NPR Challenge

It’s been a while since my previous reading challenge post. There’s two reasons for that. First, there were a bunch of great books that came out in the past couple months that I couldn’t wait to read. Seriously, if you might be interested in the Cthulhu mythos told from the perspective of a Deep One, check out Ruthanna Emrys’ Innsmouth Legacy series. Or if ghost stories from the perspective of a ghost are more your speed, try the Ghost Roads books by Seanan McGuire.

Anyway the second reason it’s been a while between these reading challenge reviews is that this next book is another by Neal Stephenson. You may remember that my reading ground to a halt during the previous book of his that was on the list. I was so dreading going through that again that I kept putting it off. The book is The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, first published in 1995.

So, was my fear validated? Read on to find out!

This story mainly follows Nell, a young girl from a poor background with no particular class standing, who happened to get caught up in someone else’s social experiment. That experiment is in the form of a very special book. Commissioned by a neo-victorian lord, Lord Finkle-McGraw, the Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer is a piece of bespoke nanotech engineering. It’s purpose is to help a young girl lead an “interesting” life, teaching her to be subversive, but not so subversive that she wouldn’t eventually become a functioning member of society.

The Primer was created by an engineer named Hackworth, who made an illicit copy with the intent of giving it to his daughter. Unfortunately it was stolen by Nell’s brother, who brought it home as a gift for her with no idea what it actually was. The Primer uses narrative to teach Nell, adapting to her needs and her surroundings to provide what it thinks will benefit her at the time.

In parallel with Nell, the story also continues to follow Hackworth. After losing the Primer he gets blackmailed by the mysterious “Dr. X” into sharing the plans for it with him and eventually working for him on an undisclosed project. Dr. X needs to be able to mass produce the Primer because he is overseeing the care of thousands of Chinese girls who had been abandoned to the elements as infants. Like Finkle-McGraw, Dr. X is also trying to use the Primer to engineer a better society, just one with a very different cultural pedigree and values.

X and Finkle-McGraw are working at odds with each other on another project though: the development of “seed” technology. This is a next step beyond the “feed” technology that drives material production in the novel. Instead of getting matter and energy via a feed line, the seed tech would let anyone grow anything they need from a “seed”. Dr. X sees it as necessary for his people to be able to thrive without reliance on the western-based tech of the feed. The neo-victorians fear it because it means anyone could make anything they can engineer, including weapons.

Much like the previous Stephenson novel I read for this list (Anathem), this one has many sections where the plot slows to a crawl while we explore some interesting angle of philosophy or technology. Unlike Anathem, The Diamond Age does at least have a plot that isn’t completely crammed into the final quarter of the book. Both of these books have incredibly intriguing ideas at their core, and both fall flat to me because the story felt like a thin wrapper for the idea rather than something of value in its own right. I find this especially interesting coming on the heels of Rendezvous with Rama which seems to have similar failings, but which I wholeheartedly love. Maybe it’s because Rama is an extension of one simple idea rather than a whole textbook chapter, or because Rama story moves along at a reasonable pace and it’s just the characters that are lacking. It might also be that Rama is half the length of Diamond Age. I don’t mind long books when I’m engaged in the story, but that definitely didn’t happen here.

The Diamond Age ends rather abruptly just as Nell disrupts a ceremony/computation that is likely to result in the seed blueprints. On the one hand I do like that it is left a bit ambiguous. We don’t know if the seed will eventually get made anyway (it seems likely) or how the world might change in its wake. On the other hand the story also stops just short of a moment of emotional payoff, of Nell getting to meet the woman who is essentially her mother (who raised her through her work acting out stories for the Primer). There’s a whole theme throughout the book about how Nell is different from other girls with Primers precisely because she has this mother figure, but we miss out completely on any resolution of this thread. For me this just underlines how the thought experiment of societal structure and technology took precedence over the narrative about actual people, and overall left me with a bad taste.

TL;DR: The story of an experiment in trying to improve society by educating subversive young women. Stephenson is great at being thought provoking, but less great at compelling storytelling.

Welcome back for another reading challenge post. This time I got to read one of my all-time favorite books, so my review might be a little biased. It’s Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1973.

As I work my way through this reading list, every time I get to a book I have read before and remember enjoying I get a little worried. Will I still like it? Does it hold up well? Is this re-read going to make me hate something beloved from my childhood? Luckily for me this time, Rendezvous with Rama is just as amazing as I remembered.

Some books I enjoy because of the characters, others because of the intricate worldbuilding. Rendezvous with Rama I love because it is a beautiful thought experiment. The book is about humanity’s first encounter with aliens. Or rather, with an alien artifact. Dubbed “Rama”, a huge cylindrical spacecraft passes through the solar system, and there’s a rushed scramble to mobilize an expedition. The closest vessel gets conscripted for this task, and have to do their best to gather as much information about Rama as they can before it travels on its way past our sun.

Rama is a fascinating enigma. There’s no explanation of where it is from or why it came. When the expedition gets inside, there’s no reception waiting for them, just an inside-out world full of more questions. The place is so alien that when the explorers finally run into “creatures”, they aren’t even sure if they are animals or robots. Then, just as they finally discover a tantalizing archive of alien artifacts, they have to leave Rama or risk being carried too far away to return safely.

There’s a few moments of tension, with threats from people afraid that Rama might be a weapon, and from the spaceship itself. Mostly, however, the book is content to simply lay out the curiosities of the alien vessel for the reader to consider. It works because the idea of it is so intriguing. The biggest failing is that the characters are not very developed. The crew do their jobs with little conflict beyond good-natured competition over who gets to explore new things first. It’s honestly exactly what you would want from humanity’s first expedition to an alien artifact, even if it doesn’t make for dramatic reading.

The end leaves your head full of questions in the best possible way. Yes there are several sequels, although my understanding is they were mostly written by Gentry Lee with some input from Clarke. I remember enjoying them too, although I suspect they won’t stand up nearly so well to a re-read. For now I like the purity of Rendezvous with Rama. I truly can’t recommend this novel highly enough.

TL;DR: An alien spacecraft passes through our solar system, and leaves behind more questions than answers. One of my all-time favorite books.

Time for yet another reading challenge entry. This one took me a while, for several reasons, not the least of which is its 700+ page length. This entry is The Kushiel’s Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey. As usual I only read the first book of the series to meet my challenge goal. That was Kushiel’s Dart, published in 2001.

I have many mixed feelings about this book. My enjoyment of it and level of engagement varied wildly from one chapter to the next. Since this book had quite a lot of chapters, this makes writing a review very difficult. I will do my best!

The story follows the life of Phèdre nó Delaunay. At a young age her parents sell her into indentured servitude. Initially the red mote in her eye is seen as a flaw that makes her unfit to become a high-ranking courtesan. However it is eventually revealed that the flaw is actually “Kushiel’s Dart”, a religious sign marking her as an “anguissette”, a prized sexual masochist.

Yes, in “fantasy France” (Terre d’Ange) where the novel is set, sexual ability is highly valued and compatible with their faith. Phèdre’s childhood is spent preparing her for a life of religiously-motivated servitude and prostitution. The children sold this way were not used for sex until they came of age, but they were told constantly that prostitution was a life of holy work and trained in submission and in sexual techniques. You might see now why I had a very hard time getting into this book. There are some aspects of this culture that seem really great. For instance, the full spectra of sexual orientation and sexual preferences are openly accepted. For me, though, “love as thou wilt” was never enough to offset the idea of children being bought and sold for this kind of life.

Once Phèdre is old enough to leave the training house (but before she comes of age) she enters the service of Anafiel Delaunay, who purchased her contract. He trains her in the ways of court intrigue in addition to her other talents. When she is finally old enough to start her work, her real job is to get her patrons to give up their secrets while they are using her body. Individual readers might love or hate this part of the book, depending on their own preferences, because the plot is heavily interspersed with graphic scenes of sexual torture. I would have found it distracting, but I didn’t care much about the plot at that point anyway.

For better or worse, immediately after Phèdre earns enough money to pay off her debt and become free tragedy strikes. Delaunay is murdered, along with his entire household, and Phèdre is given into true slavery to a tribe of Skaldi barbarians threatening Terre d’Ange’s borders. Where earlier Phèdre at least had some agency and a say in which clients she would take, now even that is stripped away. During this time, however, she discovers the extent of a plot that involves conspiracy between nobles from her homeland and the barbarians to overthrow the queen and take over Terre d’Ange.

The last major section of the book involves Phèdre and her bodyguard escaping, warning the queen, and then seeking a way to defeat the Skaldi with outside aid. Even though this section is filled with grim war, at least Phèdre is finally free to be her own person. The military strategies and political intrigue were mostly lost on me though, because I wasn’t invested enough at the start of the book to pay attention to who all these lords and houses were.

Overall my opinion is mixed. There were times, especially in the first half of the book or so, that I was ready to quit reading it completely. Looking back from the end, I guess I’m glad I finished it so I could at least see the ways in which it got better. It was very long, and I would not say I liked it, exactly, but once it finally got going it did tell an interesting, suitably epic story. I wish the premise and world-building had not been so problematic, I might have actually enjoyed the tale.

TL;DR: Alternate-Europe, low-magic political intrigue fantasy with an extra heaping helping of sex up front and war at the end. Depending on your personal tastes this book might be engaging and sexy or it might be completely off-putting.