Zanna's Gift

A very Short (150 pages) Christmas story by Orson Scott Card that was written years ago under a seudonym. Very good historical fiction about a family dealing with grief and lose and the gift of their 4 year old daughter that helps them begin healing. Excelent inspirational fiction. Of course everything by Orson Scott Card tends to be excellent.

Mormonville

Mormonville is a novel written about an outsider trying to infiltrate the Mormon Church and to write a tell all book about them. It is an interesting premise and leads to a careful examination of Mormon society and the culture it creates especially within Utah. It is a very good sceptical view of Mormon society written by someone from within that society and it does not condescend towards the members of the LDS Church. It is a very uplifting story of someone who moves from sceptic to a true believer and develops a profound faith. Very good fiction for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and those investigating the Church.

Ender in Exile

Orson Scott Card's continued return to Ender Wiggin's Universe is something I have deeply enjoyed again and again. This is the 9th novel that contributes to this series which also includes several graphic novels and several short stories. I guess since Ender's Game this has been Card's most commercially seccessful work, it makes sense that he will return again and again, and I do not mind a bit. It has been very satisfying to revisit with characters I have previously met. One of the interesting things about these books is that they have not really been writen in order. There are technically 4 stories within these nine books. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow tell the story of the Battle School and the Third war with the Formics. Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets and Shadow of the Giant are the story of the wars on Earth following the extermination of the Formics. Ender in Exile is a stand alone story that overlaps and follows several of the stroylines in the book previously mentioned. Finally Speaker for the Dead, Zenocide, and Children of the Mind bring together Ender and the 3 known centient species centuries after the earlier stories.

These stories are all very interesting and even though my favorite continues to be Ender's Game they are all very good books that I will read again and again.

Fury and Light (The Great and Terrible Book 4)

This book continues the devastation began in Book 3 and depicts the United States in the depths of a disaster that completely incapacitates everyone. This unique perspective on how the last days could play out is very intriguing and I hope that things begin to resolve in the next novel. (See my post on The Second Sun)

Proposition 8 Backlash

I greatly respect everyone's right to express their opinion. I also appreciate our democratic processes which allow us to demonstrate the voice of the people in the administration of our laws. This is one of the founding principles on which our country was established. However one principle that has often been overlooked is that of accepting the will of the people as long as that will does not impinge on the basic rights of others.

Our constitution, our laws and our elected officials are established by the will of the people and as the will of the people I believe it is my duty to obey, honor and sustain them whether I agree with them or not. This does not mean that I will not exercise my constitutional right to challenge and work to change the laws or officials with whom I may not agree, and this I will do following the legally established process. This is actually the first problem I have with the genesis of Proposition 8 in the state of California.

The people of California passed a law by the voice of the people that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. An elected executive whose job it is to enforce the laws that have been enacted decided to defy the will of the people and began to marry same gender couples in a heavily publicized ceremony. It does not matter where your beliefs lie in this situation, the fact remains that someone who was supposed to enforce the laws intentionally broke that law just to prove a point, and because he was able to win the case when it went to court he faced no legal consequences.

Our Justice department is designed to protect the rights of the minority, but those in the Executive branch of government have no right to defy legislation just to promote a cause. The executive branch of government should enforce these laws and let the people take these issues up in the justice department. Talk about a waste of government money when one government entity sues another and we get stuck with the bill.

The people then proceed to pass another proposition over riding the Courts decision and this has now been taken back to the courts for them to decide the legality of it again. I am glad that these people are able to pursue all of their legal options. What has bothered me the most the past few days is the repercussions that come against those that supported proposition 8. The demonstrations and rallies are acceptable forms of free speech. I do wonder why it appears that the LDS church is the only one that is being targeted but that is their right. But when these demonstrations spill over to impeding someone right to exercise their religion (as it did in LA) than things are going too far. Even worse are these few people who have committed acts of vandalism against LDS chapels, presumably in opposition of the churches position on Proposition 8. Please keep your demonstrations within legal bounds and continue to seek you recourses through acceptable means, and if the voice of the people continue to oppose you, accept your lot while continuing to work through these legal means.

On another note, I have been skeptical of accusations of broad based media bias however I do find many instances of bias in specific new stories. In a recent story I read in the Ogden, Ut Standard Examiner there was a line that really demonstrated bias towards the LDS church. The article was about a presumed recrimination against the LDS church in Colorado. A Book of Mormon was set on fire on the front steps of an LDS Chapel. In the opening line of the story this crime was called a "bias-motivated arson." Excuse me but is not that the definition of a Hate Crime! I am not prepared to call the author of this article biased, s/he could have been trying to use flowery and unconventional descriptive language to describe the situation. To me however this downplays the seriousness of a crime that was perpetrated against a religious organization soley because it is. If anyone had called the burning of the flag at the house of a Black family after Barak Obama was elected president a "bias-motivated arson," many people would be very upset at how it is being portrayed.

Change

I know that I have said this is a place where I will talk about the Books that I have been reading but over the past couple of books I fell like I am struggling to say anything that would be worth while so I am going to follow the title of my blog much more closely. There are times when something happens, I read or hear something and I really want to gripe, complain, explain or laugh out loud at it. In short a lot of things go through my head that I want to state and usually they die there. No More! Whenever I have these intense thoughts they will now appear here!

The Second Sun (The Great and Terrible book 3)

The Great and Terrible by Chris Stewart is a series of books that piqued my curiosity when I first heard about them. For those that have heard of the Left Behind series this takes the same subject matter but addresses it from an LDS perspective. Not only is Chris Stewart LDS but he is also retired military, so many of the things that are addressed in these books are done so through a perspective that I can really relate to.

I find it very interesting to see what might happen in the future which is part of the reason I enjoy science fiction so much However when I read these books it is always with the notion in the back of my mind that I know there is no way these things will actually happen because they do not often correspond with my religious beliefs and how I understand that the last days will play out. To read a book that follows those beliefs has been very enjoyable if not a little scary.

This series starts in the Premortal life and describes some of the circumstances there in which Lucifer was thrust down to Hell. It also follows the experiences of four spirits who will have a great work to do in the last days. The second book Where Angels Fall introduces us to these characters in this life and begins to set the stage for the final war, Armageddon. These events are not only punctuated by the authors LDS views but also his military experience. These events are driven by politics and military actions which are greatly related to present day situations. A scene in which a foreign dignitary stands in front of the UN general assemble and publicly disparages the United States is reminiscent of many current events. This tie in not only makes this novel extremely interesting but frightening in that one can see these events happening any time now.

As in most novels there are some things that I enjoyed and some that bothered me. On things that I was not sure about in the beginning but grew on me throughout the books was the depiction of Lucifer and his minions tempting others. At first I thought this was weird but as things moved on I could see how this added to the mental anguish of many of the characters and it serves as a reminder of where the circumstances are heading. The thing that probably bothered me the most about this book was authors in depth descriptions of the specifics of flying airplanes. It offers a sense of authenticity but often comes off as unnecessary especially when one is impatient for the action to move on.

Overall this is an amazing story and I am very excited to pick up the next one.

Brisingr

In my last post a talked about how I much prefer Science Fiction to fantasy and here I am reviewing another Fantasy book.

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini is the third book in what was going to be The Inheritance Trilogy, and I have to say that I am very impressed by what Paolini has done especially at a very young age. The first book in this series was published shortly after he graduated from high school at fifteen. Impressive enough to be published at that time, but the scope of this epic and its intricate subplots also testify to Paolini's dedication to his writing and ability to craft a well written story. This is a very interesting story in spite of its borrowed plot devices. A special group of peace keepers is betrayed by one of their own, who goes on to destroy them and become a powerful and ruthless ruler. Almost by accident a young man rises up to challenge evil with the promise of restoring the ancient order.

Most of this story has been told before, but Paolini's strength comes from the writing of the story. His choice of words is clear and he adeptly portrays his vision of what is happening within the story. Within the larger story, Paolini includes many subplots and details that make this story unique as well. Most of these succeed, however some demonstrate his lack of real world experience, namely his portrayal of pregnancy.

The action scenes come swiftly and Paolini does an excellent job of describing the fighting however he does tend to emphasize the gore more than necessary. He also does an excellent job addressing some of the moral conundrums that are brought to the minds of good people when they have to go to war. Overall a good book and I hope that the final book comes quicker than this on did.

The Wyrmling Horde (The Runelords Book 7)

I have always been more of a fan of Science Fiction than I have of Fantasy which makes sense for someone who grew up watching Star Wars and Star Trek with my Dad. I have always loved thinking about the future and what amazing things will be possible, whereas fantasy always feels like I am looking back at things that are definitely not possible. (I also think that the best horror is always about what is possible and not what is fantastic.) In spite of all that I still find myself reading a lot of Fantasy. I think that this is because writing well about the fantastic is easier than writing well about what might be possible someday. Thus there are many more, well written fantasy books than there are Science Fiction. A well written science fiction book always shoots ahead of many fantasy books on my favorites list.

In spite of this I feel that The Runelords by David Farland is decent fiction. I have very little to compare this to because my adult fantasy experience consists of The Lord of the Rings and The Sword of Shannara. I loved the former but the latter didn't seem to offer me much. The Runelords falls somewhere in between. There are two major concepts presented in this series that I see as unique.

The most intriguing is the concept of endowments. In this world an individual can acquire attributes from another using a kind of metal brand that draws the attribute from one person and grants it to another. The attributes that are transferred include brawn, grace, beauty, stamina, metabolism (speed), sight, hearing and many more. This concept is thoroughly examined and flushed out through the first four books as this process is an integral part of this world and many aspects of this culture are examined.

The second concept at the center of these novels is the creation story of this universe. The idea is that all worlds used to be one, where everybody lived in a quasi perfect state. One individual sought to gain control over the whole world and in the process destroyed this sense of perfection and shattered the world into a “million million shadow worlds,” each one being a shadow of the “one true world” and containing some portion of what the one true world once was. This concept is much less clear through out the course of the novels is not clearly described. Part of this, I am sure, is because all the information is not available to any one character and the information is presented as the characters learn about it. However it is very difficult to pick up on everything all at once and does cause a little bit of confusion.

This series of novels is an epic and the author explores many storylines and subplots that take up many pages within the novels, some being much more interesting than others. All of these have value and contribute to the overall feeling of the book. The Wyrmling Horde I feel is probably the best of the series but I do reserve final judgment until after the 8th and final book is published.

A Train to Potevka

When I was ten years old, my family moved to Germany. This was less than a year after the Berlin wall had been torn down and shortly before the Soviet Union was dissolved. I remember hearing about the coup in Russia where Mikael Gorbachev was almost over thrown, and even at that young of an age I felt the importance when Gorbachev abdicated and Boris Yeltsin was elected president of Russia. A couple of years later I was able to visit Russia and stay with a family just outside of Moscow. I was able to visit with these people and learn first hand some of their history. Because of these experiences, I have always had a strong interest in Russian history. The previous book took place before the Bolshevik Revolution replace the Czars with the communist government. A Train the Potevka takes place in the month leading up to the demise of that communist government.

Mike Ramsdell was a Military Intelligence Office who also worked for the State Department on many undercover counterintelligence operation within the USSR and Russia after the demise of the Soviet Union. This book, though classified as fiction, serves more as a memoir for his life. The outline for this story is Mike's final mission in the USSR before the change in government. He and his team are charged with extracting a Russian politician who embezzled millions of dollars from the United States so that he can be tried in an international court of law. When their cover is compromised his team is extracted and Mike is left to make his way from the far eastern end of Russia to Moscow on the Tran Siberian Railroad. This journey serves as a time for the author to reflect on his life and he uses this novel to share brief stories from his life.

I found this novel to be very interesting. The story itself, though is has some exciting elements, was not the action thriller novel the I expected. It served as a backdrop in which the author could relate many stories about his life and history. I really enjoyed the stories about his military experiences and wished he would have expounded more on some of those. Many of these stories were however more about personal family experiences, his divorce, his relationship with his son, the romance with his second wife and other things of that nature. This does seem appropriate since that is what I hope I would be thinking about when I am faced with death.

What I found most valuable within this book was the realistic view that we are given of the United State Intelligence programs. These are not the heartless killers or the debonair spys that we are used to seeing in the movies. These are real people that the author describes as "middle aged" and balding." In this book we are presented with real information about what goes on within an undercover operation and the mistakes at so many levels that can cause things to go wrong. Most of all within this book you will find someone who faced some very difficult circumstances and his story of faith and survival.

The Journey's of Socrates

The Journey's of Socrates by Daniel Millman is a tragic yet fulfilling story in which a quest for revenge is replaced by a quest for peace, very fitting since this is the first book in the Peaceful Warrior series.

I found this book very interesting because it is a work of fiction yet it is based on true events and the author even states that he does not want to reveal which aspects of the story are true and which he interpolated. This is very different from other historical fiction I have read in which the authors go out of their way to differentiate what is true and where they interpolated.

The story is compelling as it is the tale of a young soldier who loses all who are close to him, his mother and brother on the day of his birth, his grandfather and finally his wife. He is then consumed with revenge and spends years training and searching for those that have caused him such grief. He eventually finds a teacher that not only teaches him how to be a warrior but also helps him find peace with his past. That peace is challenged when he is forced to confront those from his past that caused him such grief.

The story was enjoyable and I found myself continually comparing it to The Count of Monte Cristo with very similar religious overtones. The writing was very easy to understand however some of the topics were disturbing (rape, and some descriptive violence). What I enjoyed most about this novel though was the historical setting. I really enjoyed the historical facts that served as the back drop for this story. The information about the Jewish Pogroms, the life style of the Cossacks and the history between the two of them. As the story continued I could also get a sense of the impending Russian Revolution and I really would have enjoyed some more information about that.

I did enjoy this story and much of the information it provided however I did get tired of some of the cheap tricks the author used to try to maintain the readers interest. A really good author will present information in a way that the reader does not consciously know that he is being drawn further into the story. Dan Millman however resorted to comments like "Little did he know things were about to change." Comments like this pull the reader out of the story and into the world of the narrator. The narrator might as well be saying, "I hope your paying attention." or "keep reading, you will want to know what happens next." I found these comments very distracting from the actual story and it shows the author's distrust in his writing abilities.

Over all a good story that provides inspiration to all to overcome what ever tragedies might occur in their lives. I might even read the next book The Way of the Peaceful Warrior.

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

The most recent book I have finished is Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus. This is the second time that I have read this book and I admit that the first time I found it rather difficult to get through especially as the story seems to jump around a lot. I did enjoy it the first time around but this time it was even better.

Part of the reason that it was better this time I am sure is because I knew that I liked the story and was more invested from the beginning, which is the slowest part of the book. This time as I read it I recognized that this is not a story about a specific set of characters but a story about an event. By changing that focus I could see that reading the book felt more like watching a documentary. It was amazing to get that feeling while reading and it really enriched the experience.

What initially brought me back to the book was the story. This is the story of a group of researchers in the future who can watch the past. They discover the possibility of manipulating the past and begin a project to find a key moment in which many of the horrors of the recent past can be mitigated. The focus turns to Christopher Columbus, whose story is interspersed throughout the novel.

The information presented in this novel about possible alternate time lines and historical speculation is amazing and will astound anyone who finds science fiction and time travel the least bit interesting. When it comes to ideas presented in novels this is one of the best speculative fiction has to offer.

As always Card's writing is engaging and the moral dilemmas presented by his characters show how thorough he is in presenting all options and thinking though many possibilities. I highly recommend this novel to all who find time travel and science fiction interesting.

Next Post: The Journeys of Socrates

Book Reviews

With all of the reading that I have been doing recently I thought it would be fun to publish my reviews on line. I did not want to occupy my families blog with these not so important opinions I will set this up as my own blog. Then I can actually feel like I am expressing my opinion, even if nobody reads it.