This book is not a novel, but a collection of short stories, very loosely relating to Mars, which were stitched together by small vignettes and intermezzos.
It doesn't really work well. Although I respect Bradbury and his seminal novel "Fahrenheit 451" had strong influence on me when adolescent, the "Martian Chronicles" fail short of the vision, depth and breadth in his other novels.
Bradbury writes "soft" science fiction, so don't look for plausible science, or even an emphasis on accuracy. Science fiction is used as a narrative device, while the actual topics of the stories are quite different; oppression of women, treatment of black people, cohesion and viability of the family unit, etc.
All these topics and their mixing with Science Fiction is not a problem in itself, the great Ursula LeGuin has mixed and matched with great success, but in this novel/short story collection - it just doesn't work.
Many of the stories could be classified more as horror than science fiction, but I guess the "speculative fiction" moniker covers all that ground. The first story, Yilla (and Yill), seems completely out of place in this book, but then again we had to have a 'first' expedition to Mars.
The rest of the stories vary in quality: from silly contraptions about the first hot dog stand on Mars (built by a psychopath) - to meditations on loneliness and companionship, even if not with true human beings.
Interesting book from a historic perspective, but not much else.
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Monday, May 1, 2017
"The Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester
There's nothing likable about Gully Foyle. He's a rapist, murderer, thief, swindler, uneducated, unmannerly. But he is the main protagonist of this novel and even if the reader does not like him, the reader at least learns to appreciate his point of view, especially towards the end of the novel.
This novel is a great mixture of the old and the new. Published in the mid-50s, this novel is a proud representative of the pulpy 30s and 40s with their melodramatic plots, paper-thin characters, unfeasible science and generally being written like pirate stories in space. However, there's much of the new. This novel is the direct precursor of the Cyberpunk genre, with its corrupt corporations more powerful than governments, sarcastic and resigned view of life and death where everyone is expendable, straying away from "hero" main characters. Gibson's "Neuromancer" is just the next step.
Gulliver Foyle was a nobody dock worker who happens to be in space. Large, dumb, uncaring, with no plans, motivation or aspirations, his life was looking like a dead end at 30. However, after his cargo ship Nomad was attacked by Outer Satellites and he, as the only survivor, left to die, and was passed over for pickup by the Vorga, a ship owned by the Presteign corporation, the most powerful one on Earth and the Inner Planets. Gully is enraged by the Vorga passing him by and his life gets only one meaning - to exact revenge on the Vorga and its crew.
Gully moves the Nomad with some spare rockets and lands it on the Sargasso asteroid, where leftover humans have formed their own primitive civilization - "The Scientific People." Gully is accepted into the tribe and his face is tattooed with a hideous tiger-like mask by Joseph, the leader and priest of the Scientific People. However Gully finds a working ship on the asteroid and flies to Earth where he meets Robin, a one-way telepath, whom he rapes and threatens with exposing her as an Outer Satellites agent.
Further Gully is found by Presteign and his minions and thrown into a jail deep in a gorge in France from where "jaunting" - teleporting, is impossible. However Gully meets Jizzbelle in the jail and they escape together to find the money on the Nomad, but Gully abandons Jizz. Later Gully takes the name of Geofrey Fourmyle from Ceres with his enormous fortune from the Nomad, but everyone is looking after the PyrE, which can be telepathically exploded and could be the key in winning the war with the Outer Satellites. Here Fourmyle meets Olivia Presteign, a blind albino daughter of Presteign, the head of the clan and incidentally the one who ordered the Vorga not to pick up Foyle from the Nomad.
Eventually Gully learns to jaunt through time and space, goes around the galaxy to scout some new inhabitable planets, appears as the "Flaming Gully" several times in the past, and with Robin's help, he finds his way back to the present when he goes back to the Scientific People and falls asleep.
Much of the plot is ripped directly from the Count of Monte Cristo, but it is interesting to see it set up in space. No good characters in the book - everyone has a flaw - even Robin who gets raped by Gully later accepts him and betrays him again. Same with Jizz who has sex with Gully before discovering his tiger tattoos and hates him afterwards. An interesting pointer in the 1950s as to where would the genre go next.
This novel is a great mixture of the old and the new. Published in the mid-50s, this novel is a proud representative of the pulpy 30s and 40s with their melodramatic plots, paper-thin characters, unfeasible science and generally being written like pirate stories in space. However, there's much of the new. This novel is the direct precursor of the Cyberpunk genre, with its corrupt corporations more powerful than governments, sarcastic and resigned view of life and death where everyone is expendable, straying away from "hero" main characters. Gibson's "Neuromancer" is just the next step.
Gulliver Foyle was a nobody dock worker who happens to be in space. Large, dumb, uncaring, with no plans, motivation or aspirations, his life was looking like a dead end at 30. However, after his cargo ship Nomad was attacked by Outer Satellites and he, as the only survivor, left to die, and was passed over for pickup by the Vorga, a ship owned by the Presteign corporation, the most powerful one on Earth and the Inner Planets. Gully is enraged by the Vorga passing him by and his life gets only one meaning - to exact revenge on the Vorga and its crew.
Gully moves the Nomad with some spare rockets and lands it on the Sargasso asteroid, where leftover humans have formed their own primitive civilization - "The Scientific People." Gully is accepted into the tribe and his face is tattooed with a hideous tiger-like mask by Joseph, the leader and priest of the Scientific People. However Gully finds a working ship on the asteroid and flies to Earth where he meets Robin, a one-way telepath, whom he rapes and threatens with exposing her as an Outer Satellites agent.
Further Gully is found by Presteign and his minions and thrown into a jail deep in a gorge in France from where "jaunting" - teleporting, is impossible. However Gully meets Jizzbelle in the jail and they escape together to find the money on the Nomad, but Gully abandons Jizz. Later Gully takes the name of Geofrey Fourmyle from Ceres with his enormous fortune from the Nomad, but everyone is looking after the PyrE, which can be telepathically exploded and could be the key in winning the war with the Outer Satellites. Here Fourmyle meets Olivia Presteign, a blind albino daughter of Presteign, the head of the clan and incidentally the one who ordered the Vorga not to pick up Foyle from the Nomad.
Eventually Gully learns to jaunt through time and space, goes around the galaxy to scout some new inhabitable planets, appears as the "Flaming Gully" several times in the past, and with Robin's help, he finds his way back to the present when he goes back to the Scientific People and falls asleep.
Much of the plot is ripped directly from the Count of Monte Cristo, but it is interesting to see it set up in space. No good characters in the book - everyone has a flaw - even Robin who gets raped by Gully later accepts him and betrays him again. Same with Jizz who has sex with Gully before discovering his tiger tattoos and hates him afterwards. An interesting pointer in the 1950s as to where would the genre go next.
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