...with reading some old science fiction books is that you feel the need periodically to shout, "They have time travel in 2054 but no cell phones?" and throw the book across the room.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
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10 comments:
Dare I ask which book?
I think it was Robert Heinlein's Space Cadet that had cell phones (but no time travel), back in the late 1940s.
From that slim clue, let me guess what book it is... Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis?
You people frighten me. Yes, it is the Doomsday Book. I don't hate it. I might when I'm through, if all the little things that are bugging me aren't worth the ending, though.
Willis often uses missed communication or miscommunication to advance her plots. Sometimes it works. In her screwball comedies, it can work very nicely. Other times, it feels like padding or emotional manipulation.
Willis has a very strange skill set. She's very good at comedies of manners, but has a tin (or lead) ear for satire. She can construct fabulous Rube Goldberg plots, but she populates them with affectless Barbie dolls for characters. Then she turns around and writes heartwrenching science fiction stories about a dog getting run over by a camper. It's a little frustrating.
You guys! I love Connie Willis! I loved The Doomsday Book! And To Say Nothing of the Dog! And I especially loved Bellwether. Now I feel kind of like a freak...
Hmmm. I agree with you Carlos. She has a great sense of the ridiculous in her screwball comedies. I have never liked her more serious SF, but Bellwether and To Say Nothing of the Dog are two of my favorite SF (is Bellwether SF?) novels in the past few years. And then there's "Even the Queen"...
I have to say that I'm enjoying it, despite the phone thing (you're not a freak, Elsewhere). Though it is reminding me of the movie Noises Off with people in and out at just the wrong times and doors slamming, I like the idea behind it. I might have to check out the ones you recommended, Natalie.
Hmm. "Is Bellwether SF?" Well, there are things in it that haven't really happened yet, but it's more social satire. I guess. But so, so funny and astute! My partner and I still describe anyone who's in league with the forces of chaos(especially the college students who work in her library) as a "Flip."
i'm blushing.
If y'all like historical/science fiction novels, I would recommend Kage Baker... except that she's writing a series, and some of the early books are between publishers. Let's see:
In the Garden of Iden -- Renaissance England (and she gets the dialect right! she used to teach Elizabethan English as a second language)
Sky Coyote -- California just before the Spanish arrive
Mendoza in Hollywood -- California in the 1860s
The Graveyard Game -- all over the map. This is her Le Carre novel.
The Life of the World to Come -- England, circa 2300
The Children of the Company -- all over the map again, but with a gorgeous set piece in 1906 San Francisco.
Plus a bunch of short stories, collected in Black Projects, White Knights and Mother Aegypt.
They're addictive.
Then there's The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers...
Incidentally, I am such a geek.
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