Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

This book could be considered the fourth book in the Baroque Cycle, although it was actually written first. One character features across all four books, but telling you who would count as a spoiler, so I won’t.

Cryptonomicon takes place partly in World War Two, partly in the 1990s. Two stories, each gripping in their own way, gradually connect on the Philippines in a search for Japanese war gold, looted from Asia and hidden away for decades.

As you might expect from the title, a lot of the World War Two action focuses on the codebreaking efforts of the allies, as they race to decode German and Japanese transmissions while also hiding from the enemy their successes.

As with Neal’s other books in this cycle the research has been meticulous and every location is describes briefly, but with incredible authenticity. From the Philippines of the 1990s to Sweden in World War Two, each location becomes almost a character in its own right. I love Neal’s writing so this book was a real treat for me. Highly recommended, along with the three Baroque Cycle books.

Moments

Many books have their moments, scenes that stay in your mind even years later, as vivid as when you first read them. This is one of the things that drives me to keep reading, the knowledge that there are more such memories waiting to be burned into my mind.

I’ve selected some of my own favourites below – I’m sure you have yours. I’ve put the book they come from after the scene.

William reading his letter from Marygay, written centuries earlier. (The Forever War by Joe Haldeman)

The cacophony of talking stones at York cathedral. (Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell by Susannah Clarke)

The French dragon falling screaming to its death after suffering a face
full of acid from an English longwing. As it plummets, its sorrowful rider puts a
pistol to the head of his faithful companion to end its agony. (Temeraire by Naomi Novik)

Ilya Volyova walking the vast and silent corridors of her ship. (Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds)

Fat Charlie Nancy’s karaoke experience – I’m smiling as I type this (Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman)

Trying to use the phones in Unlondon (Un Lun Dun by China Mieville)

The wizard Harry Potter digging the faithfuls Dobby’s grave using only a
shovel and the strength of his arms. (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by Joanne Rowling)

Reid Malenfant, at the point of death, clutches an image of his wife,
dead 6000 years ago. Her name is the last sound on his lips. (Space by Stephen Baxter)

Sansa realising it is her wolf that is to be executed. (A Game of Thrones by George RR Matin)

Computer Games and Stories

At first glance, computer games might not seem the best place to look for stories. Surely a music video or even a nearby wall would have more chance of containing a decent story?

Well, Yes and No.

Many computer games don’t have any story, because they don’t need one. Some just need a premise (the princess has been kidnapped! rescue her by jumping over a series of moving platforms!), some don’t even need that. Tetris is its own device.

Other computer games do have stories, poor ones. Stories that would ill grace the backs of cereal boxes pass muster too often in the industry.

However, others do tell good stories. The best use the medium to tell stories that wouldn’t be possible to tell elsewhere.

I’m going to list a few here, but I must warn anyone below the age of 20 that you might not recognise any of the titles here. There’s nothing wrong with today’s games, but the stories that gripped me are all from last century.

Half-Life was an important game, not just for the strength of its story by for the game genre (that word again) in which it took place. For whatever reason, prevailing wisdom in the 1990s was that you can’t tell a story through the medium of a first-person shooter. Valve proved that to be wrong, and did it in style.

The Last Express was a good mystery, done in vivid style.

Starship Titanic and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream are both examples of science fiction authors trying their hand at the medium, with mixed results. The first was Douglas Adams, the second Harlan Ellison.

Wasteland (and this is going back a ways – to the 1980s) told a grim tale of life hanging on in a post nuclear Nevada.

Of more recent games, there is little to tell. First-person shooters rarely rise to the storytelling heights of Half-Life, Bio Shock and Mass Effect are two recent efforts that may entertain.

Role-playing games, what you might think of as the natural home for stories in computer games tend to be a little stunted. Either the story is truncated and used as something to give your mouse of joypad hand a rest between combats, or else you spend your whole time squinting to read reams and reams of text – that is for books people.

Don’t dismiss computer games as a storytelling medium. A closer look can reveal some real gems.

Aliens, Evolution, and Stories

Another week, another must-see link to Ted.

In this talk, Susan Blackmore, talk about memes, the spreading of ideas. Like genes, memes spread through us, through our contact with others. Ideas are spread through language (which itself evolves in response to memes) and of course, through stories.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/269

Susan also touches on the newer concept of ‘temes’ which is self-replicating technolgies, made possible through computers and the internet. Technology that replciates and spreads itself throuyh us. We have no more choice in this than we do through the transmission of genes, language and ideas.

Susan briefly touches on the subject of extra-terrestrials. Any such species, having come through an evolutionary process, will see us as somewhere to spread their genes, memes and temes. And vice versa.

I think that should aliens arrive in their silver-shipped glory, they will not come to conquer or steal our water. They will come to tell us their stories, and to hear ours in return. It’s a shame space is so big, really.

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

It’s no surprise that China Mieville lives in London. Perdido Street Station is set in the city of New Crobuzon, a vivid, sprawling steampunk London-analogue.

The scientist Isaac Dan der Gimnebulin unwittingly unleashes a terrible menace on the city, and must do what he can to stone for his mistake. The story moves ponderously towards its shocking climax, at the city’s central transport hub, Perdido Street Station.

New Crobuzon is a city of harsh rule. Unfortunate criminals can expect to become one of the Remade, a social underclass with machine or animal parts grated to their flesh as punishment. An account of Remade sentencing was one of the most lasting impressions of this book. For more well-to-do or organised criminals, the militia are a constant threat. Anyone could be an informer, or even a member of the militia, who patrol the city in masks.

The story is like the city it takes place in, sprawling and vast, with surprising twists and turns, full of memorable characters. It won’t be to everyone’s taste because of this. If you prefer your stories to move in straight line, as opposed to a stately meander, I would recommend The Scar over Perdido. In truth I recommend them both.

To be honest I was about four hundred pages in before I thought I had figured out what the story was about. When I reached the end it turned out that no, I was mistaken, and the story was really about something else entirely. It was no less enjoyable for all that.

This is a book for the urbanite in all of us. There is no travel through the countryside, that is a little-known place, where food ultimately comes from. Narrow twisting streets, suburbs with their own unique character, the university campus, market squares, all these places will be somewhat familiar to the city dweller reading this book.

On its publication, Perdido gave ‘fantasy’ a much-needed shot in the arm, though for that genre I have to say it didn’t take. I would class this a speculative fiction anyway, but there we start in interminable process of labelling, and lets not have that pointless discussion here. Mieville remains unique in the market, and well worth the reading time.

Stories from Science

Reading Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything reminded me of how many great stories can be told from science. As new areas of knowledge come to light, so do new opportunities to tell stories appear.

Dava Sobel’s novel Longitude covers how one intractable problem, how to measure longitude, was eventually solved. This seems a trivial problem to us today, but only a few centuries ago this was considered a problem that could never be solved. There’s a reason ocean sailing was so often dangerous, as with no way to calculate longitude sailing north to south out of sight of land meant risking becoming hopelessly lost. Many sailors died after their ships ran aground on islands or treacherous shores they had no idea they were close to. In the end it was a clockmaker who designed clocks that would operate in hard oceanic conditions who solved the problem.

A more speculative example is Stephen Baxter’s novel Evolution. Beginning a mere 65 million years ago the story starts with a small squirrel-like creature on the run after plundering one too many dinosaur eggs. She is saved from being eaten by a strange atmospheric disturbance that slays almost every dinosaur and weakens the rest. She has no idea what is happening but continues on through the new ashen landscape, managing to raise an offspring in the meantime. Eventually, too weak to continue, her own daughter leaves her to die. The ashes cover her. 65 million years later a 21st century archaeologist discovers a fragment of a fossil -the squirrel-like creature- and recognises it for what it is -an early human ancestor. The book then goes back to cover the intervening years, and then returns to carry the story of evolution through to its terrifying finale.

That’s two stories. There are thousands more.

Fiction Blogging

Call me late to the party if you will, but I had never heard this until I saw the article over at AussieBloggers.

Basically, you set up a blog and post updates to a work of fiction there, as you write it, and receive feedback from any readers you may have. Sounds like fun. I won’t do it because, tempting as it is, I have barely enough spare time on my hands, and really can’t be adding another hobby to the pile. Maybe, maybe sometime someday.

If I find any good stories on a fiction blog, I’ll post about it here. Hmm, do webcomics count?

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen

I got this book as a birthday present (thanks Ellen!) and it has been an interesting read. Overall I’d put the story squarely in the 10-12 age bracket, if that has any meaning. What makes this book worthwhile for the adult reader is the concept and the incredible fusion of art and story that takes place on the page.

The story is a straightforward tale of bravery and betrayal, where the loyal mouse guard members attempt to stop a deadly conspiracy they stumble upon during a routine patrol. So far so ordinary.

What made this book come alive for me was the world Petersen creates and the stunning visualisation of it. The mouse guard do battle with snakes, crabs, and rebelloius mice in this book.

The book itself is a collection of six comic books and this shows in the sometimes sharp jumps from one page to the next as you move from one episode to another. But all can be forgiven as the book ultimately comes together well and the art helps as more of the world is revealed with each episode.

If you have a child who would benefit from reading this book so much the better, since it gives you a convenient excuse to buy. Otherwise, buy anyway, and be unrepentant!