I feel like we meandered a bit; not wanting to deal with the philosophical issues raised by comparison of Pirsig to other contemporary thinkers. Nevertheless, it’s kind of neat. Give it a listen sometime!

One aspect I really enjoyed about this book was seeing the world premise come to life — how one major difference can create such a different world. Human civilization on this planet, called Erna, despite originating from a spaceship is not very technologically advanced — the original scientific records were destroyed and most machines and mechanizations (such as guns) could not develop because any doubt in their workings would become manifest and prevent them from working. On the other hand, religions with strong followings can become quite powerful, which is a major theme the books center around. At the same time, humans, through their dreams and beliefs, have created countless “demons” and “gods” that depend upon humans (either physically or emotionally) to sustain their existence but can become quite powerful in their own ways. Some humans have developed abilities to control the Fae to some extent, using it to their advantage, but this use is questioned by the Church and quite limited for most users.

Enter the two “protagonists” into this world, Damien Vryce and Gerald Tarrant. Damien Vryce is a warrior and priest of the Church of Human Unification with deep-seeded religious faith, but still a manipulator of the Fae to better serve his missions for his God and Church. Gerald Tarrant is a complex creature who was originally a religious, aristocratic visionary who helped found the Church and sought to have the Church utilize the Fae to improve mankind’s condition on Erna, but was then kicked out of the Church because it wished to divorce itself, and humanity, completely from the Fae, instead of using it. At least in part triggered by this schism, Gerald goes on to become a mass-murdering creature of darkness, starting by murdering his family (one of the most gruesome scenes is in the first chapter of the trilogy when this happens). Having great skill in manipulating the Fae to begin with (he is what is known as an “adept”), Gerald becomes quite powerful and nearly immortal over time, turning into something akin to a vampire, but different in some key aspects. When the books take place, Gerald has been around for about 900 years already — he, and the terror always in his wake, have become a legend and he has been given the name of “the Hunter.”

Basic plot: Damien is forced, greatly against his original wishes, to team up with the evil, yet unimaginably powerful, Gerald to defeat even greater evils.

What was fascinating to see in the progression of this trilogy was Damien’s questioning of his faith and slipping of morality — originally he would never dream of being partners with the Hunter, but was forced into the situation to solve much bigger problems, and all the while Damien repeatedly promises to destroy the Hunter (even while they worked together), though by the end of the trilogy… much has changed — Gerald, and what he is, has become an integral part of Damien’s life, and Damien is forced to confront what this means for who he is. Gerald still claims to be an adamant supporter of the Church, as he was its founder and visionary, and this often causes Damien to question his own faith and very lifestyle. Of course, it’s not all Gerald and Damien — other interesting characters come into play that are all greatly affected by the Fae, for better or worse.

Friedman does a great job of creating a fairly believable world based off of her premise. She fleshes out an alien world, with animals similar to ones on Earth, and even does this repeatedly on an ecosystem level, while explaining how the Fae is involved with it all. As you can tell, I also greatly enjoyed her portrayal of character interaction and development over the course of the trilogy. She does a good job of mixing up focus on these interactions with general interesting action/plot development as well — the books have a good pace, overall. The only negatives to it is that it does get a bit graphic at times (but Friedman is trying to make a point with all these scenes — it’s not just being graphic for being graphic’s sake), and I wish it had kept going — it ended a bit abruptly for me, and I think it could have continued on… Overall, I’d highly recommend this trilogy.

So why only once in a while? Well, the grandiosity of his writing cuts both ways– you never real empathize with any of the characters, the books are bone-shatteringly depressing for most of the characters, and sometimes the coincidences seem rather forced. The worst example in Absolution Gap was the new male protagonist, who was introduced as an inexperienced newcomer in the first few pages, and within a chapter (which, amazingly, only represented something like 4 months in-story) had become a powerful leader who subsumed the role of the greatest leader of human society– mainly because that leader needed to die for story reasons, and the author needed a new mouthpiece for “grizzled veteran who makes hard decisions”. The incongruity of the greenhorn making the “hard decisions” for peers who have centuries more experience than him continues throughout the book, and is very off-putting.
By forced coincidences, I mean that it sometimes seems absurd the lengths the books contort to keep the accessible assumption that one character equals one society. One of the largest factions in the galaxy is the Conjoiners– and you can bet that no matter which ship of thousands the characters happen to board, the signature Conjoiner character, Remontoire, will be on board. Hell, Remontoire, a retired and arthritic politician, was for some reason the pilot of the dangerous, experimental star-fighter in the epic final battle. What?!? Alastair Reynolds wants to paint his societal story, and the characters are mostly convenient cardboard cut-outs to fill needed roles. And when you do start to empathize with them, you can be sure it’s only because some truly terrible torture (and the books can be quite graphic) soon awaits them. Some of the images from these books still give me shivers.

But, overall, it was quite a wild ride, and I’d recommend the book (and the series) to any fan of plausible but epic science fiction.

Iron Council by China Mieville. If you haven’t read any of Mieville’s works, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Easily the strongest new writer I’ve seen in the last half-decade, his sprawling opuses take fantasy out of a rut and create vibrant new worlds that veer between action, comedy, horror, and political intrigue. I’ve never had a problem, but some recommend bringing a thesaurus along for Mieville– he likes to flex his vocabulary. Iron Council is actually the weakest of his books that I have read– I’d only give it an 8 out of 10, whereas his other books would rank: Perdido Street Station is a 9 out of 10, and The Scar comes as close to a perfect 10 as I can imagine, beyond a slow start.

The Draco Tavern by Larry Niven. I’ve always been obsessed with Niven– he’s a world-builder extraordinaire, and I try to read everything he produces. I just recently got my hands on this collection of his Draco Tavern stories, which were always his vehicle to explore the “big” questions via vignettes and short stories. If you like cautionary tales, speculative questions, and exquisitely imagined aliens, check it out.

So… What have you all been reading?

The librarian replied in a soothing voice, “Sure! Can you give me a title?”

“It’s called Oranges and Peaches!” the student replied. “I’m at my wits’ end!” The librarian calmly typed “Oranges and Peaches” into the computer catalog, then frowned. The library had no book with that title. The librarian asked gently, “Do you have an author for me?”

The question seemed to trigger more anxiety and frustration in the student. “Can’t you find it? How could you not have this book?” he asked, his voice rising. “ T.A. and the professor said you’d have hundreds of copies of this book!!!!”

The reference librarian persisted. “Perhaps you could tell me the author?” The young man dived into his backpack, searching through papers for a seemingly interminable time, to the growing annoyance of people waiting behind him. Finally, he found a scrap of paper. “Charles somebody,” he said triumphantly.

The young man’s face fell as the librarian explained apologetically that he couldn’t look up the book under a first name. The librarian added, “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to go back to your instructor and get a last name.”

The student’s despair turned to rage. “I cannot believe this,” he exploded. “What kind of library is this? T.A. swore you’d have hundreds of copies. This book is supposed to be legendary! Professor said it’s the `Bible of evolution’!””

Yeah, baby, “Oranges and Peaches”.

More fun stories to come.

For me, Harold and the Purple Crayon tops the list… I also love all the Land of Oz books. I seem to recall liking a whole lot of Dr. Seuss, too. Oh! I almost forgot about No Such Things, which would have been a shame.

So.. what is everyone else reading?