Pushing the Limit

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
New York : Ember, 2019.
513 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.

A number of years ago a book club we had at the high school read Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. I recall that I really liked Sanderson's writing - even though I'm not a huge fan of high fantasy.  So I was interested when  student recommended Skyward to me.  The student had it on his reading list for student readers working on the Lincoln Award for this year.     

I enjoyed reading this science fiction adventure tale, but didn't love it.  The strengths of Skyward are many, though.  Sanderson is great at plotting, character development, and descriptive action.  The story is also good for having a believable, strong central female character.

The basic plot of the story revolves around Spensa who goes by the name "Spin." She lives on a planet where humans crash-landed a few generations before and where they are under threat from the mysterious space-craft flying Krell.  Humans on this planet depend on skilled fighter pilots to protect them from the alien Krell who frequently launch attacks from space using their sophisticated and deadly spaceships.  The humans have capable space/jet fighters but seem to be losing a war of attrition.  Spin - whose father was a superb pilot until a pivotal battle where was lost and accused of cowardice - wants to be a fighter pilot and redeem her family name.  She enters the prestigious fighter training academy and the story unfolds from there.

There are some surprising plot developments, and the battle sequences are thrilling.  The parts that didn't grab me are the banter between the pilots in training and their crusty trainer, and the revelation that Spin comes from a group of humans that seem to have supernatural powers on which the survival of Defiant may depend.

In spite of my not being wowed by the book, I would still recommend it to science fiction fans.

A Short and Wild Adventure

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
New York : A Tom Doherty Associates book, 2015.
90 p. ; 20 cm.

Yes, that is 90 p. as in only ninety pages!  But short can be sweet and this little book is captivating.  It's a wildly imaginative science fiction novella that bridges a non-industrial village tribe with an off planet university where the most brilliant  minds of the galaxy go to study.

It fuses a simple coming of age-journey (albeit to a distant planet!) with a shocking massacre and tense intergalactic diplomacy.

I enjoyed it, and it's brevity was refreshing. My hope is that a short book like this might be inviting to those students intimidated by the heftier science fiction/fantasy books that are so common.  I think once tempted, a reader will want more of the same, and with Okorafor there are many more works to sample.

Sol Man

The Martian by Andy Weir
New York : Crown Publishers, [2014]
369 p. : maps ; 24 cm. 

There should be two genres - science fiction and scientific fiction, with scientific fiction being fiction that is so  steeped in science and so close to the near-future of actual science that it reads like contemporary fiction.  If so the The Martian would be an amazing example of scientific fiction.  At times while reading it, I found myself forgetting that humans have never actually set foot on Mars - only probes and rovers. 

This novel is a great bit of exciting story telling.  It follows the adventures of one astronaut stranded on Mars when his crew abandons  him, firmly convinced that he is lost and dead.  The novel unwinds a modern survival tale - how will he even survive long enough on such a hostile planet, and will earth based efforts to rescue him be successful. 

It is an amazing feat that the author takes what could be a very boring scenario and turns it into a wild adventure, a thrilling live or die race to the end. 

The details are so meticulous (and interesting) that I often felt like I was reading a fictionalized version of actual events.  Reviews compare it to Robinson Crusoe and Apollo 13 - not a bad analogy.  If you like a good, gritty, unpredictable survival/or almost survival tale with lots of fascinating details about living on a bitterly cold planet that has almost no atmosphere, then you'll love this novel.  I did!

BTW, a Sol is the term NASA uses to describe one Martian day.

A Winter Read

Image of Antartica is from NSIDC

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
New York : Ace Books, 2000, c1969.
304 p. ; 21 cm.

It's been a brutal winter in the Midwest, so this was an excellent book to finish out winter with, and welcome in spring.  Le Guin's masterpiece is set on the planet Gethen - nicknamed "Winter" by the first visitors from earth.  The novel is told from the viewpoint of Genly Ai  - an envoy from earth, who is sent alone to the planet to try and persuade its humanoid dwellers to join the Ekumen - a loose confederation of eighty-plus planets peopled by other human species.

The great twist of Le Guin's novel is that on Winter the humans have no gender until they enter estrus - and the gender that emerges during the 5-7 period of "kemmer" is not set for an individual but is dynamic and requires a partner to fully proceed.  Le Guin uses this lack of fixed gender to explore many political, social and cultural concepts that could play out in such a gender free - and non monogamous culture.  Imagine a world in which individuals might be both a mother and father and in which there was a bond with "kemmer" partners, but not usually a lifelong bond.  Le Guin's spins out her story of Gethen with its two competing "nations" - Karhide and Orgoryen - with skill and creativity, and her storytelling seems effortless and completely believable.

The novel is exciting, interesting, contemplative, and wonderfully satisfying.   I would definitely recommend it to any student who likes science fiction, and would recommend it to any student looking for a really intelligent but fun to read novel.