What a well-written novel.
Early in M. John Harrison’s science fiction novel “Light,” different characters begin to mention “going deep” — whether deep into areas of space that have never been explored (or explored millennia ago and forgotten), or deep into knowledge, deep into information, also perhaps once explored and since forgotten.
If you choose to go along with the ride, I can promise you — you’ll go deep — even the jaded science-fiction geeks out there, who think that there isn’t anything worth reading any more. There is plenty here on which to geek out.
But it isn’t perfect. Most significantly, there are parts of the Kearney story which don’t sit well with me. I didn’t end the novel feeling as though I truly understood how Kearney came to kill. There is a cause and effect that the killings symbolize, yet I’m not sure Harrison makes the case completely for me.
The novel’s only false note.
No matter.
“Light” is good. “Light” is worth reading. “Light” is a story of self-, micro- and meta-discovery. The characters are believable. Their motivations pleasantly obscure. I read, I raced to the end and along the way their stories became my own. What I didn’t understand at first slowly became clear. At first, I didn’t understand shadow operators or cultivars or foam (yes foam!) or mathematics (yes mathematics!).
Actually, I’m still not quite sure what cultivars are, although I *think* I’ve got it.
Yet while the ending is good, Harrison certainly left me wanting more. In this story, the grandest of origin stories, I found myself in awe of the way Harrison shaped his answers to life’s greatest questions, and at the same time understood for the first time how answers to the greatest questions could lead only to more questions.
And on and on the cycle goes. In Harrison’s world, always someone came before. No after without before. No dark without light. No life without death. No gifts without sacrifice.
In its way, “Light” is a story of faith.
Yes, this agnostic felt strangely comforted at the novel’s finish. Indeed, I very much enjoyed the novel’s very last words. But I would like to see Harrison answer the next batch of questions he’s created.
I want to know more about the world of “Light.”
The thing about books: Much of the time, the book you decide to read has no marketing push, no clear indication of its target audience until you’ve invested, at the least, a few dozen pages. Books simply have no trailers. Books often have no (or very few) reviews. Even the blurbs that coat the back and front matter are often misleading, coming from no-names and friends of the author, or second and third tier publications.
The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz
GoodReads Book Description: A solitary New Jersey librarian whose favorite book is a guide to suicide methods is struck by lightning in Alice Hoffman’s superb novel, The Ice Queen. Orphaned at the age of eight after angrily wishing she would never see her mother again, our heroine found herself frozen emotionally: “I was the child who stomped her feet and made a single wish and in so doing ended the whole world — my world, at any rate.” Her brother Ned solved the pain of their mother’s death by becoming a meteorologist: applying reason and logic to bad weather. Eventually, he invites our heroine to move down to Florida, where he teaches at a university. Here, while trying to swat a fly, she is struck by lightning (the resulting neurological damage includes an inability to see the color red). Orlon County turns out to receive two thirds of all the lightning strikes in Florida each year, and our heroine soon becomes drawn into the mysteries of lightning: the withering of trees and landscape near a strike, the medical traumas and odd new abilities of victims, the myths of renewal. Although a recluse, she becomes fascinated by a legendary local farmer nicknamed Lazarus Jones, said to have beaten death after a lightning strike: to have seen the other side and come back. The burning match to her cool reserve — her personal unguided tour through Hades — Lazarus will prove to be the talisman that restores her to girlhood innocence and possibility. Hoffman’s story advances with a feline economy of language and movement — not a word spared for the color of the sky, unless the color of the sky factors into the narrative. Among the authors who have played with the fairy tale’s harsh mercies (e.g. Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter), Hoffman has the closest understanding of the primal fears that drive the genre, and why, perhaps, we never outgrow fairy stories, but only learn to substitute dull, wholesome qualities like personal initiative or good timing for the elements that raise the hairs on our neck and send us scrambling for the light switch.
Zanna’s Gift: A Life in Christmases
I remember browsing through a few books that had just hit the stands a couple months ago, and without a doubt, Vintage Knits for Modern Babies, by Hadley Fierlinger, practically jumped into my arms. The cover design is adorable, classic, full of color, yet simplistic, all at the same time. How could it not reel you in?
One of the books Tracey of A Book Sanctuary (click for full review) chose for the WWII reading challenge was A Girl in Winter by Philip Larkin. Here’s what she had to say:
*Books in book pack may differ from those pictured.
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Inside issue 5:
Leah’s Choice: Pleasant Valley Book One by Marta Perry
At the beginning of his classic Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin heads his very first paragraph thus: “Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God”. This observation is strikingly true, and if one would take the time to discuss the gospel in depth with the definite majority of American citizens living today, he would doubtless find that the one great obstacle preventing them from prizing and embracing the gospel of God’s grace is a faulty view of self. The gospel is not for people who are basically pretty good, but just need to believe in themselves, build up their self-esteem, and pick themselves up by their bootstraps. If there is one problem that consistently hinders my attempts at gospel-witnessing, it is that. Oh, for a tool that would give the true picture of man in his sin and helplessness, and so pave the way for a true picture of God in his holy justice and limitless grace! Paul David Washer’s biblical study, The Truth About Man, is just that tool, and I enthusiastically recommend it.
Today I’m presenting a midgrade contemporary fiction novel by my fellow 2k9 classmate, Rosanne Parry. Heart of a Shepherd tells the story of Brother and his ranching family. Set in rural Oregon, this book transmits a deep spirituality that is not often found in chidren’s novels today. Brother is raised in the Catholic tradition and spends a great deal of the story trying to keep a promise he made to his father before his father leaves to serve in the war in Iraq. Brother and his grandparents hold down the family ranch and life continues with its small triumphs and disappointments. When tragedy does visit the family, it is the strength of family relationships that holds everyone together and allows each of the characters to continue with hope for the future.
years ago on the bargain shelves at a Barnes and Noble in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I’d never heard of it, but the cover and book description immediately piqued my curiosity.
It is said (by whom, we are not certain) that a child who tastes the Wine of the Gods too early is only half a person afterwards. Young Prince Amatus learned all too well the bitter truth of htat ancient saying when he secretly sipped the forbidden elixir, leaving him literally half the lad he’d once been–not just a figure of speech; indeed, his left side vanished without a trace.
It’s the perfect book for this time of year. I love how the author, Leigh McLeroy, weaves personal stories, quotes, and with the stories of Word. Treasured is a unique collection of stories that teach you more about God through the stories of the Word. For example the fig leave from Adam and Eve and how He covers us. The book is easy to read and rich with goodness. I have very much enjoyed reading it.
Treasured by Leigh McLeroy: Cigar boxes. Refrigerator doors. Scrapbooks and sock drawers and top shelves. These are the places we store our treasures–the keepsakes that tell the story of whom and what we’ve loved, how we’ve lived, and what matters most to us.
God Gave Us Love by Lisa Tawn Bergren: As Little Cub and Grampa Bear’s fishing adventure is interrupted by mischievous otters, the young polar bear begins to question why we must love others… even the seemingly unlovable.
God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa Tawn Bergren: As Little Cub and her family prepare to celebrate the most special day of the year, the curious young polar bear begins to wonder… “Who invented Christmas?” Mama’s answer only leads to more questions like “Is God more important than Santa?” So she and Little Cub head off on a polar expedition to find God and to see how he gave them Christmas. Along the way, they find signs that God is at work all around them. Through Mama’s gentle guidance, Little Cub learns about the very first Christmas and discovers that… Jesus is the best present of all.
When I heard about the novel PUSH and its subject matter (poverty, incest, illiteracy, obesity) I simply had no desire to read it. Certain it would be another negative account of the African-American experience, I decidedly moved on in hopes of more uplifting material.
At the conclusion of Hunted, Zoey and her circle drove the fallen immortal Kalona and High Priestess Neferet from their ice-covered town. Tempted picks up right there and spans the next few days. The title refers, I believe, to the numerous times Zoey is tempted by Kalona to join with him. There is also an over arcing theme of free will and the temptation evil presents.
The Eternal Kiss: 13 Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire by various authors