March 2006

Science Fiction Book Review

 First Lensman

First Lensman is E. E. "Doc" Smith's second installment in his unmatched Lensman series. It recounts how Virgil Samms is led to Arisia to receive his Lens and become the first Lensman in history, and how he subsequently founded the Galactic Patrol, and how that newly-born Patrol defended humanity from two grave threats: the military threat of an attack by a mysterious unknown Black Fleet, and an internal threat posed by the corrupt Morgan-Towne-Isaacson political machine. The Patrol defeated the Black Fleet in battle and tracked down those responsible for its creation, and Lensman "Rod the Rock" Kinnison beat the Morgan-Towne-Isaacson machine for election as President of North America. The Patrol emerged victorious on all fronts, and the incorruptible Lensman ensured that that Galactic Patrol would always be a benevolent government.

First Lensman is a better book than Triplanetary, although it curiously suffers from the same ailment: it doesn't have a strong story arc. It seems to be more a series of episodes than a complete story, although the episodes do collectively lead to the same conclusion: complete and total victory for the Galactic Patrol.

A few observations:

• The main character of the book is Virgil Samms, not Roderick Kinnison. The subsequent books in the series focus on a Kinnison.
• It is Virgil Samms, not Kinnison, who goes undercover to Trenco to harvest broadleaf.
• It is Conway Constigan, not Kinnison, who goes to work in a uranium mine and saves many lives after a cave-in.
• I finally understand the reference to the Samms-Olmstead switch that so confused me on previous readings of First Lensman.
• "Christ, what a design--I could eat a handful of iron filings and puke a better emergency pump than that!"
• Smith likes to drop you down into the middle of a situation without filling you in on the background. It's his way of enhancing the element of surprise: deliberately keep the reader in the dark about things that all the main characters know. It's a juvenile writing trick that I don't appreciate.
• "How can legal processes work efficiently--work at all, for that matter--when a man can commit a murder or a pirate can loot a space-ship and be a hundred parsecs away before the crime is even discovered? How can a Tellurian John Law find a criminal on a strange world that knows nothing whatever of our Patrol, with a completely alien language--maybe no language at all--when it takes months even to find out who and where--if any--the native police officers are?"

Science Fiction Book Review

 Triplanetary

E. E. "Doc" Smith singlehandedly invented most of the science fiction cliches we know and love today. His greatest work is the six-volume Lensman series, which pits the forces of Civilization against the forces of an unknown malignant enemy. This is a grand, sweeping space opera in which the good guys are incorruptible and the bad guys are utterly dedicated to the cause of evil.

Triplanetary is not a great book in itself, but it sets the stage for the rest of the series. It introduces the guardians of Civilization, the Arisians, as well as the overlords of evil, the dreaded Eddorians. The Arisians are unable to defeat the Eddorians in open combat, so they resort to plan B: manipulate humanity and form mankind into a race capable of destroying the Eddorians. To this end, Arisia discreetly influences the history of mankind, keeping the meddling secret both from humanity and from the Eddorians.

Human civilizations (Atlantis, Rome, and America in particular) are permitted to rise and fall in order to forge mankind into a better race. These events are chronicled in the first few chapters of Triplanetary. The bulk of the novel takes place just as humanity is entering the age of interstellar space travel. No novices to interplanetary travel, mankind has already united the solar system under a single triplanetary government encompassing Earth, Mars, and Venus. War appears to be a thing of the past.

But the disappearance of several spaceships prompts an investigation into the outer edges of the solar system--which leads to a fight against space pirates armed with superweapons unknown to humanity--and then to violent encounter with the Nevians, an amphibious race from a faraway star, who want nothing more than to steal all the iron in the solar system.

Conway Constigan is kidnapped by Gray Roger, the chief pirate; he escapes but is promptly picked up the a passing Nevian ship and taken back to Nevia as a scientific specimen. On Nevia he manages to escape and be recaptured a couple of times, while back on Earth the scientists Rodebush and Cleveland are perfecting a new spaceship packed to the gills with new technology. Rodebush and Cleveland manage to finish the new ship just in time to 1) save Earth from a Nevian attack, 2) wipe out Gray Roger's space pirates forever, and 3) rescue Conway Constigan from Nevia. Then Earth and Nevia negotiate a treaty and live happily ever after.

Quality-wise, Triplanetary is a fair bit below the rest of the Lensman series. The writing is fractured and not cohesive, which is to be expected--this is a fix-up novel that wasn't originally part of the Lensman series. The characters are flat, but that's par for the course in a space opera: you don't read it for characterization anyway. The dialog is atrocious in the love interest segments (Conway Constigan falls in love with Clio Marsden) but the rest of the dialog is merely wooden, not cringe-worthy. Overall a decent introduction to the series, but much of the action in the Triplanetary section of the book is superfluous to the series. The real purpose for the book's existence is to introduce the Eddorians and the Arisians.

Fiction Book Review

 300 Pages of Crap

300 Pages of Crap is not a real book. Or rather, it is real, but it is not a professional book. It is a collection of internet comedy articles taken from John Cheese's Magic Pimp Bus. John Cheese, sometimes in partnership with David Wong of PointlessWasteOfTime.com, has written a few dozen horrific comedy articles and gained a small cult following of rabid fans. There is no redeeming quality in Cheese's humor, but I find it funny.

The book is pretty much just a copy-and-paste job of his articles into book form and printed by CafePress. Well, pretty much: he has added some commentary, an introduction, and yes, two entirely new articles. I liked the book and it was worth my money despite there not being much new material. Oh, and it only tips the scales at 282 pages. John Cheese owes me 18 pages of crap.

Update 12/2017: PointlessWasteOfTime.com has now merged with Cracked.com. David Wong and John Cheese are writers and editors for Cracked. The Magic Pimp Bus is no more.

Christian Book Review

 Why Men Hate Going to Church

The book is just what it claims to be: an analysis of why the church fails to attract spiritual men.

The first question the book addresses is this: Is there a real gender gap in the modern Christian church? David Murrow inundates the reader with statistics to prove that 1) there is an attendance gender gap in church, to the tune of 61% women and 39% men in the average Sunday morning service in the United States; 2) there is a participation gap, with most church positions (with the exception of pastor and elders) filled by women and most church ministries run by women. These gender gaps are statistically significant and are not simply the product of women living longer than men, or men being busier with their jobs. Incidentally, other religions do not suffer a similar gender gap. It is an exclusively Christian phenomenon.

Next, David Murrow explores the reasons why men reject church. The reason, he says, is that church is geared toward women. And this is the meat of the book: methodical examples of exactly how the church appeals to women but turns men away. And this is precisely the part that may offend many people. When comparing men and women, one must fall back on generalizations. And Murrow does this.

Generalizations don't apply to everyone. Some of the example of feminine qualities in churches are items that I feel quite comfortable with. But on the whole, I agreed with Murrow's assessment. Nearly every time he pinpointed a feminine aspect of today's church, it was an aspect of church that has bothered me, or that I felt could be improved upon.

Prayer-and-share can be an irritant to men. You may have a couple of magpies in your congregation who stand up every week with some trivial thing to pray about: "Please pray for my Aunt Bessie's bunion." You may also have a couple of wannabe preachers who take two or three minutes to share what God has placed on their hearts. These are not prayer requests but sermonettes by people who want the spotlight. This grandstanding rankles men.
p. 142

Simple things such as changing the language we use to proclaim the gospel. Stop talking about "passionate relationships" with Jesus, and start talking instead about the challenge of following Christ.

Nowadays it's not enough to have a personal relationship with Jesus; many of today's top speakers encourage men to have a passionate relationship with Him. These teachers have chosen a very uncomfortable metaphor to describe discipleship. Speaking as a man, the idea of having a passionate relationship with another man is just plain gross.
...
If gets worse. More than once, I've been exhorted by a prominent men's minister to have a love affair with Jesus. I just saw a new book for Christian men: Kissing the Face of God. An ad for the book invites men to "get close enough to reach up and kiss His face!" Time out--this is a men's book? Yikes!
p. 136-137

Murrow concludes the book with a number of practical suggestions for how to bring the church back into balance without compromising the gospel. One radical suggestion: realize that Sunday morning services have nothing to do with church.

I know a number of men who are intensely devoted to Jesus, but who do not attend organized worship services. Robert Lewis estimates that his Men's Fraternity meetings regularly draw 100 to 150 men who do not attend church. Men are taking a Costco approach to faith, going factory direct, cutting out the middleman.
Is this good news or bad news for the church? It depends. If we want more men in church, this is a crisis. But if we want more men in Christ, this is an opportunity. If millions of men are encountering Jesus through small groups, perhaps we should be planting churches based on little platoons. It might even be time to rethink what it means to go go church.
p. 228

In conclusion, I don't know if this is a good book or not. Everything in it sounds true to me, but I have no basis other than my gut feeling. It's not a book about the Bible, it's a book about the modern church. If it were about the Bible, I could read the Bible as see whether Murrow was teaching the truth. But it's not, it's about the church. I don't know if the problems in the modern church are exactly as Murrow describes them, nor do I know any way to test what Murrow tells me. I am wary: I want to believe Murrow wholeheartedly, and I instinctively know that he is right. But it would be foolish to trust something merely because it reaffirms what I already thought. Therefore I must say that Why Men Hate Going to Church is an excellent starting point for examining the church, but Murrow's analysis is probably not the only way of looking at the data. It just might, however, change my life.

[Men have] no desire to fall in love with a wonderful man, even one named Jesus. ... Put another way, is the purpose of the Christian life to find a happy relationship with a wonderful man, or is it to save the world against impossible odds?
p. 16

Must we compromise the gospel in order to attract men? Certainly not. Jesus had no problem attracting men. Fishermen dropped nets full of fish to follow Him, but today's church can't convince men to drop their remote controls for a couple of hours a week.
p. 17

Again, we're not talking about what's preached and taught. The pastor may be offering stirring sermons, but the actual Christian life lived by most churchgoers is about as challenging as finger painting and as exciting as a bologna sandwich.
p. 20

If you look at the relatively thing stratum of professional clergy, then the church is male dominated. But if you look at the lay leadership, lay participation, and ideal Christian values, Christianity is female dominated. The church is a peculiar organization, led by males, but dominated by women and their values. Dr. Leon Podles says it well: "Modern churches are women's clubs with a few male officers."
p. 25

Given a choice, men rarely follow female leadership. One church I know experimented with all-female youth leadership; within six months 75 percent of the boys had disappeared. Pastor Dan Jarrell puts it this way, "When women lead, men leave." (I know, men are sexist pigs. They shouldn't be this way. But remember, we're talking about men as they are, not as they ought to be.)
Maybe this is one reason the Scriptures presuppose male leadership in the church. Perhaps the commands rise not from first-century sexism but from the realization that both genders respond well to competent male leadership. If you want men to come to your church, give high-profile positions to Spirit-led men. Sounds chauvinistic until you consider that men are heavily outnumbered at church.
p. 157

Woman readers, if you imagine your relationship with Jesus as a rapturous love affair, I must warn you: you are on dangerous ground for two reasons:
1. You are not the bride of Christ. According to the Bible, there is only one bride of Christ: the church (all believers collectively throughout time and throughout the world). Individual believers are not brides of Christ.
2. Your husband will never measure up to your fantasy. He cannot satisfy you if you harbor an image of Christ as your lover or husband.
p. 121

Nowadays it's not enough to have a personal relationship with Jesus; many of today's top speakers encourage men to have a passionate relationship with Him. These teachers have chosen a very uncomfortable metaphor to describe discipleship. Speaking as a man, the idea of having a passionate relationship with another man is just plain gross.
...
If gets worse. More than once, I've been exhorted by a prominent men's minister to have a love affair with Jesus. I just saw a new book for Christian men: Kissing the Face of God. An ad for the book invites men to "get close enough to reach up and kiss His face!" Time out--this is a men's book? Yikes!
p. 136-137

Prayer-and-share can be an irritant to men. You may have a couple of magpies in your congregation who stand up every week with some trivial thing to pray about: "Please pray for my Aunt Bessie's bunion." You may also have a couple of wannabe preachers who take two or three minutes to share what God has placed on their hearts. These are not prayer requests but sermonettes by people who want the spotlight. This grandstanding rankles men.
p. 142

I know a number of men who are intensely devoted to Jesus, but who do not attend organized worship services. Robert Lewis estimates that his Men's Fraternity meetings regularly draw 100 to 150 men who do not attend church. Men are taking a Costco approach to faith, going factory direct, cutting out the middleman.
Is this good news or bad news for the church? It depends. If we want more men in church, this is a crisis. But if we want more men in Christ, this is an opportunity. If millions of men are encountering Jesus through small groups, perhaps we should be planting churches based on little platoons. It might even be time to rethink what it means to go go church.
p. 228

Science Fiction Book Review

 Shadow of the Giant

With his eighth novel in the Ender series, Orson Scott Card has officially succumbed entirely to the siren call of Robert Jordan. He knows the only reason people buy his books are because they read Ender's Game. The rest of the books in the series are of little value, but he keeps churning them out and we keep buying them, because the power of Ender's Game's reputation compels us.

Shadow of the Giant is a true series novel, and will not make sense unless you have previously read (at least) Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, and Shadow Puppets. The two main story lines from the previous books are continued: Peter's quest to become Hegemon of the world, while Bean and Petra search for their missing children.

The Bean and Petra plot is irritating and offers a sampling of the worst aspects of Card's writing. Petra, once the brilliant girl who helped Ender in Battle School, is now reduced to baby factory. Her only concern--her only purpose in life--is to have Bean's babies and become a mother. Bean, once a powerful and compelling character, becomes a flat uninteresting character who is apparently as domesticated as Petra. The truth is that people don't read science fiction books to hear about the wonders of parenthood. Getting married and raising a family may be an honorable pursuit in real life, but in our fiction we want something more. The Bean and Petra subplot should have been excised from the whole series.

The other subplot is far more compelling. Peter Wiggin, Ender's older brother, is working to turn his office of Hegemon into more than a figurehead position. He intends to unite the whole world under a single government, to smash eons-old national prejudices and truly unite the people of the world into a single democratic community where war will be a thing of the past.

But he has rivals. Han Tzu has made himself Emperor of China, and has ambitions. Alai has become Caliph of a united nation of Islam, and Alai believes it should be he, not Peter, who united the world under a single government. Finally, Virlomi has styled herself the Goddess of India, and desires to secure India's place in the geopolitical future of the world.

The conniving that Peter Wiggin goes through to make his world government a reality is fun to watch. Card writes decisively and shows hints of greatness. But every time I started to get that feeling of awe that filled Ender's Game, the Bean and Petra subplot reared its ugly head.

There are some great parts, but if Card wanted to write a great book he should have focused entirely on Peter Wiggin, to the exclusion of Bean and Petra. Bean had his time in the spotlight in Ender's Shadow, but he should have relinquished the stage for the real star: Peter Wiggin, Hegemon.

Science Fiction Book Review

 Kiln People

In Kiln People David Brin has put a new spin on the idea of clones as instant duplicates of a person. Advances in the physical sciences have allowed the creation of artificial muscles and flesh from clay. Breakthroughs in neurological sciences have made it possible to isolate a person's mind, which is a kind of Standing Wave in the structure of the universe. By copying a person's Standing Wave into a clay body, a person can duplicate himself. These duplicates, or dittos, last about 24 hours until the clay breaks down, and then their memories can be uploaded back into the real person. A company called Universal Kilns brings to market cheap, universal access to dittoing technology that allows people to effectively be everywhere and do everything at the same time. It revolutionizes the world.

Our window into this imagined future world is our hero, private investigator Albert Morris. His main line of work is tracking down copyright violators who make unlicensed clay dittos of people, usually for use in the burgeoning sex trade. A particularly harrowing encounter with a secretive crime mogul named Beta brings Albert Morris to the attention of Ritu Maharal, the daughter of a top scientist at Universal Kilns. Ritu hires Morris to investigate the disappearance of her father, Yosil Maharal, who she fears has been kidnapped.

As Morris investigates the disappearance of Yosil Maharal, he discovers a vast, multilayered conspiracy that involves the top echelons of Universal Kilns, crime master Beta, a well-respected seller of sex dittos, various pro- and anti-ditto activist groups, and even Maharal himself. Brin has set up the perfect science fiction detective novel, a brilliant piece of noir fiction, intricate and multi-faceted in the way that only Brin can manage.

Kiln People came in second place for four major science fiction awards, behind a different book each time: Hugo, Locus, the Arthur C. Clarke, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. There is a reason Kiln People did not win. It is an exellent book but it is gravely flawed.

The first two-thirds of Kiln People is a detective story, reminiscent of Brin's excellent mystery novel Sundiver. But in the final third Brin suddenly drops the detective schtick and dives headfirst into a deus ex machina ending full of metaphysical mumbo-jumbo much like his novel Heaven's Reach. Not only does Brin flagrantly violate the prime contract of detective novels--giving the reader enough clues to figure things out--but he introduces an honest-to-goodness mad scientist! Who plans in secret to destroy the world for the sake of progress! The ending is bitterly disappointing.

Despite the dreadful ending, Kiln People remains an excellent book. Its flaws prevent it from being exceptional, but it is worth reading. I look forward to the forthcoming sequel, Kil'n Time.

Science Fiction Book Review

 Future War

• Second Variety, by Philip K. Dick - To fight the third world war, the Americans develop self-sufficient, self-replicating killing machines. The machines inevitably grow in intelligence and sophistication, all the while dedicated to the extermination of life.
• Salvador, by Lucius Shepherd - An American soldier in central America pops pills that send him into violent rampages, and during one pill-popping session he has a spiritual encounter with some kind of central American bird god.
• Floating Dogs, by Ian McDonald - Peeg, Ceefer, Porcospino, papavator, Bir-dee and Coon-ass are sentient animals created to fight a war for humans, whom they worship as Angels.
• The Private War of Private Jacob, by Joe Haldeman - A Catch-22-esque war story about Private Jacob, who hates the war, and Sergeant Melford, who always laughs and smiles.
• Spirey and the Queen, by Alastair Reynolds - In the Swirl (a gaseous not-quite-formed solar system) the Standardists fight the Royalists through the use of robot drones called wasps. Unknown to the people, the wasps evolve into sentient beings.
• A Dry, Quiet War, by Tony Daniel - A marine returns home from a war in the future, but he can't tell anyone whether they won the war without changing the timeline permanently.
• Rorvik's War, by Geoffrey A. Landis - When the second Cold War turns hot, David Rorvik is drafted and sent off to fight the Russians, where he meets a variety of gruesome fates, all the while trying to retain his humanity and hoping to be reunited with his family.
• Second Skin, by Paul J. McAuley - A spy is sent to Proteus (moon of Neptune) to rescue/kidnap a scientist. The spy comes out of cold sleep and struggles to remember his life as he carries out the job he has been programmed to perform.
• The War Memorial, by Allen Steele - A dead man in a damaged combat armor suit is left standing in Mare Tranquillitatis as a memorial to the deadliest battle on the moon.
• A Special Kind of Morning, by Gardner Dozois - An old soldier tells a young man about the war, about how he watched billions of people killed when the city of D'Kotta was destroyed by a discontinuity projector, how he killed people (*gasp*) with his own hands, and how he came to understand that everyone is human.