Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been going back and reading some C.S. Lewis books because, I'll be honest, I still like C. S. Lewis as a philosopher and author. I'm not really too seduced by Christianity as he presents it (or, frankly, at all), but he still has some interesting things to say. Although you can basically ignore any of his commentary on women.

I read his SF trilogy as a borderline fundamentalist adventist teenager who was constantly looking for fantasy outlets away from the religion, and C.S. Lewis was one of the few I was "allowed" to read at the time. Re-reading it has been quite a trip.

I mean, the story is kind of a christian wish-fulfillment of the creation story if it had gone right. He uses different words for god, the devil and angels, but the metaphors are pretty transparent. God creates new life on Venus (written in the 1940s, when we didn't really know what lay under the clouds of Venus), and one man from a fallen Earth (thulcandra, which is kind of an awesome name for Earth) is brought to witness it and thwart the devil in corrupting this new world too.

It all starts as a pretty solid classic SF adventure. The early exploration of Venus (perelandra), the floating islands, the wildlife, etc. are all pretty good if you like exploration fiction. The christian allegory takes over the narrative more and more as the story goes on though, especially once he meets Perelandra's Eve.

The best part of the book I did not remember at all, which is how freaking scary the devil is in this story. From entrance to exit, every encounter with the devil would not be out of place in a modern horror novel. The gore and the mind games were all genuinely creepy to me this time around, even in my current state of highly developed cynicism. Almost worth it just for that. Lewis actually knows how craft a terrifying antagonist.

The last few pages turns into some christian ecstatic mess that I more or less skimmed because it felt like an alter call more than anything. But still, if you can put the heavy-handed christian allegory a little bit to the side, there's a still some solid classic SF meat here for the curious SF reader.

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The More Beautiful World your Heart Knows is Possible

The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible by Charles Eisenstein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book encapsulates many of the ideas I've been groping towards since leaving my religion and coming out of the closet. It starts with the premise that we all want a more beautiful world and have a concept of human flourishing that is different from the actuality of the world today. From there, he asks what kinds of changes in attitude and behaviors we would have to make in order to make that world possible.

It's a very optimistic book, one that supposes everyone deep down wants the same kind of happiness and that if we focused more on kindness and let go of the judgement we would find our way there. It's less of a specific guidepost to utopia though, and more the start of a discussion of what that would look like, which is really why I love the book. If we're going to make the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible, we have to start talking about what that actually looks like, no? If we stop ourselves from even discussing the possibility of better as unrealistic then we certainly forestall any hope of meaningful change. The first step to a better world? Stop telling ourselves it's impossible.

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Coldheart

Coldheart by Justin Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Stay home and take your medicine. Unless the love of your life is in trouble, missing. Unless you need to see the world as it is. Unless there's not time for the comfort of a medicated haze. Unless you're sure it's the world and not you that's finally gone over the edge. Unless you're ready to face the heart of the storm. Unless you're ready to take the beating of your life to save your reason for living. By all means, stay home and take your medicine.

***

Coldheart introduces the shadow conflict of the League of Magi, a cabal of feuding inhumans possessing incalculable power, forever at war for reasons only they truly understand. Follow the journey of a young schizophrenic as he sinks deeper into the horror at the heart of the worst storm in a century. Catch a glimpse of truths that terrify and stagger the imagination.

In addition to the novella Coldheart, a collection of short stories strike like lightning, flashes of light that illuminate the outlines of the creatures lurking in the shadows and then are gone before the horrified mind can finish putting the pieces of those great beasts together. It is a mercy. In the world of the League of Magi, there's such a thing as seeing too much.

Ask Coldheart. He'll tell you all about it. But pick a time when he's not hungry.

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Last stop, eternal darkness

Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Safely ensconced in a time when sun still burned brightly, James cast his thoughts forward to the end of the world. There he watched the outlandish adventures of a world fallen and rebuilt so many times, its people have lost the will to do more than get by. Their only thought, how best to indulge themselves before the bloated red sun, hanging like a corpse over the Earth, finally flickers and flames out.

Witness the adventures of Turjan the cunning wizard, the innocence of T'sain and the unreasonable rage of T'sain. Gasp as Liane the Wayfarer gets himself in over his head in pursuit of love. Cheer at the high-flying adventures of Ulan Dhor. Marvel at Guyal of Svere as he travels a wasted and decadent land in search of of answers at the fabled Museum of Man.

But there was more to see! The many mis-adventures of the self-named Cugel the Clever as he makes not one but TWO perilous journeys across the earth back to wreak his revenge on Iucounu the Laughing Magician, who surely deserves it. Although, truth be told, Cugel himself is perhaps not an angel in all respects. Or perhaps any respects. Although, against all odds and all appearances to the contrary, sometimes quite clever. A fascinating fellow indeed!

Finally, his gaze settled on Rhialto the Marvelous, popingest popinjay of a band of powerful wizards, where watched the political maneuverings of surely the most decadent overclass of beings in the known history of the world. Caught in the midst of an eons long gender war, thrown back to the distant past to clear his good name and finally whisked to the edge of the known universe, indeed to the very edge of the Nothing Space that exists beyond it, in order to track the origin of the highly valued IOUN stones, Rhialto's machinations are truly marvelous to behold.

It was only with some reluctance, that James withdrew his mind from the unimaginably distant future, his scrying having reached the natural limits of his powers. And so he went on his way, busy with the bustle of the age, in a society still with the youthful exuberance only natural under the auspices of a young, yellow sun. Still, he thought often of aeons distant with all these deeds lost to dust, the character of man fallen and low, and that massive red sun, hanging languidly in the sky. Look, does it falter? Perhaps not just yet.

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Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked this up on a sale at Powell's, so I had no idea what to expect really. I was pleasantly surprised by the prose and the story though. It starts weird and gets weirder. It reminds me of House of Leaves and the game Myst, in part. The world-building, the body horror, the mystery are all gripping enough to keep the pages turning at a steady pace. It's a little short on answers, but heavy on weird and atmosphere and interesting characters. I'm certainly invested enough to add the next two in the trilogy to my list. I think a lot of my overall review will hinge on where the story goes from here, but given the quality of the first volume I'm optimistic.

Recommended.

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Darkness on the Edge of Town by Brian Keene

Darkness on the Edge of Town by Brian Keene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love the premise for this one. A town wakes up to find itself covered in darkness. Literally, there is a dark barrier around the edges of the town that no one ever returns from. Everything falls apart of course, but the meat here for me was less the relentless destruction of the township of Walden, but the origin of the darkness and how this book connects to his other works. I am fascinated by the Labyrinth and the 13 and I hope he delves further into them in future works.

What's especially fun to me about Keene's universe is the constant theme of human incompetence. The world usually ends in his books because people think they know enough to mess with powerful magic (or powerful science) and turn out to be unprepared to deal with the forces they unleash. There are basically very few magic practitioners in his worlds that aren't always a botched spell away from worldwide destruction through sheer incompetence, and they all seem blissfully unaware of the danger. Which generally ends up poorly for everyone. I find this state of affairs entertaining.

Anyway, nothing ground-breaking here but as always his relentless pessimism and imaginative monsters make for a fun read.

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Dark Hollow by Brian Keene

Dark Hollow by Brian Keene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have yet to not like a book by Briane Keene. This expands Keene's library with a chilling tale of a satyr run amok in a forest near a small town. Increasingly, my favorite parts of these stories are the meta-verse they exist in, fleshed out here in descriptions of the Labyrinth and the 13. I'm increasingly interested in whether he intends to bring this to some kind of climactic conclusion in a future work or if he's just having fun constructing a universal woe machine to plague the inhabitants of earth.

Another fascination is his relentless pessimism in his story-telling. He pulls few punches and I'm not sure he's even heard of the concept of a happy ending. Dark hollow is a diorama constructed and then artfully destructed for your reading pleasure. I'm usually a little too sensitive to horror, but something about his world-bulding just fascinates me.

I'll certainly never look at trees the same way again.

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