Book Review: Birds of Prey Volume 1: Trouble in Mind

Posted on April 29, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

Since yesterday was a pretty crappy day, I decided to read something short and entertaining that I hopefully would be able to finish quickly and wouldn’t have to exert huge amounts of effort to read. So I picked up Birds of Prey Volume 1: Trouble in Mind (Graphic Novel 158 pages).

“The sirens of the night. One is wanted for a murder. The other is on the run for knowing too much. Together, Black Canary and Starling work in Gotham City, taking down the villains other heroes can’t touch. But now, as a grizzled newspaper reporter threatens to expose them, the two get sucked into a nightmare involving stolen pharmaceuticals, terrorists for hire and killers in stealth suits who can appear – and disappear – at will. Realizing that Gotham City’s citizens are in grave danger, Black Canary recruits Katana, a vengeful samurai, and the notorious bioterrorist Poison Ivy. Will the Birds of Prey be able to work together to save Gotham?”

I think it’s entirely possible that I was not the only one complaining about the DC Comics trend of not putting their collections in any particular order because this edition is clearly marked in several places. The spine of the book has the title and the issue number, the back of the book gives away the perfect amount and content of information to get me curious to read more, and the back cover next to the barcode actually says: “Birds of Prey: Trouble in Mind (collecting issues 1-7 of the New 52 series) is a hard-hitting story by mystery novelist Duane Swierczynski (Expiration Date, Cable) and artist Jesus Saiz (The Brave and The Bold).” So now I know exactly what collection of comics I’m reading and what issue number this is. In theory, this will also help me to buy the future compilations of the comics. Something this small probably shouldn’t make me this happy, but it does, most likely because this will help me fill the holes in my collection and also make sure I’m actually reading the story in order, which should help me figure out who these people are and where the story is going 🙂

As a general rule, I’m not typically a fan of stories that are not told in a chronological order. I understand why writers and artists often start a story at the top of the action and then fill in the details with how that action started later in the story, but I actually dislike stories written like that. I tend to be a person who likes things in true chronological order because I’ve found that things that bounce around with the time line are more confusing to me than ones that just tell a story from beginning to end. That’s kind of how this story went for me. There were a few times when I was really confused with when things happened and what kind of order the events of the story were taking place. My confusion might also stem from having had a really long day and not being at my sharpest. I guess that might be a good lesson about writing – you never know what experience or where the reader is at when they’re reading your story. If you’re writing in such a way that someone in a state of extreme exhaustion or some other similar state of altered consciousness and things are confusing to more than one person, that might be something to look at to make sure the story is as clear as it should be.

I really enjoyed the artwork and the characters in the story. Each one appears to have their own individual personalities, skills, goals, motivation, and conflicts. They react differently to the same situations. I think it really worked for me and I liked it, especially since each character really did have their own “real-world” scenarios where they don’t all just magically agree on things.

Overall, I liked it. It was a quick read and a good story with solid characters and good artistic style. I would probably rate this as a solid three on my rating scale. I’m glad I bought it and I will likely buy the next books in the series as they become available.

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Book Review: Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh

Posted on April 27, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

The last book for my Readings in the Genre: Science Fiction Classics class for my Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, was Downbelow Station (Science Fiction 426 pages) by C.J. Cherryh.

This was actually the second time I’ve read this book; the first time I read this book was about five years ago. When I first read it, I was significantly impressed with how much I enjoyed this book. I don’t usually go for the full on science-fiction space books, but this story was amazing. I was starting to get worried near the end of the book that there was no way C.J. Cherryh could resolve all the issues satisfactorily. I built strong attachments to all the characters and didn’t want to see the book end with everyone dead. The end had so much going on that I didn’t see any way that all the loose ends could be wrapped up satisfactorily within the remaining pages.

The prologue contains a ton of information and that sets the scene for the rest of this very complicated novel. The prologue took a lot of work from me for me to get into the story and to care about all these big, broad-spectrum things going on out in the bigger example of the universe. I’m a character-motivated reader, so if the story doesn’t have characters that I care about, then I’m likely to stop reading. Once the prologue concluded and the disaster started with clearing Pell station for a massive amount of refugees taken at the worst possible conditions, I really got engrossed in the story.

The story was admittedly difficult to get into. The first chapter of the first book dealt with a lot of the build-up on how the universe in Downbelow Station came to be. I thought the first chapter was a little too poetic in some senses, but it really did convey a lot of information that readers needed. It was also a little confusing sometimes, unless I was paying very close attention, to where I was in the book. There are several books in the novel, each one not just broken down by chapter, but also by section. I also did not pay that much attention to the date / time group listed at the top of each break in chapter or section, except for times when I thought the time flow was confusing and I needed to check on whether the events in the current section were actually taking place at the same time as the previous section or later.

I think the big highlight for tension with the story for me was at the end of Book I, Chapter 2, Section I, where it ends with “Four hours.” I knew that it was four hours until Captain Mallory’s ship docked at Pell Station, but I really didn’t know what would happen next and I desperately wanted to know. I was hooked on the story at that exact point, which was in the first 17 pages of the book.

Throughout the entire novel, the descriptions are not simply visual, but encompass all senses. Especially when you think about space and how fragile and important life support systems would be to space travel. Even when traveling on airplanes or large boats, the taste and scent of recycled air is prevalent. On Pell Station when all the refugees start pouring in on expired life support systems, you really get a feel for how terrible their situation is as though you, yourself, are right there. I learned a lot from C.J. Cherryh’s writing and descriptive style. I am hoping I can be as clear and precise with my descriptions and to write as gripping a story as Downbelow Station.

I also believe C.J. Cherryh did an excellent job of building a completely different culture when she created the Hisa. At first, I wasn’t sure about how much I would agree with a non-human point of view, but I believe she pulled it off very well. The way the Hisa view technology and are overlooked by everyone was a masterful way of showing the importance of things we take for granted. The Hisa’s way of looking at the world is so foreign and alien to our own conceptions of the world in which we live that I would have thought it was going to be difficult for me to feel true empathy for the Hisa’s and their situation. The first mention of the Hisa on page 33 wasn’t actually an encounter with the Hisa, but rather exposure to the artwork of the Hisa. This spoke volumes about the different things each culture prioritizes. The humans on Pell value the hand-crafted, wooden sculptures from the “primitive” people of Downbelow, while those involved in the Company Wars don’t have the time or space to move art through the stars with them.

The Hisa spend the entire novel avoiding violence to the extreme, which could be seen as a very interesting part of social commentary because the rest of the characters in the novel all take action in some way or another. The Hisa, when faced with men with guns and battles for a metal world they don’t fully understand, run and hide as their first instinct. And yet it’s the Hisa who wind up saving the humans with their primitive ways, both on Downbelow and on Pell. On Pell, the Hisa are viewed as lesser beings and therefore most of the humans don’t bother to distinguish one Hisa from another, which gives them a freedom of movement none of the humans enjoy. That same freedom of movement is what allows them to protect Alicia Konstantin from the internal conspiracies of Jon Lukas and eventually the Company Fleet. Her presence and her knowledge of the station is then given to the Hisa who occupy the control room and move someone who cares back into the position of being in charge of Pell.

Most of the story revolves around three very, very different cultures that were forced to interact and grow in order to save them all. These cultures were each represented by one key character per culture. I think the reason those three characters were specifically chosen as the main focal points was because of the vastly different aspects of the story that each of them represents.

Signy Mallory is a space captain who is a true leader. She inspires her crew to greatness. She identifies herself in the book as “arrogant and ambitious,” but she is also extremely competent and capable. Something that might be interesting to note in this novel is that if Signy Mallory had been written as a male character instead of as a female character, she would have been labelled as a leader and not someone who is arrogant and ambitious. I don’t remember where I was reading about the subtle use of gender roles and sexism, but there was a recent article that discussed how men are expected to take charge. None of the other captains of the fleet are ever described like Signy Mallory is, and yet, all of them are vying for power and working to move themselves up, just like she is. The difference is that she is a female, and that’s why these are the characteristics that are noted about her.

Satin is definitely a level above the rest of the Hisa. She sees the world as a mixture of the beauty of the world that the Hisa know and the way they view their role in their world as well as viewing the truths of the world of men. In a lot of ways, she is the primary bridge between the world of men and the world of the Hisa. She has the wonder and beauty of the Hisa and the curiosity of the humans, which is a fantastic mix. I think Satin is the character in this story that best represents the ideal for humanity as a whole, which is interesting because Satin is an alien and not a human at all.

Josh Talley is a completely different story because, in the end, he chooses to be human. He was something that was created and not someone who was born. He was grown. He was programmed. Josh Talley, and those like him, are those who are blank slates. They are created to serve a specific purpose. Mindless robots who will accomplish their assigned tasks with no questions asked. Cannon fodder for an intergalactic war. This is the entire civilization that the Union represents – a life without purpose, without art, without creativity, without love, and without freedom. The Union is winning the war through sheer force of numbers, and it takes Josh Talley the entire book to realize that being a mindless drone who destroys entire space stations isn’t really much of a life at all.

One of the most interesting parts of this novel for me was the real, human aspect of the relationship between characters in the novel. One of the things I liked about Damon and Elene’s developing relationship was that later, they have an entire discussion about why she went off birth control and he didn’t go off his. This is an interesting development for a couple reasons. The first is kind of a social commentary about how, in the future, both the male and the female are on birth control and that in order for a family to have children, both parties have to make a conscious decision for that to happen and they both have to take steps for that pregnancy to happen. The second interesting part of that relationship development is that Damon honestly discussed with Elene that he didn’t think he trusted her reasoning for wanting to have children at that time in their lives. After they discussed it and other stuff happened on Pell station that affected their outlook on the future in general, Damon agreed that having a child would probably be a good thing for both of them and what they both wanted and needed. He understood and respected her decision, and he eventually agreed with her and ceased his own birth control in order to facilitate her happiness. This speaks volumes about how to develop and maintain a positive, long-term relationship. Not to say that positive, long-term relationships are built on children, but rather open and honest communication. This is a clear demonstration of a healthy relationship where they both communicate effectively.

This novel shows an extreme crisis point. War is never an easy topic, and most people who write about war only write about the camaraderie between soldiers, the horrors of violence and war, or the politics involved in war. Refugee situations tend to destabilize the surrounding areas. It’s very rare in my experience that those who are refugees are given adequate time for their parts of the story. In fact, someone could easily take Downbelow Station and make it into a romance or something by creating minor characters that don’t affect the overarching plot, but could be a wonderful story of fantastic good luck, where a separated family just happens to find each other, and they get to start a new life on the planet. Or something. My point is that it’s very rare that the true plight of refugees is honestly acknowledged. I was particularly moved by the increased discussion about proper papers and identifications and how even honest people couldn’t prove that their identifications were genuine.

I think that this story demonstrates a very feasible future for the expansion of humankind into the stars because this shows that it’s not really a pretty process. It’s messy and sterile and unfriendly. And just beyond our current reality 🙂

The Union people were absolutely terrifying in that I can easily see the future heading towards genetic clones of everyone, leaving no identities, no individuals, no new and creative differences. They make blank people and rewrite them as often as necessary. It’s rather frightening.

Overall, this book is easily a high three or low four on my rating scale. I am glad I own it, I’m highly likely to read the book again, and I learned a lot about writing and storyy-telling from this novel.

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Daydreams and Fantasies

Posted on April 22, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

-I want you here playing Zelda while I work on writing a fantastic sci-fi novel
-I want you to laugh at me as I spill hot tea all over the counter
-I want to dance in the kitchen at 3am in our pajamas because we can’t sleep or aren’t sleeping
-I want to sit on the porch with giant glasses of cold beverages reading books in silence, just watching the world go by
-I want to drag you out hang gliding with me and then teach you how to ride my motorcycle
-I want to bring you pizza, fudge, and frozen yogurt when you come back in from extensive outdoor excursions
-I want to yell at you as you slaughter me at Mario Kart
-I want all the silly, little things that are missing. The parts of my life you make whole
-I miss you
-I am such a loser 🙂

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Book Review: The Coelura by Anne McCaffrey

Posted on April 22, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

Having just finished my homework assignment reading for this week, I needed another book to read while on the stationary bike this morning. I found Anne McCaffrey‘s The Coelura (Science Fiction 161 pages (60 of those pages are illustrations)) on my shelf and decided to read it, as it was short, small, and portable.

(This book has kind of a long description):

‘”Before she could close the canopy behind her, the sky above her erupted in a flight of rainbows that sang a liquid lovely welcome ….’ The lady Caissa, heir of the Ambassador of the Federated Sentient Planets to the world of Demeathorn, had grown up knowing that she owed her sire obedience and unconditional loyalty. She expected to do her duty, even to the extent of entering into a marriage alliance she did not understand with a man she despised. Lady Caissa, beautiful, rich and well-educated, had never learned the great secret of Demeathorn, although she was about to be caught in its unraveling. In the aftermath of a disastrous negotiation, she fled northward by airship toward interdicted territory; a distress signal from deep within the forbidden zone drew her to a rocky island off the coast. And there she encountered a man alone: intense, handsome, and severely injured in the crash of his antique flyer. She did not know it, but she had just set in motion events which would determine the fate of her father and her planet, and her own happiness for the rest of her life.”

The sad part about the description for this book is that this is pretty much the entire story of the book, summarized in 190 words.

I think one of the interesting parts of this book is that I believe it came out before the mass market trade paperback graphic novel compilations that appear to be gaining popularity these days. I have an ever-growing collection of these myself, and I enjoy them greatly. My copy of this book was printed in 1987, with a first edition noted as being in 1983. The previously mentioned 60 pages of illustrations were done by Ned Dameron. I think that this book would have actually made a very good graphic novel, especially if the illustrations were done in color and the words were used to accent the artwork. That sounds a little bit weird, I think, so I’ll try to explain it a little better. I kind of felt like in this book, maybe because of formatting, the illustrations sometimes jumped the gun a little bit on the words. I would turn the page and see the illustration and the words would not be there just yet. So it felt a little disjointed to me. But I really do think that the artwork is very imaginative and also clearly a product of the 1980s 🙂 Characters had mullets and big hair with flared boots and gloves. I don’t really pay attention to fashion, but this made me smile.

I’m not sure how I feel about the role of women in this society. Caissa is both an accomplished, well-respected hunter, but also her father’s property at the same time, and her sole purpose is to produce a viable offspring for a man somewhere. The other side of that, though is that it appears as though she is free to form her own contracts and to come and go as she wishes. The world-building in this story is not really strong enough for me to form an educated opinion about the actual gender roles, but it really feels like the story wants females to be empowered and powerful, but all the actual power resides with the males. I’m not certain if Caissa’s womb-mother, High Lady Cinna of Aldebaran, had any real power or if she just used her wealth to be beautiful and fashionable – to be a person who desired jealousy and envy in those around her. But all the governments appear to be headed by males and all the contracts officiated by males. So things look like they’re supposed to be equal, but they’re really not. I just go the sense of gender discrimination and am not entirely certain that this sense was accurate. Though Caissa was demonstrated to be sexually active, and able to choose her partners with no obvious negative repercussions. I don’t know. The words I read and the feeling I got from the book seem to be conflicting.

The imagination in this story was fantastic and I liked a lot of the implications, but most of the world-building was just that – implications. The illustrations show a world filled with alien life and the alien life is only barely mentioned as the catalyst for the entire story.

Overall, this books is definitely a short, quick read, and it worked well for me during my workout this morning. But I’m not entirely certain I would enjoy reading it for fun in my leisure time. I think for that, it’s going to rate a very low two on my rating scale.

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Book Review: Goal, Motivation and Conflict by Debra Dixon

Posted on April 19, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

When I filled out my paperwork for this term, I was presented with several options for my individual reading assignment. I wound up choosing Goal, Motivation, and Conflict (Reference 164 pages) by Debra Dixon because it came highly recommended and several critique partners have mentioned that some of my goals and motivation for the characters in Surveyors are not as clear as desired. This book was a perfect choice to help me focus Surveyors and to help me create more depth with my characters.

I think the most important part of this book is the formatting, which may sound like a rather odd thing to say, but the formatting really made this book work for me. One of the key reasons formatting was so important to me in regards to this book is because of how down-to-earth and user-friendly this book is for writers of all experience levels. At no time throughout the entire novel is the author ever condescending or pretentious, which is very refreshing to me. Some of the writer’s resources I have read in the past have used such an ostentatious way of talking about the writing process that they motivate me to throw the book off the top of my apartment complex. Debra Dixon explains all of her thoughts and ideas in this book in a clear and concise manner, which increased my desire to continue reading and provided excellent resources and a good knowledge base.

Starting on page 21 and then reoccurring on twenty-two additional pages throughout the book is the most useful chart for character development I have yet seen in any of the writing craft books I’ve seen. This chart is the main focus of the entire book, which is designed to identify the internal and external goal, motivation, and conflict for each individual character within your story. The best part about the usage of this chart is that Debra Dixon goes to great lengths to describe each section of the chart in detail, clearly demonstrating different methods of deciding on the goal, motivation, and conflict for a variety of different characters in a variety of different settings.

One page 13, Debra Dixon describes the primary focus of this book, which is a description of goals: “Goals should be important enough for the character to act against his own best interest and to endure hardship if necessary. ‘Important enough’ means that there will be unpleasant consequences if the goal is not achieved. People will move heaven and earth to avoid unpleasant consequences. It’s a fact of human nature.” This section of the book then goes on to talk about what constitutes “unpleasant” and how to develop a sense of urgency in your character. She explains that a sense of urgency is important because it adds action and forward momentum to the story. She reiterates this sense of urgency and the importance of strong motivation on page 36 where she talks about characters needing something other than “garden-variety motivations” because these motivations might be realistic but don’t provide the sense of urgency and working towards something bigger than the individual character’s own comfort. The majority of characters with strong motivations are those with consequences that will affect more than just themselves. Debra Dixon uses the example of a woman attempting to protect her child from an abusive husband, but some other examples for science fiction include having to survive a disaster situation and also save the entire planet or species at the same time. This kind of motivation affects more than just the individual characters.

Another really helpful part of this book was the chapter wrap up sections at the end of each chapter. These lists are found on pages 29-30, 56-58, 81-82, 103-104, and 121-122 and are a fantastic quick reference that would be worth printing out and posting around a writer’s work area to help keep on track with individual character goal, motivation, and conflict. The lists are not step-by-step ways to create well-rounded characters, but rather things to keep in mind about character growth, how you should have three reasons for every scene, and other small tidbits that are designed to help with the thought process behind a character’s goal, motivation, and conflict.

This book also contains a variety of writing exercises, and fill-in-the-blank chart opportunities, which I found to be very helpful. On page 118, you’re encouraged to write something outside your normal genre in order to get outside your writing comfort zone so you can focus on creating the goal, motivation, and conflict instead of world-building or any of the normal things you take for granted in your own writing. The example writing exercise, as described on page 117, is to “remove the editor who sits on your shoulder.” This forces you to practice creating new characters with new and potentially unfamiliar goals, motivations, and conflicts.

After reading this book, there are a lot of places in Surveyors that I feel I can make a lot stronger by following the guidance provided here, and I can see even more revisions in my future, especially after my latest submission which still seemed to lack a big enough individual conflict to move the story as quickly as readers would like in order to develop instant conflict. This book really is the best, most user-friendly writing craft book I have so far encountered in my professional writing pursuits and I am extremely happy that I have added it to my collection.

Works cited:

Dixon, Debra. Goal, Motivation, and Conflict: the Building Blocks of Good Fiction. Gryphon Books for Writers, Memphis: 1996.

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Book Review: The Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin

Posted on April 12, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

The next book for my Readings in the Genre: Science Fiction Classics for my Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University was the Dispossessed (Science Fiction 311 pages) by Ursula LeGuin.

The first chapter showed immediate conflict and immediate action, with an unknown individual leaving a planet. What’s going on, who the main character is, why this is such a big deal, are all questions without answers throughout the first chapter of the book. Then, in the second chapter, we see the very beginnings of where Shevek starts his journey across space, as we are introduced to him as a young boy and how his interactions with his instructors and with his peer group shaped him into the first person from Anarres to travel to their neighboring world, Urras. This is the only book I’ve ever seen done like this, and I am of the opinion that Ursula LeGuin did a remarkable job with this story.

The Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin was a story I’d never heard of before taking this course, but one that will easily be added to my list of favorite science fiction books. This book is so complicated, with themes stretching from what happens to utopias and people’s perceptions of those utopias to how ridiculous our current capitalistic society is and also to the theme of pushing yourself beyond your own limits for the betterment of humanity as a whole. Maybe it’s just where I’m at in my life right now, but the constant, reoccurring symbolism of walls was the main factor in my reading of this story.

I’m not sure if Ursula LeGuin was intending on adjusting the way I look at walls (which is entirely possible, as she’s a remarkably talented author) or if it really is just where I’m at with my own life right now, but the reoccurrence of walls throughout this story made me look at some concepts in my mind that I’ve noticed but never paid attention to. The world in which we all grow up is filled with walls, and most of those walls are designed to prevent external factors from entering our internal worlds. We build houses and apartment buildings with locking doors and windows to protect us from harsh weather outside, but also to protect us from our neighbors or potential criminals. Those same walls that protect us from the elements and potential criminals are the same walls that keep us inside.

The first example I saw of the use of walls as something other than a physical part of the world occurred on page 13: “Kimoe’s ideas never seemed to be able to go in a straight line; they had to walk around this and avoid that, and then they ended up smack against a wall. There were walls around all his thoughts, and he seemed utterly unaware of them, though he was perpetually hiding behind them.” This is not an isolated instance of the characters in the story being closed off by their own thoughts, their own perceptions, or their own concepts of morality. The conversation at this time centers around the women’s roles and how they differ between Anarres and Urras and Shevek seems uncertain what to do about speaking with Kimoe about an issue that he clearly lacks even the ability to comprehend such a foreign concept as women being completely equal to men in every aspect.

When Shevek moves to Room 46 at the Central Institute for Sciences, the walls of his room become his sanctuary to protect him from the social isolation he experienced since he was a young boy. “The privacy of his room became dear to him. He savored his total independence. He left the room only for breakfast and dinner at the refectory and a quick daily hike through the city streets to appease his muscles” (LeGuin 86).

The idea of using walls as barriers also comes up on page 112 where Shevek is talking with Chifoilisk and they have a discussion about how when doors have locked rooms, there are always people with keys to those rooms. This is a very interesting way of looking at power and how power is controlled, especially the idea of knowledge as power, as discussed extensively throughout this book. Shevek knows he can finish the General Temporal Theory, but he doesn’t know who he can trust. While the walls, and the doors with locks, are designed to protect Shevek’s knowledge, Shevek doesn’t trust those who have the keys to those locks and what they would do with the information if they had it. For this reason, even though Shevek’s room is protected by walls, doors, and locks, Shevek never trusts leaving even parts of his equations where someone might take them and be able to use those parts for their own ends.

On page 133, Bedap explains the concept of “the wall” to Shevek and how there really is a power structure on their “utopian” planet without government and this representation of the wall indicates Shevek’s inability to move forward with publishing his theories because his current sponsor, Sabul, put himself into a position of power and stuck with that position. Sabul was the only one who could control the mail going on and off the freighters between planets and Shevek realizes that his idealistic hopes for freely sharing knowledge with Urras are more complicated than he originally believed.

Internal walls are discussed again on page 140: “He got little comfort from anything. That the walls of his hard puritanical conscience were widening out immensely was anything but a comfort. He felt cold and lost.” The walls throughout this story continue to be used as metaphors for either the lack of true comprehension for the characters in the book or as a physical representations of the concepts of freedom and confinement. Sometimes, the walls keep Shevek safe, such as when he’s first travelling in the ship, or when he first arrives on Urras, but those same walls which keep him safe are also the walls which confine him and prevent him from travelling where he would wish and teaching or sharing his knowledge of physics as he would wish.

I had a lot of thoughts about the philosophical themes throughout the book, especially the look at the different types of utopia and how both planets have their own, distinctly different pros and cons. Inherent to both planets is the concept of freedom, where on the Urras propertarian (Capitalist) side, only the rich are capable of having freedom because they have the resources to pursue education and the higher-level academics that Shevek admires so much, while on Anarres side, everyone has the perception of total freedom, being able to work or move as they wish. As the story progresses, Shevek realizes that neither planet is nearly as free and utopian as each one believes and that in order to build a true utopia for everyone, some sort of balance must be reached.

One of parts I really got to thinking about was the scene where Shevek goes shopping for the first (and only) time on Urras and that really hit something in me about the way our own capitalistic society works. When Shevek is browsing the shops, he notices that there are no actual artisans or craftspeople in the shops – there are only buyers and sellers. That really got me thinking about how differently I would view the purchasing of products if I thought that the people who were attempting to sell those products to me had any part of the creative process. What if we went clothes shopping and the person selling the clothes was actually the person who sewed them together? Or the family who created the designs? Would that make it harder or easier to buy the things that I want?

The extravagance on Urras is often described in detail – what the people wear, their appearance, the environment in general, but on Anarres, the only descriptions really make you feel the dry, desert, survival side of the planet. In fact, Shevek’s orange blanket is described as appealing to his ego. That really makes me wonder if people on Anarres were allowed to be individuals at all. Did they all wear the same clothes? Paint the same paintings? Create the same music? When Shevek starts thinking about the General Temporal Theory, he struggles because he doesn’t have any intellectual equals who want to do the same kind of combination of physics and philosophy, which is why he travels to Urras.

Both the Dispossessed and Dune demonstrated a balance of philosophy and survival and how those two concepts are part of the overarching human experience. That part about how things as a whole look completely different from things seen at their smallest levels or at their encompassing whole was one of those sections that really stuck out with me, as well. There are so many philosophical comments about not being able to see the forest through the trees or how big things are just combinations of a bunch of little things that I thought the way it was described in the Dispossessed was very artfully done. I absolutely think that the realistic philosophical musings were a great way for the characters in the Dispossessed to become more human and more believable.

As the novel progresses, we get closer and closer to the realization that one person’s utopia is another person’s hell and it’s the perceptions of time and the increased knowledge of the small details of a world that slowly change the opinions towards the two civilization

I think Ursula LeGuin is definitely making a point of showing us what Terra will look like in our future if we don’t start working together instead of tearing the world apart. The introduction of the other planets’ ambassadors at the end of the novel really is the hammer blow to anyone looking at this novel through the eyes of modern society. The part that really blows my mind, though, is that my copy of this book was printed in 1975. This book must have taken her years to write, edit, and publish. My copy of this book is forty years old and we are still having the same problems today as what created the devastating changes to the Terra Ursula LeGuin discusses in this book. In fact, things have gotten remarkably worse for us in the last forty years, especially in the sense of wasteful consumerism, global military conflicts, and environmental neglect. This should serve as a very powerful wakeup call from the author.

Overall, this was a fantastic book and I’m exceptionally glad to have read it. I think this book is easily a high three or low four on my rating scale. I’m glad I own it, though I am a little unsettled that I appear to own a second edition original print.

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Movie Review: Interstellar

Posted on April 6, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

Interstellar is another of the movies that I meant to see in theaters and just didn’t because my life has been ridiculously out of hand so far this year. I saw Interstellar in the store when I was browsing for some household stuff that I needed. I didn’t realize it was available, but I remembered that I wanted to see it, so I picked it up and watched it about two days ago.

This is “The story of a team of pioneers undertaking the most important mission in human history. An ex-pilot-turned-farmer must leave his family and a foundering Earth behind to lead an expedition traveling beyond this galaxy to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars.”

Honestly? This movie isn’t even close to what I was expecting. I was expecting kind of a more thoughtful and philosophical movie about space and not an extremely tense movie about how space can affect so many things all at once. I am actually quite glad that I didn’t watch this movie in the theaters because I was all over the place while watching it in my apartment. I must have yelled at the screen or the characters about four different times throughout the movie. This was not a relaxing movie.

The soundtrack on this movie created such an atmosphere of reality that it took me quite some time to calm down once I’d finished the movie. I did some research about the soundtrack and I guess there were actually two soundtracks available for purchase, one of them being a shorter and simpler version without the key “docking sequence” portion and the other with 24 songs from the film. The only concern I have with this method of selling music is that the extra eight songs, including “No Time For Caution”, can only be found on the digital download option and not on an actual music CD, unless you purchase the “Illuminated Star Project” imported edition for $40. I suspect I will purchase some form of this soundtrack and perhaps a review of it as well at some point in the future 🙂

Meanwhile, back to the movie.

The movie starts out with an agrarian Earth where technology is taboo and everyone is a farmer. Some sort of crop and atmospheric problems indicate that the Earth is dying and NASA is working in secret to attempt to find a suitable place to relocate the population and save the human race. The absolute backwards thinking in Murph’s school was just astounding and I saw so many parallels with how information is manipulated in order to control the basic population that I was rather frightened for the future of humanity as a whole. Those in charge basically decided to outlaw all technology because of the mistakes of the past and to focus humanity’s efforts on a failing agrarian society because that was “what’s best.” Destroying technology almost destroyed the human race and it frightens me that someday, people might actually attempt to limit our dreams and our capabilities because of other mistakes.

The characters in this movie make so very many mistakes. They are all human and nothing goes according to plan. One mistake of minutes costs decades of consequences. There are a lot of times in this movies where things are not as they appear and I very much enjoyed having my expectations tossed around and thrown out the window. One of the key examples of that for me was when I first saw the robots. I thought TARS and CASE were the absolute worst designs for a robot I could ever imagine because their designs seemed impractical for any sort of movement or utility. I didn’t understand their versatility until the team landed on Miller’s planet and then I realized that the design for TARS and CASE were intentional and extremely neat.

I am absolutely NOT going to go into any more depth on the movie because I am hoping this movie is as addictive for you as it was for me. I think I will rate it as a high three on my rating scale because the music was fantastic and I cared deeply about everything the characters went through. I’m not entirely sold on the accuracy of the science in the movie, but it was believable enough for me to focus more on the story and the characters than the science (and science isn’t my strength anyway 🙂 ).

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Book Review: Batman Beyond 2.0: Justice Lords Beyond

Posted on March 31, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

I can not adequately express how annoyed I continue to be with the way that trade paperback graphic novels fail to label their books. Even though Batman Beyond 2.0: Justice Lords Beyond (graphic novel 166 pages) was another great addition to the Batman Beyond storyline, I still feel as though I am obviously missing key portions of the plot for this series, which is not increasing my feelings of endearment towards DC Comics.

“The Justice Lords hail from an alternate universe where the Justice League decided to enforce law and order through any means necessary … and then took it too far, becoming despots. Years ago the Justice League defeated them, and Wonder Woman returned to their world with them to make sure they stayed in check. But something went wrong. Now, Wonder Woman is back in the world of Batman Beyond, and Superman and Bruce Wayne sense that she’s hiding something. As Terry McGinnis takes a dangerous trip to the Justice Lords’ world to find out Wonder Woman’s secrets – and encounters a version of himself whose life took a very different path – the Justice Lords return to our Earth in search of Wonder Woman. Can the Justice League of the future hope to defeat versions of themselves that are just as powerful but more ruthless? Or will the world of the future become another conquest for Lord Superman?”

I think it’s interesting how many of the stories I am reading or watching these days deal with the issue of people who start out as heroes and then become the villains of their stories. I guess it’s mostly interesting because of where I’m at in my own life right now, where it feels a bit like no matter how much I try to do the right thing, things tend to go worse and worse. This graphic novel is another example of how heroes often walk a slippery slope between keeping your people safe and denying your people every sense of freedom. All of the Justice Lords start out on the side of good and justice and then it gets harder and harder to protect the people in their lives and so they enact stricter and stricter rules, all designed to keep the people safe. These rules designed to keep the people safe eventually become such that no one is really free. This is one of those really philosophical topics that continues to be a point of concern and debate through every aspect of humanity. Would you rather live in a place that is safe, but where any mistake you make will be met with the most severe punishment imaginable, or would you rather live someplace less safe where you are free? I think this is one of those questions that will continue to provide conflicts for humanity for all the rest of our days.

Meanwhile, here’s a rant about how annoyed I am with my inability to find all of the story in one place: Would it really be so hard for trade paperback graphic novels to have a book listing, just like any other, normal book series? Most books on a shelf will have a list, in order, in the beginning of the book, for the previous books in the series. Some books even have the book number listed on the cover, such as “Book Three of the Awesome Book Series.” So I think that graphic novels, especially ones like this from a collection of comic books, should have a listing of the original comics so that you can tell if you missed any and also what the next trade paperback volume collection you should look for if you want to continue the storyline. I just checked and all of my Marvel Comics trade paperbacks show the front cover of each comic book included in the collection, so if nothing else, you could see when the original came out and what issue number it was, which seems like a reasonable way to include the necessary information for purchasing purposes.

Overall, I thought this graphic novel was a wonderful addition to the Batman Beyond storyline and I would enjoy it a lot more if I didn’t keep buying these in a wonky order and reading them while I am obviously missing massive chunks of important plot development. That’s why this is only going to rate as a high two on my rating scale. If the comic book industry did a better job of organizing their trade paperback graphic novels, I would buy more of their products.

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Movie Review: the Legend of Korra Book Four: Balance

Posted on March 29, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

I recently picked up the entire Legend of Korra series because I’d read so many good reviews about the series as a whole. So while I might have purchased them a long time ago, I only recently started taking the time to watch these. Obviously, I started with the Legend of Korra: Book One: Air, and then I moved on to the Legend of Korra: Book Two: Spirits, and then I watched the Legend of Korra: Book Three: Change today, and I followed it with the Legend of Korra: Book Four: Balance.

“To save the world, Avatar Korra endured her most intense battle yet. Now broken and bruised, Korra begins a journey of self-discovery and survival as the strong prey upon the weak. When an aggressive military force rises up, led by the power-hungry Kuvira, the fate of the Earth Kingdom hangs in the balance, and only the Avatar can set things right.”

The third season of this series has thirteen episodes, After All These Years, Korra Alone, the Coronation, the Calling, Enemy At the Gates, Battle Zaofu, Reunion, Remembrances, Beyond the Wilds, Operation: Beifong, Kuvira’s Gambit, Day of the Colossus, and the Last Stand.

Holy buckets, the season starts out in a very dark place. Wow. This season definitely brings up a lot of my very own unpleasant memories of being alone and on my own and having to learn how to walk again and how hard everything was last year. And it wasn’t just battling my physical injury and learning to walk, but also having to deal with everything that fell apart in my personal life. So the first couple episodes of this season were really hard for me and brought up a lot of things that still hurt. Especially since so many people tried to help Korra and she meant so much to so many, and still she had to do everything to heal on her own. Korra’s battle against her zombie-looking Avatar self is a lot like facing your own demons and learning to take back your life.

I am struck again by the percussion music during the fight scenes. I need like several hours worth of music like that for my collection.

I feel like I have a lot of the same characteristics as Korra. She doesn’t back down and fights until the very last no matter what. She’s willing to stand alone in order to protect the lives of others. She is brave and loyal. And everything that I would want to be if I were a hero.

The new Airbender suits are really fascinating and very nicely done. They also make a lot of sense because the suits allow them to actually use the wind currents to glide and it’s fantastic.

The series talks about post traumatic stress, terrorism, interpersonal relationships, redemption, team work, and so many other big pictures topics about how some things get so confusing with the lines between right and wrong. While there were romantic interests, none of them interfered with the plot or the storyline, and all of them were realistic.

Overall, this is a fantastic end to the series with a lot of great action and character development. This season was very tense and a lot happened. I think this season is a low four on my rating scale. I liked season three better for the well-roundedness, but this season was such a huge development that I had to watch the whole thing all at once.

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Movie Review: the Legend of Korra Book Three: Change

Posted on March 29, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

I recently picked up the entire Legend of Korra series because I’d read so many good reviews about the series as a whole. So while I might have purchased them a long time ago, I only recently started taking the time to watch these. Obviously, I started with the Legend of Korra: Book One: Air, and then I moved on to the Legend of Korra: Book Two: Spirits, and then I watched the Legend of Korra: Book Three: Change today.

“As the world enters a new age where spirits and mankind coexist, Book 3: Change reveals the exciting discovery of new Airbenders! But while Korra makes it her mission to find them and rebuild the Air Nation, a group of dangerous criminals embarks on a mission of their own.”

The third season of this series has thirteen episodes, a Breath of Fresh Air, Rebirth, the Earth Queen, In Harm’s Way, the Metal Clan, Old Wounds, Original Airbenders, the Terror Within, the Stakeout, Long Live the Queen, the Ultimatum, Enter the Void, and Venom of the Red Lotus.

I think this season is my favorite so far. The season starts out with Asami trying to teach Korra how to drive, which works out just about as well as you would think. Korra still isn’t very good at driving and her driving lesson is highly amusing, especially the parts about her attempting to use the clutch.

This season messes with my feels on a really extensive level. There were so many times when I actually attempted to interact with the show, having a variety of comments about how so many of the situations some of the characters got involved in were truly sad and unfortunate.

There are so many characters and heroes in this season, from the metal benders operating as a police force and assault task force to the members of Bolin and Mako’s family, that it makes this whole series such a rich world-building experience. There are cute spirits, floating bison, really neat hang gliding things, a giant sand shark, a couple of funny fans for Bolin, and so many other details that make this such an amazing story.

I can think of no way to discuss this season without giving away major spoilers, so I’m just going to say that this is definitely a four on my rating scale, maybe even a high four or low five. This is a fantastic season. I’m very happy I own it and will definitely watch it again.

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