Seed to Harvest – Octavia Butler

I finally read the Octavia Butlers that I grabbed on a whim at the Big Bad Wolf Sale. I finished Fledgling and moved on to Seed to Harvest. I was actually surprised at how much I liked her writing. For one thing, it’s simple and clear; and for another, the concepts she uses aren’t particularly complicated (as you can see, I am an easy reader. I am the Harley Davidson of readers).

 

Like me, but with less American flag and more pages.

For example, Fledgling starts off a lot like Tanith Lee’s Birthgrave, with an immortal of unknown power or origin awakening from a slumber. Except that unlike Birthgrave, Fledgling did not suck. More on that in another post.

Seed to Harvest is actually a compilation of Butler’s Patternmaster series – Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Clay’s Ark and Patternmaster. The first two explored the concept of breeding superpowered humans, and the struggle between the long-lived Doro (the guy who breeds everyone) and the women who are his match – the first he finds in some random place in Africa, the last is the final and most successful result of his breeding programme.

Like this, only psychic.

Clay’s Ark introduced an extremely virulent alien disease that results in those who survive it having children that are sphinx-like (I still have difficulty imagining them. Surprisingly I couldn’t find any DeviantArt fanwork of them). Clay’s Ark was pretty brutal with rape, torture and violence, but it fell in with the sort of post-apoc and pre-apoc (must be the first book I read that turned out to be both) setting.

Essentially, those three books were great. They laid down a myth, drew it out and introduced an adversary for the superhumans (who are now all psychics). They were novel ideas. My problem is with the final book, Patternmaster.

There is nothing new about Patternmaster. No new ideas, no new situations. If you had told me that Butler had taken a year-long vacation to Romania and had asked her 16 year-old niece who was a fan of pretty bad fantasy to ghost-write Patternmaster, I would have believed you. I would have been relieved to have believed you. Because Patternmaster sucks.

After building up to the superhumans with psychic abilities being led by the one great psychic who holds the pattern (slavery? or greater good?), and the introduction of the creepy-intelligent-animal Clayark creatures, Patternmaster is an afterthought to complete the cycle.

The story is that Clayark’s have attacked the Patternmaster, Rayal. As he lays dying, his son Coransee (not to be confused with the beer) tries to consolidate his power and either kill or control his only competition for the Pattern – his younger brother, Teray.

Not Coransee

This book is Teray’s monomyth. And Teray is an asshole.

That is the main problem of the story (aside from the sudden departure from good storytelling). Teray is supposed to be better than his slightly power-crazy older brother. We don’t ever see how he is better.

Yeah, he doesn’t place psychic geas’ on his underlings. BECAUSE HE DOESN’T HAVE UNDERLINGS. Yeah he doesn’t misuse his power as a Housemaster to steal people’s wives. BECAUSE HE AIN’T A HOUSEMASTER. Yeah he doesn’t treat people, especially women, like shit and expect them to obey him…oh wait. HE DOES.

So at the end when Rayal tells Teray that he is worthy of holding the Pattern because 1. Rayal was waiting for him and 2. His brother wasn’t ‘good enough’, you’re just like WAIT A MINUTE. I WANT TO VOTE HIM OFF THE ISLAND.

Some people like Teray.

Why was Rayal waiting for him? Before the idea of becoming Patternmaster took ahold of Mr Beer, he was a good Housemaster. In fact, before this, Rayal himself had killed all his siblings (except the one he married) to ensure that he would get the Pattern. Mr Beer was just doing what was expected of him. It sounds like the only thing he did wrong was wanting the Pattern. Which was expected of him.

????????

At the end, Rayal gives some wishy washy excuse about Teray’s healing powers making him a more suitable Patternmaster. That’s just a fluke of luck. He didn’t EARN his healing power. He didn’t WORK HARD for it. In fact, unlike Mr Beer or Amber the badass healer who for some reason follows Teray around, Teray doesn’t seem to have made an effort for anything beyond thinking about himself.

Basically Teray’s moments with Teray sound like this: POOR TERAY. LIFE IS SO HARD. OMG MY WIFE THINKS MY HOT BROTHER IS HOT! SHE BETRAYED ME. DESPITE THE FACT THAT I CHOSE TO PUT US IN THIS POSITION. POOR TERAY. SO POWERFUL YET STUCK HERE. DON’T THEY REALISE HOW POWERFUL I AM?? I AM SO POWERFUL!

It’s like listening to a fantasy lit version of James Franco. So, screw you, Teray. You made Patternmaster suck. And you spoiled all of Doro’s efforts. At least Doro was an interesting asshole.

And yet you’re still here, Franco. Making boring-ass movies like Oz and writing condescending reviews about Superman.

I would still suggest reading these books, but maybe stop at Clay’s Ark and pretend Patternmaster was never written (although it defeats the purpose of Clay’s Ark not to have Patternmaster. argghh).

Middlesex

After the horrors of the wedding and 15 page assignments written in two days, I decided to seek refuge in my (pirated but beloved) ebooks. I didn’t have time to download anything new (and I can’t seem to find anything interesting! WHY? Is it me or has there been a reduction in good books lately?), so I read the Jeffrey Eugenides’ that I already had, The Marriage Plot and Middlesex. Eugenides is an awareness writer. Really. His books have a central theme: Bipolar disorder – Marriage Plot, Hermaphroditism – Middlesex, and the story is built on that. I won’t say plot, because I’m not sure if Middlesex had a plot. I haven’t read Virgin Suicides, but Greg did and he says issues of parental control and emotional abuse come up.

Sorry, this was all that came to mind after the last sentence.

So it feels a little bit like you’re reading a well-written brochure for whatever issue Eugenides has taken under his wing. Just a little, because it is well-written, and you don’t mind gathering all this new information while reading about romance and disappointment and just people being people. He tends to meander though, and as I was reading Alexander McCall Smith’s Blue Shoes and Happiness at the same time, it was like meandering squared. My mum hates McCall Smith because she believes that his books are pointless and the heroines are useless. Eugenides’ characters are McCall Smith for my mum then, because things happen and they react to it, but things tend to go off on (interesting) tangents here and there.

On to Middlesex itself. Middlesex is the name of the house where the main character lives for most of his formative years and is also a literal representative of Cal Stephanides himself. The book is basically a historical/genealogical record/story starting from his grandparents, an incestuous relationship within which the seed of middlesex found fertile ground, and it is sporadically interrupted with a few paragraphs of modern day Cal and a lady that catches his eye. It actually reminded me a little of Indian literature, you know, House of Blue Mangoes, A Suitable Boy etc because of the focus on the family story. Not the horrid Amitav Ghosh sort of writing. One day I will write about how much I hated Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide. One day.

While hermaphrodtism is the main focus of the book, there’s also issues of immigrants, racism, war and sexuality. It’s all handled with the same deft, sympathetic hand, and you can imagine being that character and feeling those feelings. I did have a problem understanding the incest at the beginning because it just didn’t make sense to me at all. But it’s done in a way that doesn’t ignore the magnitude of what they are doing, while at the same time presenting it in a matter of fact fashion. ‘Yes, I married my sister, oh god I’m going to have nightmares about it’ sort of thing.

Like this, but in the 1920s. And Greek.

I would get the actual book if I wanted to read Eugenides again though. It didn’t have the proper depth being read on a kindle. It was robbed of some of its old-fashioned weight when translated into digitised format. His works are the kind that need physical form because they’re so dense with life.

Kraken – China Mieville

I have to admit that I am unable to spell Mieville’s name without googling the correct spelling first. Why his name couldn’t be Andrew Andrews or something, I don’t know. So Mieville is actually a pretty…respected?…author. His books are everywhere, he’s the new Neil Gaiman+Michael Chabon etc etc. They are, in fact, so abundant in bookstores that somehow Seth and I have managed to collect four of his books over the past year. Not a big deal right? Except we’ve never read a single one of them. Until now.

I did attempt to read The City and The City, and I nearly threw it against the wall in frustration. I kept it away and vowed never again to read Mieville because he gave me a headache and went to read my Sneaky Pie mysteries to calm down. Recently though, I picked up Kraken because 1. the cover kept reminding of sashimi during my vegetarian fast and 2. it sounded too interesting not to read.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiightttttttttt???

And I have to admit that it was worth reading, if only for the details. I went into Kraken expecting it to have a Victorian steampunk setting, what with museums and cults and things, and was a bit disappointed to find that it was set in modern day London. I kept having a slight feeling of disjointedness throughout the book when they mentioned modern day things like lolcats and google and Star Trek; I think that was partly my botched expectations as well as the fact that maybe these things were not inserted as smoothly as they could have been. Or maybe they should not have been mentioned at all. These references can date a good book.

I know, I’m doing it wrong. BUT LOOK GINGER KITTEN ARRGHH. 

Recap: Basically the giant squid goes missing from the museum, tank and all, and there’s a rush to find out who took it because it’s going to cause the apocalypse. There are weird cults, gangsters, BPRD a paranormal police dept, a bunch of seers and miscellaneous supernatural things. Billy Harrow is the museum fellow who put Kraken in his tank and now everyone wants him, for reasons that even after the book I didn’t really understand (so he’s sort of like Kirsten Stewart). We more or less follow him around throughout the book, although there are about 3 million other characters who pop up.

Like this, but with less Bender.

The Good: It was a really interesting book. I kept going because I wanted to see what Mieville was going to come up with next, what creepy power, what disgusting way to die, what magical tracker was going to be used, ‘angels’, ‘demons’, all kinds of amazing things. This book would make an excellent movie. I suggest David Lynch directs it. The world Mieville created is rich and layered. I would be willing to read a guidebook of Kraken’s world, that’s how interesting it is.

Yes, I am embarrassed to admit I have design training. 

The groups Mieville created all have personalities of their own (a good thing, because there are quite a few groups running around in the novel), are propelled by specific motivations and act according to those personalities. So in this sense, the groups he has created are not simply there as page decoration; they act according to their designation. I hate when authors just pull dozens of characters out of their arse, and they’re supposed to belong to one faction or another except they run around and do out-of-character shit because they couldn’t be bothered to discipline the poor character.

The Bad: Two things irked me about this book, but I wouldn’t say that they’re reasons not to read it.

1. The characters. While the characters working in groups have a personality and agency according to their groups, individual characters seem to suffer. I honestly cannot recall much about any single character’s personality (besides maybe Collingswood, but only because he kept pushing her so much. LOOK AT COLLINGSWOOD! SHE’S SO GODDAMN AWESOME AND BADASS! BUT SHE STILL DOESN’T TUCK HER SHIRT IN COZ SHE’S WORKING CLASS AND SHIT). They were mostly defined by their group motivations rather any memorable individual quirk. Except maybe that security guard guy. He was okay.

What Collingswood wants to be when she grows up. 

2. The ending. I do not know or understand what happened at the end. I can’t understand why or how it ended like that, or even why and how the culprit was who he was. Which is why I think it’d make a good Lynch movie. But it’s also why this book was not as fulfilling to me as it should be, given the attention to detail and overall good writing.

The Ugly: Marge, the girlfriend of Billy’s dead friend, Leo. She insists on investigating Leo’s death. Everytime I got to one of the chapters with her in it, I told myself, AHA this must be where Mieville will insert plot device to show that she is indeed important to the story! But no. She really is just pointless. I have no idea why he dragged out her story. I am upset with Mieville because of this. I would like an explanation from him.

Yes, Marge. Yes you can. *pat pat*.

Verdict: An interesting book with interesting ideas. Maybe a bit too many ideas to the detriment of character building? I enjoyed the book though.

The Horns of Ruin – Tim Akers

I’ve been meaning to post a review of this book for so long I can barely remember what the plot is. Not that there was much plot to begin with. Let’s recap before getting to the gnawing of bone and gnashing of teeth. SPOILERS.

Recap: The scrumptiously named Eva Forge is a Paladin of Morgan, the God of War. Morgan is a dead god. He was thought to be murdered by his brother Amon, also dead. The setting city of Ash was built by Amon, the Scholar, but is now ruled by the third brother, Alexander (who gets to be god of everything seeing as he didn’t die). Morgan is a dying cult, so when its members start being targeted for death by mysterious and powerful forces, it is up to Forge to figure out what is going on before the cult disappears forever. She and her trusty articulated sheath. And her angriness. Forge is always angry. It’s like reading about yourself if you lived in a steampunk era with living gods and guns and curses and had neverending PMS.

Yeah whatever.

Forge discovers a nasty secret (with the help of a seer and a cop with a welsh name) that could tear Ash apart. Which it more or less does at the end.

The Good: Wellll. The cover artwork for the Pyr edition I have is pretty nice.

Not bad right? Except I don’t imagine her like this at all. 

The idea of Ash is interesting – a steampunk city that runs on what I imagine is some sort of eldritch magic. The unification of science (steampunk) and fantasy (spellcasting etc) is consistently evident throughout the book. Warriors use spells but also carry swords and guns.

The Cult of Amon was by far the most interesting aspect in the, but little was explained of it  – how it works, the story behind the scholar turned betrayer, the shunned librarians with their shackled superpowers deserved more page-time in comparison to the less than charming Eva Mary Sue.

The Bad: Quiet a few. This book was not a good one, but I’ll narrow it down to a couple of things that irked me the most.

1. Eva Forge. She started out promising, and then turned into a whiny-assed anger management candidate. She’s supposed to be really badass and take-charge, but the way she’s written is like a petulant superpowered adolescent. IT’S MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY. DISAGREE AND YOU’RE WRONG. I’M ALWAYS RIGHT. Which leads us to the inherent issue I have with this lady. Mary Sue-ness.

That’s right you irritating, self-righteous, un-mystiqueal cow. 

See, I’m pretty sure the book implies that with the Gods fallen at the end, and the existence of nascent gods among the populace has been brought to light, Forge is herself a God – perhaps the most powerful at the time (I think I finished my comma quota with that sentence). Now. Nowwwwwww. She strikes me as a Mary Sue mainly because even when she’s wrong, she’s clearly always right. But even though she’s rude, whiny, abrasive and likes to waste time indulging her anger, people thinks she’s awesome. Even when she’s intimidating people to do what she wants, or wasting precious time telling everyone all the hardship she’s been through, or being unnecessarily angry, she’s still always in the right. Overbearing righteousness and a tendency to lay on the self-sacrifice orchestra – she reminded me a lot of Anita Blake and her everyone-sucks-except-me attitude.

2. The Plot. I did not really understand it. Partly because I was rushing to the end of the book. There was a lot of pointless meandering as I recall, and I didn’t know why Eva did this or that half the time. As far as I know, the plot is Eva Forge Kills Everything.

Like this, but lacking awesomeness, summer glau and basically every attractive element. 

3. World Building. The problem I had reading this book is that the ideas were there, but they are never fully realised. It’s like ideation constipation. It’s frustrating as heck to keep expecting the book to live up to expectations (Amazon seems to love it) and it just keeps not doing that. It’s like, oh follow the interesting plot point…to a fart. Seriously.

The author has the image of this complex world in his mind, but his attempts to convey them to us is confused and one-dimensional. He should take a break and read Greg Keyes’ The Waterborn, a beautiful and awesome work of fantasy that does incredible world-building.

4. Articulated fucking sheath. What. the. hell. is.it?

IS THIS WHAT YOU KEEP TALKING ABOUT YOU PRETENTIOUS SWORD-CARRIER?? WHY CAN’T YOU USE A SCABBARD LIKE EVERY OTHER GODDAMN SWORDSPERSON. Ass.

The Ugly: This book reads like a fanfic of a WoW paladin or something. It feels lazily written and lacks a certain maturity that adds weight and results in a good book in genres like steampunk and fantasy. I was surprised to discover that Akers was not a first-time author; this was his second or third book in fact.

The Verdict: Not worth the time. For a more satisfying read, I’d recommend  The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder instead.

The Undrowned Child

I bought this book solely based on its cover and cover blurb. I didn’t at all realise that it was a children’s book, what with the in-thing now to have illustrated covers for all genres (which I like, really. like little works of art on your shelves. I’m one of those people who’d buy a book they’re iffy about if the cover is pretty).

It’s really a wonderful book – literally full of wonders. It reminded me of a small-scale Golden Compass, except a lot less convoluted and I felt a lot less confused reading it. The book is weaved around Teodora, an orphan, and the prophecy of the Undrowned Child and Bajamonte Tiepolo, the Traitor. There’s also another character, the adorable Venetian the prophecy calls the Studious Son. Bajamonte (the Italian version of Benjamin?) had attempted to overthrow The Doges of Venice once before, but his baddened magic was defeated, and his bones and spirit were cast asunder, never to be united for fear of him returning to his former power. But he comes back, just when Teodora is in Venice and she is pulled into a world of mermaids, cat ladies, handsome ringmasters and traitorous ‘friends’.

I enjoyed this book because of Teodora. Reading it, I could easily imagine my eleven-year-old self creeping about an antique bookstore and smelling the books. Books smell delicious! Why should one not smell them? She was clearly a child, but a mature one. Sometimes I find young adult/ children’s novels with characters that sound like adults, but without believable character maturity (Ender’s Game, I’m looking at you). The good in this book are clearly good, but not one dimensional. And the bad are clearly bad, which made me quite happy. I like a straightforward book once in awhile.

And the mermaids! I loved them, with their salty tongues and spicy curries. I loved the Grey Lady too; the fantastic characters in this book have personalities of their own, rather than just being there for ostentation. Like, Ooooh, look at me, I have talking polar bears and witches and demons and flying pigs and whatever.

I fully recommend this book to everyone, and especially people who love to read. Although female protagonists who claim to be ‘scholars’ and ‘love books’ (I’m looking at you Merit from the disgustingly atrocious Friday Night Bites) are a dime a dozen nowadays, Teo doesn’t take pride in loving books, but neither is she ashamed of it. She’s just a child, and she acts like a child, and it made me wish I was a child reading this.

Big Bad Wolf

Went to the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale. Despite the fact that my room is littered with small mountains of books, I still bought more. I couldn’t control myself. Not with books. Never! And I managed to get Bitter Seeds! The top was a bit ucky, but that’s okay. It was the only Bitter Seeds I found and I would have taken it even if a seal had drooled on the first ten pages.

My haul:

1. The Undrowned Child, Michelle Lovric (The blurb said ‘mermaids and venice’. So I bought it)
2. Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill (I’d heard about the book and it sounded creepy. Also the cover was nice)
3. The Unincorporated Man, Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin (Read about it on a sci-fi list. They also had the Unincorporated War, but didn’t get that, just in case)
4. The Skull Beneath the Skin, P D James (I don’t remember if I’ve read this Cordelia Gray book, but I don’t really care. I love P D James)
5. Original Sin, P D James (Mum requested for Chris. Probably to prove that Dalgliesh is not as great as Morse. But that is, of course, impossible)
6. The Vesuvius Club, Mark Gatiss (This book is ridiculous. I borrowed it from the Singapore library ages ago, and I had to have it)
7. Bitter Seeds, Ian Tregillis (;,,,,,;)
8. Kraken, China Meiville (For Seth. It sounds interesting anyway, even though I couldn’t get past page three of the overpretentiously convoluted The City and The City)
9. Some Dragonship Book for Ben
10. Some Book of Useless Facts for Ben (That was the actual name of the book)
11. A Jamie Oliver cookbook for Seth’s mum
12. A Nigella cookbook for my mum/me

SIGH. And I only spent RM 130 (this ‘only’ is subjective, as I’m pretty broke. But for 12 books I think it’s freaking amazing).