Thursday, March 25, 2010

Samuel R. Delany, Babel17/Empire Star

Babel 17,....I still don't know what the 17 stands for, maybe some code or something. This sounded like an interesting read, but in the end it didn't really ienchant me enough. I read through it and found the only thing enjoyable about the book for me was the characters and the culture. Rydra Wong was a great character. She was some what out of place for me though. She was empathetic and caring. She was between two wars and didn't really side with anyone. Lets not forget also that shes a hot asian chick.

One thing I thought was clever was how Delany explained what was going on through a characetr. In fact, I think theres a pretty strong argument that Rydras sidekick, knows nothing, army buddy turned lover was made a character for that soul perpouse. To learn and help us learn as well, more about the culture (which I loved) and about the other characters, whom Rydra knows pretty well already.

The concept behind the plot was very interesting. I never thought about the thought process of someone who speaks a forign language as being vastly differnt, or the concept that they may think things I would never grasp and vs. versa. The notion of language is also a huge part of the book. In the end some of the theames felt a little, under-explained, or left to our own thought. WHich, isnt such a bad thing, but lets face it, I lik being told all the answers, I dont want to have to think one up...

I don't really like Sci-Fi. But if you do, you'll most likely enjoy this book more then I did. I didn't really hate it, but I found it relly confusing and annoying to read. Why didn't I just stop and read something else you ask? Well, I was too far into it to stop, so I kept going. But so much of it was left in the dark for me, I need explainations to let me know where everyone is in the story and what is going on, but any explanations from Delany in this book are as rare as a hot girl at a Sci-Fi convention. Yes, there are hot girls at Sci-Fi conventions, but I'm talking about the ones who weren't hired to be there.
In the end Id say this book is worth reading for the sheer fact that its old school and its a the birthplace for some more modern day sci-fi. It stays on plot and reads quickly. The characters are liakable, some of the book is lengthy and hard to understand were they are at times, but otherwise, give it a read.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

Let me begin by saying that this book was a "pain in the" to find a download for....er, by "downloaded" I mean I read it at the library. Anyway, where do I begin? This book was, well, it reminded me very much of "The Count of Monte Cristo". If you've never read the book or seen the movie then I strongly suggest you do so. If you have seen or read it, then you might enjoy this book.

The main character Foyle reminds me very much of the Count. The only major differences is that instead of being the master of sword fighting, Foyle has much more interesting wepons up his sleeves. He can "juant" as a way of transportation, for one (the first chapter gets you interested with this notion) and of course since it's sci-fi he has some alteration made to make him super fast, super human like, blah, blah, blah. This book, as dated as it is, was exciting and full of action. It was hard o believe it was written in the 5o's. I would think it would make for a great movie, if nothing else.

Foyle in my opinion was a very sad and twisted character. He's very, "anti-hero". I didn't know what to make of him, he was terrible and he was glorified (mostly near the end did I feel most for him). He rapes, he kills, he has lovers (some of which he abandons) and generally he makes messes for himself later on but somehow he manages. When he is left for dead by the upper-class (a ship called Vorga), his revenge and hate drives him to better himself. I thought it was interesting in that, Bester was able to pull this off so well (regardless of the Monte Cristo plot line). Maybe I should find someone to hate with a passion so I would stop being lazy and go to Harvard to better myself, then I could get the revenge I deserve! Aside from being satirical throughout this review I might add that this book was a page turner for me. I enjoyed it for the meat of the book, it was action packed and had some great twists! I would still suggest it even if you don't like Sci-Fi all that much. Some of the sci-fi did make the story confusing at times, I had trouble following and at times and didn't get the full effect because I sometimes missed things. But, the important parts were understandable and I was able to follow the main plot pretty well. As a main character, I thought his evolution was very interesting. Foyle learns to imagine and learns to dream. In the beginning he does neither, but it all changes with his first "dream" as twisted as it was. I won't give away the ending, but it was worth reading this through to the end just for the satisfaction of knowing what becomes of Foyle.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Equal Rights, er...Rites

I'd never heard of Terry Pratchett, and was embarrassed to say that I was surprised to learn that name belong to a man, not a woman as I had previously gathered. This actually caused me to take a step back and look at my own way of thinking, I mean, just because this book had some woman's rights features I automatically assumed the writer was female. Go figure.

The writing style was amusing, I mean, not in that it was poorly written amusing, but that it was very well written and that the tone was so clear, it was humorous and it was serious when it wanted to be, there was no issue at that. Maybe I'm not the best reader, but I also found this book to be an easy read. That's saying a lot as I am usually a slow reader and often enough I'll find myself going back to make sure I understood what I just read. The book also had a great effect on my emotions. I'm one for justice and when I see an injustice it makes me wanna open my mouth,...in a bad way. Yes, it makes me want to look up sexiest commercials and slogans and rip them apart to make myself feel better. The book did a good job on my feminist emotions thankfully, but the discussion in class brought those feeling back for the rest of the day! Thankfully I live in the 21st century, I'd have gotten my mouth sewn shut or my tongue cut out by now I'm sure had it been any other time frame....
The ending was.....it wasn't at at what I wanted. In fact, it was lmost like a 60's romance. Sure she was able to attand, but I still felt like the book did nothing but make the woman seem uneducated and rural. Even in the end, I felt there was no major climax for our main character, it was more about Simon....
Well, still a pretty good read, though I will point out that a guy might not get the same feelings as a girl from this book, but I think anyone can appreciate and enjoy the playful use of satirical banter Pratchett delivers every other paragraph.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Avatar Movie Review

Saw this was on the list and BOY do I wanna write a sentence or two about it.

Where should I start? The breath taking graphics? The epic music? The grade A actors? How about the horrible been-done-to-death clique ridden, stereotyping, racist, anti-military storyline? Oh? You want to hear about that? Ok, let's begin.

If you've ever seen any Indian movie (dances with wolves), or something like it (fern gully anyone?) be prepared for the same story, white men come, they want something from the land/want land, they see natives, natives see them, at first nice, then fighting, then there's a white guy who falls for the Indian T&A, and decides he is one of them/thinks he is one of them and tries to/saves girlfriend from bad redneck white guys that he used to hang with but never could get along with because he's so deep and handsome and they are ugly and violent wife beaters we all hate.

Cameron pulls the same strings as Titanic and then some, some of the oldest things in the book. Make the audience hate the villain, pull their heart strings, insert love story. After they make love, something horrible happens that puts the world chaos. Need I say more? Also, the anti-military, anti-technology, evil white guys, message is shoved down our throats throughout the whole film. Even though we have come so far in the film technology wise we are still horrible pillaging idiots that want nothing more then to take whatever we see like a small child? This is insulting, not only to modern day Americans but also to our military folk.

The whole movie was focused on one thing. Cool graphics and big explosions. They spent the whole time developing this when they should have been working harder on the plot and the 1 dimensional characters that were still at square one. Cameron did a great job making a movie that looked great and creating aliens that star war nerds everywhere would want to tap, but the story, stereotypical bad guys/ good guys and laughable dialogue made this movie the soul example of how Hollywood continues to move in the wrong direction.

Also, not awesome animation, but the idea is great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXraSkgssFk&feature=related