A Sci Fi Reading Odyssey - 50 Novels

[Matt H.]

The Humanoids by Jack Williamson [1949]
Gateway Omnibus
157 pages
Reader Response by Matt H. [v 1.56] from Reading Odyssey
Rating: Not recommended, though has limited good points

**SPOILER WARNING**

Story Summary

In the distant future, descendants of humankind have spread to other solar systems and have brought warfare with them, and in some cases even self-annihilation. On one of these planets a scientist, Clay Forester works in a laboratory developing the next generation of super-weapons. There is war at this time with a rival civilization which has reached a critical point. Obliteration could come at any moment. But Forester has discovered a new branch of physics called Rhodomagnetics and with it weapons orders of magnitude more terrible.

At this time of extreme tension and fear, a strange visitor arrives outside the gates of the laboratory. She is Jane Carter, a small girl in ragged clothes. With her appearance seemingly impossible events begin to occur and soon Forester is introduced to a weird group of para-normal rebels. They reveal to him that a new and indominable force is about to arrive on the scene They are the humanoids, a virtually all-powerful race of robots. In fact the humanoids have already infiltrated the military and quickly eliminate all resistance. Their dominance is not in question, but their ultimate mission -- forced peace and happiness is fraught with questions. Some of their actions are terrifying.

Clay Forester is thrown into a series or fantastic and dangerous adventures with the rebels as he fights the humanoids. And he undergoes an amazing transformation in terms of his own psychic powers. But the robots are quickly working to make themselves totally unassailable. The stakes couldn’t be higher – they are the destiny of humanity and the future of human freedom.

Critical Reader Response

This is an exciting book with a number of interesting characters. It starts out strong with a distinctive eerie feeling attending the scene with the little girl at the gate in the dessert, and it maintains that well into the following pages. A lot of fun-to-read action follows and even some effective scenes of real terror.

But the ending of this book is a colossal and unforgivable smack in the face. As only a bad ending can, it largely trashes anything achieved in the preceding pages. It doesn't fit with the rest of the book and in fact it seems pretty evil in its implication. The ending and other significant problems in logic, believably and consistency drop this book for me soundly into the significantly flawed category.

The book is at its best during the action scenes, especially with Forester and Jane Carter fighting the robots. To Williamson’s credit, neither of these heroes are of the standard type though there is a lick of comic strip in there too. Jane is a strange little girl with immense powers. She must be one of the bravest 6-year-olds in all of literature. She follows adults through many harrowing traumas with absolute resolve.

Clay Forrester, the protagonist, is not a standard tough guy, far from it. He is physically quite unimposing, but he is uniquely brilliant. At his darkest hour, right before he is about to be drugged into oblivion, he makes his escape through a pure-thought scientific breakthrough. Through much of the story he is battered, bruised, frozen and broken, but he keeps going. Ironsmith even steels his wife. I rooted for him and I was relishing the thought of his comeuppance! At one point, Forester is interrogated by the humanoids very creepily about why he seems unhappy. They tell him that he will soon be drugged involuntarily. These are the scariest scenes in the book and show up the evil and folly of forced happiness (Which the ending tells us is apparently right after all? Huh?)

The science gets fudgier and fudgier. Rhodomagnetic powers can be used to vaporize a mountain, but not to actually hurt someone? The explanation of this is pretty weak and has the ring of a retroactive thematic patch-up, as do several other aspects of the book.

Frank Ironsmith, the second most prominent character is mysterious and engaging especially towards the beginning. He’s a never-rattled, bike-riding and vigorous Peter Pan type. He is strangely above-it-all, non-material, never concerned about a thing, and is almost ad nauseum described as friendly and pleasant, (just as the robots are dozens of times described as “beautiful”). Like Forrester, he is excessively brilliant, and at the beginning, plays the role of a vastly underappreciated mathematical genius. All that is fine. But Frank goes from just odd, to evil and then back to good, and that ruined the character for me. It was also sloppy of the writer to harp on the fact that he was certainly some kind of alien and not-quite-human and then just, opps, forget to tell us exactly what he was. Diddled!

By the end of the story with the help of the traitor Ironside, the robots have a machine that can directly control the thoughts of all humanity permanently (no more need for drugging). Sounds pretty bad, right? But hold on! You are about to be perplexed and diddled again.

As the end shows us, it turns out the robots were right all along! Our hero Forester, who we so liked and rooted for, was actually on the wrong side of the conflict and almost spoiled humankind’s chance for real happiness. All his bravery, adventures and efforts are thus negated. The traitors you were effectively made to hate actually are the good guys! And so, in the final pages, riding into the sunset, the reprogrammed rebels, Forester among them (the social elite? Intelligentsia?) are now able to enjoy total freedom and fulfillment as they venture through the stars spreading the word, and the rest of humanity is brain-wiped and zombified remotely by means of a mind-control ray from an alien planet. A sinister message or just a flawed book with an inexplicably ruinous ending? I’m not sure.

 

[Matt H.]

Hi Folks. Hope all is well.

Finished my review of the Humanoids…. Even though it is probably overall the weakest of the books I’ve reviewed so far, there is still some fun to be had, as I hope I indicated in the review. The book has some good qualities that make its final downfall even sadder. Before I finished, I was asking myself, why hasn’t this been recently “filmized.” It seems ready to go! You got little girl heroes, “mutants” with superpowers, “evil robots” (we later discover, Ugh! They are actually good), and lots and lots of pretty hair raising action lending itself to CGI. All this is the kind of stuff Hollywood loves. And Hollywood was never shy about changing an ending (or the entire meaning of a book), so hack away!

Out side the review proper I am allowed to say---seems to be substantially cross-over with other books on the list as well as external works. The unaided human teleportation is like Bester (The Stars), also in ways resembles Childhood’s End. Mention is made of the “Prime Directive”, a la Roddenberry/Star Trek… also put me in mind of the “Nomad” episode of Star Trek – a powerful machine, originally programmed for good, but gone haywire through accident or logic flaw, etc.

On to Ender’s Game. About 50 pages in and it’s good, as I expected it would be.

Appreciate any comments on the Humanoids… It’s a somewhat obscure one. Anyone out there read it? Am I tripping, or is that a weird ending? Maybe it’s just Matt again with his paranoia of totalitarian messages. Would love to know your opinion. This book is certainly less offensive than Odd John, but it is perhaps even weaker I think as a book. Please chime in if you have anything to add!

(added)

Btw, made some tune-ups to the head post of this thread. I think I substantially clarified the self-imposed "rules" I am most following for these reviews. I also improved some formatting.

 

[Matt H.]

Putting finishing touches on my first draft review of Ender's game. Having trouble pareing it down! It's a really fun book to write about. (try to imagine your first, uninformed reading of it). I will not be the first to say it's a damn good book. Would seem un-generous to point out any faults at all? Well, that's me... lol Still, review is far more lavish in praise that insistent in criticism. Will especially appreacite any and all thoughts from the gallery. I know this is a book that a number of you guys will know pretty well.

 

[Vince W]

Putting finishing touches on my first draft review of Ender's game. Having trouble pareing it down! It's a really fun book to write about. (try to imagine your first, uninformed reading of it). I will not be the first to say it's a damn good book. Would seem un-generous to point out any faults at all? Well, that's me... lol Still, review is far more lavish in praise that insistent in criticism. Will especially appreacite any and all thoughts from the gallery. I know this is a book that a number of you guys will know pretty well.

Looking forward to it.

 

[Matt H.]

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card [1977]
Tom Doherty Associates
323 pages
Reader Response by Matt H. [v 1.87] from Reading Odyssey
Rating: Highly recommended, (fairly heavy on military detail)

Story Summary

It’s the future and humans have endured two major space conflicts with “the buggers”, a powerful bug-like alien race. Humanity was nearly defeated. And the third invasion is expected to begin at any moment. But this time Earthlings intend to win at any and all costs.

Earth's final battle with the buggers must be directed by a single mind—just as the opposition will be. To find and train this single, transcendentally brilliant military genius from a very young age is seen as a matter of life and death for the entire human race. The authorities have their eyes on several members of the Wiggin family. All three of these extraordinary children will ultimately have a great impact on their society. But when the head of the military school is finally sent to his house, the life of Ender Wiggin, the youngest of the three will change abruptly forever.

He will endure grueling training and extremely cruel psychological treatment. It fact even lethal violence is permitted in order to mold this soldier into the soldier he needs to be. But Ender, who had a frightening and unhappy childhood due to the torment of his older brother Peter, will turn out to be every bit as brilliant and as hard when necessary as they hoped.

Eventually Ender evolves a new acceptance of himself and his role in this grand conflict. During his quest for understanding, he makes a final, startling discovery about the aliens, and is opened to an even wider perspective. His future actions could be as hugely momentous as anything within his glorious past.

Critical Reader Response

How about a book with a 6-year-old protagonist, about mean little boys in military school, about their cuts and quips, with tons and tons of detail about their simulated war games? It’s a moderately fair description of a good percentage of the text. Of course there was more too. But this book truly transformed its subject matter, turned vices to virtues (almost all of them), and summed so much greater than its parts, that it thoroughly won my deep affection. It’s a solidly constructed, multi-layered, tightly wrapped, ethically rich work that makes it handily into the aesthetic whole category. Nevertheless, for the sake of a fuller analysis, I think there are a couple foibles and potential faults it would be fair to point out too.

Psychology is not the same as characterization; and the book was stronger perhaps in the former realm. Yes, the boys are super-brilliant prodigies, yes this is military school, and yes this is the future, but even with all these qualifiers, the dialog, and even more so the narrated thoughts, occasionally just did not seem to fit with the age depicted. Another thing I noted was that, though this is the future, socially it almost seems the past! (Relative to 1977). There’s a distinct trace of WWII soldier films or something in there and the kids have a generous dose of 1950’s style wisenheimer. It seems a little like a Cold War era-frozen world, both militarily and socially.

Ender’s siblings, as elements and forces within Ender, are essential. But as actual external characters, Peter and Valentine, it’s conceivable the main story could have mostly happened without them. So ultimately their story line was perhaps less ingeniously inter-woven into the whole. A minor stick-out in the book would be the brief self-deprecatory, self-defensive, anti-Semitic mini-rant of Rose the Nose. It’s an unimportant and minor passage, but could still induce a wince or two with its sudden racial epithets, and it also seems unnecessary in the story. Mostly it was an anomaly that was forgotten.

Now the good stuff. As a story of soldier-making the book is impressively insightful. It delivers some attractively packaged lessons about teamwork, training, leadership, and just managing people, as well as the fatal dangers of “Spanish Honor.” It dissects the break-down and re-building of a soldier that occurs in military schools, boot camp or basic training (probably unchanged since ancient Sparta). Ender is the hope of humanity and a super-prodigy, but he still shares the same foundations as any soldier. And he certainly pays an enormous personal price. The horror of the episode with Bonzo and its aftermath, packs a dreadful wallop.

Even though the book seems to lag in the social awareness of its characters and perhaps even of its fictional world, you can still add significant prescience to it stack of merits. Examples would be the prominence of super-realistic video games, remote warfare, and military training through simulation. Eerie too is the portrayal of deception, demagoguery and political manipulation through the internet. (We of 2020 wouldn’t know anything about that, eh?)

A further neat sub-theme is personal genius and conceptual breakthrough. Ender just sees things differently, and the writer lets you follow his ultimately common-sense thought processes on problems of space, distance, combat, and other things. It’s fun. Though their game seems more like laser tag, the insights sometimes remind you of a WW II fighter pilot, tank or infantry commander’s. Again, the moves certainly sound plausible. (In fairness, some of this was fairly dry, endlessly grueling for the boys and at times a little for the reader.) Additionally, perhaps the author has special insights into sports-like maneuvers in zero gravity. Whether this is based on close observations of filmed astronauts or on knowledge of physics, imagination or some combination, I couldn’t say, but it had an impressive ring of truth.

The writer rescued me fairly thunderingly from my late-book “how’s-he-going-to-wrap-this-in-20-pages?” anxiety. Without the final chapter, the book would be less essentially Science Fiction. The closing adds to the story’s richness and re-enforces the moral complexity of an already morally complex tale. It’s a brilliant tie-up and tie-in for virtually every other thread of the story I could think of. And it satisfies deferred reader desires. Again, this is a book whose twists don’t feel like deceptions.

In the final pages, one old general turns to the other and says “Why, you old farteater.” It’s an odd line to exalt as genius, but it proudly reminds us, even after all the grand action – this is a book about boys and their ways. That line is low, unexpected and pretty funny. And it shows… even in the most grizzled of old-man generals, boyhood is eternal.

 

[Matt H.]

Got my review posted: Ender's Game. Already touched it up significant;y since first posting (can't stop fiddling once I actually see it posted...)

Going to stop on v1.26 for a day of two, so you can read and comment on a "finished" version. Sorry, if you already read a previous versions. It's a pain, I know.

Thanks, look forward to any comments. Feel totally free to challenge my interpretation too! I'm sure I can learn a thing or two.... Reading Bable-17, Delany now...

 

[Matt H.]

A planned tune-up item -- sounds a little like I'm saying Card's future was not progressive enough... what I mean and will clarify, is that for sheer imagination, maybe his future, whether better or worse, is not *different* enough.

 

[Matt H.]

Tuned up the Ender review, I think it's a lot smoother. I run to the wordy, so upon second, third, etc. look the review can often be compressed and improved. I hope this version (1.87) is near "stable", haha.. Also maybe slightly less bratty in parts. There's still much more to be discussed about this book, but didn't want to make the review substantially longer than the others. If your read an early version, give it another look if you can.

Still liking Bable-17 about 2/3 in, got a couple gripes, but it's fun and not substantially weird, difficult or abstract. Most resembles the Zelazny book with which it shares the pub. year. Didn't know what to expect from author of Dhalgren. Never looked in to that book, so don't know why it has the rep for being super-difficult.

 

[Matt H.]

Hope everyone is well. Anyone read and have recommendations or strong feelings about the following? Are there better books (self-contained novels) by the same authors? (before 1990)

• Pamela Sargent, Venus of Dreams
• Elizabeth Scarborough, The Healer’s War
• Connie Willis, Lincoln’s Dream
• Octavia Butler, Wild Seed
• C.J. Cherryh, Downbelow Station
• Pat Cadigan, Mindplayers
• Lois Bujold, Falling Free

Looking to broaden the scope of possible list expansion...

 

[Hobbit]

Have read 4, Matt. None of them too recently, though.

Venus of Dreams was OK. Thought it was typical Analog material about women into space. (Late 80s?)
Lincoln's Dream and Falling Free are both good, but in both cases the authors will go onto write better things.
Downbelow Station is perhaps my favourite out of the ones I've read. Complex, nuanced Space Opera. I own a nice signed Easton Press copy of this one. But it has been a while since I read it!

 

[Vince W]

I agree with Hobbit about Downbelow Station, an excellent space opera and Cherryh's aliens are always well done. Mindplayers I thought was good, but I preferred Synners.

 

[Matt H.]

Thanks, Mark, Vince! Your replies are helpful. I may order Downbelow...

Can't wait to get Puppet Masters, have a feeling I'm going to like it. I also wanted to add in a Vance, especially since I think it will have a differnt style/tone from the rest of my list.... Is Dragon Masters a good choice? Also thinking about Pillars of Eternity, and Brin's Startide Rising, (limiting it to self-contained novels before 1990.) Looking for maximum diversity of styles and approaches. Any other obvious choices?

 

[Matt H.]

Babel-17 by Samuel Delany [1966]
Vintage Books
219 pages
Reader Response by Matt H. [v 1.4] from Reading Odyssey
Rating: Not entirely recommended, but has good points

Story Summary

In the distant future, a critical dispatch from the Invaders has been intercepted. It is in a unknown and indecipherable language dubbed Babel-17. Sabotage is afoot and the military enlists the help of the greatest linguist and poet in the six known galaxies, Rydra Wong. Rydra is entranced by the complexity of Babel-17 and she decides to become directly involved. She will captain a spaceship herself to get to the bottom of it all.

Before she can leave, Rydra must go deep into the seedier neighborhoods of the city at night in order to assemble her crew. It’s a mixed group - both corporate and dis-corporate (dead). Disembodied personages of preserved consciousness known as Eyes, Ears and Nose will help with navigation along with a platoon of younger raw recruits in support. Cali and Brass will be her officers. Both are cosmetico-surgically simulated half-men half beast with claws, tails and scales.

Soon after leaving Earth, Rydra’s ship experiences suspicious problems, and is almost permanently stranded. However Rydra finds a solution and arrives just as an assassination plot climaxes at a dinner party at the Alliance’s main military installation. Afterward, Rydra and her crew are captured by “Tarik”, an independent captain of an enormous semi-pirate space vessel. On board Rydra begins an alliance with a mysterious and dangerous man known as “The Butcher.” The Butcher has a violent and obscure past. He also has distinctly strange patterns of speech. At last, Tarik’s ship undergoes a climactic battle with the Invaders and Rydra and her friends narrowly escape

As Rydra plumbs the mysteries of Bable-17, she gains powerful new modes of prediction and control. But the nefarious side of Babel-17 is tightening its grip and seems at last to have both Rydra and The Butcher under its complete control. Only one intellect in the universe has the sheer will and linguistic genius to defeat and disarm Babel-17, and that is none other than Ryrda Wong herself!

Critical Reader Response

Babel-17 is packed with imaginative speculation, linguistic insights, and a tasteful measure of the abstract. It is also exciting and has a very vivid protagonist. But the overall resolution of the novel for me just didn’t hit the spot, neither in its plot-outcome, nor in its clarity.

Abstract idea elements are well-employed, adding depth usually without obscuring the story. But there is a dose of abstract action, too, and of course a combination. Toward the end especially, it got unclear, and the plot-strands were not wrapped up deftly, at least on my first reading impression. There was also a certain flatness to the final scenes relative to the rest, and also a few puzzlers, loose ends and themes of under-realized promise here and there, though even together they were not a decisive weakness.

As an idea-book, Babel-17 is rich. Navigation by simulated smell, dis-corporate (dead) minds as productive members of society, extreme cosmetic surgeries, explorations of “Manchurian” mental programming and telepathy, altered perceptions and some other language-based mind-benders all find a place. Babel-17 has no word for “I”, and the implications of this are part of the story. Babel-17 is a super-language with a more precise, compact, detailed way of representing reality. For example it somehow conveys the exact dimensions and other characteristics of objects in a super-efficient manner. Is such a sound-based, humanly speak-able and humanly learnable language possible? It’s a neat idea regardless.

Rydra has virtually no weaknesses that I can recall. She solves every problem, outsmarts every villain, kicks every ass and is never seriously over-matched. She is humane, sensitive and kind, but she can switch to soldier mode and even kill if she needs to. On top of all this, she is one of the greatest poets and linguists in several galaxies. She is entrancingly beautiful. She is space ship captain too and a strategic genius. Even though too good perhaps she still works remarkably well as a hero.

The book yokes personal therapy and linguistics. In some scenes with The Butcher there is a lovely dangerous tenderness as they simultaneously explore deep matters of language as well as their own psyches. Both have a lost past. Life is not necessarily viewed as cheap, by either of them. A good example is when a pregnant female invader pilot is fatally shot.

I loved the zoo-like feeling evoked with all the extreme cosmetic surgery. But I never felt satisfied on the “why” front. Delany does suggest an interesting motivation, though. Post HIV, many remarked on an apparent surge in the popularity of tattoos. I once heard someone explain it this way: tattoos give you a measure of control over your body to counter the lack of control you may feel with the disease existing in society. I hope I didn’t mangle that. I heard the same reasoning from Delany for the outlandish cosmetic-surgeries in his book (1966). Now I can actually imagine a person wanting to be a bird or a lion, but to have your skeleton reconstructed surgically, painfully (as he described it), permanently? I didn’t clearly understand the payoff for this.

Sub-themes sprouted, but never clearly burgeoned. What exactly is going on in the climactic battle scene? Psychosis rays directed at the enemy or something? It sounded cool, but in truth I didn’t exactly follow it with my first reading. Who was the hidden traitor? If it was stated, for some reason it didn’t sink in. Looked to me like Rydra was almost casting a “love spell” on the men she met but it never became a strand of the plot. It was revealed that sex was somehow part of navigation or was necessary among a “triple.” Intriguing again, but I wanted to know more. The matter of social inequalities --“Customs” (elite), “Transport” (underclass) -- also faded in and out but was never developed much. Again, even taken together, these don’t amount to insurmountable flaws.

Delaney had great taste in knowing when to go weird, in what way and how much. The ending could be an exception. But more than that it was the choice of resolution, that left this reader unsatisfied. I guess I just wanted Babel-17 and The Butcher to turn out to be something else. I guess that fact colored my overall perception. Still, Rydra Wong is a great hero. She made a bigger splash for me than the novel did as a story.

 

[Matt H.]

Response addendum

Posted my Babel-17 response. You can see what I thought.

It would be weird, but not impossible if Delany was not influenced by Bester’s Gully Foyle from The Stars in his creation of the Butcher. There are lots of similarities – big, strong dangerous ape-man, talks funny, has ambivalent history with violence, saved by a good woman, cases of amnesia, escaped several times from prisons, turns out to be more than he appears, etc….

In tone this book is most like Ringworld or This Immortal (same pub year) among the books I’ve read so far.

 

[Vince W]

Interesting review, Matt. Point of note though, the title is Babel-17. You might not be wrong about Rydra Wong being a bit too perfect, but I never considered her so. Delany's use of cosmetic surgery is, to my way of thinking, one of the earliest forays into transhumanism. Iain Banks, Alastair Reynolds and other authors have taken this even further to a more fantastic yet believable end.

Babel-17 uses the idea of Sapir-Whorf theory that language influences thought, so a language that acts almost like a virus that opens the user open to control by another user, while maybe not fully developed in this story is a very interesting idea. And as you mentioned, this book is robust in ideas.

I've never had a problem with the ending myself. It may be a little open but I remember being quite happy with it myself.

While you aren't completely sure about this book I would suggest giving Nova, Triton and The Einstein Intersection a try. If you decide to read Dhalgren be sure to read his other works first as Dhalgren can be a difficult read.

 

[Matt H.]

Interesting review, Matt. Point of note though, the title is Babel-17...Babel-17 uses the idea of Sapir-Whorf theory that language influences thought... I would suggest giving Nova, Triton...

Ouch!! Thanks so much for pointing out that horrendous and embarrassing typo! Fixed that...

Thank you for reading and responding to the review. Touched it up already a bit. Will make a note of the Delany recommendations. I could have easily loved this book, but like I said, very final resolution didn't quite satisfy on first reading. Just a quirk of taste.

 

[Hobbit]

Hadn't realised Babel & Ringworld were the same year... quite a difference there!

Can't comment on Babel myself, as I haven't read it - or at least I haven't finished it within memory to be able to make any sort of useful comment. But the points you make are interesting, as is the comment on tattoos! I can see that making sense...

 

[Matt H.]

Hadn't realised Babel & Ringworld were the same year...

Thanks Mark, actually it's Babel-17 and This Immortal - both 1966. Vince has got some informative comments.

(added)
I can see that was a little unclear, apologies. Thanks also for the feedback as always!

Working on Forever War... Sheesh, reading that book is about as tough as eating brownies. An easy, totally gripping read so far

 

[Westy]

Working on Forever War... Sheesh, reading that book is about as tough as eating brownies. An easy, totally gripping read so far

Interested to read what you think...I read it last year and liked it, but with some reservations!

 

[Matt H.]

Interested to read what you think...I read it last year and liked it, but with some reservations!

Thanks Westy, working on the review now. Looking forward to a discussion!

Started Left Hand of Darkness, cause it's kind of depressing to not be reading something. And to think before I read Solaris last year and started my reviews, I hadn't read a fiction book for 25 years! Haha... Once you click into it again, you want to keep it going.