Saturday, June 2, 2012

I will fear no evil – Robert Heinlein

Summary: Old man dies, has his brain swapped into the body of a 20-something hottie. The only problem… somehow, she’s in his head with him!

Setting: The book was written in 1970, and while it’s set in the future (about 2030, as near as I can tell), on the surface it feels analogous to “The Jetsons”; The Jetsons were a cartoon expectation of the 21st century, and this book could be described as a literary expectation of the 21st century.
 
Plot: Johann Schmidt has reached the end of his life. He’s well into his ‘90’s (if not older, the book’s not clear), he’s accomplished everything he wanted in his life, and by most measures, he’s an incredible success. He’s built a multi-billion dollar company, and he’s got too much money for his own good. When he dies, all of his money will be fought over by his granddaughters, who never loved him while he was alive. All he’s got left is his lawyer and best friend of the last 27 years, and his secretary.

He’s hooked up to machines to live, and now that he’s attached to all of these wires, it’s not possible for him to die. He comes up with a legal scheme to help himself die; arrange a brain transplant to a younger body, and harnesses his wealth to this scheme – if it’s successful, he gets his money. If he dies as a result of the transplant, his fortune goes to all sorts of charities (to keep his grand-kids away from it).

The transplant works out, but there’s a “glitch”. The previous owner of the body still has some presence in this body, and can communicate with Johann. It sounds like a horror story, but it’s not horror in any way, shape or form. Simply perfect Sci-Fi.

One thing to note. Some of the social mores we are used to are not necessarily followed in this book. Clothing is optional in most cases, and when you do have to wear clothes, you’re supposed to dress as scandalously as possible. The main character (Johann) is a nearly 100 year old man, and his brain is transplanted into a 25 year old female’s body. Due to the youth (and attractiveness) of his current body, and the amount of money that he was able to “bring with him”, our new main character has no shortage of sex partners, and through most of the book, Johann is hopping from bed to bed (when she bothers to get out of bed at all). Male, female, groups, you name it, she does it; she did it; hell, she’s probably doing it right now!

There are quite a few deeper messages in this book, but if you pay too much attention to them, you’ll miss out on all the sex… and there’s a lot of it. Nothing is presented graphically at all, but once the main character (Johann, or later, “Joan Eunice”) is up and around after surgery, she still manages to find herself flat on her back on what seems like every other page.

On the alternate side, if you pay too much attention to the sex scenes, you might miss some of the hidden commentary. In particular, the masterful transitions between chapters; they’re a brilliant method that Heinlein used for (I think) 3 different purposes: 1: To acknowledge that time has passed in the story, and that the reader didn’t get to read through absolutely everything that happened, 2: To give you a sense of how important our characters are in the story – their status is covered in the “National News” segments between chapters, to give you a picture of how many people are aware of the ongoing story; 3: Heinlein was not bashful about making predictions about the future. The transitions are crammed with information about what he was expecting to happen in the future. Some of the events he refers to as “Current News” are, ironically enough, happening today. Heinlein has plenty to say about politics, the environment, capital punishment, contraception, religion, arcane social customs; he was truly a wonderful writer, and regardless of the main topic of his books, he was able to get his social commentary in without coming across as “preachy”.

Wrap-up: This is a wonderful book, and I’m not just saying that because of all the gratuitous sex scenes in here. This book explores quite a bit about psychology, multiple personalities, the power of physical relationships, religion, racism, and many other topics.

One thing that does get a bit awkward is that a lot of the social conventions that we’re used to are completely ignored. While Johann has almost a century of hetero-sexual activity, he’s quite quick to jump into bed with any man who comes along, rather than sticking with his original orientation. It’s quite smoothly explained within the context of the story (taking into account the presence of the consciousness of the previous occupant of his body), but it’s still interesting to see how he manages it. He doesn’t necessarily limit his selection of partners to just men though; evidently in Heinlein’s alternate universe, bi-sexuality is the norm, and everybody sleeps with everyone else, regardless of existing relationships. In a lot of cases, spouses are well aware of (and in some cases, complicit in) their partners activities. There’s all kinds of swapping going on – I think the only person who doesn’t have sex in the whole book is the illiterate African American preacher.

If you’re not scared off by Sci-Fi, I’d highly recommend giving this one a read. I can’t describe this book any other way, though… This is pure Sci-Fi, from one of the acknowledged masters of the genre. It doesn’t get any better than this, folks!

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this book an A-.

Monday, March 5, 2012

This just in…

My book reviews suck.

I’m re-reading an earlier recommendation that I’d made (the Stone Barrington series), and I’ve found some significant inaccuracies. The most major of all involves the sex of Arrington’s child. At the end of one book, Arrington had had a daughter. Suddenly in the next book, the child has turned into a son.

I understand why the child needed to be a son, but I’ve read the whole series – I know how it turns out. It wouldn’t be able to turn out that specific way with a daughter. I think it was a goof, but it was probably a goof in communication (between the author and his editor). At the end of the book where the child was introduced, Stuart undoubtedly had further story lines in development (if not actually written), and he wasn’t put in a position where he had to give any thought to the sex of the child prior to the book hitting the shelves.

The mysterious change happens between books, and chances are, if you’ve already gone through that part in the series, you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about. If you haven’t gotten to that point yet, you’ll catch it; he does absolutely nothing to hide it from you.

I’m tempted to post a poll (if I can figure out how to post one!). I’ll see what I can do. from my end.

Friday, January 13, 2012

11/22/63 – Stephen King

Summary: Jake Epping has an opportunity to undo one of the defining moments of a generation. Don’t forget about The Butterfly Effect, though.

Setting: Late 1950’s / early 1960’s & present day

Plot: Jake is a high school teacher in (where else?) Maine. In addition to his normal classes, he teaches GED night school to adults as well. The high school janitor is in his adult class, and when the janitor relates (in a writing assignment) the story of how his abusive (and estranged) father killed all the other members of the family, Jake is moved almost to tears.
 
The dying owner of a diner (an acquaintance named Al) calls Jake, and over a late meeting at the diner, shows Jake a specific spot in the back pantry of the diner, and tells Jake that this particular spot is inexplicably linked with a different time, telling him that if he walks into this specific spot, he will be transported back to the late 1950’s. Jake is understandably skeptical until Al talks him into taking a journey back in time, as a test.
 
Jake makes the test journey (and returns unharmed), and is convinced. He makes another journey to the 1950’s to save the other members of the janitor’s family, so he can see for himself what consequences changes in the past can have on the present, and learns that due to The Butterfly Effect, small changes can have wide-reaching effects.
 
Al gives him a mission: Travel back to the late 50’s, and make his way to Dallas in time to stop Oswald from shooting Kennedy in 1963. Al sets him up with some money, and some research that he’s done to make the job a bit easier (sports results, research into Oswald’s life and movements leading up to the shooting).
 
Jake decides to stop Oswald, but first he has to live through 5+ years in the 1950’s and 60’s, waiting for the right time to act. He fits an entire lifetime into that 5 years.

Criticisms:  No technical criticisms. A little jumpy at the end, but it’s by design. A lot of King’s books do that, and while this book’s got a few of those trademark “end a paragraph in the middle of a sentence, then continue the sentence in the next paragraph but change the topic of the sentence in the middle” changes, there are remarkably few of them. It’s King’s style, and you’ll see hundreds of those “transitions” in a book like “The Stand”. This book has only 3 or 4 of them.

Wrap-up: King is unfairly classified as a horror writer, and there are two kinds of readers:
1. Those who have read a lot of Stephen King and know that the characterization of him as strictly “Horror” is not accurate;
2. Those who have read a couple of King’s horror novels and have decided that they don’t like him because his books are too scary, or won’t read his books in the first place because they don’t like horror.
This novel has no horror in it. None.
 
There are parts that can be a little bit gory, but there’s absolutely no horror.
 
While this book is ostensibly about going back in time and preventing the assassination of JFK, I’m not certain that that’s a fair characterization of it; I think the book is more about the journey that Jake takes (both in terms of distance, and over 5 years) while waiting for his chance to act. He has time during his journey to get in trouble with the mob (in two different locations), make a difference to an entire class of high schoolers (in one case, one of the stars of a high school football team decides to focus on drama and acting instead), and to fall in love; all while trying to reconcile the false identity (from the 1950’s and 1960’s) that he’s had to create with his true identity from the 2000’s.
 
Regardless of genre, King is a master of his craft, and if you haven’t read any of his “non-horror” work because you don’t like scary stuff, you’re missing out on some wonderful writing and doing yourself quite a disservice. All of his books (with the exception of a couple of NF’s and some of his earliest work) are quite solid, and I can’t think of many writers who are even in the same class as King in regards to verisimilitude.
 
If you want some suggestions of other Stephen King books to take a look at (that aren’t horror), let me know. I can suggest a few for you.
 
As far as this book - there is no “pat” ending to it; it’s not all wrapped up with a pretty bow on top of it. This book doesn’t end with “happily ever after”. Stories in real life rarely end like that either. If that’s what you’re looking for, this may not be the book for you. If you want a realistic book where the hero has to make some tough choices and live with the consequences of his decisions, give it a try. 

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this book an A-.