Solaris Rising pt. II

My final blog post, here at last! What a truly sad occasion. As I mentioned in my previous post I have finished reading "Solaris Rising" edited by Ian Whates. The book is a collection of short science fiction stories, something that has been around for a long time, but was brought to fame by the iconic sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov. The stories all featured very abbreviated plot lines that focused on answering a what-if question. What if the Earth was going to be hit by an asteroid redirected by extremists? What if giant space vessels could reproduce in a process similar to animals? What if exposure to a time-space phenomenon allowed a man to traverse all dimension, releasing explosive amounts of energy as he goes? Another pattern, in apparently essential pattern, of these stories is that they place the reader in a state of unknowing, and the author will slowly and carefully reveal what is happening in their story, until a climax of understanding is reached. 

My absolute favorite story in the book was one about a "Trans-dimensional superhero" (Hutchinson 60). It is about a researcher at a super-collider doing, well, research. His team is in the process of performing what is supposed to be a ground-breaking experiment, when something goes terribly wrong. In short, the main character is able to traverse time and space, and manipulate the two at will. He is left to wander around a wasteland, which is another dimension with various portals of sorts to earth, and, I would assume, other places. This type of story, one dealing with vastly complex possibilities and questions of physics, are the one I enjoy the most. In the story's conclusion, the main character states, "what I really want is to be ordinary again, and that, of all things, I cannot do"  (Hutchinson 60). Like nearly all people displaced by the sudden acquisition of something that is completely unheard-of and impossible to relate to, this character did not ask for it. He was living -- maybe not completely enjoying, but tolerating -- a rather normal life, and preferred that it had not been interrupted. But had this wish been granted, such an interesting story would not be possible!

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book, as I did all the other books I read! I enjoyed this project as a whole, and was glad to have been given the opportunity to read some books of my choosing, even if it was on a tighter timeline than I would have preferred. I hope you enjoyed reading my blog (all 3 of you), and thanks!

Solaris Rising pt. I

This is such a great book, I could hardly put it down! In fact, I finished it, and my conclusion blog will be posted shortly after this one, but for this post I will be focusing on the first half of the book. The stories are all fascinating and very diverse. Everything I said I enjoyed about short sci-fi stories in my previous post stands true, except for one thing. I have noticed that some stories end before completely satisfying my curiosity, ending what seems to be a small plot arc just as a much larger makes itself apparent. Although this left me disappointed a couple time, I'm sure it was exactly the affect the author intended. These stories also went through enough of the exposition as to allow the reader to imagine their own continuation, an aspect I found to be interesting. Something else I remembered that I liked so much about science fiction is how the stories progress. The author makes as little of the setting evident as is necessary, and slowly reveals more to the reader, until all is clear, and everything makes sense. Often this is manifested in a main character suddenly finding themselves in an unfamiliar environment, and set out on a, in this case short, quest to figure out just what is happening. Another manifestation of this process is a character going about their daily lives, except the reader is completely unfamiliar with their daily lives, and something extraordinary happens.

So far, one of my favorite stories was one with a very interesting concept. In this futuristic world, giant mechanical star ships are able to breed to create new ships, and some are grown in a similar fashion as fruit. The main characters is assigned to oversee the fertilization of what is essentially a ship flower, something which is a rather routine process. Unfortunately for her, the bird machine thing that is supposed to impregnate this flower does not come at the expected time due to some mystifying glitch. When the protagonist's companion asks her how likely it was that this robot did a certain thing, and she replied, "it's as likely to do that as it is to write poetry" (Palmer 163). In context this means it to be nearly, if not completely, impossible. Of course, the robot wrote poetry, and did exactly what the character thought impossible. This sort of development is quintessential to science fiction writing: the main character will be tasked with rather something rudimentary, and it will inevitably take a very unexpected turn. 

I have enjoyed reading this book (all of it), and you can expect my blog conclusion shortly!

Solaris Rising

Hello, and welcome to my final first post. For my final book I will be reading "Solaris Rising" edited by Ian Whates. Solaris Rising is a collection of short science fiction stories, two of my favorite things in literature. This book is part of the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction series of anthologies, boasting a "fabulous line-up of authors and... an equally impressive st of stories" (Whates 7). As for one of the main components of this book, the short stories, I enjoy them because they are capable of delivering a quick, sharp fix, with almost instant gratification, as opposed to the often slow burn of novels. As for the sci-fi aspect of this, it is one of, possibly the, favorite genre of mine. Science fiction is always about exploring possibilities, and answering a question. The format allows the author to let their imagination run wild in a way that just is not present in other types of fiction. Science fiction also has a vast array of very diverse sub-genres. Sci-fi is not always about some far-off futuristic technology, it can just as often be based around an event that could very feasibly happen tomorrow. In short, I look forward to reading this book, and cannot wait to see just what questions the authors will be answering.

Pigs No More

I am bringing you this post after having recently finished "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. It was a great book and I truly enjoyed reading it, short as it was. I was not disappointed with any aspects of the book, and really enjoyed reading what Orwell had to say. If you missed my previous blog posts about this book, it is an allegory for Soviet communism played out through farm yard animals. In this second half of the book the pig Napoleon rose to power using terror tactics, and manipulating rules and the other animals to remain in popular opinion, lying and deceiving the whole way. This is shocking because the original beliefs that Animal Farm were founded under were that all animals were equal, and that to act in any way like a human was to be evil. Napoleon and his fellow pigs ignore both of these and are able to place themselves in a position of great privilege. The animals grow uncertain of their ruler, but feel liberated and are willing to work longer and harder under the pretense that they have been liberated from the harsh humans, only to be replaced by the pigs. In the very end of the book the pigs take neighboring human farmers for a tour of their farm. The other farmers are amazed by how much the animals are working, which the animals had not realized was an excessive amount. The book ends with most of the animals overlooking a scene where the pigs are dining and drinking with the humans, acting as humans, and the animals cannot tell the two species apart.

My favorite quote from the second half of this book was when Orwell says of Clover, one of the older animals on the farm, "If she could have spoken her thoughts, it would have been to say that this was not what they had aimed at." This books main goal was to illustrate the downfall of Communism, and how it could never succeed, especially in the case of the Soviet Empire. Napoleon has recently slaughtered several animals who admitted to be aligned with Snowball, a pig who is Napoleon's arch enemy and old co-ruler, before he was chased off the farm by savage dogs. All the animals are horrified, and beginning to doubt that what they had set out to do had been achieved. Overall I was very impressed by this book, and glad to have had the opportunity to read such a classic.

Pigs of Wrath

I am blogging to you today to inform you of the excitement I have witnessed in the first half of "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. As you may have realized by the timing of this post that the book is a rather short one, but it manages to not sacrifice anything to achieve this, and so far I am enjoying reading it.

As a stated in my first post this book follows a group of barnyard animals who are able to overthrow their human master and take complete control of the farm, all as an allegory to communist Russia. The book begins with the last speech of a dying pig, whom is greatly respected among the other animals. He tells them that man is the root of all unhappiness among the animals and that they should overthrow him. At the same time he also warns the animals to never become like man, and to engage in any human-like activities would be evil. Shortly following this elder pig's death, the animals stage a rebellion, and, to their great excitement, succeed. Shortly following this moral is high, and more crops are produced then ever before. Unfortunately, this doesn't last long. Without ruining anything for you, I'll say that the farm quickly turns to the darker days of the Soviet Empire.

In the beginning of the book one of the elder pig's main points was that all animals, and all should be treated as such. Unfortunately, some animals decide they are more equal than the others. Orwell writes, "The pigs did not actually work...With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume leadership " (30). Though the animals all worked rather hard to escape the leadership of the farmer, they are very quick to allow a new leader into power, one which ultimately ends up granting themselves special privileges and benefits. This is symbolic of how unstable communism is, especially on anything larger than a very small scale. I have been enjoying this quick read and cannot wait to finish it up tomorrow.

Animal Farm

As you may have guessed by the title, the next book on my list is "Animal Farm: A Fairy Tale"  by George Orwell. A classic work of fiction, famous for being an allegory for 19th century communist Russia. I know that the overt plot is a group of farm animals who overthrow their owner and begin to run the farm on their own. At first everything is going well and moral is high, but this does not last long. I know a little about this book because I saw a few clips from a movie that was made from it. This book is very widely known, and I look forward to reading it.

A Stranger Here Myself No More

I have very recently finished reading "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" by Bill Bryson, and have come here to blog about it. I enjoyed the entirety of the book very much, and wished it would have gone on longer, with more columns. Bryson ended his collection of columns with a nice one wrapping up the gist of everything he felt about America, and the experience he had when first trying to move here. As for any major developments in the book since my last blog, there have been none. The structure has been majorly the same, with the same general messages throughout (America is a land of extreme variety, complexity, and excess), though not to say I enjoyed it any less.

As for a line between fiction and non-fiction, there was not really one present here. The characters were all real, set in real settings, going through events that actually happened. This book was entirely factual, with one exception. Each story had a theme, a message it tried to send, which was the point of the story, beyond simply retelling events. Many reoccurring messages were somewhat cliche things, like enjoy every day and don't let the past bring you down, but there were a many unique ones, each with there own interesting message.

One article I particularly enjoyed from the second half of this book was one in which Bryson talked about the seeming increase in absentmindedness and forgetfulness he experienced as he got older. This article was decidedly different than most of the other's about America's infatuation with excess and variety. The article itself, like all the others, was composed of funny anecdotes and witty insights, but it was still fundamentally different, and, I thought, somewhat more enjoyable for this. Overall, I truly and greatly enjoyed the book, and can't ait to eventually read more from Bill Bryson.