Waterstone Media

Adventure Stories

Gardens of the Moon

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There are times in my life where I have made serious mistakes.

Not loving Gardens of the Moon the first time I read it was one of those.

I first read Gardens of the Moon several years ago when working my way through the NPR top 100 sci-fi and fantasy list. My memories of reading it are somewhat indistinct, but I did not love it. For the life of me, I don’t remember why.

But this year I decided to read the complete Malazan series, and it had been long enough since my first reading of Gardens of the Moon that I figured I should read it again. I’m glad I did.

Inside, I find mystery, suspense, and beautiful writing. I find an epic fantasy that continues to hint at a world that is bigger and more awe-inspiring than the mere words on the page. I laugh at some of the characters and with others. I have to pay attention, because sometimes what is between the words is as important as the words themselves.

In short, this time, I fell in love with the book.

The Warded Man

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One of my good friends has been trying to get me to read The Warded Man for well over a year now.

I’m ashamed it took me this long to get to it.

As I’ve been thinking about this book, one word that keeps coming to my mind is “heartfelt.” The Warded Man is both epic and dark, detailing the struggles of humanity as it fights for survival against a horde of demons that appears every night. Within that setting, though, are a cast of characters who care deeply about the world around them. Some are obsessed with fighting against the demons while others focus on healing.

I think special mention needs to be given to the character arc of the titular character, Arlen. Through the novel, Peter Brett lays the groundwork for one of the most interesting character arcs I’ve read in a while. It reads as a starkly realistic, yet hopeful transformation in the face of an overwhelming challenge.

Beyond the impressive character development, The Warded Man gives us a tour of a fascinating world, introducing us to different cultures and lands that respond to the worldwide crisis in different ways. Like much of my favorite fantasy, there are hints of greater, lost civilization in the ruins of the current one. I found the magical system to be wonderful and am very eager to see it develop in future stories.

Finally, credit must be given to the writing and structure of this story. While it is clearly the first book in a series, it tells a full story and keeps the pages turning one after another. I think I read this book in two or three days, which is much faster than I read most books.

This is a story I’d highly recommend.

Battle Angel Alita

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Last week I took a Friday afternoon to go see Battle Angel Alita. I’d heard of the manga (although prior to the movie I hadn’t read any), and was truly curious to see how the source material would be adapted as a modern western movie.

I’ll admit a few things. First, based on the trailer, I wasn’t really expecting a great movie. Combined with the typically poor adaptations that American film-goers experience when Japanese source material is used, my expectations were pretty low. Second, even though I had the chance to read some of the manga before watching the film, I intentionally chose not to. I decided that for once I was going to see the movie first.

I did enjoy my time at the theater, which for me is the sole marker of time well-spent. Although my critiques of the movie are plentiful (see the following paragraph), there were some spectacular action scenes and a few moments where I actually had to fight back the urge to cheer because the moment was so damn cool. Overall, I enjoyed the film, but I don’t think that I would call it good, as much as I hate the terminology.

To borrow the phrase my wife’s students say to her (thus driving her off the wall), Alita was trying to “do too much.” Now that I’ve gone back and started to read the manga, I can see just how true that is. There are too many plots running through the film, making it difficult for any one to have weight. There’s the boyfriend/love interest, the discovery of the new body, the class warfare, sports, body part hacking, the whole works.

It made me think a lot about one of my own personal mottos as of late, which is that there’s no problem with telling a smaller story. End of the world superhero films are all well and good, but a story that’s limited in scope can often be much more powerful. I think Alita is an incredible example of this.

In the manga, the first collected volume, coming in at about 220 pages, if memory serves, focuses only on Alita discovering more about who she is and adapting to a new body. It’s the story of maybe one-third of the movie. Yet in the manga the story has room to grow, and although far less actually happens, its impact is no less than the movie itself.

But that’s my take on the movie – did anyone else watch it? If so, what did you think?

We Have no Third Life

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In the past few weeks I’ve had several encounters now with an idea that has really wormed its way into my thoughts. It’s the idea of just how alien alien could actually be. It seems to me that in so much of our sci-fi, aliens are remarkably human.

Before a few weeks ago, I’d never really given much thought to the idea. From the Romulans, Klingons, and Borg in Star Trek to the Wookies, Ewoks, and Bothans in Star Wars, I never thought to question just how similarly we pictured alien species. But in so many ways, they are so similar to us (in deeper ways than is even implied by the “forehead alien” term) from the desire for love and community to the goals they live with. Even species that aren’t humanoid, like the alien from Alien, or the Arachnids from Starship Troopers, possess the (we believe) universal desires to conquer and reproduce.

Recently, I’ve read two stories: Annihilation and Speaker for the Dead, in which the sheer alienness of what is happening feeds directly into the plot of the story. Of the two, I think Annihilation captures the sensation better. For most, if not all of the story, it’s almost impossible for the reader to understand exactly what is going on.  We are on a perpetual journey of confusion and uncertainty. The simple reason is because it’s simply that different. As humans, we have enough trouble trying to understand someone who votes differently than us – how likely is it we would understand anything truly alien?

I’ve been fascinated by this idea in fantasy as well. For the most part, fantasy stories allow us to play with societies that are mirror images, or shattered reflections, of the society we live in. But in a world where magic actually is possible, how deep might the effects on society be? If a world exists that contains multiple species that grew up in dramatically different circumstances, just how much would they be able to relate to one another, if at all? They are fascinating questions that make me think about all the unexplored possibilities.

Speaker for the Dead

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I just finished rereading Speaker for the Dead, a book that I’d read long ago but only recently decided to try again. The book is the second in the Ender Saga, the series that gave us Ender’s Game, which to this day remains one of my favorite science fiction books of all time.

My memories of my first read-through are vague, but I remember not particularly liking the book the first time I read it. Now that I’m older, I can see why. As many have said before, while this book is technically the sequel to Ender’s Game, it is a very different book. When I was younger, I was hoping for a continuation of the military sci-fi that I’d loved so much. What I got instead was a relatively slow, philosophical book that I certainly didn’t fully grasp when I first read it.

On this read-through, though, my experience was incredible. Even though you won’t find lasers and battles in this book, I found the conflict compelling, and by the time I got to the end, I was flipping pages as fast as ever. Personally, I was sucked in by the familial conflicts, the mysteries surrounding the piggies, and by the character of Ender himself. I find the whole idea of a “Speaker for the Dead” to be a powerful one, and I thought Card pulled the concept off well.

I think one reason why some people dislike this book is because they are expecting a true sequel to Ender’s Game. I’m not sure that’s accurate here. The characters have grown and changed, and while the events of the book are certainly shaped by the events of Ender’s Game, this book could almost stand on its own as the beginning of a completely separate series.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you’re looking for fast-paced military sci-fi, there are far better options. But if you don’t mind characters sometimes acting as philosophical mouthpieces, and if you’re looking for something a little slower and deeper, I can’t think of a book I’ve liked more in recent memory.

Annihilation

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Like a fair number of people, I would think, my first experience with Annihilation came from the movie that came out starring Natalie Portman. I would say I liked the movie, although it didn’t quite meet the sky-high expectations I’d had coming into it.

Of course, I had to read the book it was based off of, and I’m glad I did. I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything quite like it, and I enjoyed the read very much.

There are two ideas here that I want to discuss. The first is the idea of something being completely alien. The book (and movie) explore what it means to be in a land that is truly alien and unknowable. In most of our sci-fi, aliens end up being humanoid creatures with humanoid emotions, goals, and dreams. Or they’re insects trying to take over the universe, I guess.

What Annihilation does so well is present its explorers with a truly alien experience, something even our senses have a hard time understanding. Writing something so bizarre is challenging, and I have nothing but respect for anyone who attempts it. This book is the closest I think I’ve ever come to being able to put myself in a truly alien environment.

The second idea, and the one that kept recurring to me, was that I will never believe this got made into a movie, and a movie I enjoyed at that. The book doesn’t possess anything that would lead one to believe it would make a great film. There’s no epic battles, no inherently evil antagonist.

I finished this book feeling a little haunted and very impressed. The language and writing is gorgeous here, and for me at least, evoked strong feelings of tension and awe.