Haul of Books 2010: Stuff For Me v.9
Most of the books that have arrived at my doorstep in the last couple weeks have been for an independent study I am taking over the summer on Caribbean literature. A good portion are science fiction, but some aren’t, and the books below are in the latter category. Should be a very interesting summer for me. Here’s the image (after the fold):And here are the descriptions, from left to right, top to bottom (taken from Amazon.com): 1. The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat We meet him late in life: a quiet man, a good father and husband, a fixture in his Brooklyn neighborhood, a landlord and barber with a terrifying scar across his face. As the book unfolds, moving seamlessly between Haiti in the 1960s and New York City today, we enter the lives of those around him, and learn that he has also kept a vital, dangerous secret. Edwidge Danticat’s brilliant exploration of the “dew breaker”–or torturer–s an unforgettable story of love, remorse, and hope; of personal and political rebellions; and of the compromises we make to move beyond the most intimate brushes with history. It firmly establishes her as one of America’s most essential writers. 2. Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell Twelve-year-old Beka Lamb lives in Belize City, “a relatively tolerant town” where people with their roots in Africa, the West Indies, Central America, Europe, North America, Asia, and other places, “lived in a kind of harmony. In three centuries, miscegenation, like logwood, had produced all shades of black and brown, not grey or purple or violet.” Beka knows her family’s history from Gran who tells of “befo’ time,” when they were slaves, and now, when Beka can win an essay contest at the Convent school: “Befo’ time… Beka would never have won that contest… But things can change fi true.” And change they do. Before she won the essay contest, Beka’s days were filled with family, domestic work, food, school, neighbors, politics, hurricanes, and dreaming with her best friend, fourteen-year-old Toycie. Before the contest, Sundays were the days she and Toycie walked Beka’s baby brother through the rich neighborhoods to the seashore and planned the redecorating they would do when they owned the houses they passed, the days Beka waited patiently while Toycie talked to her boyfriend. Before the contest, Beka lied, got caught, got punished, and lied again. Before the contest, Toycie was still alive. 3. Ways of Sunlight by Sam Selvon The master-storyteller turns his pen to rural village life with Ways of Sunlight in Trinidad: gossip and rivalry between village washerwomen; toiling cane-cutters reaping their harvest; superstitious old Ma Procop protecting the fruit of her Mango tree with magic. With equal wit and sensitivity, he reflects the depression of hard times in London, where people live in cold, damp basements, hustling for survival. 4. Crick Crack, Monkey by Merle Hodge A revealing novel of childhood about Tee who is being made socially acceptable by her aunt so that she can cope with the caste system of Trinidad. 5. Myal by Erna Brodber I actually have no idea what this is about. No information on Amazon.com and the back cover only talks about the author. 6. Buxton Spice by Oonya Kempadoo Back in print: an extraordinary first novel by “a writer to watch and to enjoy.”* Told in the voice of a girl as she moves from childhood into adolescence, Buxton Spice is the story the town of Tamarind Grove: its eccentric families, its sweeping joys, and its sudden tragedies. The novel brings to life 1970s Guyana—a world at a cultural and political crossroads—and perfectly captures a child”s keen observations, sense of wonder, and the growing complexity of consciousness that marks the passage from innocence to experience. 7. In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming George Lamming’s “In the Castle of My Skin” skilfully depicts the Barbadian psyche. Set against the backdrop of the 1930s riots which helped to pave the way for Independence and the modern Barbados, through the eyes of a young boy, Lamming portrays the social, racial, political and urban struggles with which Barbados continues to grapple even with some thirty-three years of Political Independence from Britain. Required reading for all Caribbean people. The novel also offers non-Barbadians and non-Caribbean people insight into the modern social history of Barbados and the Caribbean. A writer of the people one is back again in the pages of Huckleberry Finn_ the fundamental book of civilisation Mr Lamming captures the myth-making and myth-dissolving mind of childhood. Anything sound interesting to you? These are pretty old, so maybe you’ve already read a few of them. If so, let me know what you thought.
Science Fiction Criticism: A Necessary “Evil”?
What is the value of science fiction criticism, both in its literary form and as a medium used by the science fiction community to dig into the good and the bad of the genre? If you buy Kyle Brady’s argument, its value is a negative number. Back in March of 2010, Brady wrote an article on True/Slant about the damage criticism is doing to the science fiction genre. Unfortunately, it seems as if Brady missed the point of criticism and its value within the genre community. Without criticism there is only praise, and when praise dominates the market, nothing has any value; you really don’t have to look much further than YouTube or Amazon.com to understand why praise without criticism fades into the background and contains no value. Brady seems to think that criticism–specifically, harsh criticism–is potentially catastrophic, namely because it supposedly removes the value from “undying love and devotion” to the genre. The more critical and harsh certain blogs have become–he cites io9 as a prime example–the faster the value of love and devotion decreases–to the point that said admiration fades from the background, leaving the genre with an empty hole. I don’t buy this argument, primarily because there is also so much meaningless admiration and praise flooding the Internet that any blog or news avenue trying to pay lip service to said admiration is really adding nothing to the conversation. What exactly do I contribute to the fans of Battlestar Galactica by writing about why I love Battlestar Galactica? I still write about it, but it’s more for myself than for the fans of the show or for people who’ve never seen it. My admiration of BSG is essentially an empty gesture, except to me. Criticism, however, does add to the conversation, even if it is nitpicky. Why? Because to look at science fiction through a critical lens opens a dialogue about what is good and bad about genre, what works and doesn’t work, and so on, which brings the community at large to the forefront, where they can question and demand better from the people who produce the things they love.In fact, I’d argue that we’ve become too nice in the science fiction community, giving so much space to the blindly devotional and not enough space to the deep thinkers. A prime example of this, I think, is Avatar, which Brady cites as an example of his argument.Of all the movies you could bring to the conversation, Cameron’s “masterpiece” is probably the one film that most deserved what it got from its critics and detractors. Here is a film with an absurdly large budget and also the most amazing visuals ever put into a film–so amazing, in fact, that they’ve already begun changing how we make movies. But, for all that–all the money spent ($200-310 million, depending where you look)–it also has the most derivative story ever conceived for a major motion picture–so derivative, in fact, that it is almost painful. That’s the problem with Avatar, and a point that Brady misses when he tries to indicate that all fiction and movies are derivative (they are, but that’s another argument). It’s not that Avatar is a derivative movie, it’s that it is a derivative movie that knows it is one, and that anyone who saw it or heard about it knew from the start. This is not good storytelling, but lazy storytelling. The fact that most of the film’s budget was spent on the visual effects is painfully obvious in the story. At least when Cameron tried to retell Titanic, he did so by adding something to it, by taking a story we already knew and creating unique, emotionally-engaging characters to spice things up (yes, I’ll admit that as much as I hate on Titanic, I do think it’s a good movie). Avatar was panned because those of us who write about the genre and were supposed to make up Cameron’s core audience expected more from the man who gave us Aliens, The Abyss, and so on. Cameron is a director who knows how to merge beautiful visuals with strong stories and characters, and the idea that he could fail so miserably to deliver anything other than a giant special effects test was a disappointment to pretty much all of us. The criticism was necessary, because otherwise we’re asking for more of this kind of garbage.Criticism isn’t ruining science fiction; it’s making it better. Without criticism, the genre can’t grow. Devote yourself to your television shows, yes, but understand the flaws and let people know about it. We are the audience. If we want better, we have to show it. Battlestar Galactica, overall, is one of the best science fiction television shows to ever play on our screens, and if we ever hope to have more shows that take character and narrative depth as seriously as Ron D. Moore and his league of writers did, then we have to look at the rest of the genre and make out opinions known, even if they’re negative. Science fiction had to earn the following it has today, and it didn’t get to where it is now by cutting out the criticism. Look back through the history of the genre and you will see all manner of harsh criticism against the genre from people outside of it. Without that, the genre never would have grown and become what it is today: one of the biggest genres in the history of the narrative storytelling. If that isn’t support for the value of criticism, then I don’t know what is.
Haul of Books 2010: Stuff For Me v.8
I only have a few more pictures left before hitting a long wall of silence on this feature. I don’t buy books terribly often, just in large quantities, and I don’t expect to add many more books to my library in the next few months. This volume involves some books I discovered a week or so ago at Books-a-Million, some stuff I bought for an independent study I’m working on, some things I won, and some things I discovered at the Friends of the Library book sale (the second one I’ve gone to, though I didn’t buy as much this time). So, here’s the picture:And the books are, from left to right, top to bottom (descriptions taken from Amazon.com and Wyrm Publishing): 1. Tides of the New Worlds by Tobias S. Buckell (signed limited edition; independent study) Caribbean born novelist Tobias Buckell established himself as a gifted new voice in science fiction with his stunning first novel Crystal Rain. Now, in his first collection, Buckell demonstrates his strengths in the short form, offering readers a collection of stories that are compelling, smart, wonderfully imagined, and entertaining. Tides from the New Worlds contains 19 stories that range from multicultural science fiction to magical realism, some in print for the first time. Table of Contents: * Fish Merchant * Anakoinosis * Aerophilia * In The Heart of Kalikuata * The Shackles of Freedom (with Mike Resnick) * Shoah Sry (with Ilsa Bick) * Her * In Orbite Medievali * Four Eyes * Trinkets * Spurn Babylon * Death’s Dreadlocks * Smooth Talking * Tides * Something In The Rock * A Green Thumb * All Her Children Fought * Necahual * Toy Planes 2. Sly Mongoose by Tobias S. Buckell (signed first edition; independent study) Welcome to Chilo, a planet with corrosive rain, crushing pressure, and deadly heat. Fortunately, fourteen-year-old Timas lives in one of the domed cities that float 100,000 feet above the surface, circling near the edge of a monstrous perpetual storm. Above the acidic clouds the temperature and pressure are normal. But to make a living, Timas like many other young men, is lowered to the surface in an armored suit to scavenge what he can. Timas’s life is turned upside down when a strange man crash lands on the city. The newcomer is fleeing an alien intelligence intent on invading the planet and discovering the secret hidden deep inside the perpetual storm—a secret that could lead to interplanetary war. As the invaded cities fall silent one by one, Chilo’s citizens must race against time to stop the enemy. And Timas will find out what kind of man he has become in the harsh conditions of Chilo’s surface. 3. Ragamuffin by Tobias S. Buckell (signed first edition; independent study) The Benevolent Satrapy rule an empire of forty-eight worlds, linked by thousands of wormholes strung throughout the galaxy. Human beings, while technically “free,” mostly skulk around the fringes of the Satrapy, struggling to get by. The secretive alien Satraps tightly restrict the technological development of the species under their control. Entire worlds have been placed under interdiction, cut off from the rest of the universe. Descended from the islanders of lost Earth, the Ragamuffins are pirates and smugglers, plying the lonely spaceways around a dead wormhole. For years, the Satraps have tolerated the Raga, but no longer. Now they have embarked on a campaign of extermination, determined to wipe out the unruly humans once and for all. But one runaway woman may complicate their plans. Combat enabled, Nashara is more machine than flesh, and she carries inside her a doomsday weapon that could reduce the entire galaxy to chaos. A hunted fugitive, she just wants to get home before she’s forced to destroy civilization—and herself. 4. Crystal Rain by Tobias S. Buckell (signed first edition; independent study) Long ago, so the stories say, the old-fathers came to Nanagada through a worm’s hole in the sky. Looking for a new world to call their own, they brought with them a rich mélange of cultures, religions, and dialects from a far-off planet called Earth. Mighty were the old-fathers, with the power to shape the world to their liking—but that was many generations ago, and what was once known has long been lost. Steamboats and gas-filled blimps now traverse the planet, where people once looked up to see great silver cities in the sky. Like his world, John deBrun has forgotten more than he remembers. Twenty-seven years ago, he washed up onto the shore of Nanagada with no memory of his past. Although he has made a new life for himself among the peaceful islanders, his soul remains haunted by unanswered questions about his own identity. These mysteries take on new urgency when the fearsome Azteca storm over the Wicked High Mountains in search of fresh blood and hearts to feed their cruel, inhuman gods. Nanagada’s only hope lies in a mythical artifact, the Ma Wi Jung, said to be hidden somewhere in the frozen north. And only John deBrun knows the device’s secrets, even if he can’t remember why or how! Crystal Rain is the much-anticipated debut novel by one of science fiction’s newest and most promising talents. 5. Canal Dreams by Iain Banks (book sale) By the author of “The Wasp Factory” and “Walking on Glass”, this book is set in Japan and on the Panama Canal. It concerns a world famous Japanese cellist, who refuses to fly, and as a result finds herself involved in the ominous realm of global “realpolitik”.|Hisako Onoda, world famous cellist, refuses to fly. And so she travels to Europe as a passenger on a tanker bound through the Panama Canal. But Panama is a country whose politics are as volatile as the local freedom fighters. When Hisako’s ship is captured, it is not long before the atmosphere is as flammable as an oxy-acetylene torch, and the tension as sharp as the spike on her cello. CANAL DREAMS is a novel of deceptive simplicity and
Movie Review: Robin Hood
I had high hopes for this addition to the Robin Hood canon. The trailers promised a new take on the folktale and lots of action. And it gives you a bit of both, but it does so with a lackluster plot, poor character development, and some uneven acting. Consider this my short review, because everything after the movie poster will contain spoilers. Robin Hood is actually a prequel. You wouldn’t know from the trailers, though. In fact, my friend and I didn’t know it was a prequel until the end of the movie. It takes place during the Crusades. King Richard the Lionheart has been waging war for ten years while his brother, Prince John, and his mother, are taking care of the kingdom in England. Robin Longstride (a.k.a. Robin Hood) is an ordinary archer in King Richard’s army who, along with his companions, has fallen out of favor with the King. When King Richard is killed by an arrow, Robin and his companions make an escape for England, masquerading as knights to report the news back to Prince John (now the King). John, however, is not the King everyone wants him to be and plots from France to take over England have the English turning against the King and their fellow countrymen. Robin will have to unite the people before the King and the French destroy everything.Robin Hood had potential. The concept was a good one, the possibility of good character development was there, and returning to this franchise was a good chance to show some beautiful landscapes. The film succeeds in only the last of these possibilities. Visually, Robin Hood is gorgeous. The costumes look wonderful, even when they’re dirty, and the landscapes and cinematography are stunning. I am surprised that there are still so many places in the world that have barely been touched by humans, and even more surprised that some of these places still look unfamiliar. The rest of the movie, however, is loaded with problems. The cast is a mixed bag. Russell Crowe is flat and lifeless, which clashes with the often humorous secondary characters (Little John, Will Scarlet, Marion, and so on). Other characters either have no screen time whatsoever, but yet are important to the plot, or are portrayed as stereotypes. Prince John is your typical stuck up rich royalty who knows sod all about being King; if they were going to update Robin Hood’s story, they could have made John less of a petulant child–it seemed like they were drawing too much on the Disney animated feature from decades back. Most of the clergy are equally typical, which is probably true, but still lazy storytelling. The best characters are actually the second characters; the actors that play Little John, Will Scarlet, and so on all seem to have wonderful chemistry, and their on-screen antics make for a lot of laughs. If only more of this chemistry could have existed between other actors. Character development, unfortunately also takes a hit. This is primarily due to the plot, which felt rushed in the last three quarters of the movie. Characters magically develop skills that they didn’t seem to have before. Marion, for example, becomes a warrior woman in the end, which is laughable not because she’s a woman, but because she is never displayed as being warrior-like–stern and collected does not equal woman knight. Likewise, the strange thieves from the forest, who have been stealing from Marion and her family for months, all of sudden join forces with Marion to fight the French at the end of the movie. Why? No idea. How did they manage to agree on things? Ditto. But it’s integral to the ending, because without a truce with the people of the forest, Robin Hood would never be Robin Hood. And then there’s the last minutes of the movie, in which King John, having managed to unite his people against the French by promising them liberty, reneges on his promise, which sparks little more than a few complaints. The problem? King John had to promise liberty because his people were about to wage war against him. Yet, in the end, no war. How odd that the people just magically give in when they were seconds from fighting the King only a few weeks before. These are just a few of the problems with the movie. Overall, while I have to say that I did enjoy it, I also feel like it could have been so much better. The first three quarters of the movie aren’t bad, and I did really like the angle of the French invasion, but you can’t take a decent start and throw out the cinema cookbook in the end. Endings are as important as beginnings, and if one of them fails, the whole movie goes to crap. This is definitely not one of Ridley Scott’s best. If you plan to see Robin Hood, go to a matinee, or wait for it to hit DVD–maybe they’ll have some extra footage that will clear up some of the illogical plot elements. Directing: 2.50/5Cast: 2.75/5Writing: 1.0/5Visuals: 4.5/5Adaptation: N/A (I don’t know enough about Robin Hood beyond the various other films out there)Overall: 2.6875/5Value: $5.00 (based on a $10.50 max)
Video Found: The Cup of Tears
What do you get when you take ninjas, samurai, spaceships, and slow motion fighting? The Cup of Tears, an indie-made fake trailer for a film that doesn’t actually exist yet. And the trailer has apparently just earned its creator/director a movie deal with Universal. Cool? Let’s hope so. It looks kind of pretty, but pretty doesn’t make a good movie (cough Avatar cough). Here it is for your enjoyment (after the fold): Thanks to SF Signal for finding this one.
Movie Review: How To Train Your Dragon
I’m reviewing this movie pretty late in the game, and that is entirely my fault. To be fair, I’ve been hyping How To Train Your Dragon on my twitter account since seeing it a few weeks back. And now I’m reviewing it on this blog. How To Train Your Dragon is by far one of the best animated films put out by Dreamworks in the company’s history–probably because it is an adaptation of a series of books by Cressida Cowell. It’s a step in the right direction, I think, and hopefully we’ll see more films of this quality from Dreamworks in the future, since most of their films have been rather dreadful in the past. How To Train Your Dragon follows Hiccup, the son of a fierce viking warrior in a viking village plagued by dragon attacks. Hiccup isn’t like everyone else, as if the name didn’t give that away. He’s small, eccentric, an inventor, and everything that a viking is not. His father is ashamed of him and the village views him as a social pariah. When one of his contraptions causes havoc during a dragon attack, Hiccup is sent to dragon training in hopes that it will turn him into a mighty warrior like his father. But Hiccup, however, isn’t a total failure: during the last attack, one of his contraptions snags a rare and unseen species of dragon, and Hiccup sets out to prove once and for all that he’s not the loser everyone thinks he is. Where do I start? How To Train Your Dragon is one of the best films I’ve seen for kids (and adults). It’s adorable, thoroughly enjoyable, and, in a weird way, kind of beautiful, both visually and emotionally. From a narrative perspective, How To Train Your Dragon is predictable, but the way it plays with its cliches is quite humorous. There are a few moments in the film where characters refer to the dragons in RPG language (+5 to armor!), which for a geek like me is hilarious and awesome. The same is true of other elements of the story, such as Hiccup’s developing relationship with Toothless, the rise of the dragon-killer trainees, and so on. Don’t expect a purely original movie here, because this isn’t one of those, but it is a story that knows it’s a cliche and isn’t afraid to make light of that fact. Probably the strongest point of the film is how its characters interact and make you forget that you’re watching something that has been done before (unlike some movies–cough, Avatar, cough). Hiccup is nerdy and lovable and his relationship with Toothless (his dragon) is wonderful and heartwarming. It’s almost impossible to not find the two of them adorable in all the right ways. Even the other characters, from Hiccup’s father (Gerard Butler) to the handicapped Gobber (Craig Ferguson) to Astrid (America Ferrera) and the other trainees, mesh well from start to finish. The characters are typical, yes, but also wonderful for it. This is very much a character-driven movie, and How To Train Your Dragon is all the better for it. If one has to nitpick, probably the things that will bother people who see this film are its minor inconsistencies and some of its cliches. The accents throughout the movie are haphazard. Most of the adults are Scottish, for some odd reason, while all of the younger characters are American. It didn’t bother me as much as it should have, though, perhaps because the story is downright entertaining. Probably most damning is the Father/Son narrative that is painfully transparent and unfortunately very predictable–as I’ve indicated earlier on a broader level. I noticed it while watching, and it makes How To Train Your Dragon just a few strides short of perfect, but I don’t think the obviousness of its plot points detracts from the wonder of the film as a whole. The worst thing about How To Train Your Dragon, though, has nothing to do with the film itself: it has everything to do with Hollywood’s obsession with 3D. Do NOT see How To Train Your Dragon in 3D. It’s not worth the extra $3-$5, not because the movie isn’t worth that, but because 3D is really overrated, too gimmicky for its own good, distracting, and sort of lame. 3D sucks some of the color from the picture, which is terrible when How To Train Your Dragon is full of so much color. It can also take some time to adjust; I found myself somewhat disoriented for the first fifteen minutes before my eyes settled in. There are some cool moments, though, such a when ash particles appear outside of the screen, almost as though they are falling around you, but for the most part, the 3D is plain annoying. Don’t bother. See the movie on a normal screen. In the end, I think How To Train Your Dragon is a must see film for kids and adults alike. If you have a family, take them to see this one. It’s a little dark at times, but I think the adorable characters and the great character development make for a wonderful film that everyone can enjoy. If you haven’t seen it, then you should. It takes the cake as the best Dreamworks film yet to be created and the characters will stay with you for days to come. Plus, the soundtrack is wonderful! I have it on my computer now and it has a lot of wonderful melodies. If you’re a writer, it’s a good soundtrack to write to! Directing: 3.75/5Cast: 4.5/5Writing: 4.0/5Visuals: 4.25/5Adaptation: N/A (I haven’t read the original, so I can’t really make a judgment)Overall: 4.125/5Value: $9.00 (based on a $10.50 max)