Book Review: Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys

This short sci-fi novel was a bit of a surprise. I didn’t know the author or anything about it coming in. The work did see nominations for awards in its genre when published in 1961 and has been included in whatever is the “Science Fiction Hall of Fame” collections but I was not familiar with it.

That said, what a fantastic little piece of writing. Its really only “sci-fi” in the sense that some of the story takes place on the moon and there is essentially a “matter transmitter” device at the heart of the action, facilitating the core focus of the work.

Its far more a discussion of what makes humans, human. What is the nature of our consciousness? What makes someone, “them”, and not someone else? What are we driven by? A fear of death? A need for power? The need to be desirable? What is it that we leave behind when we are gone?

These large existential questions are the core of what Budrys is getting after in placing his central characters tasked with handling the idea of human doppelgangers destined to die over and over again in search of answers surrounding an unknown object on the moon. The fact that this object is never detailed or resolved in any manner by the end of the book tells you all you need to know about where the true nature of the book lies. Its far more interested in exploring inside ourselves and trying to resolve much bigger questions than just another alien artifact.

Its a great piece and well worth your time. If you are looking for answers on what comes after death, what the nature of our existence is…Rogue Moon won’t provide you any answers…but it will get you asking the right questions.

Book Review: Astounding by Alec Nevala-Lee

I have read a number of novels/stories by the authors focused on in this work of scholarship (Asimov, Heinlein, and Campbell) with the exception of Hubbard. I was always put off by the ridiculous TV advertisements with exploding meteors and claims of intellectual wonders used to promote Dianetics in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Nevala-Lee’s work here however brings all four of these individuals together and weaves their relationship with one another with their frequent editor, collaborator, mentor, and frenemy, Campbell at the center of everything.

I had not known how tightly they were associated with one another professionally and personally—from employment as writers to that as workers within industry during WWII…from sharing ideas on their work to familial relationships. Coming together and falling apart numerous times over the span of 40+ years, each on to their own deserves a deep biography.

Here it is more their interconnected stories and how they relate to Campbell as the force that pushed them out into worldwide acceptance that is the focus. The work stands as a fantastic primer for understanding any of these complex men who all had deep faults yet unique geniuses as well.

Nevala-Lee doesn’t preach at the reader regarding these faults and largely is able to stay in the background, revealing what they are without being overly judgmental—which must have been immensely difficult given what some of these faults were (gross racism, parental negligence, fraud, sexual assault, and so on). Now…to be fair, some of these behaviors were products of their time, simply doing business as business was done and what were acceptable societal norms at the time and so Lee does an excellent job of steering away from applying modern mores to distant years.

Leaving that behind, the work is stunning in its capture of the cultural impact that these writers and Campbell in particular have had on our views and media. With Dune coming out this year in its second full film workup, it is worth noting that as we see in Astounding Herbert was yet another of Campbell’s discoveries as a writer and had a major if not primary influence on other contributors to how we see science interacting with, benefiting, and threatening humanity including Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke, and numerous others. Also note the recent Amazon development of Foundation as a long form series broadcast this year and George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones mid ‘10’s juggernaut as examples of Cambpell’s influence 40+ years after his death.

A very readable work of literary scholarship I’m sure Lee’s efforts here will spawn numerous imitators and inspiration for other works diving into these authors to treat them with the respect they deserve from the standpoint of real “art”. This may be one of the best (not first) steps towards putting Campbell, Heinlein and Asimov in particular on pedestals alongside others such as Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Mark Twain, Poe, and others who are deemed worthy of such examination. Not Hubbard though…I still can’t get past those exploding meteors…

Truly I am only scratching the surface of what is contained in Astounding. There is so much here that warrants mentioning that Lee goes into. Campbell’s story on the development of a nuclear bomb that came under scrutiny from the Feds during the Manhattan Project because it was felt that it was too close to the truth is one. The absolute batshit insanity of Hubbard and Campbell’s earnest beliefs that things like Scientology, psionics, telepathy, reincarnation and other such fantastical ideas were not only legitimate but that personally controllable, is another. There will be works to come that Astounding will be used as a primary source for a hundred years or more. It is not a good work…but a great one and one that anyone seeking to understand much of our modern culture and thinking must understand given how influential these authors have been on the great powers and thinkers of our time.

Book Review: Hammer's Slammers by David Drake

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Wish I could say I got through this and enjoyed it. Not to be however. As I’ve stated previously, I have made an executive decision to put books down and move on that I don’t enjoy rather than struggling through them to completion as I used to. There is just too little time for bad books.

So what made me put it down? I mean its kinda in my wheelhouse being a military sci-fi work right? Well, it falls into a category of those same works that really turns me off…which are sci-fi books in general and military sci-fi books in particular that project waaaaay out into the future (interplanetary travel, multi-world empires, and so on) and yet incorporate so much of what is present in our current world as to be unbelievable. There is zero possibility of a suspension of disbelief on my part or an investment in a story when the author is project some thousands of years in the future and yet…here we are with protagonists using “guns” and fission power plants, and adhering to what we have as modern religions which drive entire societies. Sorry but your book felt aged a year after it hit print and it feels grossly aged now.

Drake, for whatever his military and educational background (which is seemingly deep and notable) lacks for imagination beyond what he sees in front of him today (or 1979 as it were when he wrote it). His military experience from Vietnam is taken and projected far into the future and it reads that way—a mishmash of militarisms from 50 years ago mixed with technologies that we are already familiar with but projected thousands of years forward. Sorry…but we have drones, we have fission, we have homosexuals serving in the military, we have advanced laser weapons, small scale nukes, and, yes, relevant here, even large scale mercenary armies operating at the whim of various governments. The book reads like someone imagined the military of 1985 from a position of 1979 and then picked it up and transplanted it to the year 3500 with nothing having changed in between. Been there, done that, and moved on. I much prefer a work like The Forever War by Joe Haldeman which also falls into the military sci-fi genre but is more focused on the depth of characters and human nature than machines and technology. Human nature endures. Technology does not.

Add to that the “pulpy” nature of the work (just the name of the book alone sends shivers down my spine) and it feels like an unserious piece. Just couldn’t do it. Its content and flavor belong more in a pre-teen’s comic book than it does in a deep military-sci-fi work. Next!