Jean-Paul’s Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading “A Princess of Mars”, one thought popped into my mind over and over again; wow is this racist.  Either Edgar Rice Burroughs was a racist or he wrote the book portraying John Carter as a racist.  I lean heavily towards the former.  Of course, this can be written off as more a sign of the times in which it was written than a condemnation of the man who wrote it.

So, the racism…

The whole book is told narrative style by the protagonist, John Carter.  It starts out almost immediately with descriptions of Native Americans as bloodthirsty and such.  That didn’t bother me so much because it would be a fairly accurate description of how White men thought of Native Americans at the time.  Things then move to Mars where John Carter quickly falls into the hands of the Green Martians who are tall and beastly and distinctly non-human and have a warlike culture with a Klingon-like sense of honor.  They are described as primitive and savage and there are many instances of their culture being disparaged by John Carter.  All of them, that is, except the two he happens to befriend.  They are described in a very positive light and as two who are completely out of place with the culture that they belong to.  Reading the book, I could almost hear John Carter saying, “I can’t be racist, some of my best friends are Green Martians!”

Then there’s the Red Martians.  They are described as humans only with red skin.  They are described as cultured and sophisticated and peace loving.  All this despite the fact that, like their Green inhabitants, they all seem to be at war with everybody.  The few Red Martians that John Carter befriends are, indeed, how he describes Red Martians in general, but the rest of the Red Martians are virtually indistinguishable in savageness from the Green Martians except that the Red Martian’s culture much more closely resembles White Earthling culture and the Green Martian’s culture is the stereotypical conquering White Man’s description of Africans.

I do not say any of this to talk you out of reading the book.  It is quite a fascinating read and very rightly was an inspiration of many modern writers and scientists.  I found the racism fascinating instead of off-putting.  It’s like an anthropological look into the mind of a racist.

The story itself is kind of blah.  Man travels to Mars.  Man falls in love with a captured princess.  Man rescues said princess again and again.  We’ve seen this before.  Where it stands out, though, is in Burroughs’ insights into Mars and the technologies Burroughs creates for Mars, many of which are astoundingly prescient.  For instant, the newly discovered at the time radioactive isotope radium is used to both create abundant power and make bullets much more deadly.  Besides the fact that we now use uranium and plutonium for such, this is very reminiscent of nuclear power plants and depleted uranium ammunition.  There are also world altering atmospheric generators that keep Martians able to breathe which still hold a place of high regard in science fiction.

That isn’t to say that Burroughs was firmly on the science of the possible.  He also had really cool and massive air ships that were able to support their bulk by collecting light and breaking it into components unknown on Earth to create an anti-gravity field.  It’s interesting in the way he describes it, but pretty laughable scientifically now.  Even his description of light, though, sounds like he’s describing infrared and ultraviolet light which I am not sure was actually discovered when he wrote the book.

Despite the fact that the plot is terribly unoriginal, Edgar Rice Burroughs does a great job of throwing a lot of originality into the story that the plot doesn’t matter that much.  The book must certainly be read with one eye on when it was written, but I would definitely recommend it to science fiction fans as an example of what likely inspired some of their favorite authors.  “A Princess of Mars” is actually the first in the “Barsoom” series and I will certainly at least read the next one to see if Burroughs continues his amazingly accurate predictions.

Jean-Paul’s Rating: 2/5 stars

Another award winning novel that I didn’t much care for.  I had a very hard time getting into “Zoo City” so take what I have to say here with a grain of salt.

“Zoo City” takes place in semi-modern day Johannesburg, South Africa.  The title refers to a slum section of the city where those who have been “animalled” live.  Being animalled is like having your own familiar.  The way an individual is animalled is a bit vague, but it has something to do with committing a serious crime.  Commit a serious crime and soon thereafter an animal will appear at your side and you are forever tied to it.  Separation from the animal causes immense pain and the death of the animal causes the human to be drawn in by the Undertow which kills you.  Animals can range from lions to butterflies and all have extended life spans and human.  The animals also unlock some sort of magical power in the humans.  This power varies from person to person.  Being animalled is like wearing a scarlet letter and the affected individuals are usually scorned by society.  It is an interesting concept with lots of avenues of possible exploration, but they are mostly avoided in this book.

The main character is Zinzi December who is animalled with a sloth.  She is an ex-druggie that owes lots of money to all the wrong people.  She is slowly paying that money back by using her magical power offinding lost things for people for money and running spam e-mail scams (of the Nigerian Royalty needing seed money to release a vast fortune variety) for the person to whom she owes the money.  She became animalled by doing something that led to the death of her brother.  What that something was is not entirely clear but it had something to do with drugs.  I find this incredibly frustrating.  Why even go into how Zizi got animalled if you’re not going to give the whole story?  It would be better if they simply left you to wonder how Zinzi got animalled.  There is a lot of stuff to choose from.

The plot centers around Zinzi being hired by a reclusive music mogul to find the female half of a set of twins who comprises his biggest current hit band.  She disappeared days before the band’s new album is supposed to drop.  The money is good so she goes against her usual rule of not using her power to find lost people.  What follows is a series of really hard to follow events leading up to the discovery of the lost girl.  This discovery is entirely anticlimactic and everything that follows afterwards makes no sense.  It is not entirely clear why Zinzi took the job when she certainly could have broken her rules and made a lot of money for finding missing people long before this.  It is especially not clear why Zinzi would continue on the case when it becomes abundantly clear that there’s a lot of bad mojo surrounding the twins and the music mogul.  And it makes no sense whatsoever why Zinzi would continue to pursue the case after the twin is found.

Outside of the main plot, though, there are some really cool, if depressing, views into South African life.  The peeks into the 419 fraud e-mail scams is legitimately interesting.  Zoo City itself is supposed to be a fairly real life look into one of Johannesburg’s suburban ghettos.  There are also glimpses into African issues like child soldiering, rebel warlords, and war refugee families.  These are all side stories but I found them much more compelling than the actual main plot.

I finished reading “Zoo City” with so many unanswered questions.  Maybe my inability to get into the book made me miss some key points in the plot and that’s why I have so many questions.  It is a possibility.  But I am a fairly astute reader and, while I can pass a point or two on something I just didn’t pick up on, this book just had too many of them for me to recommend to anyone.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention one other thing that I though was pretty cool about the book.  Race was almost completely invisible while being set in a country known for it’s racial issues.  At no point was I conscious of the race of any of the main characters.  It wasn’t until probably three quarters of the way through that I realized it.  It’s quite an accomplishment in my book.

Jean-Paul’s Rating 5/5 stars

Open letter to Brad Pitt:  Dear Mr. Pitt, what were you thinking?  Your movie version of “World War Z” was, to put it kindly, not very good.  If I had read the book prior to watching the movie I would have likely given the movie version only one star.  The similarities between the book and the movie were this: they both had zombies.  Partially, this is not your fault.  A book the breadth of “World War Z” is by no means a good fit for the silver screen and that’s what you know.  If you still own the rights to “World War Z”, you can salvage this disaster.  I humbly recommend staying true to spirit of the book and producing a series of vignettes as seen through the eyes of a reporter collecting post-war stories from around the globe.  A web service like Netflix would be superb for this.  With Netflix, you can feel free to tell the stories in a series of episodes without having to worry about how long each episode is.  Each season would be a specific time period in the War.  Stories could be taken straight from the book or new ones could be created for the show.  This needs to happen.  Make it so.  Thank you.

I was not surprised to learn that Max Brooks has basically created a “World War Z” empire around this book.  It is a compelling look at not just a world at war with a remorseless enemy, but also believable tales of humanity as told by individuals who were lucky enough to survive the war.  It is the believability that makes the book so excellent.  You believe that people would prey off fear to become rich.  You believe that the army could be that stupid.  You believe that a limited nuclear war could break out.  You believe that Israel could be that paranoid.  You believe Russia could descend into an autocratic theocracy.  The zombies are ever present in the text, but they are in many ways secondary.  At it’s soul, “World War Z” is not a book about zombies.  It’s a book about how humanity reacts to dire situations.  In this case, the dire situation just happens to be the zombie apocalypse.

Like J.K. Rowling, Max Brooks has successfully created a world that will quickly spin out of his immediate control.  The way the book is put together almost guarantees it.  There are likely already thousands of fan fiction pieces set in the “World War Z” world.  This is because Brooks succeeds in doing the one thing that is most difficult to accomplish; the book ends but he leaves you wanting more.  Bravo, Mr. Brooks.  Bravo.

Jean-Paul’s rating: 2/5 stars

“Stranger Things Happen” is a collection of short stories of an indescribable genre.  They are not quite ghost stories, but you get the feeling that they’re all supposed to be ghost stories or dreams or something else equally gossamer and fleeting.  I say this because most of the characters behave more like you’d expect ghosts to behave than real people.  Their minds flit about from one subject to the other without much resolution of anything.  All the stories read as a slightly structured stream of consciousness.  And then they end.  Next story.

The short story is the most difficult form of writing.  You need to be pithy while at the same time being verbose.  You need characters that readers are instantly invested in while not really saying much about the character.  It is a great balancing act that, when done right, produces the best fiction imaginable.  “Stranger Things Happen” doesn’t do that.  It’s one of those books where you recognize the talents of the author but the execution just doesn’t click.

All this could just be me.  I might not get it.  Kelly Link has won a few awards, including for some of the stories in “Stranger Things Happen”.  Take “Louise’s Ghost” for instance.  It won an Nebula Award for best novelette in 2001.  It was certainly the most story-y of the short stories.  This is more so because the two main characters were named Louise.  Much of the time is spent trying to figure out which Louise is being talked about in any given sentence.  It’s clever as a writing device, but that’s about all it is.  The story itself doesn’t accomplish anything, however.  There are the Louises and a hairy ghost and a girl who thinks she was once a dog and a bunch of cellists.  There are descriptions of the Louises’ love lives and attempts to get rid of the ghost and a death and then a flashback and the end.

It’s as if all the short stories are half finished ideas.  Or maybe half started ideas.  They are beginnings without ends or ends without beginnings or maybe meat without bread or style without substance.  “Stranger Things Happen” is certainly some sort of accomplishment but I can not for the life of me say what it accomplishes.  Maybe that’s the point.

Jean-Paul’s rating: 4/5 stars

How many of you knew that “The Jungle Book” is more than a story about Mowgli a la Disney?  I didn’t.  I had heard of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi in relation to “The Jungle Book” before, but I always assumed that he was just a character from the Mowgli tale that was left out of the Disney version.

That said, “The Jungle Book” is a series of short stories, only the first two of which tells the tale of Mowgli.  Everyone of a certain age knows the tale of Mowgli thanks to Disney.  It should come as no surprise that the version in the book is much more enjoyable and much darker.  It focuses much more on the enmity between Sher Khan and Mowgli.  It also focuses much more on the Laws of the Jungle which were all about honoring and caring for others and how to behave with other species.

Another of the tales well worth mentioning is the aforementioned and very delightful Rikki-Tikki-Tavi which is about a young mongoose that protects a British family from some cobras.  I don’t know if I read into the story what I know about mongooses or if Kipling just writes well, but the whole story exudes the playfulness that a mongoose seems to have.

There are also stories about a white fur seal that leads his people to the promised land, a bunch of war animals and the roles they play in war, and a group of elephants that decide to break free and dance for a night.  As with many children’s books, they all tell a moral.  Besides being a bit more PG-13ish than most parents would feel comfortable with, they’re all worth reading to your kids.  “The Jungle Book” is one of those rare books that can appeal to the adults as well as the kids.  Even some of the poetry/songs interspersed throughout is fun.

I got the feeling when reading this book that Rudyard Kipling doesn’t think much of humans.  There are also some undercurrents of racism with the White Man being portrayed as noble while the Indians being portrayed in a less flattering light.  This can be forgiven because of the times in which it was written and it’s really quite subtle.  I suspect most wouldn’t even recognize it as racist unless it was pointed out to them.

Jean-Paul’s rating: 4/5 stars

It has been a long time since I’ve found a science fiction book that was outside my normal list of authors that I read that I would highly recommend to others.  Finally, there is “Old Man’s War”.  It combines a fascinating storyline with a realistic vision of a futuristic Earth and is full of more sciencey goodness than you can shake a stick at.

I got the book because it was part of one of those Humble Bundle packages where you get a bunch of ebooks and pay what you want and some of it goes to charity and such.  If they keep getting quality books like “Old Man’s War” in the bundles, this Humble Bundle project will be a roaring success.

The story starts on an Earth far into the future.  Humans have advanced far beyond our little Sun, but people on Earth are mostly oblivious to that fact and to the technologies that make interstellar travel possible.  People from the poorer countries get shipped off to colonize other planets, but the rest of the world carries on their lives much like we do ours.  With one exception.  When you turn 75, you get an opportunity to join the Colonial Defense Force (CDF) and protect Earth colonies from the dangers of the universe.

Why would anyone want a bunch of 75 year olds for war and why would a bunch of 75 year olds want to go to war?  Good question.  The CDF controls all higher technology.  They don’t allow most of it to be used on Earth and Earth doesn’t even know what technologies exist.  The assumption is that the CDF has technology to make you younger and they will use it on you if you join up.  When you’re 75, the lure of being in a 20-something body is pretty strong.

One of the people that is drawn in by that lure is John Perry.  He and his wife were going to join the CDF together but she had the misfortune of dying before her 75th birthday so John must go it alone. The rest of the book follows John as he explores this strange new universe.  I won’t go into details, but the aliens are cool, the technology is cooler, and the political landscape of the CDF is coolest.

The only reason why I didn’t give the book five  stars is because the ending was a little off in my mind.  It just sort of ends abruptly.  There is resolution to the immediate storyline, but a feeling of “That’s it?” that goes along with it.  Luckily, there are sequels to the book and I will definitely be reading them.  I hope there are questions answered like why is Earth kept so primitive?  I am looking forward to further explorations of the “Old Man’s War” multiverse.

Jean-Paul’s rating: 2/5 stars

And I’m done with The Dresden Files (both the books and the TV show).  Jim Butcher is lucky that fanboys (and fangirls) are so easy to please.  That is the only reason I can offer for how popular this series of books is.  With “Fool Moon”, the trick is to throw as many different types of werewolves at the reader as possible to cover up the fact that every single character behaves stupidly and changes motives on a whim just to advance the story.

And, oh look, another murdered naked woman!  Why is she naked?  Either female wizards are required to get naked to perform ritual ceremonies and male wizards are not or Butcher just wanted to add another pointlessly sexualized murder victim to titillate the fanboys.

Let’s see what other stupidities we have going on in this book.  There’s the scene where Dresden is trying to cast a spell at a werewolf that is charging at him only to have Murphy jump between him and the werewolf and points a gun at Dresden and tells him to get down on the ground.  She, a supposedly trained detective, doesn’t hear the werewolf?  Nope.  She, a supposedly trained detective, doesn’t think to just take a step or two to the side and shoot the man running at Dresden from behind?  Nope.  Instead, she shoots right at Dresden.

Oh, and then there’s the FBI agent who actually attempts to shoot Murphy while they are both at a crime scene.  The agent, completely unprovoked and breaking about a billion laws, pulls her gun and shoots at an officer of the law.  That agent is certainly going to jail for a long time, right?  Wrong.  Murphy refuses to even file a report because she doesn’t want there to be bad blood between her and the FBI.  Seriously?

There is also this scene where Marcone is tied up and strung up over a pit as bait for a werewolf while Dresden and his crew are stuck in the pit.  Somehow, defying all physics, Marcone is able to pull a knife from his person (even though he was searched) and cut some magical rope that then falls into the pit and allows Dresden and his crew to climb out of the pit.  Someone please explain to me how that is physically possible?

Of course, the worse thing, as in the first book, is every single interaction between the main characters, Harry Dresden and Karrin Murphy.  For example, Harry and Karrin have a conversation about how Karrin is pissed at Harry for hiding things from her in “Stormfront”.  She makes him promise her that he’ll never lie to her or hide anything from her like that again.  THE VERY NEXT THING Harry does is hide things from her.  In fact, he is hiding things from her as he’s promising her to not hide things from her.  Harry Dresden is either a complete asshole or Jim Butcher is a horrible writer.

Then there’s also the whole thing with Murphy using Harry to investigate every paranormal happening and always coming to the conclusion that Harry must be involved somehow.  Every freaking time two books in a row!  You either don’t trust him or you do.  Pick one.

I did give it two stars and not one so now I’ll say something nice about the book.  Much like the first one, all of the magic and werewolves and ideas are legitimately interesting.  It is fun to read about loupe-garou and Hexenwolves and what the differences are.  Jim Butcher would likely have had a fine career writing a Monster Manual.  Unfortunately, he decided to try to tell a story.  Jim Butcher can not tell a story.