2010: Odyssey Two

 The second odyssey happens about 10 years after the action in the first book, the Cosmic Baby comes back, now as an emissary/servant of the mysterious god-like aliens that left the monoliths 3 million years ago. This book follow the events of the film, not the actual first book, so the action is centered on Jupiter, not Saturn.  Russian and American expeditions get on a Russian spacecraft "Leonov" (after Alexei Leonov, first human to conduct a spacewalk).  They want to go to the previous spaceship "Discovery" and recover anything that was left, including the disconnected HAL 9000, and also to examine the much bigger monolith (called "Big Brother" or "Zagadka") which created the "Cosmic Baby" in the previous book.

The Chinese send a spacecraft of their own, to overtake the Russians and Americans, and get to "Discovery" before them (and claim it as their own).  Since they had to take less fuel to make haste, the Chinese spacecraft is supposed to refuel on Jupiter's moon "Europa", but that does not pan out when it turns out that under the ice of Europa is not only water, but living beings, not microscopic, but huge, which destroy the spaceship. 

This is the main plot of the book, alien life forms on Europa, which the god-aliens of yore are trying to save (although one might wonder why it took them 10 years), by making Jupiter another sun (salaciously named "Lucifer").  The new sun thaws the ice on Europa and creates an atmosphere (not Oxygen/Nitrogen based), which accelerates the evolution on the planet, and in only 20,000 years, the "Europans" walk on the surface, have language and culture and are fully fledged sentient beings.

Overall, this book is much more boring than the first one, since the supercomputer going rogue plot is absent, and that plot is what made it huge success, and relevant even today. The plot of godlike aliens "seeding" and "weeding" planets with life is a very tired trope and somewhat of an escapism, religion-like, putting ones hopes in a higher power which should solve all of our problems including our unavoidable, final and immutable cessation of existence. 

Arthur C. Clarke died in 2008 at age 90, so 26 years after this book, but it is obvious that his unavoidable death was a deep inspiration and influence on writing this novel.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

 Clarke was my favorite sci-fi author, and definitely my favorite from the Big 3, as I found Asimov too dry and academic, and Heinlein too militaristic and self-indulgent.  My all-time facvorite book by Clarke is his first novel "Against the Fall of Night" even though it is not reflective of his later style that he used for the rest of his life.  I read the story "The Sentinel" that was the base of Kubrick's movie, but I did not find it compelling.  Until now, I haven't read this book, which was written in parallel with the movie, but differs from it.

The ape with the bone in the first part has a name in the book - "Moon-Watcher". In the second part "Discovery" is going to Japetus, a moon of Saturn, not Europa, a moon of Jupiter like in the movie.  Also, the movie extends the middle part the most; the interaction with HAL 9000 and the ultimate disconnection. While the third part in the movie is a very generic sequence of images, the "Cosmic Baby" in the book is very well developed, including the voyage to the space station with a sight of hundreds of different spaceships belonging to different races (including the huge derelict) and the pure-gold space ship encountered in hyperspace. 

The three parts go well together, but it is obvious they were derived from three separate short stories.  This is not a bad thing, Raymond Chandler did it all the time to great success.  The ideas are great, as always with Clarke. His Childhood's End is a masterpiece, both conceptually and as execution. I am not sure about the ending, as what is the "Cosmic Child" doing going back to Earth (which shoot a barrage of nuclear missiles at it)? Is it trying to destroy Earth? Or make it better? Unknown.

Anyways, the second book continues after the movie, not the first book, i.e. the "Discovery" landed on Jupiter's moon Europa and the "Cosmic Child" never came near Earth.  I guess that is better, since there is more continuity.  

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

 This is the first time I am reviewing a graphical novel (although I was highly impressed by "Maus"), since I guess comics are still not perceived completely as an artistic medium for serious creativity and topics, and not just for entertainment.  However, I was very impressed by Maia Kobabe's book which delves deep into topics of sexuality, gender, finding oneself, boundaries, making a life for oneself despite the world, etc.  The book is excellent in many ways, but at no time it is preachy, propagandist or cheap current fad.  The feelings and confusion that Maia experiences come across as deeply genuine and authentic to the point of being the foundation of er life and identity in every possible aspect. 

Maia is bisexual and asexual, assigned female at birth, and spends er teens trying to figure out where er sexuality and identity belongs, as e doesn't simply identify as 'gay' but more with 'queer' - the Q in LGBTQ.  Er relationships with other people and also with er own body and sexual organs is directly and honestly portrayed, as is er struggle to make sense of all that e feels. 

At the end e decides that e is fine the way e is, neither male nor female, nor gay nor straight, and decides to use the Spivak pronouns and live er life as e finds best.  Very uplifting and affirming book for anyone from any walk of life and of any identity.   

Godfather by Mario Puzo

 This movie has been my favorite for many years (decades) and yet, I haven't read the book until now. The book is great! It is much more detailed than the movie and the characters are developed much more in-depth, like Santino's and his affair with the bridesmaid who was 'big down there', but so was he. The book covers parts of Godfather II as well, with Michael (Mikele) Corleone being the main character in the second part of the book.  Marlon Brando was amazing as Don Vito Corleone in the movie, but the book gives a lot of background on how he became 'a man of respect' in the Italian neighborhood on Manhattan. 

The last third of the book feels rushed, as if Puzo wanted to finish it and publish it as fast as possible, so it doesn't have as much dialogue and description as the first two thirds.  Apparently Johnny Fontane was modeled after Frank Sinatra who was very angry about the fact.  Sinatra was an angry and disagreeable man in general who also like to beat his women, so when he met Puzo in a restaurant he tried to beat him up.  What a loser!

Anyway, Puzo wrote only two books in the Corleone universe, this one and 'The Sicilian", so that one is on my reading list now. Parts of it were also incorporated in the Godfather II movie.  Puzo wrote the scripts for the movies, so he further developed the ideas from the books and gave them a new spin.  Towards the end of his life, Puzo, who was a lifelong gambler, was assuming the role of an elder teacher of life's truths, but there weren't too many takers. 

This book really makes you root for Mikele Corleone, but one has to remember that he was a cold-blooded murderer, whatever the reasoning behind it.

Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

 It took forever to read this book.  One reason is that the book is very long (3 volumes) and the other reason is that the book is not very interesting.  It is written by Herbert many years after the second book in the Dune series, "Messiah", and is structured differently, not continuing the original story, as was the case with the second volume.  It happens 9 years after "Messiah", so Leto II and Ganima are 9 years old now, but have the personalities of a thousands of people, thousands of years old.  This has the result of them talking about sex with each other and other people, which is very controversial for 9 year old characters (i.e. prepubescent children), so in the TV versions, they are made older, closer to 18, rather than 9.

Leto II and Ganima are the future rulers of the Empire, however their aunt Alia rules in their stead as a regent, and seems to like power too much to give it up.  The grandson of the former Emperor Padishah, Farad'n is planning to kill them both and retake the throne (rather, this is his mother's plan, the daughter of the former Padishah).  Jessica, their grandmother has aligned again with the Bene Geserit order and is looking into different bloodline preservation, including the mating of her two grandchildren, the brother and sister producing offspring. 

Alia is possessed by the Baron Harkonnen, her grandfather, and one of the many personalities that live inside of her since she was born 'awake' because of the overdose of spice her mother Jessica took when pregnant with her. There is not much love left between mother and daughter, and they are actively planning to kill one another.  Alia is said to be possessed and thus becoming an 'abomination', which is punishable by death.  Baron Harkonnen has intense sexual urges which he satisfies by having Alia have sex with various men on her court.

The fremen are also rebellious and want Arakis to go back the way it was, a harsh desert planet, instead of the increasingly green and watery one, which happened after the Atreides started their teraforming projects.  The result of the planet being teraformed is that the sandworms becoming more rare, and thus spice production and availability becoming less.  Most entities in the empire like the Spacing Guild and CHOAM have huge stockpiles of spice, but are still anxious about where would their future supplies come from.  Several groups are trying to breed sandworms on other planets and thus ensure supply of spice, but these efforts all fail eventually.

 When the assassination attempt on Leto II and Ganima fail, Leto II merges with a larvae of sandowrm (sand trout) and becomes a different type of being, with great strength and resistance to all damage while being able to live for many thousands of years.  Leto II saw in this visions that this is the only way for the human race to survive and continue existing. Leto II eventually is victorious over all the other sanctions, marries his 9 year old sister formally, but informally gives her as a concubine to Farad'n and new era of peace and prosperity comes over the Empire.

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

 The second volume in the original six, although the first volume is actually 3 books, Arakis, Muad Dib and Prophet. David Lynch was going to base Dune 2 off this volume, but it never saw the light of day. Although the first volume (with the three books, which are sometimes published separately, but are still one volume) is proclaimed one of the best science fiction ever created, the second volume, Dune Messiah, is not praised very highly usually. The reason for this is maybe because it is a much more contemplative module, without too much action, and at the end Paul Atreides, Muad Dib, dies voluntarily. 

Alia, Paul's sister, has a large part in this volume, even describing her religious role and the cult she's leading in great detail, however she doesn't seem to influence the events until the very end when she orders the death of all conspirators.  The "ghola' (zombie) of Duncan Idaho also has a prominent role and at the very end the becomes first resurrected zombie which actually returns his old memories and old self-awareness.  The Bene Tleilax which create gholas and artificial metal eyes have a bargain for each possibility, whether Pail dies or not, Chani dies or not, and even Alia, while at the same time tryng to be the driving force of the conspiracy through the conditioning of the ghola of Duncan Idaho and the complementary dwarf Beijaz.

All of these conspiracy fall apart at the end of the book when Paul chooses death over and over again.  Death for himself, death for Chani, death for Beijaz and all Tleilaxu conspiracies, while they counted on his wish to live and not be destroyed as the strongest motivating force, as it is probably for them.  Paul became truly divine by consciously choosing his own death and permanent destruction, all in the manner of the Fremen where a blind person goes into a desert to die in order not to be a burden to their seich. This assured permanent loyalty of the fremen to Paul and his descendants (twins instead of just a a daugher, and the son born with full consciousness and powers), ensuring the survival of the Atreides imperial line.

I personally like this book a lot since it made a lot of sense within the universe building, but I can see why people who are mostly interested in the action sequences would be disappointed. Some people also complain about the extensive use of Islamic concepts and imagery throughout the books, but I find that to be a strength since it gives a reality to the world builidng and also originality, since Islam is very rarely used as a positive force within science fiction books. However, from what I've seen in the Villaneuve movie with Timothee and Zendaya, the Islamic world building has been reduced to a mere minimum, if at all. Sad. 

Beyond Order: 20 More Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson

I liked the first 12 rules book a lot and it helped me during a difficult period of my life, so I was very excited to read the sequel.  Although this book directly continues the same style and substance of narrative like the first one, I found it less enlightening and life-changing and more of a commentary on Peterson's ideas and expounding of his world view, especially Christian religion with the abundant material taken from the Bible. 

I am generally very impressed with the body of knowledge Peterson has created, especially his university lectures and the first 12 rules book. I find it very profound in the way he understands modern life, especially that of modern men, who have lost many of the rites of passage, meaning, purpose and infrastructure that has existed for thousands of years in multiple societies across time and space.  Men were to be warriors, shamans, scientists, engineers, builders, protectors, but always with a defined role within society with defined expectations and life path.

All that has been broken down since the end of WW2 and with each passing decade everything gets further muddled and deconstructed.  Some would say that this process was useful for women, in order for them to come to the forefront of society, and that is good, however what is to be done with all the millions of broken men out there, trying to find a purpose and a meaning in their existence? If the old structures are destroyed, then the old ideals are destroyed too.  This means loyalty, honor, bravery, experience, suffering for the greater unit, etc. are destroyed as well.

Although I don't agree with everything Dr. Peterson says,and especially disagree with the drama-filled, reality-television-style of how he goes after his opponents and generally humans who seem to hold a worldview he abhors - his main ideas, and early expositions are still very useful for young, disillusioned men to find something to believe in and be, that could also help society and everyone living within.