A Confederacy of Dunces

A Confederacy of Dunces by John F. Toole

Coming Soon

Faith of the Fallen

Faith of the Fallen Terry Goodkind 7/10

Faith of the Fallen is the sixth or seventh in a series of fantasy books entitled "The Sword of Truth". I hadn't read any of the preceding books and was thus coming into things a little blindly, but the book was rife with detailed explanations of events that I can only imagine were covered even more specifically in the books where they originally occurred.

To be blunt, Faith of the Fallen is merely a rehash. It's a rehash of Ayn Rand and the Objectivist philosophy, only it's written by a less talented and less knowledgeable writer. I hate to be cruel for fear that Mr. Goodkind will someday stumble upon my blog and be deeply insulted, but I can only be honest. Faith of the Fallen is an obvious attempt to retell the story Rand told in The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged in a new scenario. He does a fairly good job, but simply due to subject matter he'll always be compared to Rand, and it's simply not a favorable comparison.

Rand had not only a better understanding of Objectivism, she had a clearer storytelling method and a more believable set of characters and character progression. If you want to read a novel to find out about Objectivism, I would recommend any of Rand's books over Faith of the Fallen unless you had a strong predilection to the fantasy genre.

Faith of the Fallen wasn't just about it's Randian hero and his battle against the quasi-communistic "New World" forces - it had other story elements to appeal to the fantasy enthusiast. Goodkind is a master of his alternate universe, and he is skilled in portraying a believable fantasy world, and then drawing us into accepting it.

All things said, I'm generally not a fan of the fantasy genre. My review has a negative slant for this reason. My understanding is that Goodkind's Sword of Truth series appeals to a wide audience. Choose your reading appropriately.

The Beginning Place

The Beginning Place Ursula K. LeGuin 7.5/10

I enjoyed this short, simple novel. Somewhere in between fantasy and science fiction, The Beginning Place is a story of growth. It has no pretenses of greatness or extraordinary originality – the tale seems familiar, like I’ve heard it many times before with different variations. What I particular like about this is the type of development that takes place. I’m tempted to call it a “coming of age” story, but I think that title is reserved for youths making their initial forays into young adulthood. The characters that develop in this story are well into their young adulthood – finished with school and living lives that could, potentially, go on forever the way they are going now. The male lead, Hugh, lives with his clingy and overcritical single mother, unhappy but trapped by his love for his mother. The female lead, Irena, is similarly locked in a living situation – she protects her mother and siblings from an abusive father. They’re both waiting for the right situation to begin chasing their own dreams, to begin living their own life.

The majority of the story takes place in a sort of alternate reality – a world separate from ours and accessible only to Hugh and Irena. They both escape to the alternate world for solace and peace from lives they don’t enjoy so much in the real world. Well, I’m not going to give an entire plot summary, but it’s an enjoyable story that’s worth a read if you come across the book.

The Twentieth Wife

The Twentieth Wife Indu Sundaresan 7.5/10

The Twentieth Wife is a bit of historical fiction detailing the life of the woman Mehrunnissa, wife of the influential Indian Emperor Jahangir. Sundaresan has taken known history of the era and woven a believable and enthralling tale of fiction that believably fills in the blanks. I could hardly put the book down once I started it: somehow the mix of realism and guesswork is irrestible inside the 300-some pages of the book.

With all these positive words of praise, how does the book only come out to a rating of 7.5? Well, it's not fair, but I grade the books not by entertainment value but by how they influence my life. This book was a wonderful story and there are lessons to be learned (both moral and historical), but all in all it was put entertainment first. What I got from the story was a history lesson, an Indian culture lesson, and a first-rate tale.

Light of Other Days

The Light of Other Days Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter 7/10

Two Critically acclaimed sci-fi authors (Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter) cooperated to write this book. I actually picked it up on accident, intending to read a well-known short story of the same name (about something called slow-glass). I don't regret making the mistake though.

Light of Other Days is an excellent sci-fi book. It's been a while since I last read a purely fictional book, and it was a welcome escape. Well, except for the fairly depressing undertones of the book. The near future (2050, or so) is not quite a dystopia, but it's a depressing place to live. Humanity has come to terms with the fact that a moon sized asteroid is headed towards the earth, due to hit in approximately 500 years. Science sees no foreseeable method of averting what will essentially be the extinction of humanity. The effects on culture as a whole are interesting but not overdramatic - just an increased melancholy with the idea that there's no real need to attempt to progress as a race given the impending extinction.

The title of the book comes from an unrelated scientific development. A purely capitalistic (but somewhat evil) entrepreneur develops a sort of super camera - a device that can look anywhere. To put it simply, he develops a screen that allows for real time surveillance of anywhere on earth. The book is partially about the changes to society that result from what is essentially a complete lack of privacy...political changes (politicians simply can't be corrupt, no one can hide anything) and personal changes.

It's a medium length book, and if you're a fan of the genre I recommend it.

Spoiler (highlight to see)

The book ends on an interesting note. Technological developments from the WormCam (the name of the device that allows you to watch anything) expand to allow us to watch the past (and therefore debunk a number of historical and religious myths). Anyway, the epilogue proposes what I thought to be an interesting idea...if all we humans are is our body, then eternal life is certainly possible. If everything that makes us who we are is physical, then the technology could potentially exist to recreate us exactly as is. The book ends with the main character being woken up some 150 years later, and finds out humanity has started a quest to right it's wrongs...by bringing every human being back to life. Interesting idea.