On those cloudy days, Robert Neville was never sure when sunset came...

Title - I Am Legend
Author - Richard Matheson
Genre - Science Fiction
Published - 1954
Pages - 160
ISBN 13 - 9780899668383
FFR - 3, 4, 5




If, like me, you saw the movie (starring Will Smith, a German Shepherd and a gaggle of CGI vampires) and thought "But what about [insert loose-end of your choice here]?"  Then you have probably already read the book.  And learned what I did: The movie was not based on the book, at least not very closely.

Now I know this isn't supposed to be a review of the movie, so I'll try to avoid referencing it too much.  Just let me indulge myself a little.  The movie was good, sure.  Will Smith has a way of bringing off action adventure as well as anybody in Hollywood, better than most, and he carries the show - beginning to end.  And that is a clear indication of what is wrong with the movie:  It's all about Will Smith.  The book, on the other hand, is about Robert Neville (the character portrayed by Will Smith) and the post-apocalyptic nightmare that his life had become ever since the plagues that had wiped out humanity destroyed his family, friends, and neighbors.

The movie was an action adventure, complete with heart-wrenching self-sacrifice as a climax to the story.  The book is a dark slog through the depths of human despair, ironically coupled with the desparate drive to continue living. Though the end of the book is not the feel-good moment of the century, being tragic, it is also a powerful statement about humanity itself. 

Robert Neville is an extremely resourceful man... as I read the book I couldn't help but think of other literary and cinematic heroes of the past who also found themselves alone in the only world that mattered to them:

• Robinson Crusoe
• Chuck Nolan (Cast Away)
• Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N (Dick Van Dyke)

Without harping too much more on the failings of the movie, I just have to say that it did not do justice at all to the book with regards to what actually caused the apocalypse.  The movie "cured cancer" and in doing so... turned people into vampires?

Ok, so the term vampire was never used in the movie.  But it was kind of obvious: allergic to the sun (or UV lights), blood thirst (literally), etc.

In the book, we get to learn about what happened as Neville figures it out.  Unlike the character Will Smith portrayed, the book-Neville had nothing to do with the plague's creation nor its spread.  We also learn why Neville is not affected by it.  And we get a plausible (per sci-fi rules) explanation for the existence of vampires, and we learn how it is that they go from rare-to-the-point-of-mythological-discredit to becoming the dominant species on the planet.

And poor Neville's poor dog... he served a valuable purpose in the movie.  Both for Will Smith as well as to pull our heart-strings as an audience.  It was cruel to us, but it worked.  In the book, the dog played a much smaller role, and that role was not to upset us, but to help us feel ever more acutely Neville's loneliness.

The book, let me say again, is very dark.  It's not a rollicking good time.  And if that is something you are able to read without feeling the need to shoot yourself, you will probably enjoy unraveling the mystery of the vampires with Neville as he tries to find any other human being.

When He Woke In the Woods In the Dark And the Cold...

Title - The Road
Author - Cormac McCarthy
Genre - Fiction
Published - 2007
Pages - 287
ISBN - 0307387895
..........................FFR - 4, 5 ,8

When I saw this book reviewed on Oprah, and her interview with the author, I was intrigued enough to want to read it. Until I got the audio version, however, I just didn't have time. Now I've listened to it, and even though the narrator is absolutely fantastic and the story relatively moving, I honestly felt like the author spent more time droning on and on using adjectives and adverbs which just didn't fit the nouns and verbs they were modifying.

To make things worse, McCarthy apparently doesn't feel the need to name his main characters. Which is fine, I suppose, though I like to care about the characters in any story I'm reading and I am more likely to care about a character that I can name than one I cannot. Instead McCarthy uses "the man" or "the boy" over and over ad nauseam. Add to that the fact that he NEVER once distinguishes between "the man" = main character, and "the man" = various random encounters whilst on the road, and we have momentary contextual confusion as our brains try to sort out just which "the man" is doing or saying a thing.

Even when there is no pointless third person, there are moments when the pronoun "he" is used without clarification of whether "he" is the man or the boy.

This was my first experience with Oprah's book list, and I have to say I'm disappointed, but not surprised. McCarthy has written a novel swallowed up by the "intellectual elite", which is to say he's an emperor in new clothes, and if we can't see them, we must be fools, though I'd be surprised if many of the people who laud this book really truly cared about it at all beyond earning the right to say "Why, yes, I read that masterpiece!".

Summary: Great narration. Decent character development. Vivid, though occasionally obscure descriptions. Gruesome, ghastly, and occasionally depressing - which, considering the setting, fit very well. Once you get past the author patting himself on the back for having a huge vocabulary (aka access to a thesaurus) it becomes easy to get lost in this sad world with these two lonesome drifters.

I don't really recommend this book for anybody who likes to enjoy reading or who want to enjoy stories in general, nor to anybody who likes clarity, or who wants to actually care about their protagonist. To everybody else I have one word: Library.

Treason Only Matters When It Is Committed By Trusted Men.

Title - Empire

Author - Orson Scott Card

Genre - Science Fiction

Published - 2007

Pages - 368

ISBN - 0765355221

..........................FFR - 4, 5, 8

Card begins this book detached from the main story-line, giving us plenty of background on several of the main characters.  It's a bit of a slow start, in my opinion, full of technical mumbo-jumbo, but informative and occasionally entertaining.

The premise of the book is that there is a coup in the United States, a modern civil war, which is the driving force of the story.  Despite the contemporaneous feel of the story (taking place in a time not too far removed from the date of publication), Card provides us with a sack-load of cool (possibly impractical) technologies used to conduct the coup.  

Warning:  This book practically bellows Card's political beliefs.  Card, who is a strong supporter of George W. Bush and his administration, never names the president assassinated in the book, but it is hinted that the Chief Executive is, if not Bush, a Bush clone.  The rebelling faction is clearly mis-led and doesn't fully understand why the President has done the things he's done, the things that have led to the rifting of the nation.  

Card does make it clear that the problems are not primarily because of any specific ideology, he does not blame the Democrats or Republicans, but rather he tries to spread the blame evenly.  The the ultimate cause is the polarization of the political parties. The Dems are too liberal, the Reps are too conservative, and there isn't enough voice provided for the moderates.

In the end, I enjoyed the story, though I found the political agenda occasionally oppressive (and I share, more or less, his political views). The technologies were cool, if not always convincing.  The coup itself was executed in an interesting way, though I didn't believe anything about the rebels' headquarters.  The whole climactic sequence moved very quickly, and was kind of confusing, not to mention fairly unrealistic (read: impossible).

I would recommend this book to anybody who thinks Card can do no wrong; however, If you are looking for the quality of Ender's Game, you'll want to read something else.  His early works are still his best, and his more recent work has suffered from an unknown (to me) cause that I can only speculate about.  Needless to say, he's still a first rate thinker, and an excellent story-teller, I just think he might be rushing some of his later stories.  If you just like cool sci-fi-ish stuff, this book has some.  If you think military strategy is friggin' awesome stuff to read about but don't actually know anything about it yourself, this book is probably right up your alley.  If you do know something about military, I'd be interested to hear what your take is on this book, because I don't know if it's anywhere near accurate. 

All in all, it's ok.  Give it a look-see if you don't mind political agendas, flawed technologies, or if you simply love Card.

The Wheel of Time Turns, and Ages Come and Pass...

Title - The Eye of the World

Author - Robert Jordan

Genre - Fantasy

Published - 1990

Pages - 782

ISBN - 0812511816

FFR – 2, 4, 8

This is the first book of the Wheel of Time series (eleven books strong, plus a prequel and the final book on its way some time next year).  I’ve read this series before, but with the ultimate book of the series coming out within the next little while, I thought I’d re-read the series in its entirety as both a personal preparation for the final book as well as in tribute to the late author who passed away of  cardiac amyloidosis, a heart condition, in September 2007.

The book itself is lengthy, setting a precedent that reasserts itself in each of the subsequent novels.  It is essentially the story of Rand al’Thor – a shepherd and farmer from a backwater called Emond’s Field, located in the rural country side of The Two Rivers – as he begins a journey that is really just the prologue to the direction his life is destined to take over the course of the following books.

A treatment of this novel would not be fair without mentioning his two best friends who make the journey with him: Matrim “Mat” Cauthon (something of a romantic and rogue in personality), and Perrin Aybara (a shy yet brave apprentice blacksmith).  It also behooves me to summarize the basic premise of the novel and perhaps give a smattering of back-story.

3,000 years prior to the beginning of this tale, the world in which the story takes place was governed by men and women who were “Servants of All”, or Aes Sedai in the ancient tongue.  These Aes Sedai were people who were gifted with the ability to channel the "One Power,” which is essentially an eternal source of mystical power.  One could think of the One Power as the contents of a well, the well itself would be called the "True Source," though the two terms are used interchangeably. The Source has two sides: Saidar, which can only be sensed, touched, and wielded by women; and Saidin, which can only be used by men.   The two sides of the One Power are separate but essentially equal, and when wielded together, the results are synergistic – one man and one woman channeling the Power to perform a work will result in a mightier, more powerful outcome than if two men alone or two women alone attempted the same.

Due to events of the time, there was a great battle. The Shadow (the devil of the story) who had been banished and locked away by the Creator at the dawn of time had begun to escape his prison, and some of the Aes Sedai were corrupted by his influence and promises of greater power.  This war was eventually won by those fighting on the side of Light, but as the Shadow was bound again in his prison, he lashed out with one last mighty assault, this time directly against the One Power. This attack tainted Saidin (the male half of the Source), essentially poisoning the mind of any man who touched it.  Thus, though bound again, the Shadow ended up having the proverbial last laugh, as all the male Aes Sedai (referred to as the Hundred Companions) who had fought in the war were quickly driven mad and rampaged through the land causing what is known as “The Breaking of the World,” from which even in the time of Rand al’Thor (3,000 years later) the world has not fully recovered.

The overlying philosophy/mythology of the story implies that time is but a large spinning-wheel weaving the great Pattern, the lives of people becoming the thread used in the weaving.  At the end of each turning of the wheel, one age ends and another begins, essentially beginning anew.  History is bound to repeat itself in all the major ways, though individual details may differ.  The greatest of the Hundred Companions, Lews Therin Telamon (known alternately as the Dragon and Lews Therin Kinslayer – due to his having murdered his entire family in a mad rage during the Breaking),  was prophesied to be reborn at the time of Tarmon Gaidon (analogous of Armageddon), to unite the various nations and lead them in the great and last battle against the Shadow.

A book of this nature doesn’t need to hint much that the protagonist will eventually be revealed to be the reincarnation of the Dragon, as it is expected and looked forward to from early on in the story, so I’m not spoiling any of the book by mentioning it.  Rand himself is driven from his small farming community along with a number of his friends when the Shadow, who is beginning to free himself from his prison again,  launches an attack on Emond’s Field, as he knows that the reincarnation of Lews Therin is there, though he does not know which of the young men Rand’s age it is. 

The driving force of this story is how the world views the prophesy of the Dragon being reborn, in a world where men who can channel are feared as powerful madmen bent on breaking the world again. Rand struggles with this himself, as he too fears anybody, male or female, who can channel.  He travels with an Aes Sedai (Moiraine by name) from his village, destined for Tar Valon, the city of Aes Sedai, in hopes of finding out why it is that the Shadow wants him dead.  He doesn’t even begin to suspect himself of his latent ability to wield the One Power until near the end of the novel. 

The world of this story is reminiscent of the works of Tolkein.  Its detailed histories and vast conceptual world is immense and very impressive.  As the books progress, Jordan continues to expand the reader’s understanding of just how vividly detailed the social structures throughout the world truly are.

The men in the Eye of the World are all well-developed, three-dimensional characters of personality.  The women, though they start off ok, are soon revealed to be two-dimensional, misandrist, manipulative and conniving.  And this just gets worse as the series progresses (with extremely rare exceptions).  I don’t know if Jordan was a misogynist, or if he really thought women were evil to the core with relation to their treatment of men, but he certainly didn’t take any shame in showing the women of his world as not-very-pleasant for men.

Over all, I really enjoy the Wheel of Time (I’ll give briefer accounts related primarily to the book being reviewed as I read additional novels), and I think The Eye of the World is a great start to what becomes an epic telling of the growth and change of a man from humble beginnings to true and frightening greatness.

I think anybody who reads fantasy or sword-and-sorcery would enjoy this book, though I’d be surprised if there are any fantasy readers who are not familiar with this series, and fewer who have not read at least this book.