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Eighteen books down...

REVIEW: God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert



In recent times, the original novel Dune remains one of my favourite novels, perhaps my favourite science fiction novel of all time. I've forgotten exactly how I was first exposed to Dune, although somehow I was exposed to David Lynch's movie adaptation, but that time, during my childhood, I didn't quite understand it. In recent times, I rediscovered it, and consider it to be superior to Lord of the Rings, no mean feat, as I have Angliophilic tendencies, Lord of the Rings being written by a Briton and Dune by an American.

However, as I read the sequels, I find things starting to wane. Although the books have a complexity that is quite good, I feel that they start to retread old ground, and God Emperor of Dune, the fourth book in the series, is no exception.

Leto Atreides II, the son of Paul Muad'Dib Atreides, has taken it upon himself to undergo a horrible transformation. By the time God Emperor of Dune comes about, some 3500 years after the events of Children of Dune, Leto has turned into a grotesque hybrid of sandworm and human, creating an empire that, while safe and even livable, still arouses rebellion and hatred. A distant relation of his, Siona Atreides, is one of those who intends to kill him, but ironically, Leto considers her to be the most precious human in existence, for Siona is the embodiment of the mysterious Golden Path Leto had embarked upon, something which he must do, or else all humanity will be wiped out.

The story itself is rather simple compared to its predecessors, and, in the book, I see perhaps one parallel too many with the plot of Dune Messiah, the second Dune book. I mean, all powerful emperor, has a kind of repressive regime and a group of fanatical fighters bound to him by religious ceremony, gets brought an unexpected gift that proves key to his downfall, and his descendants prove key to the future. Oh, and Duncan 'I will not be his stud' Idaho, who seems to have been killed more times than Kenny McCormick from South Park, makes an appearance, as a ghola (clone), and proves a vital role in the story.

But really, this book tends to get bogged down in philosophy. Leto, when he first underwent the mutation, was basically kicking arse and taking names like nobody's business. Now, he's a monstrous god, albeit one who still feels human, in his private moments. Unfortunately, very few of the other characters show much in the way of complexity until the end. Siona Atreides has anger and daddy issues, said father Moneo Atreides seems to be an intellectual lackey who bores me until events towards the end, Duncan is the militaristic version of Arthur Dent and about half as effective...

The Dune universe has changed, that much is certain. But so far, it doesn't seem to be for the better. Only the final revelations about the Golden Path, plus Leto's hints at what will happen, will keep me reading the series. This is still quite an in-depth and complex book, but it is losing, in my opinion, the essential parts of the Dune mythos. Only in the promise of what will happen later does it find redemption.


7/10

First words: It is not only my pleasure to announce to you this morning our discovery of this marvellous storehouse containing, among other things, a monumental collection of manuscripts inscribed on ridulan crystal paper, but I also take pride in giving you our arguments for the authenticity of our discoveries, to tell you why we believe we have uncovered the original journals of Leto II, the God Emperor.

Last words: For the Minority, we have no doubt that historians must listen to that voice from our beginnings. If it is only the Journals, we must listen. We must listen across at least as many years into our future as those Journals lay hidden in our past. We will not try to predict the discoveries yet to be made within those pages. We say only that they must be made. How can we turn our backs on our most important inheritance? As the poet, Lon Bramlis, has said: "We are the fountain of surprises!"

Next book will probably be Bleak House.

I read the original Dune many years ago and although I was fascinated by the social structures and the interpersonal reactions the total ecology struck me a bizarre and fantastic. A totally desert planet with no vegetation would have no source of renewable breathable oxygen and human life would be impossible. Perhaps I missed something.

The Dune series is one of my favorites; I don't care for the prequels at all, though. God Emperor was my least favorite of the series, but I still enjoyed it. Chapterhouse Dune was probably my favorite, along with Heretics of Dune.

You did. The sandworms create the oxygen.

There is an interesting source of sandworm physiology which confirms your reply at http://forum.dune2k.com/index.php?topic=6720.0%3Bwap2

I think it is implied heavily in the first novel. Liet-Kynes, when dying, thinks about the fact that not enough plants exist to provide oxygen. Or rather, a hallucination of his father expounds upon it.

The nineteenth book is down, and it was the longest and hardest read of all....

REVIEW: Bleak House by Charles Dickens




It has been said that, if Dickens was alive today, he would be writing for high-end soap operas and drama miniseries. Having caught glimpses of his work through the adaptation of this novel, I decided to embark on a reading of one of Dickens' most epic novels of all time. I am referring to, of course, Bleak House.

Bleak House's plot is by no means simple, but has, as its background, an interminable and long-running lawsuit, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in Chancery over the dispute of a man's will. A young woman, Esther Summerson, an orphan raised by a strict godmother, is now being made the companion of one of two wards in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case, and being made a ward of John Jarndyce, a relative of the one in the suit, but one who intends not to have any part in it, for he knows how it consumes people. Meanwhile, the handwriting of a law writer causes Lady Dedlock, married to Sir Leicester Dedlock (who has an interest in the case), to faint, arousing the suspicion of manipulative and malicious lawyer Tulkinghorn, who intends to uncover the truth, no matter what.

Bleak House is very hard reading, and one needs to accept a number of things. First, the Dickensian style of writing. Second, the fact that he was paid by the word. Thirdly, this novel was originally released as a serial. But once one gets past that, Bleak House has its rewards.

It is a searing indictment of charity (particularly those who abuse it, whether while giving it or receiving it), of class divide, and of Chancery, that court of equity which seems to have precious little equity about it. One needs to understand the context under which it was written, but once you do, it is rewarding.

It is stuffed to the gills with characters unpleasant and pleasant, and perhaps one of the best heroines of Victorian writing is the main character (debatably main, anyway), Esther Summerson. Bleak House's plot, after all, revolves around her origins, and how they affect others in the world around them. We have memorable villains such as the gin-soaked Krook, the Machiavellian lawyer Tulkinghorn, the cheerful, sociopathic bludger called Harold Skimpole, and the rough and ready moneylender Grandfather Smallweed. And we have characters as tragic as Lady Dedlock, Richard Carstone, and Jo. Not to mention strange characters like Miss Flite, William Guppy, Mr Turveydrop and the charity-obsessed Mrs Jellyby and Mrs Pardiggle, so obsessed with charity, they do not consider the feelings of those closer to home. And the best of characters, like Caddy Jellyby, Ada Clare,Allan Woodcourt, John Jarndyce, Mr Snagsby, Mr George, and Mr Bucket.

Bleak House is a leviathan. Not since The Count of Monte Cristo have I seen an excellent book from this period. It needs a certain mindset to appreciate to its fullest, but if you do manage to get past the first hundred pages or so, you'll want to continue all the way to the bittersweet end. Not all who deserve ill ends get them, and not all who deserve good ends get them either. But there is still a good ending. Indeed, there are many endings to Bleak House, and many plots.

In short, this is a grand book amongst grand books, recommended for anyone who wants a challenging book to tackle. It gets marked down only because it needs a different attitude to reading than what one would normally expect, But I wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone who wants to think as well as read.


9/10

First words: London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill. Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snowflakes—gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun. Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses, scarcely better; splashed to their very blinkers. Foot passengers, jostling one another’s umbrellas in a general infection of ill temper, and losing their foot-hold at street-corners, where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke (if this day ever broke), adding new deposits to the crust upon crust of mud, sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement, and accumulating at compound interest.

Last words: “I did not know that; I am not certain that I know it now. But I know that my dearest little pets are very pretty, and that my darling is very beautiful, and that my husband is very handsome, and that my guardian has the brightest and most benevolent face that ever was seen, and that they can very well do without much beauty in me—even supposing—.”

Whew! I dunno what I'll read next.

Number twenty is down.

REVIEW: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century Part One: 1910, "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" by Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill et al



I have to admit that reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is hard going. Not because of any particular density of the text, but because this is a very violent comic. Admittedly, I have read a number of violent comics, particularly manga, but this one...only the story, and the fact that Alan Moore (of Watchmen and V for Vendetta fame) keeps drawing me in, and even then...

It is twelve years since the Martian invasion detailed at the end of the previous League volume. Only Mina and Allan Quatermain (rejuvenated and masquerading as his son) survive from the original League, with Captain Nemo having exiled himself to Lincoln Island, and Hyde and Griffin dead. Nemo himself is dying, and bequeaths command of the Nautilus to his 15-year old daughter, Janni Dakkar. She refuses, and flees Lincoln Island to make her own way in life. Meanwhile, Carnacki, a new member of the League, is having troublesome dreams of death, destruction, and a mysterious cult. And a man called Jack MacHeath arrives back in London with sinister designs on it's ladies of the night, finishing work that he started two decades ago...

The storyline, while intriguing, and involving concepts of predestination and fate, seems a little too short. This is probably because it is the first part of a trilogy under the 'Century' banner, with later, additional issues being published in April or May during the next couple of years. That being said, Janni Dakkar's arc is tragic, and the confrontation with the cult Carnacki saw leads to unexpected consequences that will affect later issues. This volume ends on a sardonic note...with a song that makes Always Look on the Bright Side of Life to be the epitome of good taste. The main story is accompanied by the first part of a bizarre short story, but one that adds a little to the characters' stories, particularly Quatermain and Mina's pathos at their immortality.

The artwork is up to Kevin O'Neill's usual standard, mixing the beautiful with the ugly. But I get the feeling that he relishes drawing violent scenes, particularly those towards the end. I dunno whether it is deliberately designed to repulse us, to be unflinchingly violent to repulse us against it, or simply to show off and enjoy it. I don't know.

In any case, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is not for kids. It is certainly not for the faint-hearted. But if you enjoy seeing literary characters both famous and obscure running around in what is admittedly a good yarn, then you could do worse, but I am not sure that reading it will keep you in unbearable anticipation for the next installment when it comes around next year.


7/10

First words: "Fraters and sorors..."

Last words: (Sung) "...by monstrous deeds!"

Yeesh. Trying to find another book to read...

Twenty books in 40 days. That's a little over 3 a week.

When I was a kid between the ages of 10 to 14 I used to gobble a book a day and considering my immaturity I ingested a reasonable amount of understanding. Nevertheless I now use at least a couple of days when I venture into literature. I have not been following this thread but if you have not yet encountered "The Life of Pi" which I have just finished I recommend it. It has a good depth of character, locale, general knowledge of people and animals in a rather fantastic series of events. It won the Booker Prize for 2002.

Probably not going to read that one, at the moment, but I may be reading another shipwreck story, Nation, by Terry Pratchett, one of his few non-Discworld novels.

Number twenty one.

REVIEW: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K Dick




People mostly know this novel as the one the famous cyberpunk movie Blade Runner was based upon, and, indeed, the copy I read had a cover based on a Blade Runner movie poster, and had Blade Runner on the front cover, with "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? filmed as" in small letters next to the logo. In reading this, although I have tried as hard as possible not to draw comparisons between the film, and the novel it was based on, but there will be comparisons, so be warned.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is set next Sunday AD (well, 2021 in this edition, 1992 in earlier editions), after nuclear holocaust has wiped out most animal life on Earth. Human and what little animal life still remains is continually threatened by fallout. Emigration to other worlds is encouraged, albeit for mentally sufficient people, and for those who remain, living animals has become the ultimate status symbol of all. Android bounty hunter Rick Deckard has been keeping an electric sheep ever since his real one died of tetanus. He accepts an assignment to 'retire' six androids, who have escaped to Earth, in order to get money to buy a new animal.

Dick's world is a bizarre one. Two things not in the movie that have an unusual quirky flavour are the mood organs and the empathy boxes. The mood organ is a kind of device which alters, artficially, the mood of the user, while the empathy boxes link people to an unfortunate man called Mercer, helping program empathy into them. Ironically, although they only affect humans, it shows that humans and androids (like in the film, though, they are better called 'bioroids', that is, biological robots) are starting to converge.

The characters vary, with Rick Deckard being a far more interesting character in this novel than in the film, along with Rachael, called Rachael Rosen, who comes out of this less like a damsel in existential distress and more like...well, I won't spoil it.

But incidents that are unique to the novel also expand on its themes. Rick overtly goes over an existential crisis, due to manipulation, starting to think that he may be an android. In fact, the themes of Do Androids...? and Blade Runner are all about what it means to be human, and where does one draw the line. And about technology dehumanising people.

That being said, as a novel, Do Androids...? is only moderately enjoyable. There are certainly many elements better than the film, but there are elements that the film does better.


7.5/10

First words: A merry surge of electricity piped by automatic alarm from the mood organ beside his bed awakened Rick Deckard. Surprised- it always surprised him to find himself awake without any prior notice- he rose from the bed, stood up in his multicoloured pyjamas, and stretched. Now, in her bed, his wife Iran opened her gray, unmerry eyes, blinked, then groaned and shut her eyes again.

Last words: And, feeling better, she fixed herself at last a cup of black, hot coffee.

What I got (and still get) out of watching Blade Runner over and over is that to be human we should not be a Deckard who blows away two women because he is told or paid to do so but to be more like Roy Batty
who as his final act in an effort to redeem himself rises up and becomes "more human than human" by saving
Deckard's life.

I have yet to read the book.

He blows away Pris, BUT he finds himself empathising with the androids after the equivalent of Zhora gets shot by another bounty hunter. Here's a spoiler. Rachel actually tries to manipulate Deckard out of android killing, but afterwards, she deliberately kills the goat he bought with the proceeds. And Batty (or rather, Baty in the novel) is far less sympathetic. Pris looks like Rachel, and deliberately tortures a spider, freaking out the novel's equivalent of JF Sebastian, who has just found the spider.

OK You have whet my appetite, but no more spoilers.....I think I'll read it
this week now that I am on furlough from work...

Twenty-two down now.

REVIEW: Grendel by John Gardner




After the disappointment of Beowulf, I had to admit that I didn't have high hopes for Grendel, a book that tells the other side of the story, about Beowulf's erstwhile nemesis. However, after finishing the novel, I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised. Grendel is what Beowulf should have been, as far as I am concerned. Of course, the fact that Grendel is a modern book might have something to do with it, but I digress.

Grendel tells the story of the life of Grendel, a monster who, upon finding the outside world, begins to explore it, only to start finding that reality, as far as he is concerned, is senseless. As Grendel witnesses the rise in power of Hrothgar amongst the Danes, and encounters a fatalistic dragon, and hearing the shaping power of stories, he begins walking down a path of violence that will eventually lead to his fateful encounter with Beowulf.

One thing that Grendel and Beowulf share is a poetic description of the story. Grendel abounds with colourful metaphors and descriptions, presumably designed to evoke the original Anglo-Saxon of the Beowulf poem. However, Grendel is by far a more interesting read, as we see a soul, tortured by philosophy and existence, trying to make sense of a world that seems utterly meaningless, and against him.

Interestingly, we see different perspectives on various characters. Grendel's mother is portrayed as an insensate, but protective monster. Unferth is revealed to be a warrior who tried to fight Grendel, Hrothgar having had a run-in with Grendel well before Grendel's raids, and a dragon, who is implied to be Beowulf's final nemesis from the original poem.

If you know anything about the original poem, you know how Grendel will end. It is a sad story, but, interestingly enough, filled with philosophy. Unlike Atlas Shrugged, however, although the philosophy is shoved into one's face, it is done for a fairly good period of time (the novel is quite short), and it is done appropriately, through a character trying to make sense of the world.

My major complaint is that it is a little too short for a novel. But for those who like Beowulf, I wholeheartedly recommend it.


8.75/10

First words: The old ram stands looking down over rockslides, stupidly triumphant. I blink. I stare in horror. 'Scat' I hiss. 'Go back to your cave, go back to your cowshed- whatever.' He cocks his head like an elderly, slow-witted king, considers the angles, decides to ignore me. I stamp. I hammer the ground with my fists. I hurl a skull-size stone at him. He will not budge. I shake my two hairy fists at the sky and I let out a howl so unspeakable that the water at my feet turns sudden ice and even I myself am left uneasy. But the ram stays; the season is upon us. And so begins the twelfth year of my idiotic war.

Last words: 'Poor Grendel's had an accident,' I whisper. 'So may you all'

Next one probably will be Nation by Terry Pratchett.