Tag Archives: science fiction

Book Review: The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord

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Book Review: The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord

The Best of All Possible WorldsThe Best of All Possible Worlds opens with catastrophe. The planet of Sadira has been destroyed by a poison gas attack that leaves the planet uninhabitable and exterminates most of the Sadiri people. The only survivors are those who were off planet at the time of the attack. This near-genocide will result in the extinction of the Sadiri people, unless those who survive establish new settlements and find a way to perpetuate their genetic line.

With that as the background, The Best of All Possible Worlds takes off into a study of culture clashes and cooperation. The Sadiri are a people known for their unparalleled mastery of the “mental disciplines” — telepathy, the ability to control emotions, the ability to travel with their minds, and more. When a contingent of Sadiri diplomats and scientists arrive on Cynus Beta, their goals are twofold: One, establish homesteads and rebuild a community, and two, seek out taSadiri communities — people descended from long-ago emigrants from Sadira, who share physical and possibly mental traits with the dwindling Sadiri population, in hopes of establishing marriages resulting in a resurgence of the Sadiri people. Initially viewing the Sadiri representatives as objects of pity, the Cygnians are eager to assist, and assign a team of cultural and scientific experts to set out with the Sadiri contingent on a mission to travel their world and explore the far-flung communities who may bear taSadiri genetic markers.

Key members of this mission are our two main characters: Grace Delarua is a Cygnian biotechnician who is smart, tough, wise-cracking, prone to laughter and chatter, and with unexplored empathic talents.  Dllenahkh is the Sadiri Councillor heading up the mission, who is stoic, in complete control of his emotions, and a master of the mental disciplines. These two opposites seem to fit, despite their differences, and over the course of the book, we see their partnership deepen into a connection that explores both the Sadiri mental abilities and Grace’s tendency toward emotionalism and expression. Opposites attract, although these two are a long time in realizing what’s obvious to everyone else.

Not to say that The Best of All Possible Worlds is a love story (although it is). The book presents a deep and thoughtful look at cross-cultural misunderstandings, the imperative to survive, the many ways that friendship and respect can grow and develop, and the varieties of love and relationships that are possible. Along the way, the details of the different communities encountered during the mission are fascinating, each representing a branch on the Sadiri family tree. In these far-flung communities, each has chosen its own path toward adaptation and evolution, emphasizing different traits and values. In some communities, the mental disciplines allow all members to communicate telepathically throughout the settlement. In others, the inhabitants are sharply Sadiri in appearance but generations past have abandoned all study of the mental disciplines. In each, Dllenahkh and his team must recommend whether to encourage the community to send members to the new Sadiri homestead — in essence, determining whether they’d make good breeding stock for the continuation of the Sadiri race.

Let me get this part out of the way: I loved this book. The writing is at once zippy, clever, and achingly sad, depending on the perspective and the circumstances. Grace is a wonderful heroine. She’s not flawless — she can be insecure, she has demons from her past to overcome, and she does tend to babble a bit, but at the same time, she cares deeply about her friends and family, she’s willing to put herself at risk and even sacrifice her career to right wrongs, and she’s open to the wonders and joys of exploring new worlds, new thoughts, and new possibilities. Dllenahkh is seemingly unreachable at first, masked by his tight control and walled off by his people’s tragedy, yet he too manages to reach out and explore, and demonstrates his ability to feel even when making emotional declarations in completely non-emotional, rational terms. A favorite interaction of mine shows just how different, yet how well-suited, Grace and Dllenahkh are:

“I have identified you as the most appropriate mate, probably through an unconscious assessment of pheromones, mental capacity, and, of course, social compatibility.”

“So, you’re saying you like how I smell, you like how I think, and you like to hang out with me?”

I read The Best of All Possible Worlds on my Kindle, for which I found a new appreciation as I started highlighting lines and paragraphs that I found especially moving, entertaining, or generally noteworthy. By the end of the book, my highlights were everywhere. This book is rich in detail, and I was consistently impressed with the author’s ability to capture and portray the distinct voices of so many different characters, representing so many different cultures.

Curiously, one of the dominant populations on Cygnus Beta is the Terran community, which seems to consist of descendants of our Earth. There are references to watching old holovids of classic Terran movies such as Indiana Jones, E.T., and Casablanca. Various origin myths exist, among them that a mysterious group called The Caretakers brought representatives from different planets to Cygnus Beta in order to give them the best chance of survival. Are The Caretakers gods? Scientists? Simply a myth? Did the Caretakers bring the Terrans of Cygnus Beta from our Earth before the Terran planet became unreachable? There are no answers, and fortunately the story doesn’t bog down in exploring this mystery, but simply presents it as one key to understanding the world as it exists on Cygnus Beta and its universe.

I did have one “WTF” moment in reading The Best of All Possible Worlds, when there suddenly appeared a chapter called “The Faerie Queen”, in which the mission arrives at a community ruled by, yes, a Faerie Queen. The people consider themselves the Seelie Court, and live in a treetop world almost identical to the forests of Lothlorien in Lord of the Rings. Coincidence? Hardly, given the popularity of Terran classic movies. Right when I was exclaiming, “Wait! This is supposed to be science fiction! Why are there faeries??”, we get what I thought was an ingenious answer: In this community’s earlier history, two separate tribes were battling over whose traditions should dominate. Peace was achieved when the people decided to instead follow a new, created path that both tribes could embrace as a new beginning, and so they chose to consider their mental gifts as faerie traits and to model their faerie kingdom on cultural myths and legends that they could adapt to their lives.

The Best of All Possible Worlds has a very episodic rhythm to its narrative. Each chapter is a new stage in the progress of the mission, and while the events build one upon the other, each does have a feel of sitting down with a master storyteller to hear a new bit of the yarn. The writing is fresh and funny, and Grace is an engaging and honest narrator. At the same time, the author, via Grace’s descriptions, does not shy away from confronting the harshness and cruelty witnessed by the mission team in various new settlements or the painful family secrets both Grace and Dllenahkh confront over the course of the novel.

Simply put, I was swept away by the world created by Karen Lord in this masterful, moving story. The characters are unforgettable, and some are immensely lovable as well. The world of Cygnus Beta and beyond is a fascinating study of developing cultures, the impact of contact on isolated populations, and the role of creativity and compromise in a people’s drive to survive. On top of all this, the “mental disciplines” and other aspects of Cygnian science and technology are quite fun to imagine, but never to the extent that they distract from the human focus of this excellent story.

I highly recommend The Best of All Possible Worlds. Not just for science fiction fans, this book should appeal to any reader who appreciates good storytelling, strong characters, deeply-felt emotions, and moments of laughter as well.

Review copy courtesy of Random House Publishing Group – Del Rey Spectra via NetGalley.

Book Review: Redshirts by John Scalzi

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Book Review: Redshirts by John Scalzi

If this book doesn’t bring out your inner nerd, then you clearly lack the nerd gene, end of story. Reading Redshirts, I couldn’t help but wish that I’d watched more Star Trek episodes in my youth — despite clearly recalling that I never did enjoy the original Star Trek all that much.

Redshirts is funny and surprisingly touching, and certainly the most original writing I’ve read all year. (Yes, I know it’s only January 6th; I still mean it as a compliment).

It’s the year 2456, and being a crew member of the Universal Union’s flagship Intrepid is not a career move with a whole lot of job security. Junior crew members seem to die on a regular basis, particularly whenever they accompany senior officers on away missions. Their deaths are gruesome, horrible, bloody, and sadly unavoidable. In fact, the crew have taken to hiding whenever the senior officers are about, in order to avoid encounters that may lead to death, or they rely on unproven ideas such as that only one crew member ever dies in the company of a certain officer — so if one person has already met their death on a given mission, the rest will be safe if only they manage to stick with the officer. Life kind of sucks, and death seems to be lurking right around the corner.

When Ensign Andrew Dahl is assigned to the Intrepid, it seems like a plum assignment — until he and his friends, also new to the ship, notice just how weird thing onboard truly are. People die in ridiculous ways (Borgovian Land Worms! Ice Sharks! Killer robots with harpoons!). At key times, pieces of previously unknown information just seem to appear in their minds. Everyone freaks out about away teams. An elaborate tracking system warns certain crew members when a senior officer is en route, at which point those in the know take convenient coffee breaks. When a scientific problem seems impossible, a mysterious machine called The Box is ready to spit out a solution within the designated time frame, usually only minutes before cataclysmic disaster is sure to strike.

Dahl and his four colleagues are doing their best to avoid away missions, but it’s only a matter of time before they get caught in one of the death-inducing assignments… and really, they’d rather not get blown up or eaten. As they start putting clues together, they encounter Jenkins, a former science team member now hiding out in the ship’s cargo tunnels. Jenkins has a crazy theory — but given events on the Intrepid, his craziness might just be the only explanation that fits.

Jenkins’s theory? The reality of the Intrepid is being warped by events occurring during episodes of a sci-fi television series from the early 21st century. He gives an ominous warning: “Avoid the Narrative.” As Dahl and friends dig deeper, they come up with a desperate plan to rewrite their own reality by changing the TV series they seem to be living. Will it work? I won’t ruin the fun by revealing anything further, but suffice it to say that this wacky space odyssey takes on all the tropes of space opera TV serials and does them up to the nth degree.

John Scalzi’s writing is smart, funny, and full of insider jokes and references sure to warm the hearts of fanboys and fangirls everywhere. As the characters try to make sense of the rudimentary technology and information systems available in 2012, we’re treated to gems such as this:

Kerensky grabbed the phone and read the article sullenly. “This doesn’t prove anything,” he said. “We don’t know how accurate any of this information is. For all we know, this” — he scrolled up on the phone screen to find a label — “this Wikipedia information database here is complied by complete idiots.”

Little moments throughout the book led to irrepressible giggling on my part. The plot itself is so clever and mind-bending that I could only stop and admire how crazily convoluted it had all become, and yet with its own internal logic that literally defies the laws of physics as the heroes figure out a solution to their reality-challenged existence.

Redshirts ends with three codas, and they are a nice touch indeed, adding a human element to the story’s wrap-up that is sweet, sentimental, and completely fitting.

If you enjoy science fiction, have a basement full of Star Trek memorabilia, or ever became hooked on a TV show that features warp speed and space battles, you simply must read Redshirts. I haven’t had this much fun since finishing my Big Bang Theory viewing marathon. Geek heaven!

This book is my first encounter with John Scalzi’s writing, but I’d love to read more. Have you read other books by John Scalzi? Which book do you recommend as a starting place?

Flashback Friday: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

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It’s time, once again, for Flashback Friday…

Flashback Friday is a chance to dig deep in the darkest nooks of our bookshelves and pull out the good stuff from way back. As a reader, a blogger, and a consumer, I tend to focus on new, new, new… but what about the old favorites, the hidden gems? On Flashback Fridays, I want to hit the pause button for a moment and concentrate on older books that are deserving of attention.

If you’d like to join in, here are the Flashback Friday book selection guidelines:

  1. Has to be something you’ve read yourself
  2. Has to still be available, preferably still in print
  3. Must have been originally published 5 or more years ago

Other than that, the sky’s the limit! Join me, please, and let us all know: what are the books you’ve read that you always rave about? What books from your past do you wish EVERYONE would read? Pick something from five years ago, or go all the way back to the Canterbury Tales if you want. It’s Flashback Friday time!

My pick for this week’s Flashback Friday:

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

(published 1993)

When a friend with exquisite taste in books first recommended this book to me, I delayed and dawdled. It just didn’t sound like something I’d want to read — too Biblical, perhaps? Not at all, she assured me. Just give it a try, she cajoled. When I finally read it, I could have kicked myself. Why, oh why did I wait to read this book? This masterpiece by Octavia Butler scared the heck out of me, kept me up nights, and simply enthralled me.

From Publishers Weekly:

Hugo and Nebula Award-winner Butler’s first novel since 1989’s Imago offers an uncommonly sensitive rendering of a very common SF scenario: by 2025, global warming, pollution, racial and ethnic tensions and other ills have precipitated a worldwide decline. In the Los Angeles area, small beleaguered communities of the still-employed hide behind makeshift walls from hordes of desperate homeless scavengers and violent pyromaniac addicts known as “paints” who, with water and work growing scarcer, have become increasingly aggressive. Lauren Olamina, a young black woman, flees when the paints overrun her community, heading north with thousands of other refugees seeking a better life. Lauren suffers from ‘hyperempathy,” a genetic condition that causes her to experience the pain of others as viscerally as her own–a heavy liability in this future world of cruelty and hunger. But she dreams of a better world, and with her philosophy/religion, Earthseed, she hopes to found an enclave which will weather the tough times and which may one day help carry humans to the stars. Butler tells her story with unusual warmth, sensitivity, honesty and grace; though science fiction readers will recognize this future Earth, Lauren Olamina and her vision make this novel stand out like a tree amid saplings.

Parable of the Sower sets the bar high for dystopian fiction. In a world that is scarily recognizable, as the planet warms and resources become scarce, one young woman finds the strength to lead a makeshift family north toward a better life, guided by her vision of a new faith and a new future. The novel takes place only a little over a decade from now, and it’s all too easy to see that Octavia Butler’s fictional world isn’t that far from reality. Lauren Olamina is an unforgettable heroine, and while her story has more than its share of awful inhumanity and depravity, it has moments of loveliness, inspiration, and connection as well.

Whether or not you typically read science fiction, don’t miss out on Parable of the Sower and its powerful sequel, Parable of the Talents.

So, what’s your favorite blast from the past? Leave a tip for your fellow booklovers, and share the wealth. It’s time to dust off our old favorites and get them back into circulation! 

Note from your friendly Bookshelf Fantasies host: To join in the Flashback Friday bloghop, post about a book you love on your blog, and share your link below. Don’t have a blog post to share? Then share your favorite oldie-but-goodie in the comments section. Jump in!