Review: Watchmen

(glances at next item on the Book Blog To-Do List) Ah, yes. Watchmen.

I read this in fits and starts (and naps) back in February-March of 2009, when Astreja K. was laid up in bed with the Mesopotamian Death Flu. The beautiful madness of this book somehow dovetails with the delirium of those few weeks, and at the same time stands out as something really solid.

This is a comic book, but it is not an easy book and it is absolutely not for children. The origin story of Doctor Manhattan stands out as one of the most chilling things I've ever seen or read, and yet it's a critical part of the plot. The other members of the Watchmen superhero team -- The Comedian, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, Ozymandias and Rorschach -- all have their roles to play in this epic story, roles that bring them in conflict with each other and with a world that really doesn't want superheroes running around mucking things up.

It goes beyond mere dislike: After the 1977 Keene Act, which banned superheroes outright, only the Comedian, Doctor Manhattan and Rorschach are still actively fighting crime. The Comedian and Doctor Manhattan have the backing of the government; Rorschach is a vigilante acting in defiance of the Keene Act.

The story opens with the murder of the Comedian; then, things get really ugly. Someone wants the Watchmen out of the way.

Meanwhile, on the global front, the doomsday clock is ticking towards midnight and towards a fight that nobody can win.

"Tales of the Black Freighter" is a story-within-a-story, a pirate-themed horror story read by a kid who hangs around a newsstand in New York City. I see it as an allegory for good-intentions-gone-bad, the proverbial staring into the Abyss and having the Abyss stare right back.

All in all, Watchmen is a challenging yet approachable story that is a bit too real to be escapist literature.

Read this book, but be aware that you cannot unread it. Read it anyway.

Review: Cat's Pawn

Leslie Gadallah's Cat's Pawn is a nice little read: One part political intrigue, a smidgen of social commentary, and three parts space opera.

Set in a not-too-distant future (just add spaceship), the story revolves around the relationship between human linguist Bill Anderson and Orian diplomat Talan. Bill is stranded on Orion because of a heart condition, and would like nothing more than a ticket home to Earth. Talan and his fellow Orians are giant bipedal cats (think kinder, gentler Kzinti), a people, uh, felininity with a Dark Secret.

(hears Astreja K. mutter something under Her breath) Well, 'felininity' is a word now. (twitches whiskers) So there, nyah.

I could have done with a little less politics, mind you, and a little less social commentary, but overall it didn't hurt the story. There are lots of narrow escapes, double-crosses, and explosions. Not an "A" list SF by any stretch of the imagination, but great fun. Definitely worth a look if you spot it at your local second-hand bookstore.

Review: Zen in the Art of Writing

Here's something a little bit different for the writing community. Unlike many other "method" books by established authors, Zen in the Art of Writing captures not the nuts and bolts and howtos of the craft, but the underlying emotions that drive a writer.

This is a series of eleven little autobiographical sketches cleverly disguised as essays. Each one stands well on its own, but collectively they tell the tale of how Mr. Bradbury discovered his voice as a writer. One surprising element: He's a strong advocate of poetry and recommends that writers read a poem every day.

It shows in his writing. There's some wonderful imagery in this book...

...Oh, and a very, very cute black cat across from the title page, too. I give this book two paws up.

Review: The Book on Mind Management

This is a self-help book on the general theme of "Control your thoughts, control the images in your brain, control your life."

Although a lot of what's in here has been said by... Well, by just about everybody in this particular genre... There is one particular gem nestled away on Page 190:

At a seminar, one of the participants protests to the author, "What you are having us do isn't real. We're just making this stuff up."

The response from Mr. Deaton: You're right; we are making it up... Just like we've made up all the other stories that rule our lives. "The question becomes," he goes on to say, "which movies are productive?"

If you don't care for anecdote after anecdote, this probably isn't the book for you. It also would have been nice to have a bibliography and a bit of research on how we use visualization in our lives. That said, this is an easy enough book to get through, and at very least it's a comfortable and thought-provoking trip.

Review: Lords and Ladies

Crop circles.

Angry bees.

Elves. Killer elves. Loose on Discworld...

This book fits into the "Witches" mini-series of the Pratchett canon, due to the presence of Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick. In this book, as Magrat prepares for her Midsummer Eve marriage to King Verence II (q.v. Wyrd Sisters), amateur witchcraft and outdoor theatre combine to provide a gateway for some rather nasty entities.

Lords and Ladies has a surprisingly dark tone, more horror than in previous Discworld novels. Offsetting this is the usual banter from Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, and a rich cast of supporting players that includes a contingent from Unseen University and the world's second greatest lover, the dwarf Giamo Casanunda.

And, thanks to some exemplary work by Greebo, the quantum physics of Erwin Schrödinger will never quite be the same...

Review: The Mindful Way through Depression

This book, subtitled "Freeing yourself from chronic unhappiness", is a not-too-thick, no-nonsense volume that bridges the gap between talking about meditation and actually doing it. Being a cat, I knew most of this stuff already; but Mindful Way explains it really, really well.

Better yet, it explains without religion, without strange languages and secret handshakes, without a whole bunch of Seventh Level Yoga Hopping Trances or other such woo-woo. There is a yoga exercise in here, but if you want to call it "Paying attention to my arms and legs while I move them around", go right ahead.

The authors (Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn) do an excellent job of staying in the same room with the reader: Each chapter is a good, balanced mixture of anecdote, theory, exercises, and things to consider while you're trying the exercises. It's also an easy read.

Despite its title, Mindful Way isn't just about depression. I think that you could use it to deal with just about any problem of People Who Think Way Too Much... Stress at work; procrastination; chronic multitasking.

Quite possibly one of the best beginner-level books on meditation ever written.

Review: Warm Worlds and Otherwise

James Tiptree, Jr. was the pen name of science fiction writer Alice Sheldon (1915-1987). This collection of short stories and novellas dates back to the late 60's and early '70s and translates fairly well to the '00s.

(Except, perhaps, for that carful of stoned anarchic hippy xenophiles driving around Washington, DC. But I enjoyed that story, too.)

This is not, repeat, is not a book for very young or sensitive readers. My People informs me that she would have been too embarrassed to read many of these tales when they first came out.

Tiptree/Sheldon spins a fast-paced and rollicking good yarn, but expect to be titillated, horrified and challenged.

Challenged, especially. So much so that I feel like I've grown a second head --

(pauses and looks around)

-- Mea culpa. The second head belongs to my brother Walter. (yanks WW&O out from under a quietly snoring silver tabby) Hey! Get your own blog.

Warm Worlds and Otherwise by James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon):

• "All the Kinds of Yes"
• "The Milk of Paradise"
• "And I Have Come Upon This Place by Lost Ways"
• "The Last Flight of Dr. Ain"
• "Amberjack"
• "Through a Lass Darkly"
• "The Girl Who Was Plugged In"
  
• "The Night-Blooming Saurian"
• "The Women Men Don't See"
• "Fault"
• "Love is the Plan, The Plan is Death"
  
• "On the Last Afternoon"