Laith

What a weird short story, I mean even for Le Guin this is strange, but I oddly wish there was more. Nine Lives is about a clone who has to bear the pain of becoming an individual, originally one of ten, an accident happens on a far flung planet that leaves him the sole survivor.

This is really off beat from Le Guin's other work SF work, this might be the hardest SF i've read by this author. It's also thematically distinct, more an exploration of man and individuality than it is an observation of an alien species or culture.

It's excellently written to boot, some fantastic imagery and character work in such a short piece.

Beyond Apollo is the starting point for most people when it comes to Malzberg, it's probably his most widely read novel. Told from the perspective of Harry Evans, the sole survivor of a failed two man mission to Venus, Beyond Apollo is a recounting of those events. The heart of the story is about the death of the Captain of the mission, the How and the Why- Was he insane? Was it an accident? Was it self defense? The story is re-told endlessly, the details differing with each re-telling. What results is something fragmentary, the story-telling kaleidoscopic and generally not plot driven, the narrator is possibly (probably) insane and we are strapped along for the ride.

Like most of the Malzberg I've read there is no real resolution. It's never made clear if Harry is the killer, in fact nothing is ever made obvious other than the fact that he is the sole returning member of the mission. Whether it was aliens or murder or self defense, or even if the captain never really existed at all (or if Harry is himself the captain) remain as possibilities by the end. Many of these re-tellings come in the form of interrogations by Forrest (a psychiatrist) about the “truth” of the trip, but also in the form of dream conversations. Harry is obviously scarred by his experience, and is either unwilling or unable to tell us the truth of the experience. The truth itself a subject of meta-textual gamesmanship as Harry and the Captain play a game while on the voyage in which only the telling of absolute truth will make one a winner.

There's also the Malzbergian hallmark of sexual neurosis and ineptitude. A lot of the story seemingly focuses itself on Harry's perceived lack of sexual prowess, and his obsession with the Captain's sex life and virility. There's a distinctly gay undercurrent/slant to everything, Harry's sexual dysfunction is painstakingly detailed as chapters vacillate between moments of sexual disappointment with his wife, his impotence as a result of his training, and his hypersexual observations of the Captain. It's a little much- but I can't say that it doesn't serve the story, as it's used to flesh out Harry's character and psychosis and underpins the satire.

That's right, on-top of all of that this novel is a satire critiquing the space program- something fairly unique in the bounds of SF, where mankind's grasping of the stars is typically glorified. If there's one real continuous narrative thread in this book it's the distinct anti-space stance that the developments take. To borrow the words of the novel the space program is painted as a hyper-masculine system that makes machines out of men, explicitly stated during sex with his wife: "We have been geared for efficiency. I begin to fuck her like a proper astronaut." The message seeming that the American obsession with space is ultimately pointless and masturbatory. I cannot fail to note that this was published in 1972, the year which marked the cancellation of the Apollo program, and one of two books about astronauts that Malzberg published after being asked to resign as the editor of the Science Fiction Writers of America Bulletin in 1969 because of a critical editorial he wrote about the NASA space program.

I think the primary appeal of the novel is coming in its form and prose. I've never read anything formulated quite like this, it's a stand out among the other new-wave giants. This novel is fragmentary and experimental, with a plot that never resolves- something heavily postmodern and inventive in its approach. This book can be a disconcerting and tedious exercise to read, it's definitely not for everyone, and while I typically like inventive structures the lack of resolution is something I didn't much care for. I'm also decidedly in the NASA-good camp so I didn't much relish him shitting all over the space program. That said, I can see genius at work here, and I can appreciate the immense talent on display even if the book didn't cater to my particular tastes.

This is my second foray into “published” fan fiction and I feel short-changed. The description seemed right up my alley but I am realizing that the sort of people who write fan fiction really love getting lost in the weeds. I read the omnibus 2200 page epub not realizing that this series was broken up into smaller more digestible releases, so this is a review of the series as a whole. It hardly matters since this is basically all one story. The arcs aren't really distinct from each other, and this whole story takes place in the same timeframe as The Sorcerer's Stone.

This is a Rationalist take on Harry Potter. What that means in practice is that Harry in this series is a child prodigy raised by a muggle professor, and as such is highly educated and possesses an adult understanding of the world around him. His behavior, personality, and thought process are significantly divergent from the original work. We largely follow the plot and setup of The Sorcerer's Stone but there are minor differences in the setup alongside the largescale changes to characters.

There is a lot of the scientific method, a lot of decision theory, and a lot of ethical debate and philosophy in this book. This story is written by a self-taught but by all accounts legitimate scientist/researcher who is using Harry Potter as a medium to talk about his area of expertise. This author is not a novelist and you can tell. This book is really leaning hard on the framing and story beats of the original while at the same time actively dismantling that structure. The parts where he is making up a “brand new story” are interesting but are lacking when it comes to prose and polish. His story beats are logical and easy to follow but lack any of the punch and drama that come with OG HP.

The draw here is seeing how a “smart” Harry would have dealt with the challenges he faced at age 11. He makes different choices with his friends, he reads into the power structure of the wizarding world early on, and he is constantly trying to introduce science and the scientific method into the magic system. Watching Harry pick apart problems and plots in two or three chapters that were sustained throughout the entire original series is pretty satisfying in its own way. There's also a Sagan-esque quality to this whole thing; Harry introduces and applies various models of logical and rationalist thought/problem-solving. Through hypotheticals and examples, there's a real effort made to explain the rationalist worldview and philosophy. What is best about this book is the logical reordering of events. Despite how bogged down this fic is, it does stick to its own rules and maintains consistency as events play out - though it does cheat a little with small details and tweaks to the setup (For example: Draco's mom is presumed dead for much of this story and it does factor into his motivations and decision making)

There are hiccups. Science and reason don't map onto the Harry Potter universe very well, a lot of Rowling's world is just silly nonsense at its core. Taking the rationalist approach means that everything needs to be logically consistent and explained, but the world of Harry Potter is intrinsically irrational. Thanks to that incongruity there is way more hypothesis and speculation in this book than there needs to be. Maybe some readers liked the conjecture and structure that was added to the magic system here (because I will admit the lack of structure did bother me in the original) but I did not and it choked the pacing something fierce.

I finished this work only to see the complete version of events. All things told I didn't like this series, and a lot of it has to do with this version of Harry (honestly I didn't like any of the altered cast, but it all flows from this Harry). He seriously lacks the charm of the original; this oddly aged-up Harry man/child thing that is the main character really put me off. He got on my nerves from the outset; the way this Harry speaks to people early on is so unnatural and condescending. What really got my goat was his multi-person inner dialogue and his “mysterious dark side” alter-personality, the whole thing reads like bad manga to me. The further the story goes the more “Eighth Grader Syndrome” gets injected into his personality and I think by the halfway point I'd totally written him off and considered dropping the novel. There is an explanation provided by the story, Harry's scar horcrux imprints a part of Voldemort's personality rather than merely establishing a psychic link like in the original. It's a plausible explanation for this whole telling of events but man is it lame. I'm not trying to be a weeb by calling this out either, there is a distinct and unwelcome anime/anime-trope slant to this whole thing and it spoiled any sort of atmosphere or tonal consistency for me.

This is HP nerdcore and if you aren't a serious head then I recommend skipping this one. If you want to know what happens do yourself a favor and read the Wikipedia summary instead.

TL;DR: “smart” Harry Potter, an 11-year-old boy genius uses the powers of science and rational thinking to speed run the plot of the original series. This is a quality rewrite but it is also nerdy, dense, and stilted.

Book Club For Jan - I am behind on both the book club and on these reviews, life's just been very busy since the holidays

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No looking inside the box.

No asking what is inside of it

No telling anyone where they are going.

Black Box is really just one massive red haring, a wild goose chase of a novel. Abbott (our male protagonist and Lyft driver) meets Ether (our female protagonist) for what he believes is a typical Lyft fare that's anything but. Ether offers him a life changing sum of money to transport her and her mysterious black box across the country, from California to DC. Abbott is not Ether's first choice, she's been hired to transport the box under condition of secrecy but she's out of options to meet her deadline and her mission is further complicated by dodging the pursuit of a mysterious biker. Unfortunately for Ether she couldn't have picked a worse driver, as Abbott is a sort of minor Twitch celebrity- his chat so alerted by his change in schedule and the involvement of a woman so as to kick off a Reddit manhunt in search of him. The hunt for Abbott quickly evolves into a rabid conspiracy revolving around Ether, a retired FBI agent, and what exactly is in the black box of doom.

I'd describe Black Box as a true 21st century novel, laden heavy with references to the current day- Reddit, Bitcoin, even commissioned furry art, it runs the referential gamut and opines broadly on the impact of the internet and social media on society. The premise is great: equal parts the hunt for the Boston Marathon bombers and a classic American road trip comedy, the story serves as vehicle for Pargin's opinions on the toxic influence of the internet on the human species. It's a bizarre tonal mix, on the one hand you've got some fairly heartfelt and broadly accurate critiques on modern society and on the other hand you've got Abbott chasing down rabbits down the side of Route 66. When you consider that road tripping across the US is a boring and desolate drive broken up by occasional moments of danger and entertainment the structure of the book makes sense, unfortunately that means the book winds up being more social commentary than actual plot. It's very fun whenever the plot is progressing, but mainly it's Ether lecturing for 300 out of 400 pages.

I really found myself powering through the middle of the book, that's largely because the more I learned about Abbott and Ether, the more I started to hate them. Abbott, the modern anxious every-man happens to have some problematic opinions about women- and he's extremely vocal about it. Conversely Ether has had something like a modern spiritual awakening and cannot help but to lecture Abbott about the wonders of the modern age and the importance of believing in the inherent good of your fellow man. These two are locked in a car for 2,310 miles and so are you the reader, so you get to read and reread Abbott's one dimensional take on the powers of femininity, Ether's constant lectures, and the extremely awkward interactions that result as these two verbally spar. It wouldn't be so bad either if Abbott could articulate his points to the same degree as Ether, maybe there'd be something to glean from a discourse like that, but his character is constantly vacillating between "everyman" and "strawman" alternating between playing the determined hero and the petulant child as the plot demands from moment to moment. It's exhausting, and honestly despite Ether's point being generally correct, the message is cheapened when it's bounced off such an obvious sock puppet, the whole debate reads like epistemic theater.

While not quite a doomer book, the image it paints is not a flattering one- Pargin is laying bare his issues with everything, from crowdsourced conspiracy and misinformation to the toxic effect of social media and the internet on interpersonal relationships. We're addicted to our screens, addicted to outrage, and it feels like some shadowy cabal of billionaires is trying to erode our faith in humanity and transform us from people into subscribers. I can't say I disagree with any of the talking points conceptually but I personally hate it when books preach at me through character dialogue, and that's how 90% of the commentary is delivered. What makes it particularly offensive here is that the plot is effectively delivering the same message! The double dose of rhetoric really beats you over the head with the messaging, choking what would otherwise be a very entertaining and thought provoking thriller narrative.

Generally this is a fun read with some interesting information about how online conspiracies are built and perpetuated, but this is absolutely dating itself. You may or may not get turned off by the overtly rhetorical style, and while the characters are flawed and unlikable they do grow along their arc, no matter how manufactured that growth may feel at times. Honestly the last fifth of the book is worth the slog, it's wacky and wild, and while you do eventually find out what's in the box that's not the only reveal in store by the end.

Batman: The Long Halloween thrusts the very best of Batman right in your face: grounded detective noir, a Godfather-esque crime plot, iconic art — all with the tragic origin story well in the rear-view. For the whole class of Batman fans who have never picked up a comic, this is the perfect place to start. Sure, there’s Batman: Year One, which Long Halloween continues, but I can’t bear to watch Martha Wayne’s pearl necklace clatter across Crime Alley for the millionth time, and I’m sure fans of the films and TV shows feel the same.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Long Halloween features a grounded detective-noir plot that blends Batman’s traditional rogues gallery with a Godfather-esque Italian mafia crime story. We join Batman, Commissioner Gordon, and DA Harvey Dent in their quest to capture “Holiday”, a mysterious serial killer whose crimes fall on major holidays and target the Falcone crime family. If you’ve seen Nolan’s The Dark Knight, or particularly the newer Reeves/Pattinson The Batman, you will find the root of so many of their story beats here. The origins of Harvey Dent/Two-Face, the complex relationship between the Falcones and the Waynes, Batman’s identity as a detective — it’s all coming from Long Halloween.

Something I particularly appreciated, as a devoted fan of the animated series, is the art of Tim Sale. Long Halloween is a perfect blend of the iconic gothic/art deco style of the animated series and the high-contrast visuals of classic cinematic noir. Sale’s character designs are nothing short of iconic: the bulky, over-masculine, intimidating silhouette of Batman; the uncomfortable level of detail given to Harvey’s scarred half; the grotesque, disturbing proportions of the Joker’s smile. There are also seemingly endless visual nods to classic Hollywood crime and noir, from The Maltese Falcon to The Godfather; something that tickled the film nerd in me and evokes a distinct 1940s silver-screen atmosphere.

The story continues in Batman: Dark Victory and later Batman: The Long Halloween: The Last Halloween (a complete mouthful); the latter a little too rogues-gallery-focused for my taste, but the former an absolutely fantastic sequel. If you want to read a few Batman comics but aren’t sure where to start, this is the perfect entry point to bridge the gap from the films.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​