Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany is an interesting book to say the least. The novel uses a language as it's central point of focus, which seems pretty unique in the science fiction genre. Obviously I'm not saying that it's unheard of for a novel to be driven by an existing or made up language, since I've already pointed out that Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series is entirely based around the languages he forged; But in science fiction it's rarely taken into consideration.
Babel-17, once thought to be a code used by the enemy, is revealed as actually being an alien language with several interesting linguistic features. Apparently once one attains a grasp on Babel-17 it turns the user into an unwilling traitor, because the language alters the person's perception and even certain physical abilities rendering them incapable of unhindered thought. Delany's use of a language as a weapon of sorts, to me is extremely appealing and a fresh idea in science fiction, a genre (just like most any genre) that is exhausted with numerous novels that all share the same ideas.
The world in Babel-17 is really bizarre, but at the same-time oddly familiar to our own. Delany's use of body modifications and blatant references to sexual encounters were very progressive for the time in which the novel was written. The way they are portrayed are obviously fictional, but at the same time many of the things that Delany hints at are actually very much a reality in our own time. People in the present day are already obsessed with body modifications, such as tattoos and piercing, and it's not unbelievable to assume we will get to the point where human's will want modifications like the ones seen in Delany's novel.
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I hoped I would, because the world in Babel-17 is extremely fun and the language innovations are interesting. The main character, Rydra Wong isn't really that appealing to me, she's a poet and has definite skills in many human languages as well as a sense in decryption. But, all of her skills seem to have to do with languages and not much else which gives her a weak scholarly image. I think I would've enjoyed a more brave and classic hero that was still very intelligent and just as capable in the linguistics department as Wong. I did however enjoy a lot of Wong's the crew members so, that was a plus. The story is also seemingly a bit convoluted towards the end, when the story is reaching it's finale, but this isn't a major concern, as it still makes sense and doesn't detract from the novel as a whole.
Babel-17 is a well written and very original piece of science fiction... definitely worth reading if you're looking for a more contemporary edge (even though it was published in 1970) to the science fiction genre.
-Dan
Monday, March 28, 2011
Starship Troopers
This week I've finally read, Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, a book that I've always desired to read, but never actually sat down and used the time, as I've now found I should have a long time ago. With Starship Troopers, Heinlein shows he isn't just a “hard science” fiction writer, but rather one more interested in military and general life, as well as politics. When I began to read the book, just as most people in our current generation, I had already been exposed to the movie and an animated television show when I was younger, both of which were almost entirely focused on the action between the infantry and bugs. Obviously these visual outlets are meant to feed the common person's desire to delve deeper into the technology and action aspects of Starship Troopers. In Heinlein's novel however, all of the actual fighting is more of a side note to the main plot, which displays the military life of a capsule trooper in the mobile infantry through the eyes of Jaun Rico.
As previously mentioned, Heinlein's novel isn't just science fiction, but it almost seems like a political essay. A size-able portion of the novel takes place in classrooms where Rico and other students engage in philosophical discussions with the teacher, whom in most cases seems almost like an outlet for Heinlein to speak his political beliefs directly through a character. Another interesting political point to the novel is the idea that suffrage is held exclusively for men and women who are willing to serve at least 2 years to the Federal Service. This is made possible by the fact that the Federation is a exclusively volunteer outfit and they're required to find a place for any person to signs up and wants to serve under the Federation. This undoubtedly led to the change in the United States' own military which was entirely a draft enlistment before Starship Troopers, which shows you how powerful of a writer Heinlein is.
Not only did Starship Troopers spark innovation in the United States' federal service but it also played a part in a number of different military concepts and innovations. Probably my favorite part about this novel is the Mobile Infantry's powered armor exoskeletons that powerfully upgraded the soldiers in practically every way. These exoskeletons have interestingly began real world research and development to give our infantry these same sorts of armor and abilities. Another notable innovation that I've noticed is the idea of using these entry capsules to drop the infantry where they need to be and then pull them out when the job is done. This is a tactic used in the military today, though not exactly in the same way, but I could definitely see the same convention employed if humans ever do move on to different planets and the technology is present.
Basically Starship Troopers was one of the essential science fiction novels that has gone so far as to change the way we live today and into the future. Heinlein's novel has affected much more than just that however, it's ideas and functions have been used over and over in science fiction novels and can even been seen today in many of the most popular video games such as Halo and Crysis or amazing viewers at the theater in movies like Iron-Man or The Matrix. Now I'm going to go continue working on my Starship Troopers book cover, be sure to check it out on my art blog when it's finished!
...AND here's a great technical death metal band with some nice science fiction keyboard textures and sampling, good bug fighting music!
The Faceless - All Dark Graves
-Dan
As previously mentioned, Heinlein's novel isn't just science fiction, but it almost seems like a political essay. A size-able portion of the novel takes place in classrooms where Rico and other students engage in philosophical discussions with the teacher, whom in most cases seems almost like an outlet for Heinlein to speak his political beliefs directly through a character. Another interesting political point to the novel is the idea that suffrage is held exclusively for men and women who are willing to serve at least 2 years to the Federal Service. This is made possible by the fact that the Federation is a exclusively volunteer outfit and they're required to find a place for any person to signs up and wants to serve under the Federation. This undoubtedly led to the change in the United States' own military which was entirely a draft enlistment before Starship Troopers, which shows you how powerful of a writer Heinlein is.
Not only did Starship Troopers spark innovation in the United States' federal service but it also played a part in a number of different military concepts and innovations. Probably my favorite part about this novel is the Mobile Infantry's powered armor exoskeletons that powerfully upgraded the soldiers in practically every way. These exoskeletons have interestingly began real world research and development to give our infantry these same sorts of armor and abilities. Another notable innovation that I've noticed is the idea of using these entry capsules to drop the infantry where they need to be and then pull them out when the job is done. This is a tactic used in the military today, though not exactly in the same way, but I could definitely see the same convention employed if humans ever do move on to different planets and the technology is present.
Basically Starship Troopers was one of the essential science fiction novels that has gone so far as to change the way we live today and into the future. Heinlein's novel has affected much more than just that however, it's ideas and functions have been used over and over in science fiction novels and can even been seen today in many of the most popular video games such as Halo and Crysis or amazing viewers at the theater in movies like Iron-Man or The Matrix. Now I'm going to go continue working on my Starship Troopers book cover, be sure to check it out on my art blog when it's finished!
...AND here's a great technical death metal band with some nice science fiction keyboard textures and sampling, good bug fighting music!
The Faceless - All Dark Graves
-Dan
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Warbreaker
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson is definitely a novel written by an author with Tolkien roots, but with a desire to forge new paths out of the fantasy mold. It's evident that many of the novel's conventions, such as the switch from a more traditional type of magic to something called BioChromatic Breath, are attempts to breathe new life (see what I did there?) into the genre.
Magic isn't the only thing that's altered in Sanderson's world either, there is a whole new world to explore with politics, religion, and even controllable zombie armies that play a big part in the overall plot of the story. That being said, not all of these ideas are fully realized and some of them are even too tediously explained. Too much time is used developing the cheesy, though well thought out magic system, and hardly any time is used fleshing out the political system and even some of the pivotal characters in the story are underdeveloped.
With all of the different games, movies, media, and even changes in how we live our lives it's obvious that author's such as Sanderson would step up and write a novel heavily influenced by everything around him/her. The inclusion of many of these new takes and additions are obviously the product of an author living in our current generation. Many of these changes turn out to be refreshing, such as the use of literal zombie armies to wage war and though the magic system is gimmicky, it is nice to see a different take on magic (Though I haven't come close to tiring of Tolkien). One thing about the writing that seemed a bit off is the dialogue of the characters was very much the vernacular of modern people, yet the world in the novel seemed more like a mix between medieval european and greek cultures. The speech could have been much more thought out just as some of the other characteristics of the world had been and this change would have brought a significant change to the reader's emersion into Warbreaker.
It's intriguing that the book is capable of being a mediocre stand alone piece of fiction, but definitely seems like it would work better as a set of books. This way a lot of this book's holes could be filled in, it would even be nice to see this done with a prequel first, and then followed by a sequel to Warbreaker. I know when I first started reading it, I thought I had skipped a book or something because right from the beginning you're thrown into a political struggle between two powers that you have no previous knowledge about.
Sanderson is obviously a skilled writer, much of the novel is pretty well written especially the action/fight sequences and most of the main characters aside from a few were pretty well developed. The book dragged on through probably eighty-five percent of the story with a few interesting parts, I seemed to like following LightSong's parts, but the end of the book was excellent with more action and plot bending than I knew what to do with. I've been told that this isn't the best example of his work so I'm thinking about reading some of his other novels. I'm interested to see where our current generation is taking the fantasy genre, but Warbreaker just had a few things that just didn't play to my personal tastes.
- Dan
Magic isn't the only thing that's altered in Sanderson's world either, there is a whole new world to explore with politics, religion, and even controllable zombie armies that play a big part in the overall plot of the story. That being said, not all of these ideas are fully realized and some of them are even too tediously explained. Too much time is used developing the cheesy, though well thought out magic system, and hardly any time is used fleshing out the political system and even some of the pivotal characters in the story are underdeveloped.
With all of the different games, movies, media, and even changes in how we live our lives it's obvious that author's such as Sanderson would step up and write a novel heavily influenced by everything around him/her. The inclusion of many of these new takes and additions are obviously the product of an author living in our current generation. Many of these changes turn out to be refreshing, such as the use of literal zombie armies to wage war and though the magic system is gimmicky, it is nice to see a different take on magic (Though I haven't come close to tiring of Tolkien). One thing about the writing that seemed a bit off is the dialogue of the characters was very much the vernacular of modern people, yet the world in the novel seemed more like a mix between medieval european and greek cultures. The speech could have been much more thought out just as some of the other characteristics of the world had been and this change would have brought a significant change to the reader's emersion into Warbreaker.
It's intriguing that the book is capable of being a mediocre stand alone piece of fiction, but definitely seems like it would work better as a set of books. This way a lot of this book's holes could be filled in, it would even be nice to see this done with a prequel first, and then followed by a sequel to Warbreaker. I know when I first started reading it, I thought I had skipped a book or something because right from the beginning you're thrown into a political struggle between two powers that you have no previous knowledge about.
Sanderson is obviously a skilled writer, much of the novel is pretty well written especially the action/fight sequences and most of the main characters aside from a few were pretty well developed. The book dragged on through probably eighty-five percent of the story with a few interesting parts, I seemed to like following LightSong's parts, but the end of the book was excellent with more action and plot bending than I knew what to do with. I've been told that this isn't the best example of his work so I'm thinking about reading some of his other novels. I'm interested to see where our current generation is taking the fantasy genre, but Warbreaker just had a few things that just didn't play to my personal tastes.
- Dan
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