violence but one used it to an exponentially greater degree.

Perhaps if the Cold War didn’t end so decisively in favor of one side, this novel would be more compelling.

Unlike other science fiction classics, The Dispossessed is extremely well-written, and could be compared favorably to literary fiction works of the time. From a stylistic standpoint, Le Guin has few peers. Yet, the plot itself was prone to indulgent conversations about fictional theories and ideas. Most are real theories disguised with different names and origins. Neal Stephenson did the same thing in Anathem. A little of this is okay for me but Le Guin went on and on about these fictional theories in several chapters.

While history has not been kind to the ideas of The Dispossessed, it is still a creative and thoughtful work. There are few quality examples of anarchism in fiction.

Younger readers probably won’t appreciate this book without a knowledge of the previous century. Those that lived through the Cold War appreciate this novel much more thoroughly. As for me, a child of the 90s, I can appreciate it for what it presented at the time but it didn’t really stick with me.

The post The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin appeared first on Jacob Foxx.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide of the Galaxy

This novel is a consensus top 10 sci-fi book of all time. It has sold millions of copies throughout the world and is cited by many smart people as among their favorites. Richard Dawkins dedicated his book The God Delusion to the author Douglas Adams. The movie, made after the death of Adams, featured Martin Freeman, Mos Def, and Zoey Deschanel. Sounds like an awesome cast right? With all this popularity among the public, celebrities, and critics alike, I was left asking myself: what am I missing?

Normally here I give a quick summary of the plot but in this case it isn’t necessary. For the sake of tradition: A man named Arthur Dent is scooped up from Earth a moment before it is destroyed to make some galactic superhighway. He goes on adventures with aliens and robots after that. The titular Hitchhiker’s Guide is featured as a book within the book, with Adams using third person omnipotent throughout. Some call this metafiction or postmodernism or whatever. There is a broader story with a smaller Arthur Dent story underneath it.

How could a science fiction fan and writer not love Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? Let me explain:

First, it is essentially a comedy that just wasn’t funny to me. It is meant to be satirical or something but it feels very dated. From the start I got this sense there were topical jokes and references that were probably hilarious in the 1970s but really don’t make sense to someone who (1) is not British; and (2) was born three years after it was published. Right from the start, this book just wasn’t for me.

The weird thing is I generally love British humor, Monty Python in particular, but this book isn’t Monty Python. Adams has all these clever dialogue exchanges with characters going all literal on one another, poking fun at imprecise language. Today, some might call that grammar Nazism, which isn’t something that gets’em rolling on the floor laughing. Adams also uses all sorts of funny sounding names like Zaphod Beeblebox, Vroomfondel and Majikthise. Back when I read Dr. Seuss, this stuff would’ve been amusing.

According to the learned critical reviews, there are all sorts of profound intellectual questions addressed in the book like the meaning of life, the corruption of western society, and all these other things. Unfortunately, Adams doesn’t really hit on any of these deep themes in a very interesting way. It is usually nothing more than a few glib comments.

For example his reference to money:

This planet has — or rather had — a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much all of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

This is a long and playful way of saying money doesn’t buy happiness. That is not clever or insightful; it is cliché. Also, his discussion of money ends with these two sentences. This is just one example but the others go the same way. I picked the money one because it is cited in the AP Literature analysis of the book. Also, it made me roll my eyes when I read it.

If the book were actually funny, I probably would have given it 5 stars but it isn’t. I am an American that loves satire and absurdity but it has to be good. Quality matters. There is a Dr. Who quality to Adams’ work but he lacks a character in this book with the presence of the Doctor. Arthur Dent is also a poor excuse for a companion. On numerous occasions I wanted his whiny ass to die.

I understand people are reading all sorts of things into this book that make it more profound but I just don’t see it. The witty remarks and commentary go no farther than the hipster smart ass making fun of all the “sheep” in society. The book likes to tease readers, demonstrating the authors is educated and has thoughtful and trendy opinions on these matters but he won’t bother exploring any of them.

It is a little like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Stewart is a gifted comedian and the show is extremely funny. His knowledge of politics, history, and entertainment all serve the show well, providing unique depth to the jokes. However, Stewart himself would tell you he is not a journalist or member of the media elites. He is not an intellectual, he is the jester. If Stewart’s show wasn’t funny, it would’ve been cancelled long ago and no one would know his name.

I get the impression Adams is a very smart man and there is real substance somewhere in his works but it is not here. A lot of people find his work entertaining and funny but I’m not one of them.

There were some cool parts: The Big Question asked of the Deep Thought Computer, the whole story behind the legendary world of Magrethea, and Marvin the depressed robot. The mice were also a cool touch.

I fully understand I am in the tiny minority who didn’t like this classic and that this review will angry many but I simply won’t pretend to love something because it is popular.

The post The Hitchhiker’s Guide of the Galaxy appeared first on Jacob Foxx.

Review: The Hitchhiker’s Guide of the Galaxy

This novel is a consensus top 10 sci-fi book of all time. It has sold millions of copies throughout the world and is cited by many smart people as among their favorites. Richard Dawkins dedicated his book The God Delusion to the author Douglas Adams. The movie, made after the death of Adams, featured Martin Freeman, Mos Def, and Zoey Deschanel. Sounds like an awesome cast right? With all this popularity among the public, celebrities, and critics alike, I was left asking myself: what am I missing?

Normally here I give a quick summary of the plot but in this case it isn’t necessary. For the sake of tradition: A man named Arthur Dent is scooped up from Earth a moment before it is destroyed to make some galactic superhighway. He goes on adventures with aliens and robots after that. The titular Hitchhiker’s Guide is featured as a book within the book, with Adams using third person omnipotent throughout. Some call this metafiction or postmodernist or whatever. There is a broader story with a smaller Arthur Dent story underneath it.

How could a science fiction fan and writer not love Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?

First, it is essentially a comedy that just wasn’t funny to me. It is meant to be satirical or something but it feels very dated. From the start I got this sense there were topical jokes and references that were probably hilarious in the 1970s but really don’t make sense to someone who (1) is not British; and (2) was born three years after it was published. Right from the start, this book just wasn’t for me.

The weird thing is I generally love British humor, Monty Python in particular, but this book isn’t Monty Python. Adams has all these clever dialogue exchanges with characters going all literal on one another, poking fun at imprecise language. Today, some might call that grammar Nazism, which isn’t something that gets’em rolling on the floor laughing. Adams also uses all sorts of funny sounding names like Zaphod Beeblebox, Vroomfondel and Majikthise. Back when I read Dr. Seuss, this stuff would’ve been amusing.

According to the learned critical reviews, there are all sorts of profound intellectual questions addressed in the book like the meaning of life, the corruption of western society, and all these other things. Unfortunately, Adams doesn’t really hit on any of these deep themes in a very interesting way. It is usually nothing more than a few glib comments.

For example his reference to money:

This planet has — or rather had — a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much all of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

This is essentially a long and playful way of saying money doesn’t buy happiness. That is not clever or insightful; it is cliché. Also, his discussion of money ends with these two sentences. This is just one example but the others go the same way. I picked the money one because it is cited in the AP Literature analysis of the book. Also, it made me roll my eyes when I read it.

If the book were actually funny, I probably would have given it 5 stars but it isn’t. I am an American that loves satire and absurdity but it has to be good. Quality matters. There is a Dr. Who quality to Adams’ work but he lacks a character in this book with the presence of the Doctor. Arthur Dent is also a poor excuse for a companion. On numerous occasions I wanted his whiny ass to die.

I understand people are reading all sorts of things into this book that make it more profound but I just don’t see it. The witty remarks and commentary go no farther than the hipster smart ass making fun of all the “sheep” in society. The book likes to tease readers, demonstrating the authors is educated and has thoughtful and trendy opinions on these matters but he won’t bother delving into any of them. Make a few jokes about money and the meaning of life, and you’re an expert.

It is a little like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Stewart is a gifted comedian and the show is hysterical. His knowledge of politics, history, and entertainment all serve the show extremely well. However, Stewart himself would tell you he is not a journalist or member of the media elites. He is not an intellectual with the makings of a great leader, he is the jester. If Stewart’s show wasn’t funny, it would’ve been cancelled long ago and no one would know his name.

I get the impression Adams is a very smart man and there is real substance somewhere in his works but it is not here. A lot of people find his work entertaining and funny but I’m not one of them.

There were some cool parts: The Big Question asked of the Deep Thought Computer, the whole story behind the legendary world of Magrethea, and Marvin the depressed robot. The mice were also a cool touch.

I fully understand I am in the tiny minority who didn’t like this classic and that this review will angry many but I simply won’t pretend to love something because it is popular.

The post Review: The Hitchhiker’s Guide of the Galaxy appeared first on Jacob Foxx.

Dear Sci-Fi and Fantasy fans, Stop Arguing over Labels!

-By Jacob Foxx and Paulie Spiceflow –

Visit any sci-fi convention, fan club, book club, author panel, or discussion forum and you will find it. Grown men and women, many of them highly educated, arguing over labels. “I don’t consider BLANK science fiction” or “that isn’t really space opera” or “that is totally hard science fiction, you are an idiot to think otherwise!” It is sad that so many fans and readers waste time and energy trying to assign labels and define genres for the work, rather than talk about the works themselves.

Genre fiction is more beholden to common thematic constructs. In normal person speak, that means there are more patterns in it than mainstream, literary fiction. They aren’t rules but rather recognizable patterns that make it easier for readers to identify and connect with what they are reading rather than be frustrated by a convoluted narrative with unfamiliar themes, characters, or an unsatisfactory ending. After all, being unique doesn’t mean it’s better. These patterns form the basis for many of the subgenre labels.

So why are these labels so contentious? Well, because the system of genre and subgenre classification isn’t a well-defined system. There was no vast conclave of literary masters who laid down the code of how literature would be classified. Instead, the terms we use today are largely marketing taglines, slogans, terms derived from famous quotes, or sometimes insults. It is a myriad of ill-defined and arbitrary terms with plenty of overlap.

Take space opera for example. The term space opera was coined by Wilson Tucker, who meant it as a pejorative term. It was a play on the term soap opera, which we use as a label for those cheesy melodramas on daytime television. The first ones were sponsored by soap companies, hence the name. At least there, you could see the connection between these TV shows and an actual opera. The leap from soap opera to space opera, must mean it is cheesy melodramas in space.

Perhaps in the early days they were more akin to actual operas but more recently there seems to be nothing operatic about them other than their scale. The label has been used to cover space adventures, which are hardly operatic or have any relation to the musical stage productions. Sure they take place in space, but do we call all stories that take place in space, space opera? If so, why do we still bother with the opera part of the term?

Fast forward to today and we have fans arguing over what is and what is not space opera, and what it takes to be a successful space opera. To them, it isn’t a nonsensical or meaningless word, they are merely inserting their own definition to the term. If two people cannot agree on the definition of a term, any attempt to apply it or banter it about is pointless.

From an intellectual standpoint, you need a working vocabulary before you can have serious intellectual conversations on a given topic or discipline. It is why academics spend so much time working to fully develop and articulate their ideas, theories, or hypotheses in clear language.

Does speculative fiction need some sort of convention to work out the definitions of the genres and subgenres? Probably not. After all, the terms are usually used for marketing purposes, where strict definitions don’t matter. If anything, marketing experts love to see consumers insert their own definitions to these terms regardless of whether it is consistent or accurate. Their job is to illicit a positive impression of the product. It also helps to relate it to a predecessor. If a book is similar to a bestseller, marketers try to find ways to present their own as “just like that famous one!”

Literary experts love to find similarities so they can plot literature along an intellectual genealogy. Fiction becomes a tree of primary, secondary, and tertiary branches all originating from base archetypes. For example, some believe space opera has its roots in old westerns and sea adventure stories. These older works were about distant or fantastic places. The difference is only that space opera uses space rather than the west or the ocean, which requires the addition of futuristic space travel technology.

You could also build a system based on other characteristics. Some like to classify something as hard SF or soft SF depending on what scientific disciplines are portrayed. Theoretical physics would be hard while psychology would be soft. Another way is to define a story based on its setting, whether near future or far future or alternate reality. Others like to use groups like first contact, alien invasion, military, post-apocalyptic, dystopia, and zombies.

There are problems with both systems. Literary archetypes suggest that speculative fiction is dependent on existing traditions and has nothing substantive to offer. For the characteristic system, many novels have several, while others may have an element that is very little to do with the story itself. Is the post-apocalyptic story about the catastrophe and survival, or is it just the setting?

For those who have a love of reading and fiction, the literary archetypes probably works better. For the scientific and fandom types, elements or themes are preferred. Labels become personalized and hence not worth arguing about.

In the end, we are arguing about what we love about each book or movie. That is why labels differ and why normally intelligent and mature people can devolve into a petty children. The funny part is most agree that different people can love a book or movie for completely different reasons. The differences have nothing to do with merit, although some psychologists would perhaps read a little into a person’s reaction to a dramatic piece.

So please, do not get yourself into any more arguments about labels. Most of the time you’re merely battling over marketing and advertising taglines. Other times, you’re self-defining and futilely attempting to impose your definitions on someone else. Finally, these arguments do not help better understand or get better insight into a favorite sci-fi book or movie. Enjoy yourself!

The post Dear Sci-Fi and Fantasy fans, Stop Arguing over Labels! appeared first on Jacob Foxx.

Review: Earthbound by Mark R. Healy

We are in the midst of some sort of golden age for post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction. From movies to short stories, there’s a growing appetite for hellholes and oppressive totalitarian governments. As such it is difficult for any particular novel that stands out (unless they’re making a movie out of it). On top of that I think some are starting to feel a little post-apocalyptic fatigue, which is why Earthbound by Mark R. Healy was such a surprise.

I received a copy in exchange for an honest review. As an indie author myself, there is a temptation to go easy but I learned early in my writing career that tough, objective criticism is more valuable to authors than fluff. In this case, I didn’t need to fluff my review up at all.  Earthbound is a thrilling sci-fi adventure with surprising depth and an ending that makes the whole trip worth it.

Knile Oberand is a criminal living on the vast post-apocalyptic wasteland of Earth waiting for his ship to come in. In this case, the ship is a passkey, a small encoded device that gives him access to the last space elevator on the planet. From there he has a chance at a new life on one of many new colonies in the Solar System. Out of nowhere, he gets a message that a passkey is available with his name on it sent by some unknown benefactor. To get it, he must trudge through the slums of the city to the Reach, an insanely tall skyscraper with the space elevator on top. Along the way he revisits his past, including the many old friends he will leave behind. As a final catch, he must escort a young girl named Ursie to the elevator as well.

The trek from the city on the surface all the way to the top of the Reach is an action-packed thrill ride that will give you feelings of vertigo.

Knile is a criminal but has a network of friends from his long career as a thief. Like all great outlaws, he has his own sense of right and wrong. His charge, Ursie, is a street urchin (I wonder if the name was intentional) who has survived on her own on the rough streets. There is also the inspector Alec Duran, who wants to take down the infamous Knile Oberand. Finally there is the vicious drug dealer Alton Wilt, who wants Knile’s passkey for himself. It is a three-way race to the top of a three kilometer-tall super tower similar to the arcology concept.

The world-building is solid, utilizing a post-apocalyptic landscape with a space elevator inspired by Arthur C. Clarke. The story does not dwell on the apocalypse or the suffering directly, but more on the race to the elevator. As a result, there is minimal infodumping or awkward recitations of facts. The dialogue gets a little long-winded and expository at times but it is pretty rare.

The interaction between Knile and Ursie is a pretty interesting dynamic although awkward in a few instances. Some of their discussions about their dismal world were a little overdone but for the most part, it was true to character. Both live near the bottom rung of a dying world. Both are very likable and heroic in their own way.

There were some truly great scenes, and lots of action. I did start to wear down at about the three quarters mark but everything pulled together at the end.

What separates it from other indie novels in this subgenre? First, Healy does not dwell on the events of the apocalypse or wander into the details of his post-apocalyptic world. You learn what you need to know for the story and that’s it. Since this is the beginning of a series, it is likely the sequels will reveal more about what happened to Earth.

Second, the twist at the end helped give a sense of satisfaction despite it being the first in a series. Some first volumes merely introduce the universe to readers and leave too many things open ended. Earthbound does not have an open-ended ending, yet at the same time the story isn’t over.

Other than a little awkward dialogue and length, it was a great read. Hopefully Book Two comes out soon.

The post Review: Earthbound by Mark R. Healy appeared first on Jacob Foxx.