As a child growing up in the 1970s, I still remember Canadian author, Pierre Berton, especially as he was a regular on Front Page Challenge, an intellAs a child growing up in the 1970s, I still remember Canadian author, Pierre Berton, especially as he was a regular on Front Page Challenge, an intelligent gameshow in which the panel of celebrities would guess a news story by posing questions.
A common front page news story in 1880s Canada was the political, pioneering, and engineering drama around the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was literally the road to nationhood that connected the early provinces and territories together via a ribbon of steel.
The Last Spike, the second book in a two volume series about the CPR, focuses on the later construction period from 1880-1885. As Berton weaves the tale of how this railroad was built, we learn about the tough granite of the Canadian Shield. We learn about the disappearing buffalo on the northern prairie and how it triggered an indigenous revolt. We learn about real-estate speculation as new towns sprung up out of nowhere. We learn of the surveying and engineering challenges of building the railroad through the three Rocky Mountain passes between Calgary and the British Columbian interior.
There were many challenges along the way, and not all were technical. The financing of this massive construction venture was extremely difficult, and the creditors were almost ready to pull the plug mere weeks before the last spike was driven by Donald Smith (a former fur-trader turned railway financier) in Craigellaichie, BC, in November of 1885. Luckily for us, enough funding was found in the nick of time.
Oh Canada! Where would we be without the CPR......more
Author Pierre Berton was a major Canadian celebrity in the 1970s but has long since passed from the memories of Canadians younger than me. Having receAuthor Pierre Berton was a major Canadian celebrity in the 1970s but has long since passed from the memories of Canadians younger than me. Having recently read Ken Mather's wonderful Stagecoach North: A History of Barnard's Express, it reminded me that I've never read Berton's grand opus, The National Dream, which is the story of how the Canadian Pacific Railway came to be built as an act to unify the young nation of Canada.
As every Canadian school child knows, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald realized that the thinly populated Canadian provinces of early confederation (British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and a couple of the maritime provinces) needed a transportation corridor to promote immigration and trade and, perhaps most importantly, be a binding link between them to keep the Americans out! Part of the deal with British Columbia was the promise of a railroad so that the once western depot of the Hudson's Bay company could modernize in its new industries of forestry, mining and fishing, bringing in supplies and immigrants from the east and shipping its wares back to the original seed colonies still loyal to the British monarchy. Berton's book explains the situation wonderfully in terms of the geography of the landscape and the politics of the day.
The political aspects of the book are quite interesting to me, as it is a story full of wheeling and dealing, 19th century tycoons and robber barons, intrigues and scandal. The entire railway idea almost fell to pieces due to the Pacific Scandal of 1872-3, in which a main financier, Montreal business Hugh Allan, made a series of ill-advised political contributions to key members of the Macdonald government to help grease the wheels of getting the railway company started, after he assumed that he would be its chairman. The scandal caused a non-confidence vote in Macdonald's government that forced them to resign. Luckily, Canada's second prime minister, Alexander Mackenzie kept the dream of the railway alive, but mismanaged the process of surveying the prospective routes and mired the formation of an actual business plan into snail-paced progress. Eventually Macdonald's Conservative Party regained power in 1878 and found an experienced syndicate of Canadian railway men that took on the huge, risky enterprise.
Of course, my most favorite parts of the book have more to do with the surveying of the prospective routes, especially through my home province of BC, where the never-ending mountain ranges were thought to be almost impassable. It was a great way to learn how many western Canadian towns actually sprang into existence due to the speculation of the final route to the Pacific Coast.
The National Dream actually ends in 1881 when Macdonald's government has just succeeded in awarding the contract to the syndicate that formed the Canadian Pacific Railway company. Berton's second volume The Last Spike: The Great Railway 1881-1885, completes how the railroad was then actually built in a surprisingly short 4 more years, especially given the challenges of extreme geography, 19th century technology, and a young country's fledging government guiding the process....more
I've been wanting to read the very highly touted Sebastian Barry, so I picked up this book that traces the memories of 89-year-old Lilly Dunne, who reI've been wanting to read the very highly touted Sebastian Barry, so I picked up this book that traces the memories of 89-year-old Lilly Dunne, who reflects back on her long, interesting but sorrowful life immediately following the death of her grandson.
Lilly is a refugee of the early days of the Irish Republic and marries a veteran of WWI who fought for Britain and then found a job in the new police force. He gets caught up in a violent incident, which republicans swear to avenge, so they must flee the country. Lilly leaves her father and sisters behind and emigrates in haste to America. Her new life there is shadowed by her Irish past, and many sad and tragic events unfold around her. There is definitely a theme of grieving for the men in her life, who try to serve their country but end up paying heavy psychological costs for doing so.
Although the plot itself, which is mired in sadness, didn't quite reflect my usual areas of interest, Barry's writing is just so poetic, it just really moves you. It is so filled with poignant imagery and emotion, while not being overdone, it is close to reading poetry. I'll definitely be exploring more of this author's prolific writing!...more
I fell into this book rather quickly: I saw it mentioned on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, confirmed it was at my local library, and checked it out all on the same day ofI fell into this book rather quickly: I saw it mentioned on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, confirmed it was at my local library, and checked it out all on the same day of early November- a November where my mood was starting to align with the darkening, gloomy days of a Pacific Northwest autumn. For me, it was one of those times where your leisure reading material just clicks with your mood, so perhaps that is why I enjoyed this short, light book so much.
Katherine May is a well-read writer, and it comes through in her prose. She herself experienced some relatively negative circumstances starting in the fall season a few years ago: an illness of her husband and then a near cancer diagnosis for herself, her son's challenges to adapt to grade 1, her career changing... She can make us feel the gloom of darkening days and sad circumstances, yet still show us how going with the flow of the nature's fall and winter aspects can lead us through to the next up cycle, where indeed spring comes again.
Indeed, May relies heavily on the flow of natural seasons and the response of flora and fauna throughout these darker seasons of the year to show us it is okay to step back from our frenzied-pace summer of activities and chill for awhile. There are times when, just as nature cycles from high energy to low energy, we need to cycle in the same way. It is OK to take some time away from work and vegetate a bit. Instead of preparing for the next wave of life's activities by running in circles doing what we "should", perhaps we can prepare just as well by vegetating and lying fallow for a bit. Let things run down and decay, build a bon fire of them, read a book and let ideas gestate, walk on the beach, even swim in the freezing water. This book was a most pleasant message in a time of gloom....more
Reading the classics can often be a challenge. There are outdated idioms and archaic forms of speech. However, Moby Dick, althoughThat was unexpected.
Reading the classics can often be a challenge. There are outdated idioms and archaic forms of speech. However, Moby Dick, although challenging, was not as onerous as I thought. I had a great edition from my library that had end notes that explained a lot of obscure references for the 20th century reader.
It is indeed a large tome and thick with heavy prose, often filled with darkness and foreboding. We are, after all, reading about a sea captain's quest to kill a sea creature that has maimed him, and it all leads to tragic consequences. That said, Melville does some very unique and interesting things while spinning his tale. Although some modern readers will be put off, he embeds several chapters of non-fiction (at least 19th-century non-fiction) into the tale to build up the atmosphere with interesting facts about whales and the whaling trade: from anatomy and physiology of cetaceans, to whaling ship components and tools and historical references of whale tales. Funny how modern writing courses always emphasize for new authors to stay on topic and "show the reader, don't tell!", but Melville seems able to break all of those rules and thereby create a masterpiece.
Now, I honestly cannot say that all of the prose left me spellbound, some was a bit dry and obtuse for a modern reader. However, the style of inserting non-fiction anecdotes within the largest fishing tale of all time, really does work. Melville is able to set mood with some very descriptive writing throughout. Not all of it is serious and filled with darkling doom, especially at the beginning, where there are some quite humorous parts as well.
Some parts are indeed almost poetic. Melville has that classical author's way with words that enable us to feel the weather and storm, not only of the oceans sailed in the story, but in the hearts and minds of the characters themselves. Really beautiful in countless places.
I must admit, though, that it took me a heck of a long time to get through it all! Definitely one of those classical reading projects that every serious reader should attempt....more
R.F. Kuang's prose is easily digestible. Unlike the pandan pancakes that stick in the throat of the protaganist's erstwhile friend, brilliant young auR.F. Kuang's prose is easily digestible. Unlike the pandan pancakes that stick in the throat of the protaganist's erstwhile friend, brilliant young author Athena Lui. After Athena chokes to death, June Hayward can't stop herself from absconding with the rough workings of one of Athena's projects that are just sitting there on her desk. Thus starts June's strange, sad story of plagiarism. As keen readers start to see the similarities between Athena's work and June's out-of-nowhere novel, which is nothing like her lack-luster debut, accusations of "yellowface" begin. Just as white folks would use dark brown makeup and pretend to sing the songs of popular negro entertainers in the early 20th century, June is rightfully accused of donning, albeit somewhat unconsciously, the story-telling persona of an Asian American.
I found it especially interesting how, even though they wanted to do a racial sensitive reading, no one on her publishing team thought it was dangerous to use June's middle name as a penname for this book: Song. Juniper Song or June Song sounds pretty Asian to me! In fact, the crass, ugly commercial processes of the self-serving publishing industry is another whole aspect that Kuang exposites.
Also, even after the first scandal, which shakes but does not destroy June's career has unfolded. She creates a somewhat more personal memoir-novel, which unfortunately opens with a paragraph again lifted directly from Athena. Not a quick learner, our Junie...
Kuang has created a modern tale that presents us with a lot of good questions relevant in today's world of publishing and entertainment. Who has the right to tell whose story? Where is the line between borrowing an idea from another artist and running with it to completion? Is not all art, as they say, somewhat derivative?
The book was most interesting, but left me with a bit of a sad chill, as you can see so many reflections in today's storytelling, especially in those who like to self-justify and rationalize their "truths"....more
Barry Gough is an unsung hero of Pacific Northwest history. Although he can sometimes go off on circular tangents and introduce inconsistencies in theBarry Gough is an unsung hero of Pacific Northwest history. Although he can sometimes go off on circular tangents and introduce inconsistencies in the occasional date, reading his books has increased my knowledge of my home region's history tenfold.
In this book, Gough sets the scene for the eventual mapping expeditions of Captain George Vancouver in the early 1790s that finally proved that there was no "Northwest Passage" in latitudes lower than the Arctic Circle and that Cook's Nootka Sound was actually located on a rather large island that soon came to be known as Vancouver Island. As far back as 1592, a Greek sailor who sailed for Spain as Juan du Fuca, who lost a fortune to Francis Drake, told the tale of a large straight around the latitude of 47 or 48 degrees North, that drove eastward into the North American content into a large inland sea. He speculated that this inland sea probably led back all the way to Europe, the fabled "Northwest Passage."
The Spanish navy eventually investigated his claims when they discovered the British, starting with Captain Cook, had sparked an enticing trade in sea otter pelts centered on Nootka Sound on eastern Vancouver Island. Gough weaves a story with Spanish naval officers sent to deal with these British interlopers (leading to an unfortunate international incident), American fur traders, Russian fur traders, all coming to explore the Pacific Northwest to find riches in the fur trade or determine if the rumours of a Northwest Passage were actually true.
The more I read about my local history, the more surprised I am to find how it links to worldwide events. I didn't know that the Spanish had spent a lot of time patrolling this coast in the name of Spain, that the infamous Captain Bligh sailed as a junior officer with Captain Cook in BC waters, that the Spanish namesakes of Galiano and Valdes Islands fought bravely against Admiral Nelson at Trafalgar, and on and on... These stories would make at least one or two marvelous historical fiction pieces....more
Ken Mather is quickly becoming my favorite author for British Columbia history.
In this book, Mather outlines the history of the stagecoach lines thatKen Mather is quickly becoming my favorite author for British Columbia history.
In this book, Mather outlines the history of the stagecoach lines that were key in growing the new British colony from its backwater Hudson Bay fur trade origins into the bustling west coast province of Canada. Since I was a kid, I've always been interested in how the highways I traveled must have had some beginnings in the frontier times of over a hundred years ago, and Mather has helped me fill in the gaps.
Essentially BC expanded from just a set of fur trade outposts in the early 19th century, due to the discovery of gold on the Fraser Rivers and then slightly further north in the Cariboo region. With thousands of miners coming into the country, it became essential to transport people, mail, and equipment up to the gold fields and people, mail, and a lot of gold back down to the key centers of New Westminster and Victoria. During the 1860s, Francis Jones Barnard slowly grew his Barnard's Express to become BC's legendary stagecoach line. In those first days, it traveled up from the end of lower Fraser navigation in the town of Yale and went up into the Cariboo to the once bustling metropolis of Barkerville, which is now BC's most famous ghost town, and one of its most remote.
Mather focuses on Barnard's business to overview the economic, political and infrastructural growth of my home province, but in a most entertaining and enjoyable way. He takes the reader on those old dusty, muddy roads perched precariously over the Fraser Canyon, through snowstorms, spring floods, the occasional hold-up, and into the past...
Mather also has great end notes and lists of sources. I enjoyed looking up his referenced newspaper articles in the archives of the old Cariboo Sentinel and BC Colonist, to see the actual reports from 150+ years ago that have now become my history....more
I spotted this book in the Manning Park gift store during my last visit to my favorite BC park in the southern interior. Having read a fair amount of I spotted this book in the Manning Park gift store during my last visit to my favorite BC park in the southern interior. Having read a fair amount of BC history, this book caught my attention because it fills in the gap of knowledge I had on the southern interior trails history as the fur trade wound down and the rate of pioneer settlement ramped up in the mid 19th century.
Ken Mather has written a lot about the cattle trade and "cowboys" in the Pacific Northwest of the late 19th century, so his focus is somewhat heavy on the various cattle drives that took place to originally support the thousands of pioneers who flocked to the gold rushes on the Fraser River and then the Cariboo in the 1850s and 60s. However, he does a fantastic job of describing how the routes from the lower Columbia River (modern-day Portland) and eastern Washington State into the Okanagan, Similkameen, Thompson, Shuswap, and Cariboo regions of British Columbia were first established by the indigenous peoples, adopted by the fur traders, and eventually white settlers in general. Mather takes us on a journey through time, geographical space, and history of the region as trade routes developed and expanded in this scenic western frontier, a history that I find is rich with incredible stories that never seem to gather much attention.
I really enjoyed this book as it filled in the previously mentioned gaps in my knowledge. I knew the story of the Okanagan fairly well after the time of Father Pandosy's Mission was settled in the early 1860s, and I had recently learned how the Oregon Territory and Kootenays were opened up by David Thompson and the subsequent fur traders of the NW Company, Pacific Fur Company (Astor), and Hudson's Bay in the early 1800s, but Mather's book filled in that middle era from the 1830s to the 1860s when British interests retreated above the 49th parallel as the border with the United States was firmly established.
My imagination is filled with those early fur traders and cattle drovers, trekking up from Fort Okanogan south of the 49th, up the west side of my beloved Okanagan Lake over to Kamloops and into the Fraser and Cariboo regions beyond, seeing the beautiful natural landscape that was to become my childhood home one hundred years later....more
A good solid novel that tells the story of the Nazi Germany's V2 rocket program through Rudi Graf, a conflicted scientist and associate of Werner von A good solid novel that tells the story of the Nazi Germany's V2 rocket program through Rudi Graf, a conflicted scientist and associate of Werner von Braun. On the English side, we see the literal fallout from the perspective of WAAF officer, Kay Caton-Walsh, who becomes part of a special operations team that specializes in calculating the positions of the launch sites from Holland's North Sea coastline after her personal life is directly affected.
It's a decent, well-researched story, but I sometimes lost track of present and past through Graf's constant flashbacks that the author uses to give us the backstory and context of the rocket scientist's disillusionment with the weaponization of amazing 20th century technology. Graf and other foresighted members of Von Werner's team are troubled by the use of their dream to wreak havoc in a war already lost, when they know it could instead take humanity into orbit and beyond into a new age. Luckily, the plot is fairly simple and is easy reading. Harris has authored a decent yarn of the final stages of WWII, when Hitler had nothing much left to hurl at the allies other than Vengeance.
For me personally, it was also interesting to read about the coastal area around Scheveningen being used as the launching point for the Vengeance Weapons, as I have traveled there several times on family trips to the Netherlands in later, happier times....more
I had read this autobiographical piece by the Rush drummer, Neil Peart, some years ago, but I decided to read it again after finishing Geddy Lee's recI had read this autobiographical piece by the Rush drummer, Neil Peart, some years ago, but I decided to read it again after finishing Geddy Lee's recent biography My Effin' Life.
I don't know what it is about these Canadian rock icons, but the way they tell stories and describe life is quite resounding with me. All us Rush fans need next is for guitarist Alex Lifeson to write his story!
Neil Peart wrote Ghost Rider in the early 2000s, when he was just getting his life back on track from a crushing double-whammy loss: in August 1997, his daughter, on the cusp of adulthood, was killed in a tragic car accident, and within months, his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died.
The stars are not wanted now Put out every one Pack up the moon And dismantle the sun Pour away the ocean And sweep up the wood For nothing now can ever Come to any good W.H. Auden
The book briefly recounts the tragic context and then launches into his account of a sort of self-imposed exile. Not knowing what else to do with his life, Peart gets on his BMW GS motorcycle and just keeps driving throughout North America as a form of therapy for his undertandably fragile "little baby soul".
Neil Peart is not only the drummer of Rush but acts is the group's lyricist as well. The guy has a way with words, likely because he is also an avid reader. If you are a Rush fan, you know that Rush's music explores themes related to life philosophy, science, science-fiction, mythology and all sorts of esoteric stuff, and these are driven by Peart's lyrics, which in turn are driven by his very large reading list. So, although there is obviously a certain degree of "woe is me" throughout this autobiography, there is also a lot of keen insight about love and loss, coping with tragedy, and the human condition in general. On top of that, Peart adds his keen observations on the geography and sense of place along the varied route of his travels: the Canadian shield, Canada's Northwest and Yukon Territories, British Columbia, the Western US deserts, and Mexico and Belize.
The text is not only made up of his later narrative as he writes the book, but it also includes snippets from original journal entries he made throughout the travels, as well as letters and postcards he wrote to friends and family. Especially interesting and prevalent amongst his letters are those to his best friend abd erstwhile riding buddy, Brutus, who has been sadly detained by the US justice system.
There are so many poignant layers to this partial life story of a very private yet introspective man. Partly a travelogue, partly a journal of healing, partly a search for the meaning of life, and partly a primal scream at the injustice life has handed him, Peart gives the reader much to think about and savour through his tale of personal suffering and renewal.
Little by little, you can see the tone of Peart's diary entries and letters change as he starts to come to terms with his loss, finds new love, and ultimately reboots his life and musical career with his bandmates.
Sadly, 20 years after he wrote this book, Neil Peart himself died of cancer after being diagnosed with a terminal glioblastoma....more
Full disclosure: I have been a Rush fan since high-school, which is perhaps why I rate this biography so highly.
Geddy Lee was the bassist of the CanaFull disclosure: I have been a Rush fan since high-school, which is perhaps why I rate this biography so highly.
Geddy Lee was the bassist of the Canadian power-trio Rush, a band that started out of Geddy Lee and fellow guitarist Alex Lifeson's highschool dreams and became a multi-platinum giant of the global music business over 40 years, while still maintaining the highschool nerdiness of its admittedly nerdy founders. Drummer Neil Peart joined the band just as they broke into the mainstream in 1974, and these three truly became like brothers.
This genuine and open style, with often self-deprecating, Canadian humour makes this book a treat to read for not only Rush fans, but perhaps anyone who grew up in Canada in the 1970s through 1990s. Lees narrative style is much like sitting in your suburban basement with your best friend, shooting the breeze and reliving memories.
Not all the memories that Lee shares are sunshine and rainbows either. He quite rightly delves into some sad and scary family history, explaining how his parents met and miraculously survived the holocaust as Polish Jews. You can see how this left an indelible mark on the young Gershon Lee Weinrib, living in suburban Toronto. He became somewhat of a rebel when his father died when he was just a young teenager--growing his hair long, listening to "weird" music, changing his name to something "stage-friendly" and losing all interest in school. Although he had quite a different highschool experience than me and most Canadian kids, there is something familiar about the alienation of adolescence that people of all different strokes can easily identify with.
After exploring his early years and family of origin story, the book moves logically and chronologically through the band's development and the adventures they have as a prolific album producing and touring group.
Geddy is not too shy about getting into more personal details that play into his story, while adroitly avoiding salaciousness and gossip. I must admit, the stories of drug consumption surprised me a little, as the band members always comported themselves with such dignity in public and pulled off amazing and professional stage performances. But this is the essential thing about Rush and those three gentlemen: they were genuinely interested in expressing their art to the fullest without the pretensions that others at that level may fall into. To the very last show in the summer of 2015, they were essentially three high-school nerds, living their musical dream. The drug scene of the 70-80s was perhaps unavoidable, and it seems not to have negatively affected them.
Of necessity, the closing chapters are tinged with sadness with the passing of drummer Neil Peart, whose life had already stumbled over earlier tragedies due to the untimely death of his teenage daughter and his wife, both within a year in 1998. Once again, Geddy handles it well, expressing his emotions with dignity and candor while letting his fans know what those days were like for him and Alex and their families. Rush can never exist again as it was, but the amazing story of these guys should last a very long time.
I consumed this book quickly, reading its 500 pages, also filled with wonderful photographs, in just two weeks. It also got me listening to Rush again, which I haven't done much of in the last few years! ...more
At times, this read more like a Neil Gaiman than an Adrian Tchaikovsky novel: a child, Liff, living on one of the terraformed worlds in Avrana Kern's At times, this read more like a Neil Gaiman than an Adrian Tchaikovsky novel: a child, Liff, living on one of the terraformed worlds in Avrana Kern's universe encounters a group of strangers who capture her attention. Are they from one of the outer farms? Why do they seem different from the other settlers of her world? Why is her teacher, Miranda, who is one of these strangers, so compelling? Why does she have memories of meeting them before, and horrific memories of them dying sometime ago? It is a story with talking birds and a witch on the borderlands of childhood memory...
Tchaikovsky confuses us, the readers, much like the characters in the book get confused. Liff fondly remembers her grandfather who founded the settlement with his fellow terraformers. She has a memory, or is it a vision, of him embarking on an important search from which he never returned. Was he seeking the witch? But Captain Holt died generations before Liff was born. But she remembers him as her grandfather.
Don't worry that you are losing the thread of Tchaikovsky's narrative as he weaves through time, as he does in this entire series, and the stories of the different groups. I thought I had missed something important, but apparently, so did all the characters in the story. As we learn the tale of Miranda's group, an exploration team made up from the Portiid, capital-H Human, Octopus, and parasitic bacterial hybrid civilization we met in the earlier books, Tchaikovsky ultimately clarifies the confusion. To explain it in this review would be a huge spoiler. It was indeed something tricky to get your mind around, and the characters themselves had some trouble accepting it too.
That said, this third book of the Children of Time series again makes us think about what the far-future might hold for our civilization. What would we be like if we could download our consciousness into artificial media? What if we could generate new organic bodies at will? What if we could merge the memories or "understandings" of other species into our own?
"What if...?"-- is the essence of all good science fiction, and Tchaikovsky serves that up in style. I think this series will make the Asimov of our generation, if he isn't already!...more
Having previously read Winston Churchill's WWII series, I knew I wouldn't be disappointed in his broader history of the "English Speaking Peoples", thHaving previously read Winston Churchill's WWII series, I knew I wouldn't be disappointed in his broader history of the "English Speaking Peoples", the first book of which covers pre-Roman Britain to the end of the War of Roses with the dawn of Tudor England.
Churchill definitely has a flair for weaving good story-telling into this extensive, epic history. Perhaps my only complaint is that, being of a more rigorously detailed age where a good grounding in British history was basically expected of readers, he sometimes assumes everyone can follow or knows the essentials of these immense details than may be expected for a reader of our age. Nonetheless, as a beginner's survey course of English history, you can't go wrong with Britain's most famous prime minister. This first book has filled many gaps in my knowledge of the royal lines of the medieval ages.
One thing that stands out is how often brothers rather than sons inherited the throne of England, especially in the medieval times where death lurked around every corner, and the reluctance to include daughters in the royal ascension. The English seemed plagued by civil wars due to the confusion around the rightful heir: Stephen vs Matilda, Richard II, the War of Roses, it goes on and on...
Despite all the details of thousands of names and events, Churchill makes the unfolding story of our English history come alive.
Perhaps I expected more of a hiker's travelogue depicting backpacking adventures throughout the Pacific Northwest, but Egan's approach also injected aPerhaps I expected more of a hiker's travelogue depicting backpacking adventures throughout the Pacific Northwest, but Egan's approach also injected a lot of geographical, historical, and cultural content, much of which was especially relevant to the time of writing in the early 1990s.
I am definitely not disappointed, as Egan does set out on various adventures of the backpacking kind, but that is not the book's focus. He indeed takes us around different parts of the region, often re-examining the 19th century perspective of Theodore Winthrop, an early traveler to the area from the eastern U.S. He compares Winthrop's enthusiastic musings of a bountiful future for this new, virgin territory of pristine forests, mountains, rivers and farmland that is just being settled and the late 20th century issues of deforestation, urban development, and damming of rivers and the decimation of salmon, the fish that was the basis of the indigenous culture for this region.
In summary, Egan describes the region's natural scenery with beautiful prose and its modern issues with the insightful cutting edge of a good journalist....more
It definitely appears that Adrian Tchaikovsky is our generation's Arthur C. Clarke or Isaac Asimov. I really must get around to his other works of ficIt definitely appears that Adrian Tchaikovsky is our generation's Arthur C. Clarke or Isaac Asimov. I really must get around to his other works of fiction, but right now, I'm really enjoying his world (or should I say worlds) of the remnants of humanity and their portiid spider allies!
At first, this sequel to Children of Time (#1) seemed to follow the same formula as the original: a terra-forming team from the late stages of "imperial earth" has found a promising system, just like Avrana Kern's team did. When the final war erupts back home and they realize they cannot go back, they do their best to set about their job, this time using the same Rus-Califi Virus to help evolve octopuses brought from earth to help create human-habitable worlds on the planets of Damascus and Nod. Once again, complications ensue, and things don't go according to plan. However, in this book, the Old-Empire team's story is told as historical flash backs interspersed between the story of a current mission of Kern's World Portiids and Humans seeking out other survivors of the Old Empire. This latter group, with the latest familiar Portia/Bianca/Fabian generation and Human descendants of the Gilgamesh, come across the Octopus civilization of Damascus and something else amongst these cephalopods that is strange and dangerous. This is where the book takes on a somewhat different aspect.
The clever spiders and humans have a lot of trouble communicating clearly with their newly found Octopus cousins, so they are not sure if they are friend or foe, especially with the dark menace lurking in the background. The challenge of figuring all this out is the essential conflict in the story. Meanwhile, Tchaikovsky continues to pile on extensions to his numerous wild ideas started in book one. As readers, we marvel at the weirdness created when consciousness can be stored electro-mechanically (or via a network of ants in Kern's case) and how such stored consciousnesses can interact with one another. We begin to ponder upon the possible communication challenges between species that evolved in wildly different contexts of cognition and environment. And then...we are introduced to an entirely alien microscopic species that can store information and consciousness at the atomic level.
I imagine that this review itself must be hard to understand if you are unfamiliar with the "Children or Time" universe, as I am simply throwing out to you these wild yet difficult concepts that Tchaikovsky uses as his underlying plot structures. Perhaps that is actually the one weakness in these books: the underlying ideas are so very different, even for science fiction (or at least the sci-fi I grew up with), that it can sometimes be hard to fully understand and appreciate what's actually happening in the narrative, especially as it first unfolds. Like every good author, Tchaikovsky doesn't just tell you. He shows you. When the ideas are this wild and complex, though, it's difficult to catch the plot turns right away.
Even with the weirdness and complexity, there is something reassuring about these stories. I think Tchaikovsky never loses sight of universal human truths and patterns of history, and we see those as touchstones within his worlds of wonder and strangeness....more
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