Novel: The Fifth Head of Cerberus

The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe [1972]

I thought the title of this book sounded clever, and since it was on the list of SF Masterworks I figured I would give it a shot.  I has seen that this book has been referred to as being part of the New Wave of sci-fi, but I wasn't expecting something quite so complex.

-Will write more later.

Novel: Stranger in a Strange Land

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein [1961]

I finally took the leap of faith and started reading one of the most controversial science fiction novels of all time, the uncut version of Heinlein's classic Stranger in a Strange Land.  Recently this show on the Science channel started airing named the Prophets of Science fiction, and Heinlein was the current subject.  They talked about his pro-war libertarian attitude and spent a lot of time on how his book Starship Troopers was very controversial about how it portrayed the ideal society and it's glorification of the citizen-soldier.  When it finally got to the topic of Stranger in a Strange Land (I finished the book the week before), they wrote it off as an icon from the hippy movement of the 60s and moved on.  Fucking weak.  I knew that this book was highly controversial since it was published, and the original manuscript was cut and edited to remove parts that the general public would find appalling, I thought that 50 years after this book was written people would have been able to look beyond the surface and give the book a worthwhile analysis.  Although the book didnt exactly resonate with me in particular, I felt that this was a gross misrepresentation of the fantastic themes and ideas this book has brought to the table of science fiction, as 'unorthodox' as they might be.

A plot summary of this book would be utterly pointless, but the premise behind Stranger in a Strange Land is that a space exploration to Mars about 20 years before the start of the book resulted in a baby boy being born on the planet and being raised by a highly intelligent alien race.  The book begins when the boy is 'rescued' from Mars and brought back to Earth, and then goes on to tell how someone completely unrelated to any human culture views his race and it's purpose.

One of the unique concepts in this book was the Martian word "grok".  It has even earned a spot in the Oxford English Dictionary because of it's interesting concept.  It literally means "to drink", but abstractly means, all at once, to deeply think about, understand, reconcile, comprehend, cherish, and become one with (an idea or concept or even a person).  To grok is to have fully thought about, digested, and understood anything in particular, and at first Mike had a hard time doing this with many human concepts.  I think the implications that Heinlein was getting at with this concept are myriad, but one specifically is that people go about life simply accepting certain things without ever attempting to truly understand them, let alone grokking them entirely. ie. looking at other people's unique customs, ways of life, etc, and scoffing at certain aspects of them without understanding and seeing them their way.  Heinlein was not getting at infinite acceptance of other's behaviors, and showed Mike making judgments of things that were right and wrong.  One thing for instance that Mike always saw as a wrongness was violence, especially towards those whom were his friends (or as he referred to them, his 'water brothers').

Up to this point the book still resonates with me, and I grok it.  The portrayal of a foreign alien race and it's characteristics was wonderfully crafted and unique.  These beings make humans look like savages and are a very wise a transcended race.  Since Mike was raised Martian he inherently exhibits many of their characteristics, though it is shown that these unique abilities are not exclusive to him (other humans can learn them through studying the Martian language, which makes them grok).  These characteristics include complete control over the body, telepathy, and telekinesis, as well as a general air of well-being, but this comes later in the book.  The characters are excellent themselves, especially the eccentric educated doctor-lawyer Jubal Harshaw.  Jubal is a name represented of Hebrew origin and means "rams horn" and he was the inventor of music.  Jubal was a cynical realist who philosophically rationalizes everything he comes in contact with.  He is very intelligent and creative and has a very powerful egocentric personality.  I found a lot of similarities of myself in Jubal and found that I could sympathize with him.

Then the book takes a turn to religion.  As an Atheist myself I dont believe in any religion, but I respect it for it's moral impositions and unification that it gives to it's followers and therefore am very open to it's ideologies, philosophies; I just reject most of it's spiritual implications.  Without going into detail, Mike starts his own religion.  The idea behind the religion in the book is that its followers would learn Martian and be able to tap into latent human powers.  Through these powers people are able to form relationships with others in an appreciation and understanding like never before.  Basically people grokking people.  If you were thinking this means just one polygamous orgy of physical and mental unification, you would be right.  Except that people who sleep with each other both need to be part of the organization, as recognized water brothers (friends in casual terms, but supposedly more intimately linked, though this wasnt actually the truth).  People were meant to understand each other and be happy with one another.  Through this logic promiscuity was not only accepted, but became a major feature of Mike's religion.  I wouldnt necessarily say im a prude, but I grok wrongness in this. Humans are a product of their upbringing, and are instilled with cultural values and morals accordingly.  However we are biological species that have evolved from previous forms of ourselves, and as such have an evolved culture.  Monogamy is one of the concepts synonymous with every first-rate culture on Earth, and I personally think this is more than coincidence (maybe I just want it to be so, but this is my opinion and not universal truth).  Monogamy evolved from the polygamous stone-age, and while some people may have a problem maintaining their integrity by exhibiting jealousy and resentment, it is, in my opinion, a transcended way of life.

Ok enough about me being butt-hurt about the idea of a religion infecting the world that is polygamous.  Everyone in Mike's church was blissfully happy because of their enlightened way of life and understanding of each other, which makes it a good thing, right?  The answer would be yes only if Heinlein was right, which since I dont agree I say no.  Heinlein overglorified the effects of a unified friendship, creating a utopia with standards impossible for mankind in it's present state to maintain.  The idea that alien Martian values were needed to overturn the savage ways of humans is also insulting, even if Heinlein's implications were meant in a different way (an outside observer can easily spot problems that someone involved is incapable of seeing).

Despite having a tough time with this book, to the point of not really liking it, I recognize it as the classic in social science fiction that it is accredited for.  Even if I dont agree with it I have to admit it was masterfully crafted and wont be a book I will easily forget about.  However I wont ever read it again as I did not particularly enjoy it.  Recommended only for the curious and open-minded.  I had to read it given how much I enjoyed Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and have already read Starship Troopers since reading Stranger in a Strange Land and the making of this post.  I will be weary of Heinlein's other social science novels after reading Stranger.  [8.5/10]

Science Fiction Book Log

Since I cant possibly feel the desire to review every science fiction book I read - I only review ones I feel the need to talk about - I decided to keep a record of ones ive read here.  I may eventually post non-sci-fi books I read in the future, but since the list would be really lengthy otherwise, I am only going to post covers of books that are strictly science fiction.  If I remember what I thought of the book, ill leave a slightly arbitrary rating.  I need to make a metal post one of these days...

Isaac Asimov

Prelude to Foundation [1988] - 8/10

Forward the Foundation [1993] - 6/10

Foundation [1951] - 10/10

Foundation and Empire [1952] - 10/10

Second Foundation [1953] - 10/10

Foundation's Edge [1982] - 6/10

Foundation and Earth [1986] - 6/10

I cant move on until i say a little bit about one of my favorite science fiction epics: the Foundation Series.  Originally I started off by reading the original trilogy; im really glad I did.  The original series chronicles the invention of a science so powerful that it can predict the development of mankind on a large scale.  The inventor of the science becomes a universally deified icon who has determined how to prevent the fall of the galactic empire and establish a new one over top of the old one; he also created a few fail-safe measures as well.  What I found so fascinating about the Foundation trilogy was how well it visualized a futuristic galactic universe on a grand epic scale.  Character development was disposed of for an unrivaled epic journey; watching how all of the pieces fell into place as part of Hari Seldon's master plan was a tantalizing and riveting experience.  Despite everything being accounted for and predicted, there was a fair amount of suspense and surprise to keep even the critical reader interested; and a complexity that made re-reading the books of the original trilogy an enlightening experience to the true mathematical calculation of Asimov's orchestrated epic.  I know epic is an overused word nowadays, and I use it only when it truly applies.  The original series truly embodies the term.

The supplementary texts that Asimov wrote in the later years did not quite live up to the excitement of the trilogy however.  Instead of an overarching chronicle of Hari Seldon's master plan we get to see the journey of a single crew spanned across the plot of the final two books.  So instead of substance, we are supplemented with filler.  Although some of it generally interesting, the characters seemed to harp on the same issues and obsessions for page after page making it a bit tiresome and repetitive.  The breakneck pace and scope were lost, and eventually became derailed entirely by Asimov's ruined conclusion of the Foundation epic.  Prelude to Foundation wasnt too bad, but Forward the Foundation even bastardized Hari Seldon himself.  Ok, he still invents psychohistory, but it turns out that members of his team contributed towards the development of it equally if not more than he himself; which makes him out to be more of a figurehead than the true mastermind.  Therefore I do not consider anything outside of the original Foundation trilogy to be essential.  Actually they seemed to devalue my image of Hari Seldon as a supergenius and to view psychohistory as an unreliable ephemeral prediction of future development that cant predict the unpredictable.  God dammit, psychohistory was designed to fucking do so.  Hence I refuse to accept the concluding Foundation texts as canon.

The Caves of Steel [1954] - 9.5/10

The Naked Sun [1957] - 9/10

The Robots of Dawn [1983] - 6.5/10

Im mostly done with Asimov's renowned Robot series as well.  I prefer the Foundation series for it's grand ideas and scope, but the Robot series are full of detective style stories that feature foreign futuristic environments and plenty of robots to keep me interested.  I never thought I would actually enjoy books that were entirely about robots, but to my surprise I found these books to be fascinating.  The environments that Asimov paints are very intriguing in their functions as well as their lifestyle.  It was interesting to read about how Asimov envisions the way in which the mind of a robot processes and interprets the world while being ruled by a series of irrefutable laws.  The Robot series is definitely a classic for it's examples in theoretical robotics.

The Gods Themselves [1972] - 9.5/10

Objectively I would say this is Asimov's most advanced and well written novel.  Since it is a very complex novel, I am not going to bother explaining the plot (wikipedia has it if you are interested, but beware of spoilers).  A very thought-provoking novel with plenty of technical science from astronomy to chemistry and biology to keep it complex.  Definitely worth re-reading to fully understand this.

The End of Eternity [1955] - 9/10 

This is a pretty interesting mental mindfuck regarding the way we think about time and what may happen when these barriers are breached.  Themes that involve playing god and changing people's lives for the "better" as well as paradoxes are also contemplated throughout this book.  Without a doubt an extraordinary read.

 Nightfall - Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg [1990] - 7/10

An exciting adventure of people living in a world of eternal daylight that experience night for the first time.  This book is a psychological and thrilling exploit of the scientific realization of the night sky in aspects of astronomy and darkness psychology.  I know this used to be a short story of Asimov's before he and Silverberg re-worked it, and it seems like it drags on a bit.  I would be interested to read the short story version; perhaps the pacing is better than in the novel version.

Michael Crichton

While Crichton's books are typically easy reading thrillers, his books cover enough scientific background to qualify as legitimate science fiction.  The Jurassic Park series featured biologically accurate dinosaurs that conformed to the -at the time- modern theories of dinosaur movement, predatory style, diet, and temperament.  As a biochemist I found the proposed theory behind being able to recreate the dinosaurs a bit far-fetched and inaccurate in it's implications at times, but plausible enough not to let it prevent me from enjoying the book.  Crichton did a better job with the science in Andromeda Strain, but that was pretty much the entire point of the book whereas Jurassic Park focused more on archeology, ecology, and biology.

Jurassic Park [1990] - 8/10

The Lost World [1995] - 6.5/10

The Andromeda Strain [7/10]

Novel: Mission of Gravity

Mission of Gravity - Hal Clement [1953]

I stumbled across this book when searching the net for less popular, yet nonetheless classic, science fiction literature.  In particular I have taken an interest in the genre named “hard science fiction”; meaning science fiction in which the author pays specific attention to technical scientific details, giving the work plausibility and explanation.  

Clement starts off the book without preamble and directly in the midst of the main character Barlennan’s life as the captain of his boat named the Bree.  Eventually we soon realize that Barlennan is not on Earth and that he isn’t even human; he is of the species named Mesklinite on the planet Mesklin.  Clement enjoys playing with the reader’s sense of imagination by revealing physical properties of Mesklin and its inhabitants after certain events take place that are a direct result of their associated phenomena.  For example, Barlennan’s boat is described as being composed of many small flat floating rafts that are connected to each other by some sort of rope.   At first this seems like a very unusual way to build a boat.  Eventually it is explained that it is designed this way because of Mesklin’s unique gravity; the planet is elliptically shaped which results in a 3g environment at the equator and a 700g environment at the poles.  Because Barlennan comes from a region of high gravity, his boat must be designed in such a way so that the weight of the boat does not cave in when riding over wave crests in the ocean.  With Clement frequently writing this way throughout the story, one starts to imagine the hows and whys before they are explained; this makes for an interesting and critical reading experience.

The indigenous Mesklinites are intelligent life-forms that resemble centipedes with scorpion or crab-like claws.   We soon find them working with a group of humans who have visited Mesklin on a journey from space to learn more about the physics of gravity.  The intelligence of the Mesklinites is epitomized in the ease with which they learn how to speak English in order to communicate with the humans.  Despite their intelligence, the Mesklinite culture is not developed scientifically.  This results in them having many misconceptions about the shape of their own world, thinking that it is bowl shaped with a rim that one can fall off of.   This unusual misconception is explained to be an optical illusion of the rapid pressure change in Mesklin’s atmosphere due to high surface gravity that bends and distorts the refraction of light on the horizon.  Throughout the story themes of scientific development and innovation resonate with the unfolding of the plot that glorify the ever-expanding way that science can improve practical and informational aspects of society.  Also put forth is the idea that science develops much like the building of a puzzle; many small pieces may fit together with unexpected and powerful results:  ie without the knowledge of even simple aerodynamics a plane will not fly.

Although not thoroughly (though not entirely left out) in Mission of Gravity, the technical aspects behind Clement’s design of the planet Mesklin is admirable.  As explained in Mission of Gravity, Mesklin is a planet that features a strong and variable gravity due to the centrifugal force of its fast rotational speed; a day on Mesklin is equivalent to a little under 18 minutes on Earth.  To support native life-forms based on methane, Mesklin is accordingly cold to support soild, liquid, and gas states of methane: an average temperature of -170C.  Oceans of methane, that has a low boiling point, were under the control of a unique weather pattern controlled by a variety of factors including (but not limited to): a year of 1800 Earth days, an elliptical orbit around the sun where perihelion was brief, and a northern hemisphere that contains a polar ice cap and is only briefly exposed to midsummer when Mesklin is closest to it’s sun.  Apparently Clement went into more detail about the technical aspects of the scientifically based creation of Mesklin in an article he wrote for the June 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction named “Whirligig World”.

While I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and still believe that it deserves to be recognized as a classic work in the body of science fiction, there were a few things that I did not like.  For one, I didn’t like his descriptions.  Im not really the best at visualizing things, but I found Clement’s descriptions to be hard to follow.  There were a lot of places I had to re-read numerous times before I was able to see what he was trying to get at, and even then I thought his wording could have been more clear.  Also his depiction of “alien” life definitely seemed to draw a little too strongly from the human model.  Although I was aware of this popular criticism of Mission of Gravity before I read it, I dismissed it as being overly critical and a trite criticism of most alien depictions.  However after reading the book and allowing my opinions of it to culminate, I feel as though it is appropriate criticism.  There were cultures of Mesklinites that resembled Native Americans that featured bows and arrows and canoes.  And however slight, there was a suggestion of religious paranoia in the river people, of which seemed to allow Barlennan and his companions to pass through.  Also the flying culture that lived on the sea resembled our fishing and shipping industry, even requiring boating parties to have passport-like credentials.  Emotionally the Mesklinites seemed to have a psychology that mirrored human interaction, often exhibiting feelings of jealousy, pride, sympathy, and mutual respect.  The similarities keep going on from here, and the overall feeling of their interactions seemed very much like that between two humans of different races, let alone that of different worlds entirely.  It is obvious that Clement is more into scientific accuracy when it deals with the physical sciences as opposed to the life sciences.  

Overall this book was an interesting read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes their science fiction with a bit of technical detail.  An astronomy or chemistry background would probably be recommended as a lot of this book’s redeeming values come from the technical aspects of these sciences.  Anyone into social science or psychology could probably sit this one out.  [6.5/10]

Novel: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein [1966]

This is my first Heinlein novel, and I have to say I was a bit skeptical at first.  I was aware of his influential status in hard science fiction writing, but was put off by the politics - sociological and economical; I like my science fiction technology oriented.  Well, that is what I got with Heinlein; really technical explanations of technology, a futuristic society of people living on the moon, and a talking computer.  However as I began to read the first two pages I noticed something: the grammar is awful.  The sentences are incomplete and read almost like shorthand ("mind own business" instead of 'mind your own business').  I thought it might just be something unique about the first chapter, but I skipped ahead and saw the same grammatical misnomers.  As I made my way through the book I eventually got used to reading between the lines and automatically the book seemed condensed and convenient to read without leaving anything out.  Reads like tech manual; straight and to point in few words possible.  Makes me wish every book was written as concisely.

The content of the book was primarily libertarian and involved the revolution of an oppressed people.  Not typically my type of content, but in this case I found that the large-scale political realism provided an epic storyline with much depth.  The culture of the "loonies" was portrayed with incredible realism, being criminal convicts exiled from Earth.  Because of physiological changes that occur in the muscles due to the exposure of an environment 1/6 times Earth's gravity, people who live on the moon for any length of time will find Earth's gravity a threat to their life when they go to return; making the moon a permanent sentence.  However a society forms out of this convict wasteland who now deserve better than to be treated like criminals; not everyone on the moon is a criminal, especially those who were born there.  Though the people are a rather tough crowd and as a culture have a complex set of ideals and rules even though in general it is a lawless society (controlled only by a warden who basically makes a profit off of the loonies' agricultural products to the benefit of the Authority on earth  - anything not compromising Authority or their wheat embargo is fair game).  Then a rebellion is started and everything begins to escalate.

I found the technology that Heinlein explained to be well rooted in technical discussion giving it a plausible explanation adhering as closely to physics as the current sciences were capable of explaining.  The catapult was a great application for demonstrating the gravity well of the moon and how it could be theoretically exploited to haul objects (like a space container full of wheat...or rocks) down to earth with ballistic trajectories.  The computer with a consciousness was a work of art.  He was a computer capable of programming itself that through some unexplainable phenomenon developed a consciousness.  His name was Mike and he was in control of pretty much every part of the technological workings of the moon.  Mike was just as good (if not better) than any of the main characters, who were also dynamic and especially intriguing.  His personality matured over time and was eventually able to perfectly imitate human voice and even video "appearance".  His calculations almost always took mere microseconds and he could multitask infinitely better than my current PC, not a bad estimate of the power of a supercomputer in the year 2075.   It was also fascinating how quickly he could absorb information, calculate complex statistics, and make intuitive judgments all related to his massive bank of information.

I cant say enough about this book.  Im glad I finally took the time to give one of Heinlein's novels a chance as I can say that I was very impressed.  One of the best science fiction books ive ever read without question.  I am very anxious to check out more of Heinlein's works, and would be happy even if they were half as good as The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. [10/10]

Novel: The Robots of Dawn

The Robots of Dawn - Isaac Asimov [1983]

Just finished reading the last book of Asimov's robot series.  Well, which I thought was the last book until I did a wiki search and discovered a 4th Robot novel.  Probably one of the most well rounded of the Robot series thus far, this book featured some interesting sociopolitical viewpoints, another interesting detective case with Elijah Bailey and his robot assistant Daneel Olivaw, and even a love story or two.  The book loses points from me because of the love story part, which at some points was the only part of the story that even caught my interest - a fault due to slow pacing and tedious romantic dialogue.  Seriously, Asimov should have stuck to introducing more scientific phenomena and weaving them into the story like he usually does so well instead of bog his pace down with lengthy dialogues that were largely conversational and lacked content.  That said, it was a page-turner and I was always anxious to get to the next break in the case or flash of insight by Elijah.  I liked the twist at the end too where the well-built but "less complex" non-humanoid robot Giskard wound up being a robot with the power to manipulate human's emotions and wound up being the conspirator of the entire plan to bring Bailey to Aurora in the first place.  Good read like all Asimov - I especially like the original Foundation trilogy, first two Robot novels, The Gods Themselves, and The End of Eternity.  The later Foundation books didnt have nearly the same scope as the trilogy and focused on a consistent cast of characters on a space journey.  Fun and exciting at times, but suffered from the same pacing problem that I had with The Robots of Dawn.  [6.5/10]

Novel: The Terminal Experiment

The Terminal Experiment - Robert J. Sawyer [1995]

Really impressed with this book.  I went into reading this book with rather low expectations despite the fact that it won the Nebula award in 1995.  I guess I should have more faith in our literature awards, but sometimes what appeals to the majority doesnt necessarily appeal to me.  The book starts out right after what I perceive to be the climax of the book and presents us with an escalated scenario, spending most of the book thereafter fleshing out the life of Peter Hobson and the events that resulted in his AI creation going on a killing spree.  Then it jumps to a scenario that will change Peter Hobson's life; he was assisting in an ER that was harvesting a young boy's organs and was supposed to monitor the EEG.  As the doctor was about to excise the heart, the patient's chest heaved massively as if in response to the cut, and the doctor ordered for more myolock to anesthetize the body.  Peter also notices some EEG activity and questions whether the patient was actually dead or not before his heart was cut out; and concludes that having his heart ripped out was what killed him, not the motorcycle accident he was in. 

Peter Hobson eventually creates a biotechnology company that specializes in neural scanning.  His device, unlike a normal EEG, is able to detect any and all brain activity, even that of the firing of a single neuron.  Finally the answer to the question that changed his life is finally starting to become visible; when does the body actually cease to be living?  In testing his device he finds evidence of an unknown concentration of electrical brain activity that travels through and leaves the brain through the temple at the exact moment of death.  Once he goes public with this discovery, the mysterious brain activity is dubbed the "soulwave" and a worldwide sensation is created.

Eventually Peter and his friend Muhammad Sarkar, who specializes in artificial life studies, create three simulacra; one simulates life after death, one immortality, and the last an unmodified control.

What I found fascinating with this book was how well it was put together.  The characters were really well developed and most of them were interesting and dynamic.  Most notably Peter's friend Sarkar was a really interesting Indian character who was portrayed with razor sharp wit and intellect as well as being devoutly religious.  The books pacing was also done really well.  Starting with Dectective Philo on the hospital bed set a mood that was full of tension and mystery.  The characters get a good amount of development before the plot starts to thicken.   I additionally really enjoyed the thought provoking material that this book had to offer.  Along with the obvious controversial issue about when people die or whether we have souls or not, issues of morality, relationships, and even the contemplation of morality were given attention.  "To use what Sarkar and I are doing as an example: we've created models of my mind.  Models, that's all.  Simulacra that seem to operate the same way as the original.  But when a real person builds a relationship with somebody else, are they in fact really having a relationship with that person, or just with a model - an image, an ideal - that they've built up in their own mind?"  I posted this quote earlier, but it really embodies the message this novel was trying to get across.  It sounds like a morbid outlook, and in some ways it is, but what Sawyer was really trying to get at was that people are special because they are always changing and evolving, making the first impression you have of somebody (be it good, bad, or what made you fall in love with them) not a very accurate representation of their current self. 

[9.5/10]