Jungle Books

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original art by Michael Whelan

Until today, this blog has only ever had one small mention of Goodreads. I discovered the Goodreads website about the time that I began this blog, but when online retailer Amazon.com took control of Goodreads I abandoned the Goodreads website.

Law of the Book Jungle
I began posting a few reviews of non-fiction books at the Amazon website back in the previous millennium. However, by 2005 I had become disgusted by the effects of Amazon and other mega-corporations. Those megastores were systematically pushing small local bookstores out of business. I have no love for impersonal and homogenized mega-stores.

microstores

I'd rather spend my money in small local bookstores that are owned by people who know and love books. I recently went back to see how Goodreads is doing. Sigh.

Just once in my life I would like to see an example of
1) a small, innovative company that creates something then
2) that something gets bought by some mega-corporation and then
3) that something actually gets improved.

Ya, dream on....

a Goodreads bookshelf

my short "review" of The End of Eternity

Next: Duplicating a mind clone

Reading Disease

Robert Heinlein's bu$ine$$  rules

About a month ago I mentioned "the reading disease" in a blog post that was about how writing can be a disease. Continuing that theme, today I was again reminded of Heinlein's rules for writing and I also saw the following tweet:

source

Do The Math
I suppose you might diagnose me as having a "reading disease", but the evidence might be hard to come by. These days I seldom buy new books. One reason for this is that I already own plenty of great books that I like to read. Another reason is that I have very little interest in most books. I think that Sturgeon's Law needs an update for the current millennium: I'd say that after taking into account inflation,  99% of "science fiction" is crap.

Some Sci Fi can put me to sleep.

First of all, note that I put "science fiction" in quotes. Most of what gets called science fiction (particularly in Hollywood) does not qualify to be included in the genre according to my rather narrow definition. So, I might have a reading disease, but over the years I have become much more selective about what I read.

And as I emphasized in my recent blog post about "writing as a disease", I'm particularly interested in cases where a reading disease progresses to a writing disease. My two favorite science fiction story writers, Isaac Asimov and Jack Vance each produced a huge amount of published writing.

In the Spirit of Festivus

in the Ekcolir Reality
Original cover art by Milton Rosenblatt

For each of these great authors, I find some of their writings to be unreadable. As they say, everyone should have an editor.

In the case of Vance, I just don't even try to read some of his books. A few of these sit on a self beside me right now, but I know I will never open them again. I tried once and fled. I have not been able to stop myself from mentally exploring the hypothesis that sometimes Vance became bored with a story and dropped it. Later, someone, possibly his wife, finished it up and sent it off to the presses. Ew.

Whoa, don't step in that crap!

In the case of Asimov, some of his novels are among my favorites, but when I re-read them, I just skim through the boring parts. Really, someone should do the world a service an re-issue most of his work in a condensed format.

The practice of paying pulp science fiction writers by the word did a whole lot of damage. There should have been special bonuses paid for elegantly written short stories without all the lard.

Live and Let Die

When I was in the first phase of my personal golden age of science fiction and reading every story I could find, I soon started to rein-in my reading disease. This was a natural reaction to the crappy stories I had read. I knew that I could not continue being a science fiction fan unless I learned how to protect myself from all of the horrible stories that got marketed as "science fiction".

in the Ekcolir Reality
original cover art by Walter Popp

About the time that I had this epiphany, 'Live and Let Die' was filling the airways. I went through all of my accumulated science fiction books and ranked them (A, B, C...). The real stinkers I simply threw away. I vowed that I would never buy another "stinker". From that point on, I'd only buy a book after carefully reading a good chunk of it. I spent a lot of time reading books in book stores and not buying them.

Funny Story
Asimov told the story of once being asked by Robert Heinlein how many revisions an Asimov story went through before being submitted for publication. After hearing the answer, Heinlein asked a follow-up question: "You type it twice? Why don't you type it correctly the first time?"

She put it on the market. Original
 cover art by Isaac Paul Rader.

Of course, before computerized word processors became available to authors, it was tempting to only type a story once and then move on. I had to type my senior thesis and believe me, with the painful way I type, there was no way I was going to type out a second draft. White-out was my savior. Asimov also described another factor that helped him learn to limit the amount of story revising: when he started writing his science fiction stories, typing paper was so expensive that he would make the most narrow page margins possible, saving on paper but infuriating editors. There was great motivation to get it right the first time.

Asimov eventually had a good paying day job, but Vance needed to turn out large volumes of story material to support his family, so he wrote at "pulp speed". I don't fault anyone for writing in torrents, but I'm horrified to hear the words "everything I write gets published" coming from an author. I despise the fact that once an author becomes popular and well-known then book publishers know that they can sell any crap that has that author's name on it.

Pulp Speed

I'll read it! I'll read it!
original cover art by Milton Rosenblatt

I have loads of fun reading old stories from the pulp science fiction magazines that helped create the science fiction genre. Lucky for us, many of the old stories are no longer behind copyright walls and we can access them via the internet (example). And of course, Sturgeon was correct: the vast majority of those old stories were really bad and it is no wonder that they were never included in the many anthologies that were put together as a way to share the better stories with a new generation of readers.

Still, I'm not sure I've ever seen a science fiction story that I completely despise. Particularly if someone had fun writing the story or if there is at least one person who enjoyed reading it. Some stories that did entertain me when I was 12 years old are painful to read now. No matter how bad the story, somewhere there is somebody in the throws of their reading disease, someone who is ready and willing to read it.

Next: in anticipation of the X-Files 2016 miniseries.

visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers

Sapient Books

the Demon Princes novels

In an article called "Centireading force: why reading a book 100 times is a great idea" by Stephen Marche, he wrote:

"books pick us, rather than the other way around" -Stephen Marche

Marche uses the term "centireading" to refer to having read a book more than 100 times (in another Reality it could be hectareading).

Marche notes: "There is a definite affinity between centireading and madness".

Alastor Cluster series

The first novel written by Jack Vance that I read was Trullion: Alastor 2262. I've never tried to count how many times I've read that book, but it might well be about 100.

In addition to the Alastor Cluster series, I've also often re-read the books in Vance's Demon Princes series and the Cadwal Chronicles series.

Humor
Apparently P. G. Wodehouse was one of Vance's favorite authors. Stephen March describes The Inimitable Jeeves as one of the two books that he has read 100 times.

What kinds of books might provoke someone to read them 100 times? Books that are playful and full of humor probably stand a much better chance of lasting through 100 readings than grim books that take themselves too seriously.

Vance's books are full of jokes, pranks and amusing prose even when the protagonists are struggling through difficult times.

the Cadwal Chronicles

Probably the most well-known example is in The Face when our hero, Gersen, first does battle with a gang of thugs across hundreds of pages and hundreds of light years of space. Finally, Gersen poisons the Demon Prince known as  Lens Larque. Knowing he is about to die, with is last breath,  Larque asks Gersen to complete his last great prank. Gersen says "no", allows Larque to die an agonizing death and then Gersen decides to go ahead and complete Larque's last great trick: turning the moon of planet Methel into a giant leering sculpture of Larque's face.

Books That Grab You
I'm intrigued by the idea that a book could literally select its reader. Stephen Marche described books that one reads 100 times as being like family. Here are four  examples of times when I can easily imagine that a book selected me.....

The Gods Themselves
Perhaps the first science fiction book that I ever read was The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov. I was in grade school when I discovered this book on the shelf at my local library. As a child of the television era, I don't think it had ever really occurred to me that such a thing as a hard-bound science fiction novel might exist and be available in libraries. Somehow, I was called to the small shelf where the selection of Sci Fi books waited.

Trullion

cover art by Jasper Schreurs

I'd been introduced to Jack Vance in English class during my first semester in college. During the break between semesters I was looking through a pile of books at a discount store. All those books had their covers ripped off. Somehow, from deep down in the bin, a woeful copy of Trullion: Alastor 2262 called out and attracted my attention before it was carted off to the dump.

Star King
When I was in graduate school I was looking through the Sci Fi section of a book store. I was familiar with the Alastor Cluster series, but unaware of the existence of the Demon Princes series.  This was about the time when the last novel in the series was published. I was lucky enough to be able to read the early books in the series without having to wait long for the last one.

Araminta Station

art by Rudolf Eizenhöfer

I was busy working when the first book in the Cadwal Chronicles came out and I did not even notice that Vance had begun a new series. However, my wife knew well my practice of re-reading (endlessly) the books in the Alastor Cluster and Demon Prices series, so she bought me a hard-cover copy of Araminta Station.

Assignment Nor'Dyren

1 More
For completeness, I need to mention one more book that I endlessly re-read: Assignment Nor'Dyren. This is a novel that along with Solaris really brought home for me the idea of a planet as a living being.

Anticipation
Vance seemed to enjoy crafting delicious moments of "tragic drama" in which an unsuspecting character is about to have their entire world come crashing down around him.

In Trullion, Vance introduces the mysterious Ryl Shermatz, who describes himself as a wandering journalist. In fact, Shermatz is the absolute ruler of Alastor Cluster (the Connatic), a man who enjoys secretly moving among his subjects without being recognized. In the scene where Shermatz is first introduced to Vance's readers, he is sharing a quiet evening of conversation with Akadie the mentor. Akadie is in an exulted mood, glad that he is now free of the $30,000,000 ransom money that he was assigned to collect, having just handed it off to the blackmailer's messenger that afternoon.

other cover art

However, while they talk, Shermatz is patiently waiting for Akadie and the people of Trullion to learn that the space pirate Bandolio had been captured. Both Glinnes (Akadie's friend and the protagonist of the story) and Shermatz must coldly allow suspicion to fall on Akadie (who is thrown in jail) until the true identity of Bandolio's local accomplice on planet Trullion can be determined.

Near the start of the Alastor Cluster series,  readers are told that, "When in doubt, do nothing" is one of the Connatic's favorite sayings. Shermatz lets Akadie sit in jail until Glinnes tips his hand (he has found the $30,000,000 that Akadie is accused of stealing; in locker #42 at the local spaceport) and shares with Shermatz evidence of Akadie's innocence. At that point, Shermatz assumes another of his cover identities: Over-Inspector in the Whelm, the Connatic's military service. In the role of Over-Inspector, Shermatz can quickly arrange for Akadie's release from jail. It is only in the last book in the series (Wyst: Alastor 1716) that Vance gives readers enough clues to convince us that Shermatz is actually the Connatic. Upon re-reading Trullion we can fully enjoy Vance's literary construct and understand fine points such as why Shermatz allows Glinnes to keep the $30,000,000 in ransom money.

For Araminta Station, Vance crafted two linked scenes that take place during formal dinners, one at Clattuc House and one at Wook House. The first of these dinners comes 30 pages into the novel at the time in his life when Glawen comes of age. Glawen Clattuc's relatives are shown anxiously waiting to observe his reaction when his Status Index (SI) is announced by House Master Fratano at dinner on Glawen's 16th birthday. A rumor has spread suggesting that Glawen's SI will be so bad that he will have no chance of winning one of the numerically-limited positions for adult family members within Clattuc House. "All now awaited the moment when Fratano's announcement would blast Glawen's life..." However, as the protagonist, and with the help of several turns of good luck, Glawen ultimately survives this "scare" and another dastardly attempt to "roll him out of the House"; eventually he joins the ranks of Clattuc House with full Agency Status.

The second dinner comes 500 pages and 5 years later. Glawen has just returned to Araminta Station after completing a dangerous police investigation mission off of Cadwal on the distant planet Tassadero. Having been betrayed by Kirdy Wook and left for dead on Tassadero, Glawen has the pleasure of sitting down to dinner across the table from Kirdy. The moment is described as "high drama" by Bodwyn Wook, Glawen's supervisor in the Cadwal police force. Kirdy has previously assured Bodwyn that Glawen is dead, forestalling a rescue mission that would have otherwise been sent to Tassadero. When Kirdy noticed Glawen across the Wook formal dinning table, his smile disappears, his shoulders sag and he looks down. Bodwyn Wook comments to Glawen that Kirdy's reaction reveals, "pure and unabashed guilt".

In both the Alastor Cluster series and the Cadwal Chronicles, Vance's protagonists must live among family and friends who harbor dark secrets and who hatch horrific plots. The reader does not know the true nature and extent of those plots until the end of the story, but Vance is adept at showing us the character flaws of the evil doers and throwing them into conflict with the protagonist right from the earliest chapters. Less well written books would not support re-reading after the mysteries have been revealed, but knowing the identities of those who will ultimately come into mortal conflict with the protagonists allows the "centireader" to more fully experience and enjoy the journey of discovery, danger and adventure that Vance imagined for his protagonists.

Vance's protagonists make use of skill and good luck to survive their many adventures during which they struggle through dangerous circumstances. In The Face, Vance provided readers with a dramatic scene on the world Dar Sai that is both amusing and deadly.

After their romp among the Chailles
Jerdian takes a call from Gersen

After a magical night under the moon Mirassou, in the shadows of the Chailles, Jerdian Chanseth has fallen in love with Gersen. However, Gersen has come to Dar Sai in order to find and kill demon prince Lens Larque. He can't allow himself to be distracted by the "charming, stimulating and endearing" Jerdian.....well, not too much, anyway. In order to complete his mission, Gersen must participate in a game of Hadaul, with Jerdian among the spectators. Gersen has previously presented himself as a banker, and when he steps onto the robles at the start of the game, Jerdian watches "in total bewilderment".

Gersen battles Bel Ruk (source)

Vance describes Hadaul as "between a game and a gang fight". According to Games of the Galaxy by Everette Wright, tricks, crafty betrayal and duplicity are natural elements of Hadal. However, Gersen is skilled in hand-to-hand fighting and he manages to win the game against a dozen experienced Hadal players of Dar Sai. He is then challenged to a knife fight by Lens Larque's henchman, Bel Ruk. Jerdian must watch in "fascinated horror, with her heart in her throat."....Gersen is injured but he ultimately prevails, killing his adversary, Bel Ruk.

Jerdian on the planet Dar Sai, as
first seen by Gersen in Serjeuz:
"Delightful and superb,"
thought Gersen. (source)

Vance crafted scenes such as the one described above (with Gersen watching for Jerdian's reaction when she sees him on the robles) knowing full well that readers would not really be wondering if Gersen might be killed. Of course Gersen must survive and go on to vanquish demon prince #5 in the next book of the series. So there is nothing lost by re-readers of The Face who already know the outcomes of Gersen's battles. Knowing the outcomes allows the "centireader" to pay attention to the tricks and pranks of the roblers without being distracted by the life-and-death struggle. The only robler who seems not to be having a good time is the overly-serious Bel Ruk: "but it is not expected that he should".

Trysta and Ekcolir

By re-reading Vance's novels, we can fully appreciate the scenes where Vance has arranged for a character to be waiting patiently, enjoying the relentless unfolding of the inevitable. Only the well-informed reader, such as the "centireader", can fully appreciate how Vance crafted these scenes.

The Exode Trilogy
I recently blogged about the value of viewing the planet Earth as a sentient creature. Long ago, a nanorobotic life form took up residence inside our planet, a form of life that is only marginally interested in primitive creatures like we humans.

If the entire planet can be "animated" by an alien artificial life form then why not smaller objects like books?

Writing about his favorite books, Stephen Marche commented, "I need them close to me".

Contact by Carl Sagan

Previously, I've speculated about how Irhit and others might have guided my course through life, introducing me to particular books and even using time travel technology to bring me back from the dead.

What better way might there be to keep guiding me towards the path I must take then to keep me surrounded by certain books, particularly if those book had the power to make me read them 100 times? Carl Sagan wrote about having the sensation of hearing his parent's voices after they had died.

source

The human brain is designed to adopt what Dennett called the intentional stance, and we apply it even towards inanimate objects. But what if a book were given a slight boost, a nanorobotic endosymbiont that that could literally communicate directly with your brain?

Related Reading: the Book of the Pelorix Rhode.

Next: Memories from the future....can a religion based on science fiction save humanity and allow us to have a future among the stars?

An alternate Alastor Cluster

Reading Science Fiction

I suspect that I've spent more hours reading science fiction stories by Jack Vance than the stories of any other author. For me, time spent reading Asimov's science fiction probably ranks second behind reading Vance. However, I do not spend very much time reading fiction. These days I get more enjoyment from writing science fiction than reading it. I find it amusing that Vance does not like to talk about reading the science fiction stories of other authors. I think I can guess why.

The science fiction that I write has been hugely influenced by both Vance an Asimov. I've mentioned the science fiction stories of Vance in about 20 percent of the posts to this blog. Asimov gets mentioned by me in more than twice as many blog posts because Asimov was trained as a scientist and his wide-ranging scientific interests and hard science fiction ideas appeal to me. For me, Vance is less of interest from a scientific perspective, but much more so for his writing style. Asimov was very open and direct about confessing to the fact that he was not a out to impress anyone with stylistic flair. Once I know the plot of an Asimov story there is usually not much value in re-reading it. In contrast, I can endless re-read Vance's stories simply to enjoy his writing style.

Asimov wrote about growing up reading science fiction stories that were published in magazines and his early work was all published in that format. The image to the left shows a Galaxy cover illustration for Vance's story Star King. Here is how Vance described Hildemar Dasce: "the strangest human being of Gersen's experience"..."His head was tall and round with a ruff of red hair...he had stained his face and neck a bright red, excepting only his cheeks which were balls of bright chalk-blue"..."at some stage in his career...his eyelids had been cut away". 1963 was when I was learning to read and years before I had even become aware of the existence of published science fiction. The plot of Star King involves the idea that people ("locators") have to fly exploration ships out into the galaxy in order to find new worlds. For example, the world of the Dryads is discovered by a locator named Lugo Teehalt. Here in 2013 we are using telescopes to find exoplanets, so the entire structure of Star King might seem antiquated, but Vance's prose makes the story worth reading even if the "future science" imagined by Vance has not aged well.

When I was growing up I first became aware of science fiction by watching television. Finally one day I discovered the science fiction section of the local library and from that point on I became increasingly disinterested in most science fiction that ends up on television and in film. I prefer science fiction novels over short stories and I've never bought a science fiction magazine. However, I was introduced to Jack Vance through his short story The Moon Moth.

source

As shown in the image above,  the human brain retains some forms of plasticity into young adulthood (see also). Is there a critical period in the mid-20s after which it is increasingly difficult for humans to change their personality and literary preferences? For me, my tastes in science fiction have not changed much since I was in my 20s. Before I was 25 I enjoyed looking for new science fiction authors...I did not always enjoy the work of each new author that I sampled, but I was willing to keep looking for good ones. In my late 20s I eventually gave up trying...I was no longer really interested in finding new varieties of science fiction to read. Since that time, I've been satisfied to simply stick with the science fiction that has been written by my favorite authors. Over the years I've occasionally tried to pick up and read the work of newer science fiction authors, but I've failed to find their work worth reading. I can imagine that for a craftsman like Vance it might be very painful to even try to read most published science fiction. To some extent, my discovery and appreciation for the science fiction stories of masters like Vance and Asimov contributed to my disinterest in lesser science fiction authors. Why should I make an effort to read the work of new science fiction authors (who are likely to not be very good) when I can simple keep reading my favorite authors?

source

I'm willing to admit that part of my poor reading habits are due to my narrow tastes and the fact that this old dog (me) can't learn new tricks (or appreciation of new science fiction authors). However, I think there were two other major forces at work shaping my reading habits...one being the rise of the mega-bookstore companies. When I was young there were quirky little bookstores in every college town where nerdy employees knew the difference between science fiction and fantasy and where you could find an amazing diversity of science fiction books...books that were on the shelf because another lover of science fiction, an employee in the store, made sure to share them with me. When the mega-bookstore companies started taking over it became common to have a single section in the mega-bookstores where science fiction and fantasy novels were mixed together. The mega-bookstore employees typically knew nothing about science fiction and I doubt if they knew the difference between science fiction and fantasy. Their idea of "good science fiction" seemed to be limited to the works of a few authors that some drone at corporate headquarters decided to buy in bulk and force down the throats of readers by flooding the shelves with just those books.

The other change in science fiction that was external to my subjective preferences was the entry into science fiction of authors who wanted to profit from the growing popularity of the science fiction genre. In the early days of SciFi, people wrote science fiction for the love of the genre, with $$$ not being involved. Rather than write stories to advance the genre, for example, by creating interesting adventure stories, a newer generation of authors found that they could get published by slapping together dystopic misadventure stories. My generation grew up with the fun of science fiction adventure, going where no man had gone before. The next generation of science fiction was dominated by anti-science fiction authors who tried to take readers to miserable places where no sane person would ever want to go. The writing and ideas were ugly, uninteresting, often sickeningly perverse and designed to sell because of their "realism", grittiness or shock value. My response to the "new wave": NO SALE. Maybe things will come full cycle and science fiction will return to sanity. With mega-bookstores removed from the equation the distance between science fiction authors and readers can decrease and we will once again be able to discover and patronize the authors who we enjoy, not the authors who are promoted by corporate "decision makers" who have highly questionable judgement about what constitutes good science fiction.

another list

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