Wednesday, July 11, 2012

THE FAULT IN OUR STAR (The Age of Miracles, Red Shirts, and Railsea): Given the fact that I've now read everything that China Mieville and Neal Stephenson have ever written, I'm pretty much past the point where I can credibly say I steer clear of sci-fi. And given the fact that I read The Hunger Games and The Fault in our Stars, and that Amazon keeps recommending spa treatments and fragrant soaps to me, I can't really claim to be too old and too male for YA. But I just read, in succession, the three books in the title, and I have thoughts.

Seems like over the last couple of months, everybody was yelling at me to read Karen Thompson Walker's The Age of Miracles. Well, not everybody, but Terry Gross, Amazon recommendations, and Grantland, and I imagine that triangulating from those three sources yields a pretty accurate prediction of my tastes. Turns out that "pretty accurate" is not the same thing as "perfect." Leave aside that the standard YA voice -- that of a teen, or in this case a tween -- is a systemic problem for me, because it seems to limit the range and complexity of the narrative voice. On that, your mileage may vary. The main problem with Miracles is that it seems to be a carefully composed arrangement of unfinished thoughts.

The less-important manifestation of that is in the novel's inconsistent treatment of science. Some phenomena are unexplained, some are explained in painstaking realistic-sounding detail, and some are ascribed obviously nonsensical explanations, plus the book misses some pretty obvious consequences of its central premise. People can accept magical realism in lieu of science, but if you're going to go the science route, you have to go all-in. But the book's halfheartedness about science is of a piece with its halfheartedness about plot. Spoilers follow: the novel is about the beginning of the end (and brims with "this was the beginning of the end" portents), but it really reads more as "the middle of the beginning of the end, after the actual beginning of the beginning of the end but way before we get to where the end is really underway." So it's not a story about either the inevitable end of everything or about how people manage to adapt successfully to changes, thus staving off the end. Instead, it's about the dumb ideas people have that don't really work (the real-time movement; greenhouses). Even love affairs don't go anywhere -- romances are uprooted before they flower and disappear without resolution. I can't recall a novel as unsatisfying as this, or so much more average than its critical reception.

Which makes Red Shirts such a nice companion. I am not generally a John Scalzi fan, since what I've read of his tends to treat spaceships and aliens as the point, rather than the medium to get the point across. But Red Shirts is a great response to that, simultaneously an acknowledgement, critique, and send-up of sci-fi conventions and bad science (like that in Miracles. Its premise is that bit players in a Star Trek-like scenario realize they are stuck in a bad sci-fi narrative and look for a way to save themselves from being killed before a commercial break. This is (the book acknowledges) not entirely original, but the execution is (pun intended) stellar, and the resolution therefore is satisfying and surprisingly cogent. It's not challenging, but it's good summer fodder.

And then there's Railsea, China Mieville's first YA novel. Frankly, the only early hint that this is YA is that its protagonist is a teenager; the only confirmation that this is YA is that by the time you get to the end, there hasn't been any sex or f-bombs. Mieville, whose elliptical language is right in my reading wheelhouse, doesn't bother to dumb down his writing for a YA audience, and goes right on troweling layers upon layers of sentences, letting readers infer meanings from context, playing with ideas of text and narrative. The whole thing is kind of a mash-up of two jokes, one a riff on dueling Moby Dick stories, the other a kind of Monopoly fairy tale. Mieville also is a master at what Walker doesn't do so well -- setting up an impossibility (in this case, the notion of oceans made entirely of navigable railways) and then carefully mapping the consequences. In any event, this is not his best work (for my money, that's The City and the City, which probably doesn't even qualify as sci-fi), but it's plenty worth the time.

If anybody is still reading, now is the part where you tell me what I should be reading during the rest of this summer.

27 comments:

  1. If you haven't read The Magicians or its sequel The Magician King, by Lev Grossman, do that.

    On the YA side of things, and with a very unusual teen voice, there's Dan Wells's excellent trilogy about a young man trying very hard not to grow up to be a serial killer: "I Am Not a Serial Killer", "Mr. Monster", and "I Don't Want to Kill You".

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  2. Maret8:30 PM

    Red Shirts is next on my list so I'm glad you liked it/. I've never erad Scalzi before, but have met him, and follow him on twitter and read his blog and find him funny and smart and entertaining and it sounds like all of that translates well in this book.

    As for recommendations, add me to the chorus of "Gone Girl" (Gillian Flynn) fanatics. I used to read a ton of crme fiction and then sort of fell off that train, but I had heard so  much about this and then was given a copy, and after the first three or four chapters I was hooked and read it in its entirety over the next day. It is smart, it is creepy, it is weirdly and darkly funny, and it is suspenseful. There are pieces of the writing that are so witty and smart that a friend of mine, who was reading it just after I did would text me with lines and then just comment "Brilliant." It deserves its hype and I can't imagine it not winning an Edgar next year and being on a number of other shortlists.

    Also, on the to be ordered list is Maria Semple's "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?" coming out next month. It's actually being serialized on BBC radio right now and Semple is a former Arrested Development writer. I've read some descriptions that described the family of characters as Royal Tenenbaum-esque, which is accurate. It is quirky and funny and also a great story of family and character and perspective. This trailer of the author trying to describe it and picth it to booksellers in Seattle (where it takes place) is great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpbMMu9euA0 if you like that (and the random Tom Skerritt appearance in it) you'll like the book.

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  3. isaac_spaceman9:00 PM

    Read them both a year or so ago.  Loved The Magicians, liked The Magician King well enough but far less than The Magicians, hate Lev Grossman every time I hear him interviewed. 

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  4. The Pathetic Earthling9:06 PM

    I love me some John Scalzi, thought haven't gotten to Red Shirts as yet.  Shortly!

    And thanks for the endorsement of Railsea.  I keep meaning to read some Mieville but haven't yet started.  Maybe I'll go with this one

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  5. Genevieve9:44 PM

    Haven't read any Scalzi, just put Redshirts (my library has it as one word) on hold - thank you!

    No sex or f-bombs sounds more like it makes Railsea MG rather than YA, but whichever it is, it sounds interesting.

    MG that some will like (though not necessarily Isaac, as it's younger than the YA he mentions reading):  Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage (Southern mystery with appealing characters); Wonder, by R.J. Palacio (like The Fault in Our Stars, it's a terrific and frequently funny book about an unfunny topic - in this case, a boy starting regular school for the first time in 5th grade, after being homeschooled his entire life due to extreme facial malformations).

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  6. I, in contrast, have really liked (though not loved) all of Scalzi's other works, and found Redshirts to be quite disappointing.  I only had one LOL in the book, and found, with the exception of the one clever moment about 40% of the way through, the rest of the book obvious and, frankly, pointless.  I generally enjoy meta-commentary in books, but this completely missed for me.

    I love most of China Mieville, with The City and the City (which I would say is SciFi due to the way Breach, the organization, is portrayed) being my favorite as well.  It's simply brilliant, and what I find so amazing is that its clearly by the same author of Perdido Street Station and the Scan, yet totally lacking in the horror, or the weird, that everyone thought of as defining him.  I look forward to getting to Railsea.

    Ah, The Magicians.  Issac nailed it, I have hated Lev Grossman's interviews.  A lot.  Therefore I have been more than happy to skip his books.  I have ~100 books to be read, and don't need to waste time on that author.

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  7. KCosmo10:10 PM

    Mr. Cosmo and I both love Scalzi, and Mr. Cosmo shares Lou's disappointment with Redshirts.  I haven't picked it up yet.  

    The best thing I've read this summer is Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy.  They're not new, but we hadn't read them before - both of us really enjoyed them.

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  8. Because I'm always a good year or two behind everyone else, I just made it through Divergent, and really liked it, though I've heard Insurgent isn't nearly as interesting. I also finally read The Night Circus, but I don't think I loved it as much as others did. I thought the writing was really well-woven, but in general it was too gothic for my taste. I just got The Magicians from the library, so I'll be getting to that, as well as Insurgent, and A Discovery of Witches very soon. After that I have the final book in Jaye Wells' Sabina Kane series, and then a few others waiting on the Kindle. 

    Hopefully, in a couple years, we can all meet back here and discuss the books y'all are talking about now, since I'll have just read them. 

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  9. <p>
    </p><p><span>Of these, only RAILSEA (Mieville also published the, younger, UN LUN DUN several years ago) is actually published as YA , which might mark a subtle difference, not that those particular shifts would necessarily make the reads any better/worse for you.</span>
    </p><p><span> </span>
    </p><p><span>I now feel challenged to recommend YA reads you'd like. I assume you've looked into John Green's backlist. M.T. Anderson? What kind of read? What key qualities of FAULT would you want to find again in a new author?</span>
    <span> </span>

    </p>

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  10. Jenn C10:24 PM

    Gone Girl is the first book I would describe as "creepy and funny!" I loved it but had to read InToych for weeks to cleanse my literary palette.

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  11. I think Isaac might like Scott Westerfield's Uglies books, which take a different take on the dystopia than most of the post-Hunger-Games stuff has.

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  12. Anonymous10:31 PM

    If you haven't read The Orphan Master's Son. drop what you are doing and be swept away.

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  13. isaac_spaceman10:56 PM

    Interesting takes on Scalzi.  I just thought Red Shirts was a light and funny way to acknowledge what I thought was part of the problem with, say, Old Man's War, with the plottishly convenient alien races and the dramatically button-pushing deaths and what-not. 

    With Mieville, I think there are three ways to approach him.  The City and the City is a noirish mystery novel with what I think is a brilliant twist in the setup, more poly-fi than sci-fi.  It's probably the easiest point of entry for a general reader with an aversion to sci-fi.  Kraken is part comedy and an overt British companion to American Gods; both its subject matter and its style read a lot like Gaiman, actually.  And if you have no problem at all with aliens, I would start with Perdido Station, which is beautifully written and more moving than the others (though the climax is a little overboiled for my taste).   

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  14. isaac_spaceman10:57 PM

    I can't believe Age of Miracles isn't YA.  It must have been intended as YA and then moved, like Lovely Bones, except that Lovely Bones, of course, is wonderful.

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  15. isaac_spaceman10:59 PM

    I can't believe Age of Miracles isn't YA.  It must have been intended as YA and then moved, like Lovely Bones, except that Lovely Bones, of course, is wonderful.

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  16. isaac_spaceman11:00 PM

    I can't believe Age of Miracles isn't YA.  It must have been intended as YA and then moved, like Lovely Bones, except that Lovely Bones, of course, is wonderful.

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  17. It's always interesting, to see how that decision goes (YA vs. adult). I have a perfect one for you, actually, but you'll have to wait a while. How about THE MARBURY LENS by Andrew Smith?

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  18. Oh, sorry,  another one. Maybe also John Barnes, TALES FROM THE MADMAN UNDERGROUND and LOSERS IN SPACE.

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  19. KCosmo, I agree that Sanderson is great.  He has a positive genius for magic systems and worldbuilding, evident in all his works, but Mistborn adds the best characters, and what I felt was a brilliant ending.  He's also going to do something amazing with it, where he's going to take the same fantasy world, progress it forward in time to do an urban fantasy trilogy, and them jump ahead again to do a SF series.  He's also done a western one-shot that takes place about 200 years later, whcih I really liked.  I'd recommend all of his other works as well (with the exception of the completion of the Wheel of Time series, as I gave up on it in book 4 so don't know how he's doing).  Sanderson has also written a kids book series, starting with Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians, which is hliarious, and one of the favorites of my 8 and 10 year olds.  The only problem is the it's only written through book 4, and book 5 might be another couple of years off.

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  20. isaac_spaceman12:04 AM

    Hey, when the hell are we going to get another novel by the woman who wrote Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell?  I loved that book, and I realize it was the length of three average books, but at some point doesn't one need to write another? 

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  21. I just finished Gillian Flynn's first book, Sharp Objects, and immediately ordered her second. Gone Girl will be next, which at this rate will not be long.

    Recently read Little Bee, which i really loved. I am wondering if anyone here has read Chris Cleave's other books?

    The Sisters Brothers is highly recommended for anyone who's wondering what a cross between Deadwood and the Coen Brothers would be. It was completely in my yard.

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  22. Matt B2:02 AM

    Which Mieville book does everyone recommend starting with? I have a friend who won't stop raving, but I had a hard time getting into Perdido Street Station.

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  23. Danny Novo10:50 AM

    I'm reading The Night Circus right now, and keep having thematic/stylistic flashbacks to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

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  24. I hated The Magicians. Way too long, way too self-indulgent.

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  25. Jessica11:39 AM

    Tom Robbins Jitterbug Perfume. Just cuz it's the best thing I've read this year.

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  26. KCosmo9:42 PM

    I liked the Uglies books too, Matt, although I wished they were about 10% more interesting.  Pretties was the best of the three, I thought.  I occasionally speak pretty for fun.  It's kind of bubbly making!  

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  27. I also really enjoyed Gone Girl.  I don't usually read crime fiction or mysteries, but this was kind of a hybrid of a crime book and a psychological look at a marriage.  I liked that the book was very much about what made up these two people as much as it was about the mystery at its center.

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