Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh

This is the second C.J. Cherryh I've read in the past couple of months. I haven't tried her books since I was a teenager, when I stubbed my toe on one of her other books, found it opaque, and didn't try again. I'm glad I have given her another chance now, but I still find her books a bit, well, not opaque anymore, but a bit distant. Her characters seem kept at a distance from the reader, and that's a bit peculiar. However, under all that, they're really strong science fiction books, and if you can keep plugging until you make that connection, they're rewarding.

It took me over half the book to really get into this one. I think I knew what was going on, but it didn't have that drive of story to keep me eager to read more, and the characters remained reserved, so I wasn't reading to find out what happened to them, either. This gradually changed as the book went on, and the last two hundred pages flew by, where the first two hundred had plodded.

So keep that in mind if you're thinking about that one. If you like science fiction that focuses heavily on the procedural, before the plot or the characters kick into high gear, you'll like this fine. If you don't, well, I promise it picks up eventually, but I don't know what your personal tolerance level is.

The major issue with this book is that it does a number of things fairly well, but no one thing really excellently. In fact, most of the time, my reaction tends to be "that's neat - now, could you do something more with it?" There's a lot of surface consideration of interesting things, which are then discarded to bomp along to the next thing that is skimmed over.

Which is weird, given that this is a small story in a large canvas. Or rather, it would benefit from being smaller in scope. There is too much here, and it means many things are given short shrift that have fascinating seeds within them. Picking a few of these things and exploring them would have given a more satisfying experience than throwing the reader in at the deep end of complex politics and not giving a primer at all.

Maybe I'm starting in the middle again. I've read one other book in this universe, from much later, but I still had very little footing. But maybe examples will help. Here are a few things that I wish had been explored in more depth:

Oh, I guess that a brief synopsis might help.

We are in a galaxy where most of humanity that has left Earth lives on space stations, only two planets that can support human life having been found. The economy that has been developed is mercantilist in nature, and the Company back on Earth has little inclination to explore further, or to incorporate their farflung colonies into the profits.

So they rebel, and face off against the remaining Earth fleet of starships, led by a renegade. (I don't know how he became renegade. If the story is told, it's not in this book.) It all comes down to one of the two stations that orbit a habitable planet, Pell Station and Pell. Pell has a race of intelligence life, the hisa. The hisa seem to be vaguely humanoid, gentle, pastoral creatures. More about that in a minute.

There are a few characters whose arcs I wish had more development. The thought processes, the events, many of them seem to happen offstage, and we only occasionally peek in on them. But those seem like the interesting bits! Jon Lukas, for instance, who yearns to wrest control of Pell Station and Pell from the benevolent Konstantins, whom he seems convinced are as mercenary as he himself. How did he get this way? What is his life like? What else has he done in the past? What does he hope for the future? Other than seizing Pell, that is. We see him try to be Machiavelli with limited success, and it's interesting, but it could have been more.

Similarly, the dissatisfaction of Signy, Captain of the Norway, with the fleet, is interesting, but so backgrounded. I could have read a book just about her journey and gobbled it up. How did she get to be the lone captain with integrity in the fleet? Did the rest lost it, or never have it? How did she get the loyalty she has from her crew? Why is she so dedicated to discipline when the rest of the captains are blase about it?

These are the problems - there are fascinating stories here, but as readers, we're not allowed to get close enough to them. We're behind the velvet ropes, and this curator is having none of our shenanigans. It's frustrating, because there is so much here that's good - it's just not concentrated in any one area.

But there is such good stuff here. It's just that it's strung apart, at a deliberate distance from the readers, and I find that frustrating. Not enough to give up on Cherryh. But enough to register my slight annoyance that something that is good isn't better.

Oh wait, I said I'd talk about the hisa, didn't I? There's something brewing in my head that's not quite ready to come out yet, about contact stories with aliens being, in many cases, metaphors for contact with Natives. It's not a new thought, but reading The Inconvenient Indian recently has brought it to the front of my mind. The hisa in this case are gentle, non-violent, storytellers. I don't know what to make with this yet, and at any rate, whatever ideas are bubbling won't be about just one book, anyway. So let's just say that maybe there's a bigger post about colonialism and contact in science fiction composting in my brain, and maybe it'll come out eventually. It's not ready to just yet.

I'd also have to go back and see if all the characters are coded as white. It feels like they are, but I sometimes skim descriptive passages, a fact I admit with some chagrin. 

But as a little note to myself: remember that when you just read Hyperion for the second time, the nastiest colonial impulses of humans are acknowledged, as one character relates the systematic destruction of any intelligent race the humans have come across. Stay tuned.


Booklinks:

I read this book as part of an attempt to read all the Hugo Nominees

Dust Cover Dust-Up - Round One, Part Four

Sense and Sensibility vs. Let's Pretend This Never Happened

Winner: Let's Pretend This Never Happened

Sorry, Jane Austen. I like Sense and Sensibility, but I have rarely laughed as hard as when I read The Bloggess' memoir. It may not be a classic, but it deals with her life and the whole topic of mental illness with both sensitivity and side-splitting humour. And it made me want to start collecting weird taxidermy. My husband says no. There was nothing about Sense and Sensibility that made me crave a strange new  hobby, and so, Lawson gets it.


Vicky Angel vs. Changeless 

Winner: Changeless

Neither of these I really loved. Vicky Angel wasn't one of those children's books that really spoke to me. Changeless wasn't one of those fantasy books that really grabbed me. So I have to pick between two books that were only so-so. Of the two, I'll go for the one for adults. I guess. I'm not confident on this one.

Breakfast With Scot vs. Hexed

Winner: Hexed

Not a hard one. I really disliked Breakfast with Scot, both in content and style, particularly its decision to skip over the most important moments in favour of...ellipses...?  And I did like Hexed, although it was much like the first in the series of this 1000-year-old druid in Arizona. But I like the snark. And the dog.


Mort vs. Red Seas Under Red Skies 

Winner: Red Seas Under Red Skies

As much as I like Terry Pratchett, as soon as I remembered back to sitting in a cafeteria, eating lunch, tears streaming down my face as I read the last few pages of this book, the decision was obviously made. This is as good or better than the first Locke Lamora book, and that's saying a lot. I love the new characters, I love the old characters, I love everything. Sorry, Mort.


Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore vs. Doctor Faustus 

Winner: Doctor Faustus

Classics don't tend to do that well in this tournament, and I find Thomas Mann a bit of a slog, sometimes.  But not as much of a slog as Mr. Penumbra's was a disappointment. There was little actual love for books here, and the deep message at the end was about a half-inch deep. So, Doctor Faustus gets it.

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

Another book that I really enjoyed because of the characters - the main character, Penelope, in particular. The story is another of those sprawling family stories (in both time and space and characters), which in general, I enjoy very much, as long as they are skillfully told and executed.

The ending however, reminded me uncomfortably of the ending of the Bridges of Madison County, which I hated beyond all measure. (The best thing I can say about that book is that it was such a fast read that I had finished it by the time I realized how truly abysmal it was - and the framing narrative around the story was the worst part.) So, whether or not I would have enjoyed those aspects of the ending without having had that prior experience I can't say. I can just say that, thanks to that dreadful book, endings that revolve around "Look how much we didn't know about Mummy, how deeply she loved, etc, etc..." are likely to rub me the wrong way.

But the rest of the book I enjoyed so much. I thought the two non-likeable children were kind of caricatures, but the likeable characters were all so endearing, and the communities of shared food and experience and genuine enjoyment of people's company are themes that I always very much enjoy.

Pilcher was at her best writing about her slightly bohemian and loveable characters, and fortunately, that was most of the book.

Dust Cover Dust-Up - Round One, Part Three

Some easy choices, for the most part, in this edition of the Dust Cover Dust-Up!

The Winter Palace vs. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Winner: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal

The Winter Palace was fine historical fiction, but really nothing particularly special. I didn't mind reading it, I barely remember it. On the other hand, Jeanette Winterson's memoir is half memoir as usual, but then in the second half, it takes flight into something else entirely. Something else that's very special about mental health, breakdowns, and the stifling universality of adoption stories as they are told.


First Among Sequels vs. Burn Me Deadly 

Winner: First Among Sequels

Two books that are later in series. Both series I quite enjoy. So, how to pick? Literary metafiction or noir fantasy? I liked both, while neither set my world on fire. I think, from the remove of most of a year away, there are a few things that stick more in my mind from Fforde than they did from Bledsoe, particularly the part about Thursday's youngest daughter.

Redshirts vs. Left Neglected

Winner: Redshirts

Easy choice in this particular battle. I didn't like Left Neglected very much, with an irritating main character and illness-exploring plot without anything new to say or reveal. I did like Scalzi's Redshirts, and his books are compulsively readable. I can't say this is my favourite book of his of all time, but when it's up against an "issue book," it wins, hands-down. Both hands. Right before a redshirt gets shot.


Dark Currents vs.  The Computer Connection

Winner: The Computer Connection 

Another easy one, although The Computer Connection isn't a patch on Bester's best work. It's a very weird little piece of science fiction. But still, this story of immortals fighting it out over the U.S. is a darn sight better than mediocre fantasy. I haven't been that impressed with Buroker's series, and that makes this an easy one.

Lean In vs.  Tooth and Claw

Winner: Tooth and Claw

I did not know that I wanted to read a book about Victorian society but with dragons. I did not know that it was something I craved. Then I read Tooth and Claw, and lo and behold, I discovered that this was something I wanted to read very much. I was delighted by that book. In contrast, while Lean In has some good tips, most of it is all about the individual part of success, while acknowledging while simultaneously downplaying structural issues. It was bothersome. Plus, Facebook sounded like a truly nightmarish place to work. 

Dust Cover Dust-Up 2014 - Round One, Part Two

Round One, Part Two! Let's see what happens....

Titus Alone vs. The Recognitions

Winner: Titus Alone

I don't think anyone is more shocked than me. I was not expecting Titus Alone to make it past the first round. It definitely wasn't one of my favourite books. But here it's up against one of my least favourite books of the year, the one that had me looking askance at 1001 Books To Read Before You Die. I'm sure it's a classic. I didn't like it. And I liked Titus Alone a little more. That squeaks it through.

The Fall of Hyperion vs. Clementine

Winner: The Fall of Hyperion

Ooh, a no-contest. I like The Fall of Hyperion nearly as much as I liked Hyperion, and I've been raving about the first one since I read it. In fact, I'm making my book club read it now! I didn't like Clementine very much, and was bothered by its insistence that race had nothing to do with the Civil War. So, no question. Fantastic science fiction that ripped my heart out definitely wins out over problematic steampunk.


Inferno vs. Feed 

Winner: Feed

This is the section of easy battles. I really didn't like Inferno - in fact, looking at my review, it's the point at which I decided I'd read enough Dan Brown in my lifetime, thank you very much. In contrast, I really loved Feed, which surprised the hell out of me. Zombies, not really my thing. It is to Mira Grant's credit that I kept reading this zombie/political conspiracy thriller even when it started keeping me awake at night.

Bellwether  vs. Wolf Hall

Winner: Wolf Hall

I like Connie Willis quite a lot, but I didn't think Bellwether was one of her best. It was fun but slight. On the other hand, Wolf Hall was intriguing, challenging, and one of the best historical fiction books I've read in a long time. One of the archivists I work with urged me for a long time to read this. She was right.

Within A Budding Grove vs. Palimpsest

Winner: Palimpsest

Sorry, Proust. While I do like the richness of description and the capturing of small elusive moments, these books are worth a read, but not likely to be ones that I'll rave about to friends. Palimpsest, on the other hand, I keep pushing on people as one of the few books I've ever read that takes sex seriously, not just as titillation or obligatory, but which explores sex in such interesting and multiple ways. And a passport to the city that is passed on as an STD? There's nothing quite like this, and nothing quite like Valente's prose. Expect to see a bunch of her books make at least the second round, since I read three or four this year.

The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King

I have never read any of Thomas King's fiction. This is a curious omission, given how much I've liked the other media of his I've run across, from the Massey Lecture The Trouble With Stories to the halcyon days when the CBC Radio ran The Dead Dog Cafe. (The episode where Gracie and Jasper were writing political slogans will always be near and dear to my heart. I still know the Stockwell Day one off by heart.)

I don't know why I haven't read his fiction. Given that his first novel in years just recently hit the shelves, perhaps it's time to fix that. Because I like his voice when it comes to nonfiction and radio comedy. I'm betting I'd like his other books too.

Which brings us to The Inconvenient Indian. This has been on my radar since it came out, and spent a gratifyingly long time on the Globe and Mail bestseller lists. While I think it's a very good book, it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I also think it should be required reading for everyone in Canada and the United States. Full stop. It should definitely be read before trying to argue about what Indians "deserve" from federal governments.

(Sidebar, to do some naval gazing: As a very, very white woman, I'm never quite sure about what terminology to use, and tend to settle on Native. But for the review, I'm using Indian, as that's in the title, and King's noun-of-choice.)

We've all had those arguments, I think. They make me want to pound my head against the wall. I'm sure Thomas King has had exponentially more than I have, since they just happen my way every once in a while, and, he actually is Indian, and has to listen to toxic rhetoric far more often than I'd like to think.

We're doing very badly at this, people. Very fucking badly.

And as much as I'd like to say that I could just take this book and give it to people who are making incredibly bad arguments, that would presume that that's where my responsibility stops. And it's certainly not.

It's just...it's a lot wearier than I expected. The Truth with Stories had an energy to it that this doesn't. It feels like the weight of this history, these arguments, the repetitive nature of the way nothing changes, drags the book from sparkling anger to weary rage. That doesn't mean it's not a good read. It's just that it's not quite what I was expecting.

But King is a great storyteller, so it's an excellent read. Things are clear, lucid, and well-argued. I also like the recurrent rhetorical device where his wife appears in the narrative challenging him on something during the writing process, and how that has been incorporated into the text. 

The Inconvenient Indian is about interactions between Whites and Natives, over centuries of history, through treaties and popular culture, Live Indians, Dead Indians, and Legal Indians. It's an excellent summation both of what has happened, and how what's happening now bears eerie reminders of what has already gone before.

You don't get trust by just saying "Aw, come on! This time you can trust us!" And it's sad how much of the history seems to come down to that, and then acting confused when Indians don't extend trust based on totally real reassurances. This time. Totally.

The adjective inconvenient is sorrowfully apt. Why should we have to think about them? Take them into consideration? Do more than observe that the problem lies with them? Why, it might disturb our comfort if we start to think that the problem lies with us!

Well, good. It does. And it should make us uncomfortable.

Dust Cover Dust-Up 2014 - Round One, Part One

Is it really that time again? Time for the second annual tournament to determine my favourite books of the year! I'm starting a little earlier this year, with the intent to post five battles twice a week. That should get me through the first round by just after the New Year, when I will actually have read all the books I'm going to read this year.

So, let's find out what I liked to read this year! 

Railsea vs. The Areas of my Expertise

Winner: Railsea

Oh good, an easy battle to start off with. A book I loved, loved, loved. Made me swoon. I didn't know I'd have that reaction to a Moby Dick riff with giant moles and philosophies and trains. Mieville made that happen. Whereas, while I found The Areas of my Expertise made me smile, it never made me laugh, and it certainly never made me weak in the knees. 

Shipbreaker vs. Committed

Winner: Shipbreaker

While Shipbreaker wasn't the best thing I've ever read, it was still an excellent young adult post-environmental collapse science fiction novel. Committed was okay, and I liked it more than I thought I would, but still. My predilections are clear. Given two books that didn't change my world, science fiction is going to win.

Elantris vs. A Wanted Man

Winner: A Wanted Man

I liked Elantris on first read, but since then, it's sort of soured in my memory a bit. The lapses stand out more starkly. Not enough to ban Sanderson from future reading, but enough to say that he's on probation. A Wanted Man was not a book that stands out in my memory either, but it was more thoroughly enjoyable. Jack Reacher is more fun in this case than fantasy. So Lee Child gets it.

Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do vs. Inkheart

Winner: Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do

This round is just full of match-ups that I don't really love either book. Don't expect the last few winners to make it through the second round. But still, I have to make a choice. In this case, I think I remember the story of a middle-class black woman rebuilding her life more than I do what was really a disappointing children's book that came my way accompanied by a lot of hype I didn't find it lived up to. Perhaps it's that disappointment colouring this contest. That's the way it is.


In the Night Garden vs. Sapphique 

Winner: In The Night Garden

An easy one to start this part, and an easy one to end. I didn't really like Sapphique that much, and Catherynne Valente is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. While I thought at times that she almost lost the thread of stories-within-stories, this was still a great book about fairy tales and storytelling and fables and legends. Sapphique's disappointing end to a couple of books that were only okay definitely takes it out of the round.