Science Fiction – Page 2

Category: Science Fiction (Page 2 of 2)

In About, Culture, Events, Fantasy, Fiction, First Editions, Foreign Fiction, Gift Books, Graphic Novels, Nature, OZ: Young Adult Fiction, Poetry, Science Fiction, Southern Culture, Staff Blog, Virtual Bookstore Tour

dbdb37f2-a00d-4114-b5d6-1e42a0bc65cf This year was a doozy. I consumed everything from nonfiction about animal consciousness to the modern classic Fates and Furies by Lemuria’s new best friend, Lauren Groff. I can’t even get into the second paragraph without telling you that The Godfather was hands down my favorite read of the year. You can read my blog about it here. I had the chance to sit down and talk to Garth Risk Hallberg about his meteoric rise in the literary world. Jon Meacham made me cry.

I personally made the move from the hub that is Lemuria’s front desk to the quieter fiction room, where I now am elbows deep in the mechanics of our First Editions Club; and am coincidentally even more in love with fiction than I was before. My TBR pile has skyrocketed from about 10 books to roughly 30 on my bedside table. It’s getting out of control and I love it.

[Sidebar: This year, I fell even more in love with graphic novels. Nimona surprised us all by making one of the short-lists for the National Book Award, and we were so pleased to see it get the recognition that it deserves. Go Noelle Stevenson! You rule!]

As a bookstore, we were able to be on the forefront of some of the most influential books of 2015 (see: Between the World and Me– when we passed that advance reader copy around, the rumblings were already beginning). Literary giants Salman Rushdie, John Irving, and Harper Lee put out new/very, very old works to (mostly) thunderous applause, and debut novelists absolutely stunned and shook up the book world. (My Sunshine Away, anyone? I have never seen the entire staff band behind a book like that before. We were/are obsessed.) Kent Haruf’s last book was published; it was perfect, and our hearts ache in his absence.

We marched through another Christmas, wrapping and reading and recommending and eating enough cookies to make us sick. We hired fresh new faces, we said goodbye to old friends, we cleaned up scraggly, hairy sections of the store and made them shiny and new. We had the privilege of having a hand in Mississippi’s first ever book festival. We heaved in the GIANT new Annie Leibovitz book, and spent a few days putting off work so that we could all flip through it. In short, this year has been anything but uneventful; it’s been an adventure. So here’s to 2016 absolutely knocking 2015 out of the park.

Read on, guys.

9XL0vUY

Gifting the Perfect Book: Sci-Fi and Pop Culture Enthusiasts

By Former Lemurians

On December 8, 2015

In Fiction, Science Fiction

by Andrew Hedglin

I know I’m a little late to the party on this one. Not only had I not read Ready Player One until this August (by Ernest Cline- it came out in 2011), I had not even heard of Cline until I started working at Lemuria this summer. I didn’t even get one of his books read to help the hype-train roll along for his July 30 signing of his new book Armada (signed first editions of which are still available). There is, however, still some room on the bandwagon before Steven Spielberg adapts Ready Player One for the silver screen.

And anyway, it’s okay, because between the deep-seated 80s nostalgia and the bleak virtual futurism of 30 years from now, there’s a timeless feeling to Ready Player One, which feels like it will become a classic of the gamer genre of literature. The novel tells the story of Wade Watts, a down-and-out teenager from Oklahoma City, whose life changes with the creation of a massive worldwide virtual treasure hunt. As the world falls apart from resource depletion and neglect, most people spend their lives instead in the OASIS, a massive, multi-world virtual reality system. When the creator of the OASIS dies, his will leaves control of the company (and thus the OASIS) to whomever can find a virtual “easter egg” hidden in the OASIS itself. Players do this by finding keys through trials designed to test their gaming skill and 1980s pop culture knowledge.

Wade, whose online alias is Parzival (modeled after the questing Grail knight), takes an early lead by finding the first key through dedication and a bit of luck, but he’s soon locked in a frantic race against his friends (Aech [pronounced “H”], his love interest/frenemy Art3mis, and the Samurai brothers Daito and Shoto) and enemies (an army of egg hunters called the Sixers employed by a massive, sinister internet service provider).

One of the appealing things about the OASIS is the seemingly endless number of different worlds, often inspired by real-world pop & gaming culture, that are featured or suggested in the story. Even though the book is loaded with homages, references, and appearances, it doesn’t feel inaccessible. Partly this is through Cline’s lucid exposition, and part is from having a broad enough cultural canon that most denizens of the internet can be familiar with.

I myself was only three years-old at the end of the 1980s, and though I’ve played my share of video games, I don’t think I would have ever called myself a gamer. Despite these limitations, I never felt lost or bored.

Besides, the book itself feels like its own mythology to contribute—it’s worth your time to check out this lovingly created fan art on Tumblr. It’s fascinating to see the responses to Art3mis, especially, mostly identification with but also occasionally sexualization of—much like Wade’s attitude, actually.

http://readyplayerone.com/image/116504132695

[Source]

Even though the book succeeds mostly on its entertainment value, it does raise—and poke around—themes of not only identity, but also escapism vs. the value of reality. It raises questions better than providing analysis, but the choices confronting Wade, especially at the end of the novel are interesting. The ending also leaves the consequences of the story open without demanding a sequel to feel complete, which I appreciated.

Mostly, though, Ready Player One is just a hell of a lot of fun. It’s got puzzles, it’s got memorable characters, it’s got (a very gamer type of) romance, it’s got a classic narrative structure—and a place on book store, library, and home book shelves for years to come.

Magic Beans for Escape Artists

By Former Lemurians

On August 14, 2015

In Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Staff Blog

Do you tape beautiful, exotic vistas to your cubicle wall, and wish you were floating on your back in the blue of the Mediterranean? And when the bossman comes round asking for you to work Saturday and Sunday while demanding more TPS reports, do you desire escapism? Fear not comrade! I have some magic beans to sell you. Save yourself a bruising imprint of QWERTY on your head and lose yourself in some good science fiction.

I’ll be the honest Magic Bean Merchant and go ahead and tell you that each of these three beans will produce their own beanstalks that will reach up far beyond the clouded mundaneness of your typical workday.

Also, I’ll be straightforward, there are giants atop the beanstalk. But these giants are not of the Odyssian-cannibal-club swinging-loincloth wearing ilk; rather, they are the profound, contemporary giants of today’s science fiction genre. Neil Stephenson stands atop the tallest stalk I refer to as ‘hard science fiction.’ Atop the beanstalk of fantasy resides the elusive B. Catling, sitting in stoic repose. And lastly, atop the beanstalk of magical realism, beckons the largest giant of all—Haruki Murakami.

Think you can climb the highest beanstalk? Go ahead, limber up the legs of your science bound brain and prepare the ascent of Neil Stephenson’s SevenEves. I determine that SevenEves belongs in the ‘hard science fiction’ subgenre, because of Stephenson’s ability to convince his reader that every single thing happening within this epic is entirely possible and could happen in the real world…well, if some mysterious force were to destroy the moon and the subsequent fallout of moonrocks threatened the complete annihilation of humanity. SevenEves is steeped in physics and engineering lessons. For the first few weeks I was getting into this novel, I relentlessly dreamed (or in some cases had nightmares) that I was haphazardly floating around on the International Space Station trying figure out how to do things like pour dangerous chemicals into beakers in Zero-G to save the human race.

I recommend SevenEves to hard science fiction enthusiasts because Stephenson has mastered his form in this novel in a way that is so immersive and science-y that it would make Michael Crichton blush. Climb aboard if you have the time to devote to this novel, because it is exceedingly dense—but if you are fit to the task you will be directly portal’d to a different time and place that is much more titillating than the real world.

(Also, please, please PLEASE! Will someone read this one? After having finished it I crave, no, I NEED, to have someone to talk to concerning SevenEves. After the end I’ve been gasping for further pontification. For instance: I want to tell you that [if I were a character in this epic] I would be a Neolander (Red) Aidan Beta that retreated to Beringia in order to re-seed Terra Firma with gen-mod grapes [that haven’t been robbed of sweetness by epigenessis] and make new Earth’s first wine vineyard…and protect the whole shindig from those barbaric diggers and dastardly blue Teclans with the crack of my nano-bot composite bull whip.)

The newest stalk, the stalk of fantasy is one climbed only by the most adventuring escapists. This beanstalk is comprised of B. Catling’s first and only published work: The Vorrh. Six or seven plots within The Vorrh revolve and twist around each other. The deadfall switching of narrative voicing and character arcs keeps readers on their toes. This mechanic forces the reader to keep guessing what lies at the center of the mystical Vorrh, which is a place hidden in the most remote reaches of Africa where ‘gods walk’ and is even referred to by some as a ‘garden of Eden.’ If the fantasy beanstalk is the one you want to surmount, prepare yourself for The Vorrh and expect to enter the minds of an indigenous tribesman/assassin wielding a talisman-enchanted post WWI rifle, of a lusty Cyclops raised by robots and imprisoned in a mysterious basement, and lastly prepare yourself to visit The Vorrh, being a composite of captured beauty that will send your heart racing and captured terror that will keep your heart skipping.

The last bean I offer you will actually split into two parallel stalks. So, climb one, climb the other, or if you are an exceptionally strong escape artist—Ironman your way up the middle of both at the same time. The legendary king, master of the magical realists’ universe stands at the top, straddling both stalks with his style and enormous narrative gait. He is no other than Haruki Murakami, and the stalks are respectively Kafka on the Shore and IQ84.

So, being the astute Murakami fanboy I seem to be, I gotta tell you these books will blow your mind so bad that you’ll be scraping brains from your wallpaper for weeks. Both are set in real world Japan, and begin tragically trapped by a serendipitous sense of realism, but as the novels evolve, Japanese mysticism will rise up from the darkest cracks of unexplored Tokyo and entrance you with plot arcs that will leave your jaw dangling with a loss for words.

If ultra-femenist, ice-pick wielding, super assassins and powerful, corrupt cults are your type of thing, pick up IQ84. If coming of age stories, libraries, shadow walking, leeches raining from the heavens, and a cast of talking cats are more your thing, pick up Kafka on the Shore.

Don’t feel trapped by mediocrity my friend. Thousands of alternate realities await you on the shelves of Lemuria if none of these beanstalks fit your escapist ambitions. Drop by, grab a Lemurian and demand that they help you escape reality.

But, ask for me if any of these magic beans have particularly sparked your curiosity. I’m eager to set you on a steadfast route out of your cubicle. Godspeed, my escape artist comrades!

Gamers save the planet in ‘Armada’

By Guest Author

On August 3, 2015

In Fiction, Guest Post, Science Fiction

By Jim Ewing Special to The Clarion-Ledger

If you enjoy playing space invader video games and have ever thought of yourself while doing so as saving the planet (and who hasn’t?), then Ernest Cline’s Armada is for you!

The premise is simple: Zack Lightman, a high school senior, is joyfully addicted to playing video games. In fact, after school, he even works in a video arcade where he and his gamer boss Ray spend more time playing games than waiting on customers.

As a result, Zack has cracked the Top 10 of players in the Armada game, where players seek to defend the Earth from squid-like extraterrestrials bent on the planet’s destruction.

Little does he know — but he soon finds out! — that the Armada game (which is a drone spaceflight simulation game) and its terrestrial companion Terra Firma, a land-based bot fighter game, are actually testing outlets for would-be real pilots!

In case this sounds remarkably like the 1984 film The Last Starfighter, Cline makes no bones about it, commenting on it upfront — along with references to every video game such as Space Invaders and Star Raiders that proceed along the same lines. In fact, Armada revels in its geekiness and exalts it, stringing references to films, games, TV shows, comics and the like with gleeful abandon.

Suffice it to say, if you loved Starfighter and grok references to Wolverines (Red Dawn), May The Force Be With You (Star Wars), and Klaatu barada nikto (The Day the Earth Stood Still), you’ll love Armada.

In pure critical terms, Armada is not likely to win any awards for dialogue, character or plot (after all, it’s essentially played out in every teen’s living room across America and accurately portrays that enthusiasm), but it’s a fun book and, yes, it has elements that keep the reader interested.

There is the love interest, for example, Lexis Larkin, who not only loves Zack’s geekiness but beats him at it, and is “hot,” as Zack puts it: “Her pale, alabaster skin contrasted sharply with her dark clothing — black combat boots, black jeans, and black tank top (which didn’t fully conceal the black bra she was wearing underneath). She had a spiky wave of black hair that was buzzed down one side and chin-length on the other. But the real kicker were her tattoos, one each arm: on the left was a beautiful seminude rendering of the comic book heroine Tank Girl, adorned in postapocalyptic rock lingerie and smooching an M16. On her right bicep in stylized capital letters were the words El Riesgo Siempre Vive …”

With that motto (“The Risk Always Lives”), gamers will know that Larkin is the equivalent of Private First Class Jenette Vasquez in the Alien vs. Predator games. She shares in his efforts to save the world, including Zack’s hide. (For older gamers, think of Sarah Conner in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.)

If you want to know what your teen is reading this summer, Amada is probably it. But, while Armada should find popularity among young people, it also provides nostalgia for older folk with its 1980s and ’90s references, especially its song list of 1980s rock ‘n’ roll hits that Zack plays while battling aliens. And it’s filled with witty observations: e.g., speculating on why the aliens attacked Earth. “Maybe they seeded life on Earth millions of years ago, and now they’re here to punish us for turning out to be such a lame species and inventing reality TV…”

It’s hard to judge if Armada is really science fiction or simply a gamer book, but maybe it doesn’t matter. It’s a romp; entertaining, fun, an adventure.

Keep_Calm_Because_the_Cake_is_a_Lie! It does, however, have a plot twist that’s bound to surprise. As the meme from the game Portal is weaved into Armada: The Cake is a Lie!

Jim Ewing, a former writer and editor at The Clarion-Ledger, is the author of seven books including Redefining Manhood: A Guide for Men and Those Who Love Them, now in bookstores.

Cline the Conqueror

By Former Lemurians

On July 30, 2015

In Culture, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Staff Blog

Ernest Cline is one of many riding the wave after the dam broke open on nerd culture in America; and he is riding it higher than almost anyone. He is currently sitting near the top- not because he tried to blend his particular tastes into a mainstream-friendly book with a few cultural references sprinkled about, but because he unscrewed the top of the salt shaker and drowned us in them. He demands a cursory knowledge of video games, anime, John Hughes movies, Rush songs, Call of Duty, Star Wars and arguing with strangers on message boards. The more you know about any of these, the more easter eggs and snarky jokes you will get (and he gives more than you will see in a one hundred different books).

Armada was a real pleasure to read. It explods off the launch pad into a blazing fast novel of space ship battles with some really heart-felt moments. Cline makes no effort to hide where this book is headed from page one: we’re about to fight some filthy squids in space. Ernest Cline will be (and is) the first one to let us know that he, more than most, understands that this trope to be all too familiar. But if it is so familiar to us all, maybe there is a reason for that. Maybe all this violence in video games does rub off on us. Maybe we should be hoping that it does. (No spoilers, so I can’t explain why)

I think this second effort by Ernest Cline has a few weak spots, but the straight-as-an-arrow plotline is forgotten as soon as you step into the first space ship. All of the sarcasm and witty dialogue that got our attention in Ready Player One (Cline’s first novel) is front and center here. The nerd culture explosion of movies, games, and music will be there as only Ernest Cline can deliver.

This swell in the popularity of fan-based culture can be attributed to a lot of different things, the internet being at the top of this list, but there is another reason. People finally realized that the kids spending hundreds of dollars to create a cosplay of that one alien in the background of that one scene in Star Trek are the same people that will empty their bank accounts into new, exciting content. Spend some money on this crowd and they will spend money on you. This has lead to a huge expansion in the attention big studios are giving nerd-centered projects that reward the big-budget glossy paint job so well.

Ernest Clines’ first book Ready Player One is now in the very capable hands of Mr. Steven Spielberg. If the release of this movie is as big as I think it is going to be, then Ernest Clines’ spot on the throne of contemporary nerd-hood will be set until someone sees fit to challenge him (via a head to head game of Joust probably).

Jupiter Ascending: The best action film you can imagine? NOPE

One thing I know, and I know it well: we nerds are a fickle bunch. We don’t want to be tricked with special effects to patch up a weak plot (I’m looking at you, Jupiter Rising) and we will scream at the top of our caps lock keys to let everyone know about it. Lord help he who leaves a plot hole; in other words, don’t mess with time travel- it usually won’t work out well for you. Green screens look like green screens, period. Cameos are fun, but like special effects, you can’t just substitute Stan Lee making a pun in place of a little character development. Do I need to mention that we are an impatient bunch? Just ask George Martin (or Rothfuss or Lucas or Tool for that matter). If you follow these complicated, difficult rules then you still might fail and we will offer no sympathy for 10 years. After 10 years you will get invited to a couple comic cons and become a “cult classic.” For those that walk through the flame of the message boards and battle the mighty comic-con panels your reward shall be fans as far as the eye can see.

y9uuetr I hope you find this new swing in pop culture as exciting as I do. Come celebrate this nerd pride with us tonight at 5:00 in our .dot.com building and meet Ernest Cline himself. We’ll be the ones in the corner selling copies of Armada, Ready Player One, awesome merch, and quoting The Breakfast Club or arguing with you about the over use of the eagles in The Lord of the Rings. We would love to nerd out with you.

Let’s Hope They Don’t Ruin This

By Former Lemurians

On January 31, 2015

In Fiction, Science Fiction

martian

Faithful Lemurians, REJOICE! (maybe)

Earlier this year, Crown re-published the 2011 hit by Andy Weir, The Martian. This introduced protagonist Mark Watney to a readership much larger than Weir ever expected, and propelled the book into the hands of readers all over the world. FOX purchased the rights for a film adaptation and fans preceded to lose their minds. I chose to reserve my hype levels until more information came out from the studio.

Over the past few months, I’ve been following the development of the film and, let me tell you, the hype can not be satiated. FOX is bringing out the big guns for this movie. Ridley Scott has signed on to the direct the film, and Matt Damon will reportedly star as Watney.

Let me explain why I’m a little apprehensive about these two choices. While Ridley Scott may be responsible for some of the best sci-fi films ever, (Alien, Blade Runner) he has also directed one of the worst (Prometheus). Obviously, this is all subjective, but Alien and Blade Runner could both be described as brave filmmaking. Uncompromising in their tone and scope and films that existed to do more than make a studio a boat load of money. Readers of the The Martian will undoubtedly see some similarities in that past statement. The Martian wasn’t written to make money (Weir originally tried releasing the book for free but had to charge something in order for Amazon to place it in their inventory), and what Weir achieves in the book may be at the expense of alienating (heh) some potential readers. For example, Watney goes on page-long math problems that can at times, seem excessive. The point isn’t to prove how great he can be at writing out math equations as exposition, but to immerse the reader in Watney’s struggle. Alien did the same thing with moviegoers in 1977. The film was steeped in atmosphere. Segments of the film were intentionally vague and disorienting to match the emotions of the characters with the viewers. Prometheus chose to use the BUAAAAAAAMMMM sound that every movie uses to inform readers that something is about to BUAAAAAAAAMMM happen. The Martian should also be lighthearted to an extent. Can the guy that directed Gladiator and American Gangster do a space MacGyver?

Matt Damon.

mattdamon300 He most certainly has the chops to pull this off, but why Chris Pratt wasn’t cast for the lead seems just plain irresponsible. Instead of going on and on about this oversight, I will say that Matt Damon is a great pick. His work with Kevin Smith in Dogma proves he can make fun of himself, and I’m certain nothing more needs to be said for his dramatic roles. Damon is handsome, smart, and endearing, but can he nail the everyman role that stumbles into a spaceship and gets trapped on Mars?

Let us hope they don’t ruin this film, because it has the story, characters and soul to resonate with audiences all over the world. The cynic in me says don’t get too excited, but the hype in me is over 9,000.

Why wait? The Martian is available now at Lemuria Bookstore, and online at lemuriabooks.com

Written by Andre

Sorry Please Thank You Stories

By admin

On September 8, 2012

In Fiction, Science Fiction

Charles Yu, the author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, is back with a collection of short stories Sorry Please Thank You. They are really good by the way. Like really good. What makes me qualified to make such a claim? Qualifications? I’ve read them, and I’ve read at least 3 other books in my life, so I’m pretty much a professional reader.

If you are not familiar with Yu’s work I think its time you check him out. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe was Yu’s first novel, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and a 2011 best book of the year by Time Magazine. Not to mention I thought it was awesome. In HTLSIASFU Yu is a time travel technician that floats, or speeds, or whatever through Minor Universe 31. What is his purpose? He gets people out of their time travel predicaments, cycles, loops, jams, pickles, etc. While he’s flitting about time and space saving folks he finds that he too suffers from the same cycles, loops, and melancholia of the age and might need a bit of some salvation himself.

Designer Emotion 67 is one the shorts featured in his new collection and was originally published in The Oxford American. The story begins with the CEO of PharmaLife, Inc. giving the 2050 fiscal report to its shareholders and announcing he will reveal their newest hottest drug after he’s gone over the numbers. PharmaLife has specialized in depression medications, but we are told they are moving on to bigger fish:

“Where was I? Yes. Depression. Depression has been good to us. But at this point, as you all realize, it has come to be run as an exercise in sales and marketing. We’re late in the product life cycle. The Depression-industrial complex has been built. Winning in the Depression/Suicide space these days means keeping the machine running smoothly…Depression earned three forty-two a share last year, or just over nine and a half billion dollars for PharmaLife. Not depressing at all! … Depression may have matured and become a marketing shop, but the DREAD business unit is still the domain of the engineers, … It’s an exciting time over at DREAD… We are going to cure dread by the end of the decade. And by cure, I mean, find a blockbuster drug that has a differential rate of indication greater than the margin of error in white mice that exhibit symptoms of dread. Or whatever the mouse version of dread is.”

Dread, though a big fish, is not the biggest in PharmaLife’s infinite ocean. I’m not going tell you the end, I’m not going to tell you how cool and weird and terrible Designer Emotion 67 is, because I want you to read it for yourself, I want you to experience Yu’s craftsmanship, because it is wonderfully hilarious and fun and yet frighteningly close to home.

So come by and get Sorry Please Thank You, you won’t be sorry.

(If you haven’t read HTLSIASFU you should also get that. If you have read it, well, just get it again.)

-Austen

Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott

By Former Lemurians

On August 30, 2011

In Science Fiction

Dear Listener,

Within my first couple of weeks at Lemuria, I caught book fever. If you are not familiar with this disease, I’ll have you know it can be very deadly (to your bank account). The symptoms include, but are not limited to: salivating over first editions, feeling a yearning to take books home with you every day, and searching the dense data base for interesting editions of books you may already have.

This is how I ended up ordering an annotated version of Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884) by Edwin A. Abbott, a book I already own twice over. As densely written as it is, this new annotated edition (annotated by Ian Stewart) brought to light so many ideas that I had not understood in previous readings.

Isaac Asimov said this about Flatland:

Edwin A. Abbott

Why has the book remained so popular for almost a hundred years? Because, like Mark Twain, Professor Abbott must have thought: I refuse to be serious about a serious subject. Churches brim with seriousness and snoozers snooze. Scientific conferences of one denomination or another drone on through endless and ungoiden afternoons and one chooses the catnap as against suicide. The only medicine is high spirits and good humor.

If you find 19^th century mathematical science fiction to be dense and un-interpretable, this timeless song from Neutral Milk Hotel’s 1998 album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea might help you feel more willing in your artistic acceptance.

by Simon

Desert Island Books: Science Fiction Picks

By Former Lemurians

On May 2, 2011

In Science Fiction

I mentally sorted through a ridiculous number of books to get this post down to five favorites, but I think they’re all good starting points for non-genre readers. If I had to hand someone a stack of books that would be guaranteed to get them to come back for more, these would be it.

The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell

When I first read this book, someone described it as “Jesuits in space”. While that description is technically true, this book has endured as one of my favorite books in any genre.

When eerily beautiful music is picked up by an observation station, Father Emilio Sandoz is charged with the task of going to find the people (or non-people) who wrote it. Along with a kind but raggedy band of scientists and linguists, he sets off for Rakhat. What follows is an alternatively gentle and violent meditation on religion, humanity, colonization, and how even our best intentions can destroy the things we love.

Russell is a consistently poetic and thoughtful writer, and her own questions regarding religion and culture shine through in the book. What is our duty to each other? When do you really understand people who are different from you? Ultimately, The Sparrow supplies very few definitive answers, but will stick with you long after you’ve read it.

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

These two books are listed together because they represent one very long manuscript that was split in two for publication. A word to the wise: there is no cliffhanger at the end of Blackout, and no recap in All Clear.

These books are also up for every big science fiction award this year, and are two of the best books I’ve read in years.

Polly, Eileen, and Mike are graduate students studying WW2. As time traveling historians, they can go back in time and observe, but are protected by the static laws of time travel. Eileen is sent to the countryside to observe the evacuated children, while Polly works as a shop girl during the Blitz. Mike is embedded as a reporter at Dunkirk so he can study every day heroes. It quickly becomes clear that something has gone terribly wrong. Their return routes won’t open, and one or all of them may have done something to change the outcome of the war.

The book is more a study of the courage and chaos that ordinary people displayed during the Blitz, as well as a great historical novel that focuses on how individual actions can have a huge effect on history. The characters are likeable, and the dangers seem very real. If you’re into WW2 history, this is a great way to see it in a new light.

Cordelia’s Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Lois McMaster Bujold is singlehandedly reinventing the space opera genre with her Miles Vorkosigan series. Instead of focusing on high drama with aliens, she’s written a lengthy series that puts character, plot, and great writing above the hallmarks of the genre. She’s got some great female heroines as well.

Cordelia Naismith is a biologist exploring new eco-systems. Aral Vokosigan is affectionately known on his planet as “The Butcher of Komarr”, and has been left for dead by his mutinous crew on the same far off planet as Cordelia. They’re from entirely different cultures politically and ideologically, and as in most great romances, hate each other on sight. However, the desire to live can overcome many obstacles, so they end up working together to outsmart both assassins and a political coup to return home.

The strength of these books isn’t the plot (which is a light take on the normal political scheming and murder that you find in space opera), but the characters. Cordelia and Aral are real people with thoughts and opinions, and Bujold smartly explores the cultural and political differences between them.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is a literary star, and Neverwhere is a fantastic example of why he is so popular. Originally a BBC miniseries, it was turned into a wonderful novel later on.

Richard Mayhew is an average London executive whose life is turned upside down when he nurses an injured homeless woman back to health in his apartment. The next day, he discovers that no one seems to be able to see him and that his job and his apartment have been given away to other people. He embarks on a quest to find Door and discovers a world where abandoned tube stations contain a community of people who are not what they seem.

Neverwhere is full of memorably creepy characters and an innovative use of the London subway system. You’ll never look at a map of London the same way again.

Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley

Rose Daughter is the most traditional science fiction/fantasy book on this whole list, and Robin McKinley is a first rate fairy tale goddess. YA readers may know her as the author of the classic “The Hero and the Crown”, but she also writes stunning adult novels.

Rose Daughter is based on Beauty and the Beast, so don’t expect to be surprised by the plot. The meat of the story is in the characters and the incredibly detailed settings (the botanical descriptions are lengthy and gorgeous). Beauty and her three sisters move to a small cottage with a garden full of dead roses. Each of the sisters is struggling with themselves: Beauty is timid and hides out with her flowers, Lionheart is a tomboy, and Jeweltongue is too smart for the men in the town to take seriously. When Beauty finds herself traded for her father’s freedom, she also finds another garden that can be brought back to life. At its heart, Rose Daughter is a book about unconventional passions, whether that be flowers or Beasts or books. -HJ

Lincoln’s Dreams: Exploring the Civil War Through Science Fiction

By Former Lemurians

On April 6, 2011

In Science Fiction

As a newbie to the Jackson area, I’ve been reading my way through a self-taught course on southern culture. I started with Welty and Foote, and visited Vicksburg to get a sense of what things would have actually looked like during the Civil War. I had a mild obsession with the Civil War; I wanted to understand the sacrifices that people made, where they made them, and what it must have felt like.

I came back to this feeling recently reading Lincoln’s Dreams by Connie Willis. The book is technically science fiction, but it’s the quiet kind of science fiction that is more grounded in science and history than anything else. On a dark and stormy night, Jeff meets Annie at a book release party. Jeff is a research assistant to a famous Civil War novelist, and Annie is his old college roommate’s sleep study patient (and undercover girlfriend). Whenever Annie sleeps, she finds herself tortured by vivid Civil War dreams. Upon further investigation, Jeff determines that all the dreams must come from the perspective of General Lee.

As Lee’s soldiers march through Annie’s head, she and Jeff take off to try and find the cause before the doctors can lock her away or Jeff’s boss can try and use her as a human research experiment. When Jeff isn’t guarding Annie from her own subconscious, he spends his time desperately trying to figure out the cause of Annie’s dreams before it is too late. The science of dreams is also addressed: Are Annie’s dreams the result of some terrible metaphysical mix-up, or just a result of some dangerous drug cocktail?

While well researched, the strength of the book is really in the emotional punch of Jeff and Annie’s journey. As they become more sleep deprived and malnourished, they find themselves reluctantly recreating the journey that Lee and his men also took all those years ago.

If you’ve never tried the science fiction genre (or just didn’t think it was for you), this book is a great starting point. It’s a beautiful and moving look at southern culture and duty in the modern age. -HJ

Lincoln’s Dreams by Connie Wilson (Bantam, 1992)

Category: Science Fiction (Page 2 of 2)

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