Mirror Dance

Stats

Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold

1995 Hugo Award Winner

Narrated by Grover Gardner

Got it from: Public Library

18h 6m

I didn’t know it but Miles Vorkosigan had previously escaped an assassination attempt by his own clone (curse the scattered nature of Bujold’s Hugo winners!).  Eerie right.  Well, it turns out Miles forgives him (Mark Pierre), because of the terrible conditions he’s been put through as a clone, and allows him to take on his own secret identity as Admiral Naismith.  Well, as Naismith, his antics (trying admirably to save the rest of the clones on the planet Jackson’s Whole) get Miles shot with needle grenade and his cryo-frozen body lost somewhere…anywhere.  And you can imagine this causes some problems.

Mark

In Mirror Dance, Lois McMaster Bujold continues with just about everything I loved about Barrayar.  Cordelia’s appearances are few, but she’s still so…well, she’s still so Cordelia.  And Mark, despite being a clone, is SO Cordelia too.  Mark was exasperating, fascinating, pitiable, disgusting, and just the world’s biggest underdog ever.  He was one of the most conflicted characters ever – and believe me – Mirror Dance WILL force you to live through his excruciating mess and you WILL feel like an emotional punching bag.  As with Cordelia in Barrayar, Bujold uses Mark as a mirror for our own ugliness and beauty.

As an example (one of many) let’s consider Mark’s pain after the attempted rape of a 10-year old, (artificially) physically-matured clone.

In short, blunt phrases, he described exactly what he had just tried to do.  It all came out sounding terribly ugly, though it had been her beauty that had overwhelmed him.

…and he knew he had alienated the one person who might have spoken for him.  It hurt, a killing hurt, to have so little and then lose it.

Chapter 10

Despite being disgusted by Mark, his real human pain and a honestly terrible past makes it hard not to feel bad for him as well as the clone girl.  It’s disturbing, it’s sad, and I didn’t like what seemed like light treatment for his actions, but I also really wanted him to have a normal connection with another person.  It made me feel horrible and complicit but also even more bound up in Mark’s pain.   Needless to say, it stimulated some soul searching.

I think this might be that thing I admire most about Bujold.  She can make some really interesting and troubling cultural observations look like any other light-hearted fun SF romp.  Despite the fact that there’s a heck of a lot to unpack from a book under 400-pages (I think all three Hugo winners have been), Mirror Dance is just as readable as anything.  She’s dynamic and it is really something to behold.

Miles

Sometimes when people die, they stay dead…other times, they don’t.  In only a few books from this series, I already know Miles is one of those people who will be in the latter category.  Being that this is only my third Vorkosigan novel though (and one of them took place before Miles was born), I still don’t really know much about Miles.  He seems to be the world’s most slowly unfolding character…or maybe it’s just me?

As such, Miles’ convalescence was only interesting insomuch as the technology is interesting.  He’s scrappy, he doesn’t give up, he has kind of a thing with women, I get all that, but I still don’t feel like I know him very well and while it was pretty shocking that he’d be so thoroughly and completely incapacitated, I struggled care as much about him as I did Mark, who in only one book was just so damn absorbing.

Well okay, who am I kidding?  At some point, I’m going to have to acknowledge that Miles is tipping the scales and becoming a character that is just fun to be around.  Maybe starting with The Vor Game was a jarring first experience, and he was absent in Barrayar, but hey, now that I’m actually taking stock of my Miles experiences, they’re actually pretty crazy/fun/ny.  He’s been frozen into the snow, blown-up, gassed in-utero then grown in a petri dish, cloned, and nearly killed how many times now? Since I’m being honest with myself and the internet, I guess I have to admit now that it’s going to be pretty exciting to see how many different ways Bujold can find to beat him up throughout the rest of the saga…and how long Miles can maintain his indestructible pluck.  She really puts him through it!

Recommendation

I enjoyed this book, though I’m not sure I was actually ready for it.  I think I needed to get a few more Vorkosigan books under my belt prior to Mirror Dance.  Luckily, Mark was interesting enough to keep me engaged.  At the same time, just the act of writing this review has seriously increased my appreciation for the book and the series as a whole.  Of the three Hugo winners, I’d put this one in the middle, just behind Barrayar, which is to say it is a thoroughly enjoyable read!

HEP SCORE

Universe 4/5

Social/Political Climate 5/5

Dialogue 4/5

Scientific Wonders 3/5

Characters 5/5

Overall 21/25

Well folks, that’s two reviews in as many days.  Lately they’ve been a little short and maybe not my finest, but I’m nearly caught up now.  Maybe I go for a Grandslam and get another done tomorrow?!

And since I’m finally into books I read in January, this one counts for Carl’s 2013 Science Fiction Experience, for which I also hope to have some non-book reviews done in the coming weeks too.  Yay!

Barrayar

Stats

Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

1992 Hugo Award Winner

Got it from: Friend/Family

275 Pages

Cordelia Vorkosigan has just married Count Aral Vorkosigan, her true love (and they’re such a great pair to watch).  She’s left her home world, Beta.  She gets pregnant.  To put it mildly…she’s having a hard time adjusting.

Some serious oddities

This was my second foray into the Vorkosigan Saga and what an improved experience it was!

I thought The Vor Game was a rough introduction to the series (my fault) and questioned whether it won the 1991 Hugo on its own or on the strength of the series as a whole (unfair question).  But I also recognized that Miles was a fun character -- in the same vein as Harry Harrison’s James Bolivar DiGriz (my favorite).  So while I was a little apprehensive about Barrayar, there was some excitement on my part about the chance to dig into Miles’ roots.

Bujold has commented on the way in which the benefits of technological advancements are often realized unequally and one of this book's most endearing elements is just that dynamic.

From a male perspective -- the overriding perspective that introduces this story -- Barryar (the planet) is not all that strange a place.  There are some serious oddities and the cultural milieu is undeniably foreign, but in terms of power dynamics and day-to-day goings on, it didn’t seem terribly far removed from Earth.  It is only once we’re introduced to Cordelia that we begin to see how troubling Barrayar’s culture and governance can be.

She experiences considerable aggression over opinions and rights of females that were common place on her home planet, Beta.  Her struggles with perceptions of sexual practices and to demonstrate the importance of positions of leadership and reproductive medicine for women range from the hilarious to the deadly serious.

Bujold has a Scalzi-esque approachability and delivery that allows this book to achieve some amount of intellectual stimulation while also being enjoyable on more basic levels…it’s just damn fun!  I could have spent weeks cheering on Cordelia as she summarily dismisses the most self-assured, well-connected, and power-hungry denizens the Vor Class has to offer with style, physical prowess, intellect, or all three (actually for some reason this book did take me two weeks -- I don’t know why).

Recommendation

This book felt like a better introduction to the Vorkosigan Saga and now that I’ve read The Vor Game, Barrayar, and Mirror Dance (review forthcoming) I still think so.  Maybe there are even better examples, but I don’t think this would be a horrible place to start.  I liked it better than The Vor Game, but now I’m feeling I would have a totally different appreciation for it if I read it again.  Barrayar is great fun.  It feels simple but also tackles some unpleasant social issues with a cool, strong, sensitive female lead.  It’s not done too often among the Hugo winners but Bujold does it fantastically.

HEP SCORE

Universe 3/5

Social/Political Climate 5/5

Dialogue 5/5

Scientific Wonders 3/5

Characters 4/5

Overall 20/25

The Vor Game

Stats

The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold

1991 Hugo Award Winner

Read by Grover Gardner

Got it from: The Public Library

11h 2m

After graduating from the Academy, Miles Vorkosigan is basically exiled to Kyril Island to play weatherman of the frozen tundra.  Angered for not having been assigned a position of more distinction in a place that actually matters, Miles has to find a way out of a military base where the biggest danger is drunkenness and stupid pranks.  Once he makes his escape, well it’s out of the frying pan and into the fire for Miles.

What I liked

Miles himself.  More precisely, his snarky, haughty, self-important, rascal-swagger that was reminiscent of my very favorite James Bolivar Degriz or even a little of Timothy Cavendish feeling held prisoner among fools.  In my book, anything that reminds me of Slippery Jim automatically has me smiling.  Okay, honestly, there is more to like than Miles acting a fool but… real talk, it’s the best/only reason to pick-up this book unless you’re a lot deeper into the Vorkosigan Saga than I am.

Other things:

Kyril Island – a bunch of drunken military men with nothing to do in the bitter cold.  Lots of fodder there.

The meeting between Miles and Gregor while Miles is in hiding/custody.  Lots of wine and, I don’t know…I just felt like I was sitting in the room with them.

What I didn’t like

I don’t have any real gripes about The Vor Game, other than the fact that it kinda felt like two different books.  This isn’t the Ender’s Game/Speaker for the Dead gripe I had before, it’s something different and it goes back to enjoying his exile on Kyril Island.

Kyril Island and Miles had such strong identities in this first part.  The freezing danger was real, the pranks and general idiocy of the troops were hilarious and Miles was approaching stardom for me.  Somehow, once he makes it off Kyril Island, though Miles is still very much in danger, it didn’t have the same presence or urgency Kyril had.  I also thought Miles dropped his snark down a deep dark hole.  It was still there and he was as quick as ever, but…I don’t know, I lost interest in his jokes after Kyril. Apparently the first six chapters were published first and as a separate novella so I’m curious if there are others that noticed the shift as prominently as I did. 

Mostly I just wish I had more time to read some other Vorkosigan novels before tackling this one.  There were a couple of things I thought I might have enjoyed even more (Miles’ history) had I been more familiar with the Vorkosigan Saga.  Oh well, this has been an occasional issue with this blog and I’m not sure how it could have been avoided without giving myself a lot more time to get comfortable with every series I’ve come across.

And the audiobook

Well, it was pretty good.  Gardner doesn’t differentiate voices and somehow it called more attention to Miles’ attitude.  I’m not going crazy over the production but I was reasonably happy with it. 

Recommendation

In my opinion (which is worth exactly nothing), The Vor Game is worth reading just for the first six chapters on Kyril Island.  If you haven’t read Bujold’s other Vorkosigan books, don’t start here.  As for myself, I loved Miles and Kyril Island and I hope Barrayar and Mirror Dance retroactively improve my opinion of The Vor Game.

HEP SCORE

Universe 3/5

Social/Political Climate 3/5

Dialogue 5/5

Scientific Wonders 3/5

Characters 4/5

Overall 18/25

About my schedule…

Well, I’m making my way through the final installment of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy, Blue Mars, on audiobook right now and also beginning Barrayar, another Vor book.  Then I’ll move on to Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis.

And I know I'm a little out of order posting a review for the 90's before finishing my 80's wrap-up but it's coming...soon.

The Uplift War

Stats

The Uplift War by David Brin

1988 Hugo Award Winner

Got it from: E-book from the Library

636 Pages

I began listening to this as an audiobook but stopped half-way through because, I just wasn’t feeling the reading and I didn’t want to ruin the experience, so I quick grabbed up the e-book which my library makes available through amazon (in a lot of cases too…which is awesome).  Anyway, I just wanted to admit that I didn’t necessarily read all 636 pages in this case, but I’m counting them in my overall page count because I don’t know how to split that up and I actually started prior to the halfway mark.  I’m not sure if that counts or matters.  Whatever.

Remember the Gubru from Startide Rising?  Ha ha (sorry I have to laugh at them).  The avian species chasing the wolfling races of Earth throughout the galaxy to steal a possible artifact of the progenitors of all galactic sentience.  Turns out they’re still at it and in The Uplift War they make an attempt at takeover of another of Earth’s assets in order to gain some leverage/bargaining power.  Turns out they totally underestimate Neo-chimpanzees.  Turns out they totally bite off more than they can chew…again.

Brin’s universe

For me, Brin’s universe is something to get lost in thought over.  You know I loved how silly Startide Rising could be and with the focus of this one on the chimpanzees, there’s definitely more of Brin’s wry humor here.  But in The Uplift War, Brin added some depth to his ultra-mega-huge universe.  It’s huge, it’s paradoxical, it’s dangerous, it’s hilarious.

And the parts that get me most, are the paradoxical.  Regarding uplift, it’s so strange.  You’d think, in a universe where for millions of years sentience has been encouraged and coaxed out of so many species of all types, that such a universe would be pretty dang egalitarian.  Maybe it’s just me but it seems like an understanding that all races/animals have the potential for greatness would make you think twice before subjecting your will over another sentient.

In The Uplift War, you really get a flavor for how hierarchical the uplift process has become (well, except in humanity’s case but I’ll get to Brin’s optimism later).  When you have been space faring for hundreds of thousands of years there is some disdain for those that have only been uplifted for hundreds of years, as in the case of the Neo-chimpanzees.  Well, not all species share the disdain but in any case, the client species’ price of being uplifted is generally 100,000-years of servitude.  It’s not how I would have imagined such a thing, but I like how Brin handles it and it had me putting the book down a moment and thinking on numerous occasions.

My favorite paradox though was the Neo-chimpanzees.  Humanity uplifted the chimps about 300-years ago and they’ve become really great specialists in genetics and the selection process.  Nevertheless, they still struggle with feelings of inadequacy and insecurity over their comparatively recent introduction to the world of sentience.  I loved this self-doubt more than anything else in the book, and that battle with primitive urges didn’t stop with the Neo-Chims:

And for as long as they lived thereafter, the chims who saw it talked about what they saw: a pale green figure in loin cloth and beard, swinging through the trees, meeting fully armed Talon Soldiers with knife and garrote.  There seemed to be no stopping him, and indeed, nothing living withstood him.

Pg 609

For the record, he was green for camouflage.  I said my favorite paradox was the Neo-chims struggle, but really it was an issue taken up by nearly every character in the book and I just loved it (I guess I’m still too close to it, because I’m struggling to find words other than love here). There is one particular scene when Fiben (my favorite chim) is caught up in the moment and finds himself stuck in a feedback loop of frustration and exasperation that descends into primal rage:

Thunder pealed, setting the fence rocking.  The slats squeezed Fiben between them, and he howled in agony.  When they let go he fell, half-numbed with pain, to the ground near Sylvie.  But he was on his feet again in an instant.  Another electric ladder lit the glowering clouds.  He screamed back at the sky.  He beat the ground.  Mud and pebbles flew up as he threw handfuls into the air.  More thunder drove the stones back, pelting them into his face.

There was no longer any such thing as speech.  No words.  The part of him that knew such things reeled in shock, and in reaction other older, sturdier portions took control.

Now there was only the storm.  The wind and rain.  The lightning and thunder.  He beat his breast, lips curled back, baring his teeth to the stinging rain.  The storm sang to Fiben, reverberating in the ground and the throbbing air.  He answered with a howl.

This music was no prissy, human thing.  It was not poetical, like the whale dream phantoms of the dolphins.  No, this was music he could feel clear down to his bones.  It rocked him.  It rolled him.  It lifted Fiben like a rag doll and tossed him down into the mud.  He came back up, spitting and hooting.

Pg 444

At this point, my brain exploded (at least I have an excuse for my stupidity now?).  Seriously though, it was such a powerful moment in the progression of Fiben’s self-doubt and despite the uncontrollable primal rage, it was his most human moment in the entire book, and it really deeply moved me.  Maybe that sounds strange, but maybe after reading it, you’ll agree.

Brin’s Environmentalism

Wolfing humans are the greatest environmentalists.  We were on the brink and nursed our planet back to health.  But throughout the universe it is understood and one of the most important rules of uplift, that the ecosystem of a planet is not to be damaged.  When nearly the entire animal species of a planet is a potential uplift candidate, you just don’t want ruin another species future potential.

There is an environmental message running throughout The Uplift War though I’m not sure it was entirely coherent, but because I had loved Startide Rising so much and for the most part, Uplift War too, I was excited to see how that loosely woven thread might come together.  In the end, I think Brin’s message may not have gained much more cohesion than a general optimism and I was looking for more.

If I had to make comparisons, I would point out that there were some really strong connections to the controversial brand of environmental optimism of Gregg Easterbrook.  Then, the prologue specifically notes his attempt at an infusion of environmentalism in which he attempted to depict “a new view of life”, one that disavows the view of humans as a poisonous, detestable, and destructive force wreaking havoc on the earth.  I’m not entirely sure whether the prologue was written for the initial printing in the 80’s or if it was recently added, but Easterbrook would attempt to say much the same thing in the early 2000’s and well, it really didn’t go over too well then and coming from Brin didn’t make a very good impression on me either.

I don’t want to use this forum as a soapbox, so I won’t go into more detail than to reiterate that it is really difficult to downplay the extent of environmental damage that humans have accumulated over the years and while a positive attitude is great, reason and science would argue there is a long way to go before that optimism resembles anything like realism.  Frankly, I just don’t understand Brin’s anger over the environmental movement and I think the attitude decrying humanity as “a foul, evil, murderous, rapacious canker on the lip of creation” is some kind of straw man.  I’ve never heard of such an attitude.

Nevertheless, Brin’s environmentalism really takes a back seat to the rest of the fun and especially without the prologue could probably just be forgotten.  In fact, I hope I will do just that because I liked the rest too much to let this ruin it.  Plus, despite my general aggravation over the specific message, it was nice to see an explicitly environmental message in a Hugo Winner, so I guess he deserves some props for that at least.

Recommendation

Of the two Uplift Trilogy books to win a Hugo, I think this one was my favorite, which seems crazy considering how much I enjoyed Startide Rising.  I know I’m bordering the clichéd but this book literally had me laughing, crying, pondering, fuming.  Everything.  This is a book (the whole series, really) that I envision myself coming back to again and again.  I couldn’t get over so many great quotables (“This universe is a goddam awful place”), hilarious jokes and really odd sexual moments, and oh yeah, Brin has inspired some really great art too!  I could go on forever but as it is, this review is already much too long.  Please read and enjoy.

HEP SCORE

Universe 5/5

Social/Political Climate 4/5

Dialogue 5/5

Scientific Wonders 5/5

Characters 5/5

Overall 24/25

Well folks, that wraps up the 80’s!  But before I start in on the 90’s, it’s on to those posts that I love to do so much (The charts!  I love the charts!).

Foundation's Edge

Stats

Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov

Audiobook narrated by Scott Brick

1983 Hugo Award Winner

Got it from: Public Library

16h 19m

Anyone who has read any part of the Foundation Trilogy is aware of the engrossing and never ending battle of intricacies between Harry Seldon’s First and Second Foundations.  Just imagine the effect of the introduction of a third group, one consisting of an even more mentally powerful population, one that is free to operate outside of The Seldon Plan.  In Foundation’s Edge, Asimov does just that and the effect is a threat on the very existence of the First and Second Foundations.

“I have this gift of coming to a conclusion on the basis of almost nothing”

The central conflict throughout the third and fourth installments of the Foundation Series takes place between the opposing physical scientists of the First Foundation and the mentalic/intuitionist Second Foundation, both of which are integral to the Seldon Plan.  Foundation’s Edge adds a new element which exists outside The Plan.  The universe of the Foundation has become an interesting one in which objective knowledge takes a back seat to the unbelievable powers of intuition and telepathy.  It is a universe in which the spoken word and physical phenomena give away less about the plot than the knotted and obscured tendrils of logic and the mental strength and stamina of characters who are rarely what they appear.  It also makes for a never ending staccato of extremely tense moments which are suddenly and unexpectedly resolved by a character’s sudden and, until that moment, opaque intuition or realization. 

The idea of a universe in which people, can utilize the powers of intuition to construe facts from seemingly too little information on occasion gives rise to characters who come too rapidly and too confidently to right understanding and situations and tensions which seem to be solved by some kind of mental deus ex machina.  This is an issue I have struggled with throughout the Foundation Series and Foundation’s Edge did not break that mold, but it was certainly toned down compared to the third installment of the trilogy. Still, the way in which events in Foundation’s Edge are advanced so suddenly, simply by introducing some new awareness or piece of information that readers never could have been privy to, started to potentially grate on me near the end.

“I was just about to tell our guest the story of eternity”

By the time this quote was delivered, I was already well on my way to solidifying my biggest concern about this book.  Yes, I struggled with the way in which characters suddenly come to knowledge without a hint to the readers, but all-in-all I didn’t really have too much heartburn about it.  My real complaint though is that it seemed Asimov was trying to do way to damn much in Foundation’s Edge.  I would have been happy to learn of the anti-mules and go through the process of both Foundations looking for them, but Foundation’s Edge touches on about a million other pretty major topics.  This is not to say that Asimov didn’t make robots, the origin of humanity, FTL travel, etc. all fun, but it made for a fairly quick treatment of each and the tying up of all those elements in the end felt a little shaky and started to lose my attention.

Actually, that’s not much of a complaint is it?  I do have a better complaint (or would that be worse?), but it’s in the form of a spoiler, so read on with caution:

<<SPOILER: Bliss was a difficult character for me.  I had predicted the possibility that she wasn’t human as soon as she avoided the question, but then the issue was left alone until the very end.  The question about who or what she really was, was then overshadowed by her extreme objectification (and the same issue would apply to Novy as well), and I had basically forgotten about the issue until the end.  Probably not the best treatment of some possibly very cool characters and I was definitely disappointed.  I also wondered if I might have taken more from Bliss had I read any of Asimov’s robot stories.  Asimov himself suggests them as companion pieces in the afterword so maybe I’ll be more excited about her after I get to some of those.  Any thoughts about Bliss for those of you who’ve read this? >>

Recommendation

Written almost 30 years after the Foundation Trilogy, the fourth book was still, for the most part, unintelligible from the first three.  Perhaps the effect was aided by the fact that I listened to books 3 and 4 as audiobooks and Scott Bricks read them both.  Whatever the case, I think it’s fair to say that if you’re a fan of the Foundation Trilogy, you’ll enjoy Foundation’s Edge too.  I haven’t fallen in love with this series in the same way others have, but it is certainly very good stuff!

HEP SCORE

Universe 5/5

Social/Political Climate 5/5

Dialogue 3/5

Scientific Wonders 5/5 (gravitics, robots, telepathy blocks…yes)

Characters 2/5

Overall 20/25

This week’s book is Neuromancer by William Gibson.  According to the publisher the book that brought cyberpunk to the world.  New author, new subgenre – what could go wrong?

Next week’s book is The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke.  I have read two of Clarke’s novels.  One was okay, the other was pretty great.  Where will this one fall?

The Mule

My copy from our library

Stats

The Mule by Isaac Asimov

Published 1945 in Astounding Science Fiction

Retro Hugo Awarded in 1996 for 1946

244 pages

Normal book format

I’ll spoil this right now.  My first review is going to be an unashamed panning.  Many people love the Foundation Series books, but I’m going bold.

Since this is the first book, the format and rating system is still up for grabs as far as I’m concerned, so please let me know what works and what doesn’t, or just make your own suggestions.  This is a pretty short discussion so pick on anything you want in the comments.  Enjoy!

Psychohistory

Psychohistory is a branch of mathematical sciences in the Foundation Series which allows scientists, one in particular, to anticipate the future.  Psychohistory assumes individuals are not important on historical scales as an individual’s actions cannot dramatically change the course of history (interestingly though, technological advances are one of the few events that do alter history unexpectedly enough to render psychohistorical computations ineffective).  The founder of the science, Hari Seldon, was able to predict the course of history with an extremely high degree of certainty.  This ability guided him in the creation of The Foundation, the society which would eventually overthrow the Galactic Empire.

The Mule was written in 1945, the year Auschwitz was liberated, and I kept waiting for metaphors about epistemic responsibility or something…anything.  Instead of picking up on the possibility for intense philosophical debate though, The Mule becomes a story of selfish revenge and relies on a surprise twist to keep readers interested.  In the end, psychohistory’s inability to predict the histories of individuals and their emotions, threatens the existence of the Foundation because of The Mule’s mutant ability to read and influence emotions. 

At first glance, you might be tempted to think this is an actual statement about individuality or something, but really I think this was a huge cop-out for Asimov.  In every other instance, Psychohistory was right…but in this case it was wrong.  That is probably an inappropriately simplistic take, but to me it was cheap and disinteresting.  How unfortunate that the most interesting element of the book was also the most disappointing.

“Let me tell you a story”

At the end of the book, The Mule gives one of those evil-plot-and-motivation reveals.  He literally stops and says, “Let me tell you a story.”   I will say this as clearly as I can: any book or film in which this happens is disrespectful to the reader.  All authors should know that we both can and want to interpret complex human emotions and awkward social situations on my own.  This is absolutely unacceptable.  Always.

This is also one of my favorite things to gripe about so allow me to illustrate.

My “Red Delicious” Apple complex: Red delicious apples are universally known to be one of the most disgusting fruits in existence.  They are.  Other apples with names which describe how wonderful they taste are rare and yet, in the case of those apples not named for their taste, they are all decidedly delicious.  So why the hell are they calling these things “Red Delicious”?!  Because we would never care about it or buy it if they didn’t tell us what to think of it.  I hate this, and so should you.  As Vine Deloria penned, “If you think about it, you will see that it is true.”

Similarly, if poor writers didn’t tell us exactly what was happening and how to interpret it, we wouldn’t care.  The effect of this exchange was to make me want to stop reading with five pages left.  My extra sloppy grammar should indicate how upset I was about this ending.  This is pretty elementary stuff and I was really surprised to see it come from one of the most popular science fiction writers ever. 

Recommendation

The pace of this book gave the impression of the film adaption of a wildly popular book.  In this case, the film would have been devoid of the meaningful relationships and dialogue that made the book great and would’ve had an overly fast moving plot with deeply unsatisfying gaps in time large enough to withhold substance and evoke severe frustration.  It is an easy and fast paced read (simply because it spans over a hundred years), but lacks any justification for moving so quickly (little action, flat character development).

I am borderline supes disappointed with this Hugo Award.  The Mule had some good material for possible social commentary but Asimov completely escapes saying anything about it.  So for that which I would normally overlook considerable flaws the book ends up being totally uninteresting and lost my attention.  While the ending was exciting and fast paced, it was only interesting to the extent that unanticipated plot turns can be and the overwhelming feeling I was left with was a bored disinterest.  Although The Mule (Book 2) was marginally better than The General (Book 1) it does not stand on its own and I have a hard time believing this book would have won had they not waited until 1996 to give this award. 

HEP SCORE

Universe: 4/5 (Milky Way Galaxy, never on Earth though!)

Social/Political Climate: 4/5

Dialogue: 1/5

Scientific Wonders: 3/5

Characters: 3/5 (The Mule is really the only saving grace)

Overall: 15/25

In the words of Jack Black, “so far, off to a bad start.”


Edit: I forgot to include mention that I'll be reading The Big Time by Fritz Leiber this week and the roll of the die landed me with Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein next week.  So fun.  Many thanks to my friend Donald for giving me the dice idea!

Everything You Know Is Wrong