'Clan of the Cave Bear' by Jean M Auel

 

Having read Stephen Baxter's 'Evolution', taking a broad scope on human evolution, I had a hankering for more stories of the deep past.  'Clan of the Cave Bear' by Jean M Auel, the first of a six book series, is a great introduction to the beginnings of humanity.

Following a young girl called Ayla this fictional account of her life with the Clan is an absorbing human drama.  Lost in an earthquake the five year old Ayla finds refuge with the Clan who, with some reluctance, accept her as one of their own.  All except the son of the leader of the Clan, Broud, who is filled with intense hate and jealously towards the stranger.  

Among the Clan is their Mog-Ur, the crippled magician Creb, who looks after Ayla along with her surrogate mother Iza.  Ayla grows up in the Clan, but she is profoundly different from them, as demonstrated when she tries her hand at hunter, a sport forbidden to women of the Clan.

From careful research and use of imagination Auel brings the life of these cave people to life and it is very different from the knuckle dragging, club wielding thugs so often presented to us.   Full of detail and feeling this book helps us to understand the beginnings of our species.

Evolution moves pretty quickly these days but back then these people could sustain the same lifestyle for tens of thousands of years; a stability thoroughly lost now.  Reading this book how radically different the environment was back then, a smaller global population, a land coming out of the Ice Age and a life centred on hunting for food.  

We might want to go back to that time but Auel is careful not to romanticise such a world as it was one full of danger.  At the beginning Ayla is almost killed by a cave lion, in the Clan women must submit to the men which even allows rape, they had no knowledge of where babies came from and the Spirits were the honoured unknown forces that seem to do what they wish regardless.  It was a fearful place.

Though there was great fear there was also great love, and kinship between people were strong and family everything.  They meet at Clan Gatherings for a combination of sports, politics, ceremony and finding prospective mates.  They were able to do more than just survive.

Going back into time was an experience I deeply enjoyed as it is so removed from the routines and life I live, making me wonder what it would be like to be Clan.

  

'Seveneves' by Neal Stephenson

 

Ever thought about the moon exploding?  No, neither had I until I read 'Seveneves' by Neal Stephenson.  A speculative piece of work that looks at the possibility of colonising space.  

Split into two halves the book explores what would happen if the moon exploded and the best of humanity had to live in space.  Space isn't the place for human beings but being the adaptive creatures that we are we seem to thrive anywhere.  Politics still exists because living with other human beings is a troublesome thing.  

The second half of the book locates itself 5,000 years from the first half, and the evolutionary tree that flowers from the titular Seveneves.  At the end of the first half only seven women remain in space yet they still have children from which the second half is spawned from.  

All behaviour, from gestures to mannerism stem from the personalities of the seven eves, therefore suggesting that all of our characteristics owe themselves to an evolutionary history that we had no control of, making our luck in life purely a chance occurrence that we had no part in.  It is thanks to our ancestors that we have tasty fruit to eat and that the world created is one to our benefit.

Psychological adapt and philosophical minded Neal Stephenson treats us to a joy of a book, being both highly readable and also chewy on big ideas.  I wish to emulate him in a sci-fi book I wish to write called 'Home' as I am sure his style is the best to copy.

  

Reflections On Martin Amis

 Hearing the sad news of Martin Amis' death I stopped work and went to my favourite bar for lunch and a beer mourning our loss.

Not a week goes by without hearing of a celebrities death and while most don't affect me Amis' death did.  His death was the death of a comrade, of a fellow writer, and a great one at that.  It is also the death of an age.  

In my youth I dead five books of Amis.  'The Rachel Papers', 'Dead Babies', 'Einstein's Monsters', 'Time's Arrow' and 'Success'.  I found him to be an incredibly resourceful writer, an impeccable stylist, a contrarian, and enormously gifted at the craft of writing.  

His construction of his books is ingenious, playing games with the reader and indulging in dark humour wickedly.  As to his style he wouldn't be who he was without Saul Bellow and Vladimir Nabokov, both highly stylised writers.  He was truly modern who wrote about taxi cabs and junk food, the Americanisation of Britain and ASBOS.  

Some people attribute Amis' talent to his famous novelist father Kingsley Amis, writer of 'Lucky Jim', but I think it would be more accurate to his his work as of his own making, though takingly similar themes as Kingsley in a different way.

I've yet to read his most famous work 'Money', something which I am looking forward to as it was been quite a while since I have read anything by him.

So to Martin I raise a glass and say thanks for the enjoyment you gave me. 

'Thr Wordsmiths and the Warguild' by Hugh Cook

 

The second book in a series of ten, the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series, by British writer Hugh Cook, 'The Wordsmiths and the Warguild' is about Togura Poulaan who is charged with a mission.   The mission being to find a thing called the Index so that the Wordsmiths, a powerful group in the city of Sung, can extract the mysteries within a type of vortex called the Odex.  A special incentive spurs Togura on as his one true love, Day Suet, has fallen into it.

So on a journey with walking rocks, pirates, sea-dragons, and wizards, begins to unfold itself with very few clues as to where this Index is.  There is also the side quest for Togura to finally lose his virginity.  He finds himself out of his depth very quickly.  In fact he spends a lot of his time in places he would rather not be.

I read the first book of the series, 'The Wizards and the Warrirors', two or three years ago as a random buy from my local fantasy/ sci-fi bookshop but I ended up loving it so much that I had bought the whole series to enjoy.  

What do I love about Hugh Cook?  His sheer inventiveness is mind blowing and his use of language is truly unique and very funny.  His characters tend to be larger than life and the impossible adventures they go on makes you gripped as to how they are going to get through such a journey.  

In 'The Wordsmiths and the Warguild' Togura is a very likeable character who is an ordinary man forced to turn adventurer for the love of his life.  The story twists and twists making you want to read more to see how it will all resolve itself.  The characters are rich and compelling driven by their own motivations either helping or hindering Togura.

The series was planned to be a huge sixty books but Cook had to stop at ten because they weren't selling well enough.  Still ten books is an impressive achievement and though he is not very well known they hold a special place in my heart as I enjoy how much fun it can be to read such books.  

'Evolution' by Stephen Baxter

 

Happy New Year!  Another one to add to the billions that have already occurred to life on this planet.  And I kick start the year with a book about how we came to be, 'Evolution' by Stephen Baxter, which is about the evolution of our species from the age of the dinosaurs to life five hundred million years into the future.

It is a novel and speculates on what it must have been like to live sixty-five million years ago as one of our shrew-like ancestors who survived the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs.  This novel is fraught with near death experiences as much is about survival in a harsh world, full of danger and doing the best you can to see another day.

This book can be seen as a conceptual series of short stories that are linked by theme.  It is hard sci-fi so if you love your science then you will get a lot out of this book but it is no text book, it is a work of fiction despite it being so heavily influenced by current day science.  It does not pretend to be accurate.

As someone who found Darwin's 'Origin of Species' to be quite dry I am glad that there is an emotional piece of work about the theory of evolution.  This gives me a better understanding of how evolution works, how small changes in one ancestor can have an effect over the whole lineage of beings that come after it.

It's not just about the past but it goes far into the future seeing what a post-human age would look like and I found that to be utterly fascinating.  There will be more co-operation, more symbiotic relationships and the human civilisation would have disappeared completely.  There would be things created by NASA would make an appearance in this new world in their search for answers.

It's a stark look, and a bold sweep, over the whole arc of human evolution that gives us keener insights to our lives on this ever circling planet of ours.
 

   

'An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth' by Chris Hadfield

 Want to know what it's like being in space?  Chris Hadfield gives us the tour.

Subtitled 'Life Lessons from Space' this book is packed full of wisdom that one can apply to ordinary life.  Sweating the small stuff, aiming to be a zero, Hadfield identifies what makes him qualified to be an astronaut while retaining his ultimate lesson, humility.  

It's a book that would have been tremendously useful while I was writing my long poem about the first astronaut in space, 'The First Man In Space', as it is full of authentic details about being up in space for so long.  Handling the day to day practicalities of life in space, to the space walks with their awe-inspiring views, and singing Bowie's 'Space Oddity' become lessons in how to live life to the fullest, gaining the most out of each moment.

Hadfield was extremely helpful to me during the lock downs as we were all in our space stations under extreme conditions and gave ,me perspective on what it might be like to live in space.  Understanding the risk of any given situation helps us better to prepare for the unexpected and helps us push past our fear.  Hadfield is afraid of heights yet he is able to overcome this drawback in order to do his job.

He explains his first space walk 'It's like this, I think.  It's like being engrossed in cleaning a pane of glass, then you look over your shoulder and realize you're hanging off the side of the Empire State Building, Manhattan sprawled vividly beneath and around you.'  An experience to be remembered and shared as affirming and progressive.

This book has given me a greater appreciation for the rigours of going to space, from the examinations to get selected, to the post-flight treatment and more importantly insight into NASA's philosophy of working in a team and how, ultimately, we all share one planet and in it's magnificent beauty it's us who have to look after it for generations to come.     

 

The 'Empire' Trilogy by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts

 

'Daughter of the Empire', 'Servant of the Empire', and 'Mistress of the Empire' gave me escapism when I needed to escape the most.

Following a long period of ill health I found, and turned to, these books with their worlds of empires, bloodthirsty political clans and slavery.  

It follows the protagonist Mara and her journey from being in a monastery to becoming the highly respected Servant of the Empire.  With this is her transformation from dark violence to benevolent rulership.

As the books have a strong female character it naturally reminds me of Sigrid Undset's female lead Kristin Lavransdatter, who undergoes great hardship in securing her place.  Though Mara ascends to the top her position is always precarious as other clans cook up plots to get rid of her.

These books are set in the land of Kelewan, a land familiar from other Feist books like 'Magician' where old favourites like Pug make a cameo.

Dense with political shenanigans I found that through the machinations of the various clans there were moments that spoke out with deep beauty.  Such as when the Spymaster falls in love or when Mara falls in love with the barbarian slave who turns her worldview upside down.  

The time taken to build up these characters throughout the book's many pages becomes satisfying when there is a twist to how these characters function and become changed people.  It is an optimistic book about the capacity to change.  

Stephen Donaldson said that n fantasy and sci-fi man becomes an 'effective passion' and Mara's ability to effective change for the greater good makes that statement manifest.