Summer Reading: Sci-fi Adventure

Summer reading recap: I set goals for this summer to 
-  re-read an old favorite
-  read a sci-fi/fantasy adventure
- a nonfiction memoir
- several short stories or poems
- the first in a new series
-  a spiritual growth devotional

 Science-Fiction: The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

Terry Pratchett has long been one of my favorite authors. His hilarious, satirical (and yet surprisingly moving at times) Discworld series is nearly 40 books long and spans a 30-year writing career. The series is strictly fantasy, involving wizards (thought not very good ones), guards (band of misfits), imps, trolls, etc., all set in a medieval-ish time with plenty of anachronistic inventions and technological advances. Pratchett loves to poke fun at pop culture, history and social norms, yet never with a cruel or demeaning tone. He is very British and very, very funny.

So, when this much more serious sci-fi adventure popped up as the Nook Daily Find a month or so ago, I snapped it up. It isn't Discworld, and it's a co-written piece, so I was very interested to see how how Pratchett's style translated away from anything-goes fantasy to a more technical and serious science-fiction world.

The premise: Earth is discovered to be just one in a countless string of parallel worlds, worlds suddenly accessible through a process called "stepping." With the help of a stepper device, humans can travel East or West to undiscovered, unsettled Earths. Each Earth is unique, in major or minor ways: different climates, different landscapes, different forms of life. No one knows how far out the Long Earth goes. Resources are suddenly endless, and pioneers set out to travel tens of thousands of worlds away and rebuild their lives from scratch.

As the story begins we jump back and forth between several characters and time periods - historic episodes of accidental stepping, the ground-breaking Step Day when the Long Earth is first accessed by the masses, and the introduction of key characters. Monica Jansson is a police officer investigating the apparent suicide of the inventor of the Stepper, and Joshua Valiente is an orphan with the hidden ability to step naturally, without a device. Their lives intersect and then continue on, both vital to this strange new world and the challenges it presents.

I was glad to find that Pratchett's humor and witty wordplay remained intact inside the world created by science-fiction writer Baxter. It's a good combination, creating an even and intriguing journey through time and space. The book keeps a steady pace, building tension slowly. As the end drew near I found myself racing through the last few pages, desperate for a conclusion. A few questions were answered while other vital ones were not, and I ranted and raved at the final and extremely inconclusive paragraphs. There had to be more! Rushing to the internet, I was thrilled to find that a sequel entitled The Long War had arrived on shelves less than a month ago. I purchased it today.

The only complaint I have about The Long Earth is the occasional bad language and that one of the major characters is twice hinted to be a lesbian, even though it has absolutely nothing to do with her character or personality. It is only mentioned in passing, as if to say, "oh look, we're being modern and hip by saying she's gay." Nothing in the story so far had anything to do with her sexuality and therefore it was completely pointless to make that sort of observation. So that's annoying, but at least not big enough of a deal to make the story problematic.

A reviewer of The Long Earth called it "a genuinely thoughtful and entertaining exploration of a profoundly changed universe," and I completely agree. If new worlds were found, would I strike out with the brave beginners? I think I would itch with restlessness knowing all that was out there, waiting to be discovered. Pratchett and Baxter have opened up a new world that I hope will be explored for many more pages and by many more adventurers.

Give up and live

"No one enters eternal life without walking away from his sinful desires and picking up his cross and following Christ. A person’s very life depends on it."
- Andree Seu Peterson, WORLD Magazine blog

In this short, impactful article (read it here), Peterson asks "What would you do to live?" She opens with this example: if you have a severe peanut allergy and know that certain death awaits you after peanut consumption, you won't just ignore the consequences and eat them anyway, will you? You might think it's unfair that your body has imposed this limitation on your life, but you will refrain from eating peanut products if you wish to live.

She continues the article by reflecting on "the things God asks us to give up in order to enter the kingdom of heaven." We are all born with sinful tendencies that coax and fight and seduce us away from Christ. These sinful "allergies" are different for everyone but also fit the same mold: something we long for with all our heart that has deadly results. Peterson uses the example of same-sex attraction while clearly pointing out that those struggling with homosexual desires are not unique - "do we not all have to give up something to enter the kingdom of God?"

 It can be the desires of greed, desires of promiscuity, desires of addiction and over-indulgence, desires of fill-in-the-blank. "It's not fair that you have to struggle with this and be denied what you love!" the alluring voices tell us. "So go ahead and enjoy it!" But those seductive voices never include this vital piece of information: "Enjoy it...even though it's going to kill you!"

Every one of us has something we struggle to hold closer to our hearts than God. Peterson concludes the article by drawing from Luke 3, where person after person comes up to John the Baptist and asks "What must we do?" He tells them what they must give up, what lifestyle or earthly pleasure they must sacrifice in order to enter the kingdom of Heaven. But as seen in the story of the rich young ruler (Matthew 19 and Mark 10), not all are willing to give up and live.

What will we give up to live?

Summer Reading: "Paris in Love" + "Divergent" series

Summer reading recap: I set goals for this summer to re-read an old favorite, read a sci-fi/fantasy adventure, a nonfiction memoir, several short stories or poems, the first in a new series and a spiritual growth devotional. Here are my first two installments: a memoir and the first of a new series.

Nonfiction: Paris in Love: A Memoir by Eloisa James

I received a copy of this memoir for my birthday and found it to be a light, quick read. In 2009 James and her family went on sabbatical to spend a year in Paris soaking up the culture, enjoying the food, and experiencing everyday, non-tourist life in a foreign country.

The book is written in short bursts, nearly all the text taken from the Facebook page and blog that James kept during the year abroad. She shares brief glimpses into her children's struggles and triumphs at a foreign school, her experiences shopping and cooking, their family nights out with friends and rainy days spent in watching familiar movies dubbed with unfamiliar voices. It was an enjoyable read but not particularly meaningful or memorable. I didn't realize that James's other books are romance novels, so some of her thoughts/observations veered a bit too close to the sensual side for my liking, but overall it was a pleasant read. A sweet recording of a year in a beautiful city and the chance to grow closer to family while enjoying the simple pleasures of life.

First in a New Series: Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Distopian fiction is all the rage right now thanks to The Hunger Games, and the Divergent series leapt to the top of bestseller lists last year. My sister picked up a copy earlier this year and wasn't impressed, but then passed it along to my mom, who quite enjoyed it. A friend of mine told me that she disliked the main character but wanted to know what I thought about it, so I finally picked it up and read the first two installments (last book won't be out until October of this year).

The series takes place in a not-too-distant American society where everyone is divided into factions based on their personalities and skills. Factions are chosen when students turn 16, and each faction is based around a virtue that shapes and controls the members' behavior and occupation. The 5 factions are Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent).

Our heroine, Beatrice, is an Abnegation who chooses to become Dauntless after her faction selection results are inconclusive. Most of the first book follows the Dauntless initiation process as Beatrice (who changes her name to the cooler, edgier "Tris") and a group of other teenagers leap off of buildings, fist-fight with each other, and experiment with tattoos and alcohol. Ok, so Tris doesn't drink, but every other teenager does. I think that's what bothers me the most about this book: the "brave and fearless" group spends most of their times getting tattoos, bullying each other, getting drunk and wearing see-through clothing. True bravery is protecting each other at all cost, laying down your own life, giving up what means the most to you. To me this faction really should have been called Reckless, not Dauntless. Later in the book we do realize that there has been corruption, and that the motives and actions of Dauntless used to be purer, but it still seems to be a society mostly based around cheap thrills.

The other thing that got on my nerves was all the kissing. I have nothing against a good love story, bu seriously, people. I know this is Young Adult Fiction, and teenagers like to be all gooey, but this got a little ridiculous. Once Tris and her true love finally admit they like each other, it's non-stop kissing. "Our lips met," "our lips touched," "our lips brushed," "our lips collided" (ouch!). Let's save the kissing until after the world is saved, kids.

The story really got started once our heroes move on from training into the main plot of "Things are not as they should be! We must save the world!" The entire second book deals with Tris and her friends fighting off the evil overlords and bonding together with members of other factions.

A recurring theme in both books is the use of "fear landscapes" by trainers and enemies to make characters face their worst fears in a virtual reality generator. This really got under my skin, but not in a badly written/implausible plot device way. It bothered me because I started thinking about what my landscape would consist of, and that's not a pleasant thought at all. Praise to Roth for very effective writing there, even though it's something I'd prefer not to consider in reality.

I definitely felt that the story improved as it progressed. There are interesting twists to the story, compelling characters and well-written action scenes. Being the second book in a trilogy it obviously ends on a cliffhanger, and I'll most likely read the third when it arrives in October.*






*The movie version of this book is already in progress, and IMDB reports that Shailene Woodley had been cast as Tris. Having only seen her as a whiny teenager in The Secret Life of the American Teenager and the George Clooney movie The Descendents, I am not that optimistic.