Seize the Fire

Posted on December 30, 2010 by smellincoffee

Star Trek Typhon Pact: Seize the Fire

© 2010 Michael A. Martin
499 pages
In the wake of the last great Borg War, most of Starfleet is tasked with helping to pick up the pieces. Only a few ships, the USS Titan among them, are allowed to continue Starfleet’s mandate of exploration.  Despite being lucky in this regard, Captain William Riker doesn’t want to go on his merry way into the unexplored expanses of the galaxy and with no thought to his comrades back home — thus, he opts to investigate the possibility of a powerful terraforming technology not unlike that of the Genesis Device. When he confirms his suspicions, though, he finds the technology in the hands of the Gorn Hegemony. The Gorn have their own reasons for wanting the device, as one of their most precious breeding worlds has been ruined by excess solar activity.  While their possessing this device — which, like Genesis, could be used to destroy civilizations “in favor of its new matrix” — is problematic enough, the leading Gorn general seems intent on using it on a planet already inhabited. Though the Prime Directive forbids Riker from interfering, he must find a way to do so and perhaps gain access to the “eco-sculptor” at the same time. 
Star Trek’s reptilian species fascinate me: the Gorn were first mentioned in “Arena”, which contains one of the most outstandingly campy fights in televised history,  and spotted once in Enterprise, but have since not garnered much attention. Michael A. Martin does for them what David Mack did for the Breen, turning standard villains into large, complex political entities.  Just as Mack did, he tells part of the story from the viewpoint of Gorn characters, some of them sympathetic. This nation- and world-building was the strongest portion of the novel for me, though I also appreciated Martin’s use of Gnalish crewmembers board the Titan: Michael Jan Friedman introduced them in Reunion, and his Stargazer novel Progenitor spotlighted them.  The plot’s possible resolutions seemed obvious from the start, though the road there took some unexpected twists and turns. I enjoyed the novel, and even read most of it in one sitting. Some characterization seemed strange, particularly in the case of Riker’s XO (Christine Vale), but I’ve not read enough Titan novels to say for sure.  The novel’s greatest weakness was Martin/Riker’s interpretation of the Prime Directive. The directive forbids Starfleet personnel from interfering in the natural evolution of a pre-warp society:  they can’t be so much as contacted without first displaying the ability to use warp drive.  This “natural evolution” clause has been extended to prohibiting Starfleet personnel from stopping asteroid collisions with planets, and in Voyager Tom Paris was demoted and tossed into the brig for interfering in a similar case. As outrageous as that is, in Seize the Fire the planet in question is being targeted by an outside power, a warp power, and Riker’s belief that he can’t interfere makes him look like a legalistic chump. 
I’d say Seize the Fire is fairly enjoyable: not outstanding, but not mediocre, either. 
Related:
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This Week at the Library (29 December)

Posted on December 29, 2010 by smellincoffee

Aside from the books I’ve already done full comments on, I also finished The Great American Wolf and The Golden Door.  My observations about them were shortish, so I decided to include them here instead of making seperate, strangely short posts.  The Great American Wolf by Bruce Hampton was placed in my library’s Science and Nature section, though it’s really more a history of human interaction with wolves in North America. I had no idea wolves were viewed in such a negative light: I’ve always been fond of them, seeing the grey wolf in particular as intelligent, sociable, and beautiful.  Though native Americans regarded the wolf as a magnificent creatures, Europeans have apparantly shared a long hostility toward them and the colonists who settled in North American acted on it. They regarded the wolves as pests and purposely sought to drive them to extinction — though this changed in the 20th century, as conservationists and environmentalists pushed to save them.

I also read Isaac Asimov’s The Golden Door, a history of the United States from Reconstruction following the Civil War through to the conclusion of the Great War. This period of history happens to be one of my favorites, and Asimov titled his book by drawing from Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus”, engraved upon the Statue of Liberty in New York which welcomed so many immigrants.

“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

I rather like the poem.  Asimov’s history is breezily readable, suitable for younger readers as well as older ones who want an introduction to the period, a refresher, or some mild entertainment: I picked up some trivia while reading it. Asimov’s istypically fair and more idealistic than cynical.

Next week’s potentials:

  • Seize the Fire, Michael A. Martin. I actually read this yesterday, but I meant for it to be “this” week’s Trek reading. Because my library visit and TWATL post have occcured on Wednesday for so long, I tend to think of it as starting a new ‘week’. 
  • Over the Hills: A Midlife Escape Across America by Bicycle, David Lamb.  This is the third or fourth book I’ve read this year in which someone decided to journey across the continent, but the idea of throwing oneself into nature, of seeing where the road goes and having an adventure along the way, appeals to me.
  • In a Sunburned Country,  in which Bill Bryson explores Australia.
  • The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright — because God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World and Why Their Differences Matter was checked out. 
  • The Burning Land, Bernard Cornwell. The most recent book in the Saxon Chronicles series, which means next week I’ll have no Uhtred to enjoy. Whatever will I do?
  • I also have a book on the weather, because on Christmas morning while watching the rain fall I realized that though I understand the water cycle, I have no idea what high- and low-pressure systems mean and why they bring the kind of weather they do. 
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Teaser Tuesday (28 December)

Posted on December 28, 2010 by smellincoffee

Time for the Tuesday teasin’, and if I’m not too much mistaken this is the last TT of the year. 

So love, I thought, had turned Erik against his brother. Love would make him slash a blade through every oath he had ever sworn. Love has power over power itself. 

(Sword Song, Bernard Cornwell. P. 271.)

He’d been playing Barbarian George’s Big Crusade on the PlayStation at his friend Sam’s house, and they’d gotten into the infidel territory and killed thousands of the ‘Rackies, but the game just didn’t seem to have any way to exit. It wasn’t designed so you could ever get out of it, and before he knew it, it was dark outside, and he’d forgotten, and Christmas was just going to be ruined.

(The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror, Christopher Moore. P. 34.)

“I am Olaf Eagleclaw,” he told me proudly, “And I will meet you in the corpse-hall.”

“Uhtred of Bebbanburg,” I said, and I was stil on the deck as he lifted his ax high.

And Olaf Eagleclaw screamed.

(Sword Swong, Bernard Cornwell)
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Top Ten Top Reads

Posted on December 28, 2010 by smellincoffee

Every January I reflect on the past year’s reading and draw attention to a few special books so I hesitated at participating in this week’s list at first.  I wouldn’t want to make my annual review sound repetitive, but I don’t think it has anything to worry about.

Top Ten Top Reads

This book immediately came to mind as soon as I read the weekly topic. If I did a ‘Book of the Year’, this would be it. Mann reexamines the civilizations of the Americas, asserting that they manipulated the environment to suit their needs just as heavily as European nations
I have read three fictional biographies and two or three conventional biographies of Jesus, and this is the best of either category. Despite being written to amuse, Moore’s Jesus is more believable and sympathetic than any I’ve yet read.
Essays, news articles, and poems condemning the United States’ role in Cuba and the Phillipines,  quite useful to a student of the period or American expansionism in general. 
I have found philosophy a stalwart ally in living a quiet, happy life, and Irvine’s work makes one of the better philosophical worldviews both understandable and relevant to the modern mind. 
5. Red Emma Speaks, Emma Goldman
Red Emma Speaks collects essays and other opinion pieces by anarchist and social activist Emma Goldman, who regarded as inhuman most of which society holds dear —  states, capitalism, organized religion, and marriage. She was a great defender of human rights. (Speaking of which, this book was in my backpack when a police officer searched both myself and my car back in January. He was a small town cop, though, so I don’t think he knew who she was.)
6. African Exodus: the Origins of Modern Humanity, Christopher Stringer and Robin McKie
Essentially a history of human evolution; I especially enjoyed the chapters on human and Neanderthal interaction.
7. The Lady Elizabeth, Alison Weir
The first of many reads by Alison Weir this summer, being the story of Queen Elizabeth’s childhood. 
8. The Iron Heel, Jack London
One of the first dystopias, and one predicts in part the rise of fascism. This is the story of Ernest Everhard, Marxist revolutionary who takes on the corporate police state. It was written in 1907 — a decade before the Russian revolution. 
9. Lost Souls, David Mack
The stunning conclusion to the incomparable Destiny trilogy, which sets the stage for an entirely new generation of Trek literature.
I was very impressed by this book when reading it. I had no idea how influential coal has been. 
Honorable Mentions:
1. The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs
2. Captain Horatio Hornblower, C.S. Forester
3. Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell
4. Revenge of the Sith, Matthew Stover
5. La Belle France, Alistair Horne
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Sword Song

Posted on December 27, 2010 by smellincoffee

Sword Song: The Battle for London
© 2008 Bernard Cornwell
314 pages

When King Alfred assumed the throne of Wessex, his fragile nation stood alone against the rest of England, subdued and ruled by the Danes.  Through  Alfred’s able administration and his reliance on stout warriors like Uthred of Bebbanburg, Wessex has broken the back of most of the Scandinavian usurpers. Those who’ve not fallen by Uhtred’s sword have been turned into Alfred’s allies (if not completely reliable), and the pious king’s influence is expanding. Still, invaders keep coming — like Sigifred and Erik, two legendary Norse brothers who have invaded southern England fresh from profitable journeys among the Franks. They have seized Lundene (known better as London) and intend to conquer both Mercia and Wessex. Though Alfred’s forces are large enough to resist them successfully, he cannot allow the brothers to continue using Lundene to control the Thames river, Alfred’s greatest source of supplies and trade. Thus, Uhtred and a few other chosen men are tasked with leading an army to Lundene and  restoring it to Saxon hands.

Uhtred is the most able of Alfred’s servants, but not his most-honored: unlike most Saxons, he has not abandoned the old gods for the Hebrews’, nor has his life made him a meek subordinate. Though Uhtred complies with Alfred’s wishes, he does so to fulfill a personal sense of honor — not because he likes or even respects the sickly would-be saint. He would rather burn in the Christian hell until the end of time than spend a moment with Alfred’s crowd of pious legalists.  Thus, even though he follows Alfred’s orders, he does so in his own way — keeping his own counsel, often striking out on his own without Alfred’s sanction or even notice.   Though the outcome of the book’s titular battle was a foregone conclusion, the execution is interesting and the aftermath unpredictable — giving Uhtred an opportunity to choose to defy Alfred’s plans in order to effect his own. Most of the book’s characters are old familiars, but the two Norse brothers were welcome arrivals; the younger, Erik, is a sympathetic a character as any.

In sum, Sword Song is yet another enjoyable volume in this series. I always enjoy stories of people who shun obedience and docility in favor of following their convictions, especially when they involve abusive priests and nobles stammering apologies as they back away from a gleaming sword held by the angry Lord of Bebbanburg.

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The Confession

Posted on December 26, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Confession
© 2010 John Grisham
418 pages

In 1998, the small Texas city of Sloan was horrified when a high school belle vanished without a trace. She’d been abducted, abused, murdered, and buried by a serial rapist named Travis Boyette.  Outraged and horrified, the town eagerly pursues its first suspect and sends him to Death Row — but Boyette was not accused, condemned, or even suspected. He walks free while an innocent boy, another high school star, is sentenced to death on the basis of a transparently extracted confession and the word of a jealous goon.  Nicole’s body was never found, nor was there any physical evidence to tie young Donte to the crime.  Almost ten years later,  as Donte’s execution date draws near, Boyette stumbles into the office of a Lutheran minister with a troubled conscience. He’s dying, troubled by his conscience, and knows all too well that in less than a week, a broken young boy will be killed for someone else’s crimes.

Keith Schroeder never anticipated being the confessor of a serial rapist, but he’s gripped by the Cause: if he can convince the legal system that they may have the wrong man, Donte will live and possibly even be exonerated. While Donte’s lawyer Robbie Flak files every last-minute appeal he can, Schroeder and Boyette race against the clock, violate Boyette’s parole for another crime, and rush to the backwoods of Missouri where Boyette claims to have buried the body. The odds are long that they will concede: the prosecuting attorneys, judge, and governors are all hard men proud to see Donte on his way to Death Row: to them,  his death will be a triumph, a sign to all that Texas’ lawmen are doing their job to protect good white people from the black menace.

Black menace –? Oh, yes. Donte is black. His jurors were all white, and his sloppy conviction and impending execution have Slone teetering on the precipe of a race riot. There’s no lack of dramatic tension in The Confession once the race to Missouri against a ticking clock starts in earnest.  I for one received the book on Christmas morning and began reading it later that evening after a day of family festivities. I continued reading well into the night, , but I could not put it down.  The book was racing towards its conclusion, or so I thought, and I was carried towards dawn by the fast pace. Every time I thought the tension was nearing a breaking point, Grisham threw another spanner in the works. He hasn’t had this spellbinding effect on me in years.  The conclusion is a mixed bag, not unusual for Grisham:  while he rarely writes stories of the ‘bad guys’ winning, he’s not particularly keen on writing stories of the ‘good guys’ winning, either –at best, the victories are Pyrrhic.  Like most of Grisham’s novels, this is not idle entertainment; he uses his characters’ plight to address a point. The Appeal criticized judicial politics, for instance, a tack also taken up here along with revisiting The Chamber’s theme of the effectiveness and morality of the death penalty.  More directly, The Confession attacks the prosecution’s eagerness to convict and kill:  human lives should not be weighed in the balance by politicians eager to perform for emotional audiences.

The Confession is an emotionally turbulent thriller of human conscience set against malevolent institutions that recommends itself far more than other releases in recent years like The Associate.

Related:

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The Stupidest Angel

Posted on December 24, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror
© 2004 Christopher Moore
288 pages

In another Christmas story, Dale Pearson, evil developer, self-absorbed woman hater, and seemingly unredeemable curmudgeon, might by visited in the night by a series of ghosts who, by showing him bleak visions of Christmas future, past, and present, would bring about in him a change to generosity, kindness, and a general warmth toward his fellow man. But this is not that kind of Christmas story, so here, in not too many pages, someone is going to dispatch the miserable son of a bitch with a shovel. That’s the spirit yet to come in these parts. Ho, ho, ho.

It’s Christmas in quiet Pine Grove, California: the Salvation Army bell-ringers are being walloped by sacks of ice, husbands and wives are at each other’s throats, and someone just buried Santa Claus in the woods. Looks like this town needs a Christmas miracle to get back into the spirit of things.  Good thing Heaven always sends an angel to Earth to perform exactly one miracle at the behest of a child every Christmas week. Unfortunately, the angel this year is Raziel, a celestial servant as bright as a bag of rocks. His attempt at restoring Christmas goes wrong — terribly wrong. Hilariously wrong.

Christopher Moore digs into his back of goodies and bestows upon the reader heaping amounts of absurdism. This starts with the characters, two of whom are a married couple consisting of a hippie constable and a legendary if retired porn actress known as the Warrior Woman, who’s just schizophrenic enough to chop down the world’s tallest pine tree with her own broadsword in the name of the Worm God. Everyone in this town acts as though they’re in a Monty Python sketch. The narrator   is just as eccentric as the lives it details: halfway through the book, it pauses to look at the Christmas photos of the main characters, and some chapters consist of nothing but the local community of decaying corpses in the church cemetery talking to themselves — gossiping, mostly. I manage to avoid any spoilers, and when I realized just how the angel’s miracle had gone wrong, I hit the floor in mirth.

Short and sweet, a laugh-out-loud treat for Christmas time.

Related:

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Beneath the Raptor’s Wings

Posted on December 23, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor’s Wings
© 2009 Michael A. Martin
450 pages (Trade Paperback)

Humanity’s enthusiastic expansion into the Cosmos and Earth’s leadership in forming the Coalition of Planets have earned it an enemy in the Romulan Star Empire. Ambitious, sinister, and ruthless, the Romulans  intend on striking down all those they cannot control. After repeated failed attempts to sow discord between the Coalition allies,  the Star Empire decides on a more direct approach: war.  Armed with fleets of their own and the ability to hijack the computers of other ships,  “those who march beneath the raptor’s wings” are intent on crushing humanity beneath them.

Though the Coalition Compact supposedly guarantees Earth  support from her allies,  the Vulcans are reluctant to be drawn into a conflict with their long-seperated cousins, whose very existance embarrasses them. Andor and Tellar are far more enthusiastic, but when their flagships are turned into Romulan playthings,  they, too question the use of coming to Earth’s defense.  Earth, defended only by a handful of NX-class starships and a dozen or so older Daedaluses, stands alone against enemies whom they’ve never seen face to face. Captain Archer and his fellow captains must hold the line in the wake of multiple defeats while political intrigues and episonage abound.

The TOS episode “Balance of Terror” set a few elements of the Earth-Romulan war in stone. It was a primitive affair, fought with nuclear bombs and missiles, and fought expressly between Earth and Romulus. Martin manages to reconcile this with the much more modern feel of Enterprise and the existence of the Coalition, while at the same planting seeds for the idea of a stronger union — the future Federation. Beneath the Raptor’s Wings is a busy story: though Archer and Tucker’s separate stories constitute most of the book, they’re joined by more than few other plot threads and viewpoint characters, including Romulans. While this isn’t disjointing, the frequent thread shifts (there are 85 short chapters) did take some getting used to. As is common with most Trek books in this generation, Martin seeds continuity references and in-jokes all over the place.

The book is essentially a combination of war story and espionage thriller with a good bit of politics thrown in. It kept me reading — I think I read most of its 450 pages in one day, which was rather wearisome but I did not want to stop.  (It was well after midnight when I finished, and I came close to going to sleep on the floor where I was reading.)  Though I know the war eventually concludes in a rough draw (which established the Neutral Zone), Martin still managed to make me feel concerned about Earth’s extensive losses, and I could never predict the course of the action.

Treklit readers, especially Enterprise relaunch fans, will find it worth their while.

Related:
Starfleet: Year One, Michael Jan Friedman. This book is set in the last part of the Earth-Romulan war, though it was published before Enterprise and is sadly not reconcilable with the modern canon. That’s a shame, too, because this book along with the first Stargazer book sold me on Friedman, and offers a compelling look into the founding of the Federation and the formation of Starfleet and its mission goals. It’s also very much in the feel of TOS — a believable predecessor.

While Daedalus are treated as obsolete buckets from yesteryear in Raptor’s Wing, in Starfleet: Year One, they’re the cutting edge and every captain in Earth’s space fleet wants to sit in the prototype’s captain’s seat. 
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Booking through Thursday: Life-Changing

Posted on December 23, 2010 by smellincoffee

Booking through Thursday wants to know:  which book changed your life?

A few months ago I started writing a post called “Top Ten Books that Changed My Life”: when I started searching for similar lists by other readers, I stumbled upon the Broke and Bookish’s ‘Top Ten Tuesdays’ game.  I have never posted my list, because my explanations of how the books influenced my thinking were altogether lengthy.

I’d like to answer BTT’s query, though, so I’m going to post the list but minimize elaboration.

1. Guns, Germs, and Steel. Jared Diamond (2004 or 2005)
Contribution:  One, it made me realize that nothing happens in a vacuum, that history is best understood when supplemented by other disciplines (geography, politics, sociology).  Two,  it forced me to consider how human history is influenced by matters beyond human control.

2.  Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Carl Sagan (2006)
Contribution: Led to my embracing the naturalistic worldview.

3. Universe on a T-Shirt, Dan Falk (Summer 2007)
Contribution: Made me realize that science was a search for meaning and understanding, not just a collection of facts.

4. The Meditations, Marcus Aurelius (Thanksgiving 2007)
Contribution: Introduced me to Stoicism and impressed upon me the advantages of mindfulness and a philosophical life.

5. The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx (Summer 2008)
Contribution: The Manifesto is not a political blueprint, but a work of historical and social criticism in which Marx presents a view of history as being not just influenced by, but solely driven, by economics. While it didn’t make me stand up and start preaching about the Historical Dialectic,  after reading Marx I never thought about politics or the media the same way again.

6. Technopoly, Neil Postman (Summer 2008)
Contribution:  Made me realize that the use of technology carries with it values: for instance, the ubiquity of wireless communication allows everyone to be “connected” virtually all of the time, and brings with it the assumption that this being connected is normal and good.

7. Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman (Winter 2008/2009)
Contribution: Postman believes that technologies change the way we interact with the world, and that electronic media enforces triviality by treating information as entertainment. Much of the book examines television with a critical eye, condemning it for reducing intellectual discussion and debate to talking points and put-downs

8. A Life of Her Own, Emile Carles (Spring 2009)
Contribution: Carles expanded my political horizons significantly. Before reading her biography, I thought of socialism and communism in terms of Big States like the Soviet Union and China. I never realized there was a strong, vital democratic spirit in these movements, and that anarchism and libertarianism were not far removed from them.

9. The Zinn Reader, Howard Zinn (Fall 2009)
Contribution: Zinn changed the way I thought about democracy. I once thought being a good citizen meant voting and such, but  Zinn and Thoreau taught me that democracy meant action. Democracy is the labor strike, the slave revolt,  the protest march: it is people taking control of their lives, not casting votes for ‘represenatives’ whom they do not know and have no business trusting.

10. Red Emma Speaks, Emma Goldman (Spring 2010)
Contribution:  Goldman’s philosophy of anarchism brought together many various threads of my intellectual and personal life, best summarized in this quotation:

“Anarchism, then, really stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. Anarchism stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals for the purpose of producing real social wealth; an order that will guarantee to every human being free access to the earth and full enjoyment of the necessities of life, according to individual desires, tastes, and inclinations.”

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This Week at the Library (15 Dec – 22 Dec)

Posted on December 22, 2010 by smellincoffee

Slow week, really. I’ve been…distracted, and a minor eye infection didn’t help matters. It’s hard to read while squinting like a pirate. I wound up reading a history book instead of concentrating on either my wolf book or my Cornwell novel, so I read a  good bit of all three and all of none.

I did finish William Leisner’s Losing the Peace and Asimov’s Whiff of Death, though, both of which were enjoyable. I’ve never read Leisner before, but his character drama was top-notch. He’s only written a few Trek works, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled regardless. Bill Bryon’s A Walk in the Woods was considerably entertaining — I still think of think of Bryson for his A Short History of Nearly Everything, but he’s obviously a successful humorist and travel guide. I also listened to Lords of the North, which I’ll post full comments on later.

Selected Quotations:
“Some people weren’t above ‘crying wolf’ when it suited their purpouses. In Puritan New England, the regularity of wolf attacks on sheep just prior to church services every Sabbath, and the resulting drop in attendance, led some ministers to regard certain members of their own flock with suspicion.” – p. 69, The Great American Wolf;  Bruce Hampton

“You realize, I hope, that you had no real authority to land and disassemble this vessel. […]”
“Excuse me?” she answered, giving him a mock-stern glare. “Is this the same man who kidnapped two Federation political leaders and brought them here against their wills, lecturing me?”
“‘Kidnapping'” is such an inflammatory term…”  – p. 306, Losing the Peace. William Leisner.

“What chance has the truth got when priests begin to tell tales?”, The Lords of the North; Bernard Cornwell.

Next week’s potentials:

  • I’ll be finishing off Bruce Hampton’s The Great American Wolf, Cornwell’s Sword Song, and  — since I spent so much time with it THIS week — The Golden Door, by Isaac Asimov. I’m reading about Teddy Roosevelt and Progressivism at the moment, so I’m not far from the book’s endpoint in 1918. 
  • I think I’ll be reading Beneath the Raptor’s Wings by Michael A. Martin, the start of the Romulan War series in ST: Enterprise’s relaunch. 
  • I may spot a book or two I want to investigate the library today, since I’m writing this prior to my usual visit there. 
  • ..and there’s also Eye of the World, which I really need to read through to page 230. I have been promised that if I make it two hundred pages in, the book will hook me. I figure the first sixteen chapters are enough to decide whether or not I want to continue in the book.

Though I imagine I’ll post a comment or review before Saturday, I’d like to wish a Merry Christmas to everyone in case I do not.  Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Joyeaux Noel, Fröhliche Weihnachten,  Feliz Navidad, and Thank You For Shopping, Please Come Back Again!

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