Sunday, March 14, 2010

A '72 Zelazny, from the vines on the south side of the hill.



A few years ago, I decided that I should add some kind of personal information to my resume, give some kind of little hint as to what I did when I wasn’t at work.  After some deliberation, I added the following:
PERSONAL INTERESTS
Science fiction
Military history
Oddly enough, no one has ever asked me for my opinion of the relative merits of the Russian T-34 versus the German Panther or for an analysis of the Duke of Wellington's strategy at Waterloo, but for whatever reason the science fiction tag seems to evoke a response.  In a job interview with the ICBC about four years ago, one of the interviewers got this funny look in her eye and said, “So, science fiction…do you go to...conventions?”*  And, in the case of my recent change of jobs, I’ve already mentioned the questions about my blog, during the interview I was asked what my favourite sci-fi movie was**, and last week some co-workers solicited my opinion of Babylon 5, which for whatever reason had come up during their lunch conversation.***

Sigh...

Here I am with this comprehensive, almost encyclopedic knowledge of fantasy and science fiction, and no one ever asks me about anything but the pop culture aspects.

There are times when I feel like a connoisseur who has developed a vast knowledge of wines, liqueurs, whiskeys and other beverages, building it up piece by piece over a lifetime of sampling and evaluation.  I know histories, vintages, successes, failures; I can distinguish subtleties of flavour; and my shelves contain a complete range from the exotic to the traditional.  And what do people ask me about? The relative merits of wine-in-a-box.
- Sid

*  The answer is no.  To quote my friend Laurie, I'm not that kind of a doctor.

**  Star Wars, the first one.  Not necessarily the best science fiction movie ever, but I have my reasons.

*** Reasonable show, took it a couple of seasons to find its groove, but it was always hampered by the fact that all the supporting characters were more interesting than the leads.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

pReviews.



A lovely Saturday here in Vancouver, sunny and double digit temperatures, so after finishing my laundry, off I went into the afternoon sunshine to do some shopping.  After taking advantage of the apparently constant sale at Sears by picking up three shirts for work, I decided to celebrate the raise at my new job by crossing the street to Chapters and having a go at the science fiction and fantasy sections.

However, first I took a pass through the Reduced section, often the home of unregarded trifles, and never made it any further into the store. I've been trying to cut back on my hardcover purchases, but if they're going to sell them for less than the cost of the paperback editions, it's very difficult to say no!  As a result I walked away with four books* sharing space with my new shirts - no need to increase our petroleum debt by using another plastic bag.  


The books that I purchased are:  Matter, by Iain M. Banks; The Heart of Valor, by Tanya Huff; The New Moon's Arms, by Nalo Hopkinson; and Hell and Earth, by Elizabeth Bear.  Now, I realize that you're not supposed to review books until after reading them, but in this case I thought I could at least offer an explanation as to why I picked these four novels, and my expectations of them.

Iain M. Banks is a fabulous writer, if a slightly schizophrenic one - his non-SF work is published as Iain Banks, no initial.  (There's a reason for this, but I leave it to my readers to research that as an extra credit assignment.)  Banks, who has become the front man for the Scottish / British SF boom of the last decade, is best known for his Culture books.  

How to describe the Culture?  The Culture is a hedonistic, non-materialistic futuristic society that exists on a galactic level and creates on a macro scale, with the greater burden of maintenance and warfare falling upon artificial intelligences of varying capabilities.  In spite of its apparent softness, Banks portrays the Culture as having a core of brutal, almost cruel realism, and the combination of these elements gives his stories a disturbing ambiguity.  Matter is the latest Culture novel, and when I saw it on the shelf I picked it up instantly - Banks has never failed to entertain, amuse and startle me.

I actually have a casual nodding acquaintanceship with Tanya Huff from her years as an employee at Bakka Books in Toronto.  To be honest, that's why I purchased the first book in her Valor series when it came out in 2000.  However, the series has turned out to be a good, solid, well-crafted addition to the sub-genre of military science fiction, and as such I expect this third book in the series to be an entertaining read.

Huff is probably the only person on this page that non-fans might be familiar with, whether knowingly or not.  Her Blood books, a vampire - detective series set in Toronto, were adapted for TV under the title of Blood Ties. It's currently in syndication and shows up now and then on whichever cable channels are looking for Canadian content.

Nalo Hopkinson is the closest thing to a wild card in my selections.  She's a strong talent, and a rising one, but so far I've only read her short work without having picked up either of her breakthrough novels: Midnight Robber or Brown Girl in the Ring.  Hopkinson's work draws heavily upon her Jamaican heritage for both story-telling style and inspiration, resulting in a unique and special flavour to her writing.

The New Moon's Arms continues this approach, with the story actually being set on a Caribbean island.  Since it won both an Aurora Award and a Sunburst Award when it was originally published in 2008, I have every reason to expect it to be a suitable introduction to Hopkinson's longer work.

Although Elizabeth Bear had her first story published in 1996, I've only started reading her books within the last year  - regular readers may remember her name from my posting about representations of Canada in SF.

I find Bear's writing to be odd in that she is quite a good descriptive author, handles character, action and dialogue extremely well, but her end game is somehow lacking.  It's as if she puts so much into the initial stages of her stories that there's no room to raise the energy level at the end, resulting in something that's more like the slope down to that flat bit at the end of a roller coaster than a real loop-the-loop. (If you want to be technical, it's all denouement, no climax.)  Regardless, she is a very good writer, and I'm willing to accept that there may not be a cymbal clash at the end of this book, and simply enjoy the ride.

The sad part for me about all of this is that when you have a lot of experience as a reader, it can be difficult to expand your horizons - obviously I have a clear idea of what to expect from these books in spite of the fact that I haven't cracked a single cover.  Sometimes when I'm in a used book store, if it's not busy I'll ask the counter staff to recommend something that they've found to be a great read.  If it's a place where they know my buying habits, sometimes they'll try to tailor their suggestions to what they've seen me buy, but I discourage them from taking that route.  After all, I already know what I like - that's the problem. 
- Sid

* If you can no longer grip your book selections with one hand, you have too many.  This is a useful rule which has saved me from overspending in the past, although after years of shopping in this fashion I can probably span well over an octave on a piano.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

"Truss me, I'm the Doctor."



We're well into 2010 now, and in just over a month we'll see the first appearance of Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor.  The BBC has announced that the new season of Doctor Who will start on Easter with the broadcast of The Eleventh Hour, the first episode with the new Doctor. So far there's no trailer for that episode, but a clip introducing the entire season with Mr. Smith can be viewed on YouTube.*

Fans will be subjecting this season to an exacting scrutiny.  Not only does it mark the end of David Tennant's enormously popular run as the titular character, it also ushers in a new Head Writer and Executive Producer - Russell T. Davies, whose work in those two positions was largely responsible for the success of the resurrected Doctor Who, is leaving the show. He'll be replaced by Steven Moffat, whose scripts for the series have won him three Hugo awards to date.

So, we have a new Doctor, a new season, a new logo, a new head writer, and as shown in the picture above, a new costume for the Doctor, and a new companion as well.  But wait!  The new Doctor's costume is not the ordinary outfit it appears to be at first glance.  A closer examination reveals that his trousers are being supported by some kind of dimensionally displaced suspenders which don't require that the clips be attached to the braces.


As so many of the villains tend to ask, "Is this one of your tricks, Doctor?"  Well, sorry, no, it's just bad Photoshopping, sad but true.  Let's just hope this isn't an omen of how things are going to go now that Mr. Davies is no longer involved with the programme.
- Sid

* Oh look, bloody Daleks, how many bloody times does the Doctor have to wipe out "all" the bloody Daleks?  My god, they're worse than cockroaches.