Tag: sci fi

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Review: Tempest by Julie Cross

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I give Tempest a 4 out of 5.  That means it was a good book, kept me entertained and left me thinking about it for a bit afterwards, but not quite gushing about it.

In the interest of full disclosure, I believe my novel, Foreseen, was declined by an editor a couple years ago because of Tempest. Certainly, that was never intended by either Julie Cross or myself. It’s just one of those things that happens. We both have novels about a college kid who discovers he or she has some special power – time travel in the case of Tempest; mind-reading in Foreseen.  The editor in question had already signed Tempest, and didn’t think it made sense to have two similar books coming out around the same time. He never told me the name of the book that bumped Foreseen, but I was pretty sure it was Tempest. So when it was released in January, 2012, needless to say, I wanted to read it, and they do have similarities in tone and story. Now, on to the review:

Kudos to Julie Cross for coming up with an innovative way to incorporate time travel into what is otherwise fairly normal teen life. In Tempest, nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer has recently found he can jump back in time, but just by a little bit. He can’t change the course of events, and only stays a little bit, then is back in his present time,  2009 (presumably the year when Julie Cross wrote the novel). That all changes when his girlfriend, Holly, is shot before his eyes, and he finds himself back in 2007, unable to get back to his present. And now, in 2007, it looks like he might be able to change things as well. So he befriends his girlfriend and her friends as they were in high school, in an effort to figure out what has happened and get back where he belongs.

The story that follows is complex and intriguing. It kept me reading to find out the answer to the questions that come up early in the novel.  I’ve seen reviews that mention that the characters are flat, and I will agree that Jackson Meyer is almost a caricature at first, but urge the readers not to give up because of that.  That is how Jackson sees himself at the beginning of the book. But over the course of the story, he grows, discovering who he is on more than one level and more importantly, realizing what is important to him.

My only serious concern with the novel was the lack of descriptions.  There is very little to give me the look, smell, or feel of any of the places in the book.  At times, particularly near the end, the missing description made the action difficult to follow.  But otherwise, I recommend Tempest. It’s an excellent debut novel.

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The Matrix, the Steak, and the Wonder

  By Foreseen

In The Matrix, the freed humans know exactly what their previous reality was made of: lines and lines of code.  Yet, when agreeing to betray the hero, Cypher makes this simple observation:

I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize?  [Takes a bite of steak]  Ignorance is bliss.

Cypher’s line came to mind on my morning walk. I felt the sunshine warm my face, knowing it was just the energy from fusion reactions in the sun filtered through the Earth’s atmosphere. I looked at the gentle bend of a flower stem, knowing that it was simply the phototropism genetically programmed into the plant.  I felt the breeze, knowing it was simply the result of thermal energy changing the density of the air.  I could access scientific explanations for nearly everything around me, but knowing them didn’t change the experience or the wonder of a perfect morning.

That same idea is embedded throughout my novel, Foreseen. While a scientific explanation is provided as to how adepts alter the decisions of others, or even collapse quantum wave functions to move objects from one location to another, the wonder – and horror – of what they can do remains the same. In other words, just like Cypher said, in the end, the human experience is just that – experience, not knowledge.

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The Deception of a Beautiful Day

  By Foreseen

When I’m asked what my novel, Foreseen, is about, my brain struggles to figure out what to say.  My mouth still works, fortunately, spouting out that its a novel about a young woman who can secretly alter the decisions of people around her and wants to use that power for the good of humankind.  But part of me is rather dissatisfied with that accurate but superficial response because, for me, the book is about so much more.

I won’t go into everything I think the book covers – each reader will bring their own perspective and experiences to shape those ideas for themselves.  But one idea was clarified for me on this morning’s walk: Foreseen is about the deception of a beautiful day.

Looking out the window, the morning is spectacular.  Bright sunshine, blue skies with a couple of white puffy clouds.  This is going to be a good morning, I thought as I prepared to take my morning walk. But when I stepped outside, the 90 degree morning heat hit me in the face like a frying pan, and the 85% humidity was like breathing underwater.  “Still, its such a beautiful day,” I told myself. “I should walk.” And so I did.  Not as far as usual, nor as fast. It wasn’t unpleasant, but I soon realized that although the day was picturesque, that didn’t make it good for being outside.

That’s one of the ideas in Foreseen that appearances can be deceiving, often making assumptions based on them incorrect. If you could protect humankind from making stupid decisions, would you? The answer seems obvious, until the costs come into play. A handsome young man is expected to act a certain way – but does that define him? Or is it just an act to comply with what the world around him expects?

I like reading books with embedded ideas like this one. It isn’t new, but the context gives me a fresh way of exploring the ramifications. Of course, if you ask me what Foreseen is about, you’re still going to hear about a young woman who can secretly alter the decisions of people around her and wants to use that power for the good of humankind. There just isn’t any other way to answer.

 

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Book Review: Time Riders By Alex Scarrow

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Okay, so this isn’t exactly a new book.  It was published almost two years ago, and I’ve had it for over a year, intending to read it.  Well, I finally have.  And???

It’s a good book.  I give it three-and-a-half out of five.  The story is good, three teens from different times are plucked from their own time lines at the moment of death and placed in a time bubble in New York City. There they witness the same two days over and over, watching for the slightest alteration that will demonstrate someone has altered the proper time line, and they must go back in time to when the alteration occurs and fix it.

The plot is good and the obstacles – Nazis and zombies – well played. It’s an overall worthwhile read.  Lots of action. Good imagery so that you feel like you are with the characters under attack in the White House, or in the muddy trench at the detention camp, or being watched from the zombies inhabiting the buildings of NYC.

So why not more stars?  Because the antagonist’s character was better developed than anyone else’s.  Perhaps he was misguided, but he was striving for a better world than the one that he lived in.  And once he had accomplished that, he went insane.  Not insane from guilt over what he had done, just nuts. Sure that made him someone who was dangerous, but it didn’t set him up as an ultimate evil in a book filled with Nazis and zombies.  On the other hand, the three main characters were not well developed.  The beginning of the book was promising in that regard, but once they had been extracted from their original times and met each other, nothing else about them was revealed.  They did not grow or develop in the course of the book and when something devastating happens to one of them, my emotion response was “Meh.  She was getting rather whiny.”

Despite this, the plot still carries this book.  It’s interesting, entertaining and worth a read.  Available at Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

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He Left Us with Inspiration

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Ray Bradbury passed away yesterday. I am saddened by the loss of one of my childhood heros, and my heart goes out to his family and friends. My earliest memories of being truly intrigued by a book came from him.  The book was  Something  Wicked This Way Comes. I was captured by the brooding recklessness of Jim Nightshade, perhaps because I was much more like Will Halloway. I thrilled to the words on those pages, and was astounded at how they left something, lingering behind.

I read every Bradbury work I could get my hands on after that. My favorites were The Martian Chronicles,  I Sing The Body Electric, A Sound of Thunder, and, well, many, many others.  If you have read only Fahrenheit 451, perhaps because it was required reading in school, I recommend you delve into some of this other works.  Often dark, often funny, always poignant. His imagination, his stories, and his imagery have inspired me in my own writing. And we are all fortunate that he has left those gifts behind.

Rest in peace, Mr. Bradbury.  And thank you for your enduring inspiration.

Though I am old and wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

~W.B. Yeats, The Wind Among the Reeds


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Hector West is a Racist

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My preference is for stories that have some underlying lesson about life, whether it’s the value of friendship and self-sacrifice in Star Wars: A New Hope, or a reminder than man is not God in Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. On the other hand, I dislike “issue” books – those pieces of literature whose primary thrust is to draw sympathy for and understanding of victims of some specific trauma or disease or disadvantage.  I find that the learning those authors are striving for falls short because the stories and the characters tend to play back-up to the issue rather than the other way around. And yet, every once in a while, there is a novel or movie that gets the balance right – dealing with a heavy, not-so-esoteric issue, without it overcoming the enjoyment of the story and ability of the reader to get lost in the characters. John C. Brewer’s novel Multiplayer is one of them.

I first heard of Multiplayer long before it was published. I was with a group of writers talking about our novels when a charming, slightly shy man in the group described his book as an action-packed story about a group of teens playing multiplayer online video games and discovering that terrorist are using the game to train. I could see myself reading that for fun, but I didn’t expect there would be much more to it.  Needless to say, I was surprised when I read it and discovered that, not only is the book is about racism, it is told from the perspective of the racist! If anyone had told me that, I never would have picked it up.

Having been on the receiving end of their barbs, I am not a fan of racists. I find them to be self-centered and lacking perspective and intellectual integrity. And in Hector West’s case all of those are true, but it works because he is a boy.  Most young teens share those qualities, and John Brewer does an exemplary job of letting the reader understand how the attitudes developed and even have sympathy for the flawed protagonist, and then a more masterful job tearing down the walls Hector has built with them. But the issue doesn’t overpower the fast-paced story, nor does it play second fiddle. The two are entwined, giving reader a fun, entertaining story, and something to think about as well.

So, Hector West is a racist. And because of that fact, Multiplayer both entertained me and left me thinking about both our society and my own attitudes. If you’re looking for something fun AND worthwhile for your teens to read this summer – or even yourself if you’re a fan of young adult books – pick up a copy of Multiplayer.  Well done!

 

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“Inspiration is For Amateurs” or Where the Heck is the Book?

  By Foreseen, Myself and I

A Facebook friend of mine shared a  Douglas Adams quote this morning: “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” I’ve always enjoyed that line, although it has never fit me. I meet deadlines. I see complying with deadlines  as a statement as to my dependability.  So what the heck happened to my novel that was supposed to have been released a couple of months ago?  Yes, I missed some deadlines.

It felt like the wheels fell off of my entire life, but to an objective observer, it would appear to be only minor bumps in the road. At the point it should have been getting a final proofread, a problem was identified in the opening chapters. That converged with several life-altering personal events, and increasing demands in the day job,leaving me nearly paralyzed from the writing standpoint. And that, was unacceptable. But knowing that merely added to the pressure. I kept writing, but it was slower than swimming through mud. What should have taken a couple of weeks was going on two months. I became desperate, discouraged and in search of some inspiration to get back on track.

John C. Brewer‘s wonderful wife unwittingly provided that inspiration in a rather ironic form. A couple of weeks ago, April picked out a movie for us to watch: Music and Lyrics, a 2007 romantic comedy about a washed up pop-star (Hugh Grant) who has one week to write an original, blockbuster song, and convinces wannabe writer/plant lady (Drew Barrymore) to be his lyricist. As the pressure mounts, the would-be lyricist complains that she can’t just pop out the words on command – that it doesn’t work that way – to which the High Grant character flatly responds, “Inspiration is for amateurs.”  And that line got me to finally jump the last hurdle.

The problem wasn’t that I didn’t have the ability to finish the two chapters, it was that I was giving everything else that was going on a higher priority, tapping out my brain power so that by the time I sat down to write, stringing simple words together was tough. I reassigned priorities and now, I am happy to say, Foreseen is off getting its final copyedit . I am relieved that its finished, and delighted that it reads the way I wanted it to.

So thanks for the inspiration, April! And now, I guess I better take care of some of those other demands.