Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor

In my rich, interesting, and varied reading life, I have made friends with numerous strange and weird novels.  From Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake to Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves – the story of a house larger on the inside than on the outside – my mind has been bent, my logic challenged, and my thought processes twisted beyond understanding.  However, a new novel by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor has topped them all for sheer bewilderment.  Welcome to Night Vale stemmed from a podcast posted by the authors and presented as a radio show for the fictional town of Night Vale, which reported on the strange events that occur there. The series was created in 2012.  Cecil Gershwin Palmer is the host, main character, and narrator of the novel.

The podcast typically airs on the first and fifteenth of every month, and consists of "news, announcements and advertisements" from the desert town, located "somewhere in the Southwestern U.S.”  In an interview with NPR, Joseph Fink said that he "came up with this idea of a town in that desert where all conspiracy theories were real, and we would just go from there with that understood.” 

The novel is part suspense, part mystery, mostly comedic, and all mind-bending.  To give a taste of the novel, I will offer a few short passages, none of which will give away any the plot, but all will reveal details of the story.  That’s my version of a typical line by the authors.  Buckle up, here we go:

“Clocks and calendars don’t work in Night Vale.  Time itself doesn’t work” (4).  “There was always some world-ending cataclysm threatening Night Vale.  Feral dogs.  A sentient glowing cloud with the ability to control minds (although the Glow Cloud had become less threatening since its election to the local school board)’ (5).  Most mind-bending of all is this description of Jackie Ferro, a perpetual 19-year old woman who ran a pawn shop.  The authors wrote, “She understood the world and her place in it.  She understood nothing.  The world and her place in it were nothing and she understood that” (5).  Jackie meets a mysterious man she does not recognize, and decides “to make a list of everyone who might know about” him. […] She pulled out “a promotional pen from a festival put on by the city a few years ago.  THE NIGHT VALE SHAKESPEARE IN A PIT FESTIVAL.  FALL INTO THE BARD’S WORDS, it said.  The broken leg had been painful, but she did love the pen” (43). 

Jackie visits “Old Woman Josie” to find out if she knows anything about her missing son, Josh.  “She turned.  There was a being that was difficult to describe, although the best and most illegal description was ‘angel.’  Angels are tall, genderless beings who are all named Erika” (58).  Of course they do not exist. // “‘I was just doing some trimming,’ the being said.  They were holding hedge trimmers and standing by an empty patch of dirt.  There were no plants of any kind anywhere near them” (58).

I could go on like this for way more time than I have, or don’t have, or wish I didn’t have, or have, but this fun and breezy read will offer many hours of humor, suspense, tears, joy, and mystery.  Classified as a YA novel, adults are forbidden to read it.  In fact, everyone should read it.  Let me be the first to give you a hearty “Welcome to Night Vale” by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor.  5 stars. 

--Chiron, 10/20/15.

The Martian by Andy Weir

Ah for the days of my youth when I read SciFy, but I lost interest in the 60s watching the real thing as rocket after rocket blasted into space.  When a member of my book club selected The Martian by Andy Weir, I eagerly looked forward to see what some new SciFy novels had to offer.  The fact that I saw the trailer for the soon-to-be-released film starring Matt Damon added to my interest. 

According to the inside cover, Andy Weir landed a job as a programmer for a national laboratory at the age of 15.  He describes himself as a lifelong space nerd.  This is his first novel.

 

I knew the premise before starting to read, and I figured how it would end – sorry no spoiler alert – and I was not surprised.  But none of that took away the suspense or the excitement of the story, which alternates between log entries by Mark Watney, the stranded astronaut, conferences at NASA, an occasional explanation of what happens to Mark by an unnamed narrator, and communications with the crew which escaped a catastrophic dust storm after believing Mark had died. 

The novel has lots of humorous moments.  As he overcomes problems of survival, his log entries become more and more entertaining.  Weir writes, “LOG ENTRY: SOL 381.  I’ve been thinking about laws on Mars. // Yeah, I know, it’s a stupid thing to think about, but I have a lot of free time. // There’s an international treaty saying no country can lay claim to anything that’s not on Earth.  And by another treaty, if you’re not in any country’s territory, maritime law applies. // So, Mars is ‘international waters.’ // NASA is an American nonmilitary organization, and it owns the Hab [living quarters on Mars].  So while I’m in the Hab, American law applies.  As soon as I step outside, I’m in international waters.  Then when I get in the rover, I’m back to American law. // Here’s the cool part: I will eventually go to Schiaparelli and commandeer the Ares 4 lander (positioned for the next Mars mission].  Nobody explicitly gave me permission to do this, and they can’t until I’m aboard Ares 4 and operating the comm[unication] system.  After I board Ares 4, before talking to NASA, I will take control of a craft in international waters without permission. // That makes me a pirate! // A space pirate!” (259-260).

Mark has a facility for repairing things and jury-rigging fixes using duct tape, spit, and anything else he can salvage.  Some of this activity really stretched my credulity, but heck, this is SciFy!  However, I did have a minor problem or two with the novel.  The calculations and measurements are all in metric, and I know little two nothing about converting those numbers to the merry old English system.  I also thirsted for some more descriptions of the Hab, the rover, and other items he needed to survive.  Furthermore, a couple of inexplicable gaps in the story occurred.  Most of the time, the various sources of information tied these together.  For example, the Chinese space agency makes a brief appearance, then they are forgotten for a hundred pages or so, then a brief mention tying up that loose end.

But all that aside, Mark Weir’s debut novel, The Martian, provided lots of suspense, unexpected developments, some hanky-panky among the crew returning to Earth, and Annie, a rather salty spokesperson for the Ares Project, who kept the world updated on Mark’s situation.  5 stars

--Chiron, 9/20/15

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

 My wife started out her career as a children’s librarian in a small school in North Carolina.  She went onto graduate school and currently works for the Baylor University Library.  She has never forgotten her kiddie lit roots, so we have a lot of children and young adult fiction in our collection.  She frequently urges me to read this or that Newberry Award winner, and I have enjoyed everyone I read.  Madeleine L’Engle recently came up in a conversation, and we were both surprised I had never read it.  After the intense historical novel by Hilary Mantel I had recently finished, I needed something to sooth my psyche.  A Wrinkle in Time is exactly what the librarian ordered.  I noted from the cover of my copy, that this interesting tale recently celebrated its silver anniversary.

Madeliene L’Engle was born November 29, 1918.  Like Meg, she was not a good student preferring to read and write her stories.  When she was 12, her mother sent her to a Swiss Boarding school.  She returned to Charleston, SC for high school.  Madeleine flourished there, and ended up at Smith College, where she read the classics and continued to write.  Several of her English professors had a profound influence on her writing.  When she graduated, she moved to Greenwich Village in New York, and worked in the theater.  Her first two novels were published during this time.  Madeleine began an association with the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where she was the librarian and maintained an office for more than thirty years. She wrote over 60 books. She died in 2007.

Madeleine L'Engle

Meg and her brother Charles Wallace are bright children, but Meg seems bored, and Charles Wallace hides his intellect to prevent teasing by his classmates.  A mysterious visitor – Mrs. Whatsit – comes for a visit, and she entices Meg and her brother to go on a dangerous journey to find their father who suddenly disappeared.  Mrs. Murry, Meg and Charles’s mother is a scientist like Mr. Murry.  Mrs. Whatsit has two friends – Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which.  They have strange powers and abilities and help to guide the children to their father’s location, so they can attempt to rescue him.  A friend of Meg’s, Calvin O’Keefe, also accompanies Meg and Charles Wallace on the journey.  I guess even characters in young adult fiction need a love interest, like Katniss in Hunger Games and Harry in The Sorcerer’s Stone and its sequels.

While not nearly as exciting and detailed as The Hunger Games and the Harry Potter Series, the tale has more than enough wonderful ideas to hold the attention of an adult reader.  Science, religion, and literature are all woven into the tale.  For example, L’Engle writes, “‘You mean you’re comparing our lives to a sonnet?  A strict form, but freedom within it?’  ‘Yes.’ Mrs. Whatsit said.  ‘You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself.  What you say is completely up to you.’” (219).

An easy read for a few afternoons, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle is interesting, and well worth the time.  It also deserves 5 stars.

--Chiron, 12/31/13

A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke

When I was in 7^th grade, I discovered Jules Verne.  I read several of his books, and fell in love with science fiction.  I began reading Ray Bradbury’s epic series beginning with Dune.  I watched films such as Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still.  I tackled the two volume story, When Worlds Collide and After Worlds Collide.  This last, by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer, occupies one slot in the top five best SciFi thrillers.  But the number one spot is firmly held by Arthur C. Clarke’s A Fall of Moondust.

After finishing an intense novel set in Botswana in the final days of apartheid, I decided something light was in order.  I do not know how many years it has been since I last read Moondust, or Clarke, or even any SciFi for that matter, but Clarke’s novel seemed to be exactly what the librarian ordered.  I have been searching for a hardback first edition with no luck, so all I have now is a worn and yellowed paper back from the 60s.  Oh how the years have altered my reading habits!  I wondered if this novel would stand the test of neglect I had imposed on it.

From the first page, Clarke’s brilliant and clever prose drew me in, but I began to notice a series of time stamps he had unwittingly written into his novel.  His foresight was most definitely NOT 20/20.  For example, I laugh when I watch Forbidden Planet and the captain lifts a microphone from a console with a retractable wire to address the crew.  Likewise, Clarke did not imagine some things that would make us cringe today.  Male characters notice, and comment on, physical characteristics of women.

Bu the most astounding thing I discovered involved the plot.  As I was making notes for this review, I began to feel as if I recognized some of the characters.  I began making a list, and suddenly, it dawned on me – the plot of Moondust had a remarkable resemblance to the 1972 film, The Poseidon Adventure, based on a novel by Paul Gallico, with a screenplay by Stirling Siliphant.

Both involve a set of tourists, stranded in a boat after a natural disaster.  Each story has a charismatic leader, who has the talent and confidence to lead the others to safety.  In the final scene of the film, the survivors reach the stern of the capsized ship and bang on the floor/ceiling.  A return thumping lets the survivors know of their imminent rescue.  A similar situation occurs in Moondust. 

I think I need to get a copy of Gallico’s novel and make a closer comparison.  Unfortunately, Paul Gallico died in 1978, but research might reveal another reader who noticed the difference, or – better yet – an acknowledgment by Gallico of his inspiration.  After all, if Irving Block could write a short story loosely based on Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, why couldn’t Gallico been inspired by Arthur C. Clarke’s A Fall of Moondust?

 My next book club read is also science fiction, so I am glad I am easing into that work by returning to those wild days of my youth when Arthur C. Clarke thrilled and inspired me to write my first story of horses, about which I knew almost nothing, and alien abductions, about which I knew even less.  Thankfully, that manuscript is long lost.  But Clarke’s A Fall of Moondust has hung in there as my favorite work of science fiction.  5 stars


--Jim, 9/21/13