The Flipbook

Fred Patten Reviews Infinite Space, Infinite God

27 12 2007

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Infinite Space, Infinite God
Editors: Karina and Robert Fabian
Publisher: Twilight Times Books
ISBN 10: 1-933-35362-7
ISBN 13: 978-1-933-35362-3

This anthology of 15 stories, some reprints but most written especially for this book, is intended as a celebration of Roman Catholic science fiction. It projects the Catholic Church into the future and outer space. “For two millennia, the Church has shown its ability to adapt and change as science and society have grown, from the understanding that Scripture does not explain the scientific workings of our universe to the evolving roles of its clergy. It continues to support science while exercising its duty as Christ’s earthly authority to provide moral guidance on its application,” the editors state in the Introduction.
The 15 stories postulate how the Church – or individual Catholics who are scientists or space explorers – may react to situations that society is expected to confront in the near or distant future. Some beginning with the first, “The Harvest” by Lori Z. Scott, and “Understanding” by J. Sherer, ask whether artificially created humans should be credited as having souls. “Mask of the Ferret” by Ken Pick & Alan Loewen shows the Church active in a future interstellar society with many intelligent aliens of different species – do they have souls? Karina Fabian’s “Interstellar Calling” asks, do human Catholics have an obligation to proselytize among intelligent aliens?
Several stories such as “Hopkins’ Well” by Adrienne Ray and “Brother John” by Colleen Drippé set the above questions in future oppressively atheistic societies where the Church has been driven underground. “Our Daily Bread” by Karina & Robert Fabian shows the problems that devout Catholics may face in practicing the tenets of their faith in the cramped, tiny habitats of space exploration in the deadly environment of our Moon and space stations. “Brother Jubal in the Womb of Silence” by Tim Myers and “These Three” by Karina & Robert Fabian predict that off-Earth settlements may lead to new Catholic religious orders such as Our Lady of the Rescue, ordained to succor space travelers.
Some of the tales show keeping the faith in bleak futures. In “The Hosts of the Envoy” by Alex Lobdell, a space explorer stumbles upon a centuries-lost starship whose current generation has abandoned former religions for a new one that worships the Earth. “Little Madeleine” by Simon Morden takes place on a future Earth so mired in squalor and a breakdown of society that the Church has to sanction militant nuns, the Order of St. Joan the Protector, to prevent “with extreme prejudice” the vandalization of its churches and attacks upon its clergy. In “Stabat Mater” by Rose Dimond, the Pope must try to keep the Church alive amidst nuclear terrorism and war that threaten human extinction.
“Canticle of the Wolf” by Alan Loewen is a fable about St. Francis and a time-traveling bioengineered werewolf. “Far Traveler” by Colleen Drippé is about a scientist who uses an experimental time-traveling device to see Jesus. In “A Cruel and Unusual Punishment” by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, a contemporary Irish terrorist comes to peace with his blind hatred of “the enemy”.All 15 stories are thought-provoking, and rebut the stereotype of Roman Catholicism as dominated by fundamentalists who have not advanced beyond believing that every word in the Bible is literally true.

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Fred Patten Reviews Dramacon, Vol. 1

21 11 2007

Cover

Dramacon, Vol. 1
Author: Svetlana Chmakova
Publisher: TOKYOPOP
ISBN 10: 1-59816-129-8
ISBN 13: 978-1-59816-129-8
Christie Leroux is a high school student and anime fan attending her first anime convention, with her boyfriend Derek, to sell their amateur comic book – she writes it, he draws it. This 172-page young teen comic tells what happens to Christie during the three days at her first convention; but it is less about the chaos and traditions of big fan conventions – although that is certainly captured here authentically and hilariously – as it is about the emotional turbulence experienced by a sensitive teenager on her first solo outing from home.

How will she and Derek react in the “artists’ alley” to the fan public’s response, and to the criticism of professional cartoonists, to their amateur comic book? Is Derek just being friendly and a good salesman to attractive girls who look at their comic, or is he flirting with them? What should she and Derek do when their school roommates/chaperones stay out all night, leaving the two alone? Christie realizes that both she and Derek are immature, but how much self-centeredness should she tolerate from him? When Christie meets Matt, a sophisticated college student from across the country, she is torn between an instant attraction (is this just adolescent hormones or True Love?) and loyalty to Derek – but does he deserve it? “My first anime convention… did not go smoothly. But all things considered… I can’t wait to go back.”

Svetlana Chmakova is the young Russian-born commercial artist and anime fan who is one of the leading creators of what fans call “American manga” or “OEL (original English language) manga” – original American comic books written/drawn/published in the traditional Japanese manga style. DRAMACON reads front to back and left to right like standard American books; otherwise it is almost indistinguishable from a Japanese comic book. The art is black-&-white, presented in a thick paperback format. The style varies sharply from realistic when the characters are acting seriously to grotesquely “squashed” when they are acting silly. The art is heavily shaded and toned to compensate for the lack of color, and romantic scenes are full of the “shojo sprinkles” such as hearts & stars that Japanese romance cartoonists put into their art. The dialogue is full of fan slang such as “cosplay” and “J-Pop” .

DRAMACON Vol. 1 was published in 2005, and is currently in its fourth printing. Each volume takes place at the fictitious annual anime con, and shows Christie a year older with both her personal and creative relationships more advanced. It is a success both as a romance comic book, and as a primer for what to expect at your first anime convention. Vol. 3 will be published this December 10th.

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Fred Patten Reviews Swordbird

13 11 2007

Swordbird cover

Swordbird
Author: Nancy Yi Fan
Illustrator: Mark Zug
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN 10: 0-06-113099-0
ISBN 13: 978-0-06-113099-1

“Twelve-year-old author Nancy Yi Fan has woven a captivating tale about the birds of Stone-Run Forest and the heroism, courage, and resourcefulness in their quest for peace.” …from the front-jacket flap blurb.

Virtually all the publicity for Swordbird emphasizes that Fan, born in China in 1993 and a resident in the U.S. since she was seven years old, was only twelve when she wrote and sold this novel.

It probably should not be surprising that Swordbird is disappointing. It would surely have been rejected if an older person had written it. Only curiosity to see what a novel by a twelve-year-old author is like gives it its sales appeal. It is not bad, just terribly mediocre and derivative. It is a straight rehash of the most standard high-fantasy plot stereotypes, especially those in Jacques’ Redwall novels, with no depth and little originality. It is almost certainly a better novel than any of us could have written at twelve years old, and it marks Fan as a promising author to look forward to in another ten or fifteen years.

The Sunrise tribe (cardinals) and the Bluewingle tribe (blue jays) have been friendly neighbors for generations. But when the eggs of each tribe begin disappearing, each assumes the other is to blame. The real villain is the evil hawk Turnatt, who has assembled an army of crows and ravens to secretly steal the cardinals’ and blue jays’ eggs to turn them against each other.

“Slime-beak, Turnatt’s captain, was hopping about, glancing at the trees bordering the half-built fortress. He dreaded Turnatt, for he worried about being made into a scapegoat.
Displeased, Turnatt stared down his beak at his nervous captain. His bright eye burning a hole into the bothersome crow’s face.
‘Stop hopping, Slimey – you’re getting on my nerves. I’ll demote you if you keep on doing that.’ A fish scale hung from the edge of Turnatt’s beak.
Slime-beak shivered like a leaf, partly because of fear and partly because of the hawk’s bad breath.”

Slime-beak leads a slavecatching attack against all the woodbirds while they are gathered together being entertained by the comical Willowleaf Theater troupe (Alexandra the hummingbird, Kastin the titmouse, Mayflower the junco, Dilby the loon, Parrale the wood duck, and Lorpil the gannett) at the Bright Moon Festival to celebrate the birth of mystical Swordbird. Though they are taken completely by surprise, the woodbirds rally and defeat the bad birds with ridiculous ease.

Despite monumental incompetence by the evil birds, the good birds must still send brave Miltin the robin and Aska the blue jay on an epic quest and solve an ancient riddle. This is necessary to summon mighty Swordbird to finally defeat Turnatt — but really just to incorporate these basic stereotypes of high fantasy into the story.

To be fair, Swordbird is recommended for readers aged 8 to 12, so it does not pretend to be for older readers. This could be an enjoyable book for juveniles too young for Redwall. Or, emphasizing the author’s age, this might be used to encourage elementary school seniors to try writing for themselves.

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Categories : Books

Fred Patten Reviews The Game

3 11 2007

The Game

Author: Diana Wynne Jones

Publisher: Firebird/Penguin Group

ISBN: 10: 0-14-240718-6

ISBN: 13: 978-0-14-240718-9

Hayley is a young girl living in London with her grandparents since her parents disappeared when she was a baby. Her overly strict grandmother keeps her virtually a prisoner at home, especially denying her knowledge of the mysteriously beautiful “mythosphere” which her grandfather studies on his computers. Finally she is banished in disgrace (but without being told why) to the home of relatives in Ireland.

Glumly expecting an even harsher household, Hayley is pleasantly bewildered to find that “the Castle” is a lively place overflowing with friendly aunts and young cousins her own age who seem to have been expecting her for ages.

The children eagerly introduce her into their secret game, a scavenger hunt for objects like a scale from the dragon that circles the zodiac, Sleeping Beauty’s spindle, a drinking horn used by Beowulf, and a hair from Prester John’s beard. Since Hayley has grown up uneducated, she does not realize how rare these are; but she is delighted when the search takes them into the forbidden mythosphere:

“They could see the strand they were on now, a silvery, slithery path, coiling away up ahead. The worst part, to Hayley’s mind, was the way it didn’t seem to be fastened to anything at the sides. Her feet, in their one pink boot and one black boot, kept slipping. She was quite afraid that she was going to pitch off the edge. It was like trying to climb a strip of tinsel. She hung on hard to Troy’s warmer, larger hand and wished it were not so cold. The deep chilliness made the scrapes on the front of her ache.

To take her mind off it, she stared around. The rest of the mythosphere was coming into view overhead and far away, in dim, feathery streaks. Some parts of it were starry swirls, like the Milky Way, only white, green, and pale pink, and other more distant parts flickered and waved like curtains of light blowing in the wind. Hayley found her chest filling with great admiring breaths at its beauty, and she stared and stared as more and more streaks and strands came into view.”

It is obvious almost from the start that Hayley is a special child. Just how special is revealed slowly as the story progresses and Hayley learns who she and her parents really are. Jones has used the plot device of walking between worlds in previous novels, but The Game is separate from her other books.

A knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology may help the reader recognize some of the characters whom Hayley does not know, but Jones introduces them all in a curtain-call endnote. This short novel or novella is in the Firebird series for young readers, although it, like Jones’ other novels, will charm readers of all ages.

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The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao

29 10 2007

The Bri

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ef Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Author: Junot Diaz
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
ISBN-10: 1594489580
ISBN-13: 978-1594489587

I was in New York this June for Book Expo America and was walking through a crowded aisle on my way to a meeting when something caught my eye and made me stop dead in my tracks. The name Junot Diaz on a simple white cover was enough to stop my fast moving walk to a meeting a had about a minute to get to clear on the other side of the Javits center. I not only stopped, I gasped and then I grabbed. I held that book like it was the Holy Grail and enraptured, carried it to my meeting which I couldn’t concentrate on because all I could think of was the book, the long awaited book burning a hole in my book bag.

That night on the balcony overlooking the Empire State building at my friend Joe’s place in Hell’s Kitchen I reverently opened the book by Junot Diaz. It was early morning with a muggy sun coming up before I put it down again. There were pages that I read once, twice, thrice just for the pleasure of them. The footnotes in particular were wonderful. I read them again and again out loud to myself just for the pleasure of saying them. I re-read the book on the plane home and found it to be equally entertaining and great. I got into the office and shared footnotes with people reading them out loud at random times.

I waited and waited to review it. Why? Because sometimes a book is so damned great that it defies reviewing. I mean what do you say? Everything will sound canned. It’s great, it’s wonderful, it’s fantastic. Whatever. It’s all that and more but how to say it? How do I describe what is essentially a masterpiece so eloquent that it almost defies description? Think Britney Spears following Janis Joplin at a concert. Yeah.

Well, I chickened out and put the book to sit on my shelf for a couple of months just to sit there and glare at me. Well it’s time now – the book, the glorious book is tired of waiting. I read it again last night and two months haven’t changed its beauty.

The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao begins with a history of fukú (a curse of both gargantuan and subtle proportions) outlined in its gorgeous footnotes that reveal a plethora of Dominican history and political information with a deft and almost musical talent. The footnoted description of fukú was hilarious and I read it again and again. You get the sense that this story about a sci-fi addicted, desperately lonely fat boy Oscar is doomed from the start but you can’t help hoping for him all the time knowing that the fukú is gonna get him.

The book flips back and forth with information about Oscar, pitiful Oscar, his sister, mother, grandparents and peripheral people in his life. The whole Dominican Republic past and present is also a character as is the evil Trujillo. The 30-year reign of terror of one President Rafael Leónidas Trujillo was particularly bloody. Shit, us Mexican girls grew up scared of Trujillo. That vato made the massacre at Tlateloco by the Mexican government look like a Sunday outing. (I’m NOT trivializing Tlateloco by any means – just showing how horrible Trujillo was. Sol ducks looks around hoping the fukú doesn’t get her).

Oscar’s life story is an amazing one – he is a hero just by virtue of being so pathetic and his first generation immigrant status. You feel his pain, his loneliness and want so badly to help him but you can’t. There are 500 years of pain and abuse stored up in that boy. The way I saw it Oscar became the colonized Latin America/indigenous peoples all rolled up into one fat nerd.

The book switches back and forth from English, to Spanish, to indigenous slang, to insults, to an almost hip hop feel, a sing-song rap about cultural genocide, abuse, pillage and politics all caught up in the life of one young man. It reads like a song and makes no italics or apologies for switching back and forth between languages and slang. It’s saying understand me or don’t – my prose is so gorgeous I don’t need to translate for you. Just deal. Just read. Just absorb. And you do. You breathe Junot Diaz’s words. You learn more about the DR and politics than you’d ever learn in a history class taught by the best teacher. You’re captured, captivated, you’re sucked in, your singing along with him and your singing in his style. At the end of the book you’re changed and you’ll never be the same.

Book Description from the publisher

This is the long-awaited first novel from one of the most original and memorable writers working today.

Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fukœ-the curse that has haunted the Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.

Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time

About the Author
Junot Diaz’s fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The Best American Short Stories. His debut story collection, Drown, was a publishing sensation of unprecedented acclaim, became a national bestseller, won numerous awards, and is now a landmark of contemporary literature. He was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, and now lives in New York City and Boston, where he teaches at MIT

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Junot Diaz Talks Comics on Newsarama

29 10 2007

Read this in-depth and completely fabulous two-part interview with Junot Diaz, the author of The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao on Newsarama.

My review of Oscar Wao to follow.

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Categories : Books

Announcement from Dark Horse Comics

17 10 2007

Presenting Doctor Grordbort’s
Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory!!!

Weta Publishing is pleased to announce its upcoming Weta Originals/Dark Horse Comics publication: Doctor Grordbort’s Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory.
Doctor Grordbort: inventor extraordinaire! He’s got a gadget for everything! He’s also the creator of a meticulous catalogue of weaponry. Doctor Grordbort’s Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory is a thirty-two-page catalogue that chronicles a world where chivalry is not dead, advertising is beautiful, and ray guns look too pretty to be lethal.

The stars of the show are, of course, Doctor Grordbort’s Infallible Aether Oscillators, but you will also find the shiniest new bifurnilizers, metal manservants, and automated travel loungers. Also included for entertainment and scientific education is a compartmentalised picture story (some call them comics) of the world-famous naturalist, Lord Cockswain. He was the hit of this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, as convention-goers stopped agape at Weta’s hauntingly realistic, life-size memorial statue, celebrating Lord Cockswain and the Moon Mistress’ heroic endeavors on Venus.

Written and illustrated by Weta Workshop conceptual designer Greg Broadmore, Doctor Grordbort’s Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory showcases dozens of arcane inventions, contraptions, and weaponry. “As a kid I was massively inspired and awed by the black-and-white serials on Sunday afternoon TV, in particular the 1930s Flash Gordon and the many sci-fi movies of that era,” says Greg. “This book allowed me to pay homage to that world of science fiction and create something new at the same time. And it’s full of guns, did I mention guns? Rayguns actually, the best type.”
This hardcover book will be available from Dark Horse Books in January 2008.

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The 2007 Cybils Nominations Are Open

17 10 2007

Okay I’m a day late. The Cybils officially opened up nominations in all categories yesterday. I’m just way behind schedule on lots of things. The good news is that I have the great honor to be returning as a panelist in the graphic novel category! Check out the cool group I landed in this year, some are seasoned Cybilers and old pals from last year and some are new and very welcome names. Talk about traveling in fine company! I expect applause. I’m listening for it. Yay!!

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Category Organizer: Sarah Stevenson (Reading YA: Readers’ Rants)

Nominating Panel:

Mary Lee Hahn (A Year of Reading) Alyssa Feller (The Shady Glade) Katie Zenke (Pixie Palace) Elizabeth Jones Gina Ruiz (AmoXcalli) - that’s me

Judging Panel:

David Elzey (The Excelsior File) J.L. Bell (Oz and Ends) Anna (TangognaT) Snow Wildsmith (My Reading Project) Angie Thompson (Angieville)

Don’t know what the Cybils are? Well then, head on over here to the Cybil’s official website to find out more. Want to know more about the other categories besides Graphic Novels and who the people are for a particular genre? There are eight (8) genres covered. Head on over here. Who won in 2006 you say? Well the nifty elves over the Cybils website have that too! See, it’s like magic. Now for the juicy stuff - you can nominate any 2007 title in whatever genre you like here. Only one book per person in each category so be choosy. We’re really looking forward to reading and voting on your favorites! Don’t forget to nominate your favorite books of 2007!

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Fred Patten Reviews The Alchemist’s Apprentice

30 06 2007

The Alchemist’s Apprentice
Author: Dave Duncan
Publisher: Ace Books
ISBN: 10: none
ISBN: 13: 978-0-441-01479-8

Dave Duncan has been a major author of imaginative fantasy adventure novels for the past two decades. In The Alchemist’s Apprentice, the first in a new series, he ventures brilliantly onto new ground.

Alfeo Zeno, the flip, sardonic, wittily egocentric first-person narrator, is the young apprentice of Maestro Filippo Nostradamus, the ancient, irascible nephew of the more famous Michel Nostradamus. Like his uncle, this Nostradamus is a well-known astrologer, alchemist, clairvoyant, doctor, and savant (popularly believed to be a sorcerer, although admitting to that would bring a sentence of execution by the Church). He has been employed by the nobility of the Republic of Venice for years as a personal physician and to cast their horoscopes.

When procurator Bertucci Orseolo collapses and then dies at a dinner party of thirteen at which Nostradamus is present, the Maestro is suspected of poisoning him. He is advised by the Doge to flee Venice, but instead he orders Alfeo to prove his innocence by finding the real murderer – despite the probability that the elderly Orseolo just died of natural causes. Alfeo soon discovers that several of Venice’s leading politicians each have reasons for wanting Orseolo’s death to have been natural, or caused by Nostradamus, or by a murderer who will never be found; and each of these politicians are powerful enough to have Alfeo tortured or “disappeared” if he threatens their schemes. Alfeo’s investigations involve him with sultry courtesans, sadistic police officials, art forgers, assassins, damsels in distress, Ottoman spies, and much more before Nostradamus arranges for a recreation of the fatal dinner party to expose the killer.

The Alchemist’s Apprentice has a brief and unnecessary scene of demonology, apparently only to justify its publication as a fantasy adventure. Similarly, its use of an imaginary “Nostradamus’ nephew” and fictitious Venetian historical figures have led some reviewers to call this “alternate-world s-f”. It is really a delightful and well-researched historical novel (but historical novels don’t sell as well as s-f), set in the exotic independent Venice city-state of the 1590s or early 1600s, featuring Renaissance Italian versions of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin investigating an “impossible” murder. I look forward to the next novel in the series, The Alchemist’s Code, to be published in March 2008.

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Categories : , , Sci-Fi

Fred Patten Reviews The Gladiator

30 06 2007

The Gladiator
Author: Harry Turtledove
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates/Tor Books
ISBN: 10: 0-7653-1486-X
ISBN: 13: 978-0-7653-1486-4

The Gladiator is the fifth in Turtledove’s Crosstime Traffic series of Young Adult alternate history s-f novels. The premise is that about a hundred years from now, a machine is invented that makes travel possible into alternate worlds where history developed differently. This is used for secret commerce, buying food and natural resources for an overpopulated and resource-depleted “homeworld” from less advanced worlds, but not letting them know about the more advanced world. Each novel features two teens who are either part of the Crosstime teams or are natives who learn the secret.

Gunpowder Empire (2003) features a world where the Roman Empire never fell, but technology never developed above that of 600 A.D. A brother and sister from the homeworld are trapped in a primitive, disease-ridden culture when a barbarian Lithuanian empire besieges the Roman border town where they are staying. Curious Notions (2004) is set in a world where Germany won World War I. When a secret shop in San Francisco selling advanced electronic goods is raided by German occupation police, young Crosstimer Paul goes to a Chinese-American girl for help, but this brings them both to the attention of Chinese crime gangs. In High Places (2005) takes place where the medieval Black Death almost completely depopulated Europe. Its 21^st century world is mostly Muslim and still heavily practices slavery. In The Disunited States of America (2006), there was no Constitution and the United States soon fell apart under the weak Articles of Confederation. Becky Royer, from an independent California visiting with her grandmother in Virginia, is trapped there when Virginia and Ohio go to war. Each novel can be read independently.

The Gladiator (2007) is a role-playing gaming shop in a Milan where the Soviet Union won the Cold War of the late 20^th century. In the late 21^st century the whole world is like the former Eastern Bloc nations; regimented by Socialist bureaucracies and repressed by an all-powerful state police. Teens Annarita Crosetti and Gianfranco Mazzilli have grown up together since their families share the same kitchen and bathroom in a crowded apartment building in an Italian People’s Republic short of housing and consumer goods. Gianfranco is a failing high school student, until he discovers The Gladiator and becomes obsessed with its unique complex games which force him to learn pre-Socialist history and develop his mathematical skills. When the Security Police close the shop for subversion because its games also glorify capitalism, Gianfranco persuades Annarita and her parents to help hide his friend Eduardo of The Gladiator’s staff from the Police. The two teens gradually learn Eduardo’s secret as he tries to find another secret Crosstime shop in Italy that can help him get home. Turtledove seems to have changed his rules here; the Crosstimers are operating several gaming shops just to undermine the oppressive Socialist society, not for any commercial gains. In any case, The Gladiator is a brisk, thought-provoking s-f novel for adolescents.