What I'm Currently Reading
May 2007

First, I'm still reading my way slowly through The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community, by Diana Pavlac Glyer, an Inklings scholar as well as a professor.

This clearly written, fascinating book causes me to stop and reflect on the writing process. In her discussion of how much or how little the Inklings influenced one another she draws in references to other writing groups, causing me to think about the community of writers I see on the Internet, and how people might be influenced, encouraged, discouraged, guided, misguided, etc. This book is so interesting I suspect when I reach the end I will have to go right back and read it again. (See my longer review last month for more detail.) In short, the book keeps getting better and better.

Timon's Tide by Charles Butler is yet another strange, complex, subtle, and haunting book by this amazingly talented writer. I am the biggest wimp in the world when it comes to horror or really, really dark fantasy. And when I read the opening of this novel, YA or not, I was so creeped out I had to set it aside for a couple of weeks, but the story--the images--just kept tantalizing me until I pulled it out (during the day!) and read it. And of course, like all Butler's books, once I was into it, I could not put it down.

The book opens with the death of Timon, a teen-age boy. We don't know why he's left to the rising tide. We then jump forward in time several years, til when his little brother Daniel--ten when Timon died--is now a teen. He's dreamy, locked inside his head, still feeling unexplained guilt about his brother's death, though how could a young boy possibly be guilty, when he didn't know where his brothe was, was not there, and in fact had been cruelly teased by him? Daniel has a new step-father (his father, a cruel charmer like Timon, took off after the death); and step-sister. Ruby doesn't much like her new step-mother, as she's eighteen and used to running the house for her dad. But she makes an effort to get to know Daniel, who at first straight-arms her in surly fashion. Danaiel's only ventures into the real world are to try to get together with Jane, the girl at school he likes. In the background is Aunt Jenkins, who seems to be exhibiting uncomfortable signs of Alzheimer's.

As the family goes through some uncomfortable growing-pains (everyone meaning well while being quirky--one of Butler's strengths is that characters are never mere Types, one-dimensional) Daniel sees weird figures at the windows, as does Aunt Jenkins. Then Daniel discovers his brother Timon is back. He didn't die after all. Or did he? As Daniel uncovers memories and sinks into a weed-twined horror existence, the family suffers its own pains, and through it all are creepy images of the Lockermen, creepy pale figures who go down to the sea at night. Even Gabriel, the school bully, who picks on Daniel for daring to like the girl he's picked out for himself, cannot escape the effect of this miasma of cruelty. Just when the story seems to be unbearably dark (and I think I would have been terrorized out of my tree if I'd read it as a teen) they all begin to fight back in their own ways. Even Ruby, who has to learn that charming men people warn you about probably are just as cruel and vicious as you thought. But learning that at eighteen is a world easier than learning that much older. This story is one of those YA stories that benefits from rereading, and could be enjoyed just as much by adults as by the more sophisticated teen reader who likes horror, but is tired of the usual horror cliches. One cannot guess where this one will end, what the explanations are, or how people will change.

Overseas, Conor Kostick has come out with a new one, Saga, from the O'Brien Press Ltd. in Ireland. Last year I loved Epic-- now out in this country. It was one of my favorite reads of the year. Though I don't play RPG, video, or computer games (only because I don't have time) I know how they work, and so far I have not been impressed with stories that seem to derive from games. But Kostick blased the limitations wide open in his story about a future community whose wellbeing depends on everyone playing the game.

Eric, his teen-age boy (whose avatar was Cindella Dragonslayer, a pirate adventurer girl) comes back in Saga, but not until we get used to this new world, a grim one where everyone competes for identity cards of various colors. Reds, at the bottom, do all the hard work and get less for their reward. The colors go all the way up to violet and blue, who are the rich and influential, sitting on the Dark Queen's council supposedly to advise her. But the Dark Queen has rules for thousands of years. She and very few others have become sentient, knowing that they were once programmed characters. She is determined to live forever, so she's reaching back through the game connections to Earth, in order to manipulate the human manipulators. Meanwhile, on the streets of Saga, there's a girl with a lost memory called Ghost, who has a gang. Their favorite sport is air-boarding, which is hoverboarding through the air.

Unfortunately, she comes to the attention of the Dark Queen.

It's a wonderful story--I had terrible trouble being pulled away from it constantly for the demands of a workday. I ended up reading most of it in the middle of the night when hot flashes keep me awake anyway. Usually I work, but I curled up under the fan, below the open window, with this book instead. The questions of being and non-being, sentience, worlds within worlds are lightly touched on--the book is aimed at the teen reader--but endlessly fascinating.

The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner. This is the third book in Turner's terrific story arc that began with The Thief and continued with Queen of Attolia. Though each book stands well on its own, they blend together into an arc of a story that is by no means finished. To which I say huzzah, as the character linger in the mind long after one puts down each book.

For those who don't know the stoy, the first is lighter in tone and in stakes. Gen, a thief, is taken from the King of Sounis's prison to travel with a magus, a couple of aristocratic boys, and a soldier, in order to seek a mythic object. No one quite believes it's real, but its possible political importance demands that the attempt be made. Since the last two or three thieves who attempted to find it never came out of the river-threatened mountain maze where the object is said to lie, a thief must be employed, and that's where Gen (Eugenides) comes in. His banter as they travel is funny, sharp, witty, the personalities complex. I'm not fond of quest tales, but this one I couldn't resist: the mysteries hinted at are not the usual quest tale fare, there are nifty twists and turns--along with original myths that are not quite the same as those in the Greek mythos. Turner's Attolia, Eddis, and Sounis are not our Greek history--there are guns and watches as well as gods and goddesses and magic. In the second book, Queen of Attolia, the stakes rise sharply at the very start. Gen is older, the interests and stakes are more grown up, the tone a great deal darker in this book, but it's riveting. It's also a fairly rough ride as far as violence goes, so those who don't care for adventure that doesn't gloss the pain side might procede cautiously. In the third book, Gen is now a king--but the only person in the entire kingdom who favors him is his wife. The court and especially the Guard who is sworn to protect him hate his guts. And this is a court where poisonings as well as violence have been the usual method of getting rid of unwanted power figures. How Gen goes about reconciling his new people to his position makes a fascinating tale.

For crunchy science fiction goodness there is The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald. This is space action razzle dazzle at its most fun. The book opens with Jodenny Scott in the middle of a terrible star ship disaster. It's not a drill, and not a mock disaster--it's the real thing as she works to save her ship . . . months later she's mostly rehabilitated and healed, and anxious to get right back into space. She doesn't want to talk about the Yangstze disaster, or the medal she was given--and especially not about the crew friends and loves she lost. She's sent to the Aral Sea which has problems. On top of that there's a General Quarters alarm just after she gets on and she doesn't know where to go, which brings back a flood of bad memories. She steps afoul of many officers and crew mates, including a petty officer named Terry Myell who just doesn't seem to care.

Myell, it turns out, has way too much to care about. He was falsely accused of rape. He has been beaten up by bullies who all outrank him. And he's having visions that connect with his Aborigine family . . . as the ship takes off into the Asheringa, which is a mysterious alien-built conduit through space, there are troubles aboard, troubles outside, and enticing hints about those mysterious alien artifacts. Jodenny and Terry are drawn together despite stubborn, grit-jawed determination--the one to do her duty, the second to just survive until he can get out of the service altogether. But there are a host of events and people who just won't let them get on with their lives. The story is fast-paced, full of exciting twists and turns. Lovely alien touches, nifty bits of Dreamtime, interesting characters. I think the only problem I had is that the very end seemed to leave out the climax. Maybe it was meant to evoke the very beginning in a kind of frame? I dunno, but the sheer velocity of the story carried me right to the last page. I can hardly wait for her next: while this one has enough resolution to be satisying, there are all kinds of intriguing questions yet unanswered.