BookBanter Episode 28 with Kim Stanley Robinson

On January 23rd I was given the opportunity to interview Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the award-winning Mars trilogy, as well as other bestselling books such as The Year of Rice and Salt and Forty Signs of Rain, in person at the Avid Reader Bookstore, in the city of Davis where Robinson resides. The interview was conducted a little while before his reading and signing for his latest book, Galileo’s Dream, which is a science fiction novel, but is also a biography of Galileo’s life, as well as his problems in dealing with the Church. During the interview, Robinson talked a lot about how he came up with Galileo’s Dream, how much work and research the book took. He also talked about what got him into writing, what he thinks readers will get out of reading his books, and what he’s working on next.

Thanks go to Sunny Baadkar and the Avid Reader in Davis for helping to organize and provide a very comfortable space to do the interview (and that’s classical music in the background from Capital Public Radio).

Featured in the episode are my reviews for: Galileo’s Dream, A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire, The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell, and Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons.

This episode of BookBanter is brought to you by East Bay and Footlocker, leading world suppliers of athletic footwear, apparel and sports equipment, featuring top athletic brands such as Adidas, Reebok, Converse, and Nike.  Go to East Bay.com and use the code AFBOOK15 to receive 15% off your order, or the code AFBOOK20 to receive 20% off your order of $75 or more.  Or go to Footlocker.com and use the code AFBOOKFL to receive 15% off your order.

Please join me next month, on April 2nd (I’m avoiding April 1st because of its connotations) where a number of things will be happening: you’ll get to hear my interview with the incredibly talented minds behing the renowned web coming Penny Arcade; coupled with this will be a full site upgrade with a whole new look, new pages, new items to read, new layouts, even more book reviews with better and easier way to access them and find them, as well as a host of other additions and new items such as the original BookBanter theme song and a special recorded interview with yours truly on BookBanter, where it came, and where I’d like it to go in the future.

Until next time,

Alex C. Telander.

“From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankeweiler (Atheneum Press, 1967)

Originally published in 1967, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg won the Newbery Medal in 1968 for excellence in American Children’s Literature, and rightly so as it is an incredible children’s book that comes from a time where authors gave their young readers the benefit of the doubt in assuming they were intelligent readers with a good vocabulary who were looking to read more about realistic characters in a real world.  The events in From the Mixed-Up Files could actually happen in real life, and I’m sure have been contemplated by many a child since the publication of the book.  (There’s even a reference of a sort in the movie Royal Tenenbaums where Margot plans to do just this.)

11-year-old Claudia Kincaid is bored with her life and being ignored by her parents, so she  comes up with an elaborate plan – because she loves planning and organizing – to run away from home and live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  She invites her younger brother, Jamie, to accompany her because he’s smart and has quite a large amount of money due to his cheating at card games.  The book goes into detail with how Claudia plans for them to pack clothing and other necessary items, to hide out on the school bus, and then to sneak into the museum with groups of children on a field trip.  They hide out in the restrooms when the museum is about to close, and spend the night inside, bathing in the fountain where they take some of the “wishing coins” to help buy food.  But there is a new addition to the museum, a beautiful statue of an angel that may have been sculpted by Michelangelo himself, and they plan to find out if this is true or not.  The book is told from the viewpoint of an omniscient third-person narrator in Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, who is recounting this in written form to her lawyer, as she is the one who sold the statue to the museum at a bargain price, and knows everything.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is a very real children’s book, where the kids aren’t perfect by any means, but learn from their mistakes, and have very real personalities, emotions, and reactions.  Written at a time where it was expected that children wanted more from the books they read than a wizard, some magic, and a fun story; From the Mixed-Up Files is a story to be enjoyed by anyone at any age.

If you liked this review and are interested in purchasing this book, click here.

Originally written on March 3rd 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

“The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt” by Patricia Maclachlan (Harpercollins, 1988)

Minna Pratt lives in a very interesting world, where each day she lives it to the fullest. She is an improving cello player who has lessons every day and should be practicing every day – though she doesn’t.  She is in search of her vibrato, as she prays to God and Mozart and anyone else she thinks who might be able to help her get it.  The book is filled with interesting characters, like her brother McGrew who has a very entertaining personality, and then there’s Lucas, the handsome boy who seems her age, joining their lessons to practice his viola.  Lucas and Minna soon become goods friends that looks to develop into something else, while a competition is coming up in which they will be performing with their other classmates in a quartet to prove their abilities, as well as $100 cash prize for each of them.  Minna grows more nervous as the book progresses, over her feelings for Lucas, how everyone else views her, the upcoming competition, and whether she will ever find her vibrato.

Patricia Maclachlan has created a lasting book with a full host of complex, believable characters, written in an almost stream of consciousness style – akin to Virginia Woolf’s The Waves—where there is not a firm beginning, middle, and end, but a series of flitterings in and out of the mind of Minna Pratt on what she is thinking, how she is feeling, and whatever else is going on.  The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt is a very different children’s book that all should read for its uniqueness.

If you liked this review and are interested in purchasing this book, click here.

Originally written on March 3rd 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

“Elves in Anglo-Saxon England” by Alaric Hall (Boydell & Brewer, 2009)

Alaric Hall, a lecturer in Medieval English Literature at the University of Leeds, delves into the sources that mention or reference elves, or ælfe, looking not just at texts and writings from Britain, but also Scandinavia and mainland Europe to find similarities and linkages in these references.  Hall breaks it down to the language level, exploring spellings, uses, as well as inferring meanings for elves, which at times can get dense, but for those looking for proof in the original language, Hall certainly does this, using the original Old English and providing translations.  He is quick to point out that while comparing British texts with sources from other countries, one cannot make assumptions through this as they are from different cultures.  References are made between elves on the subject of belief, health, gender, and identity, each with their own chapter, and while it is relatively short book, Hall has begun an important foundation here as more is learned and discovered about the use of ælfe in the Anglo-Saxon world.

If you liked this review and are interested in purchasing this book, click here.

Originally written on March 3rd 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

“The Burning Land” by Bernard Cornwell (Harpercollins, 2010)

In this fifth installment of Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Tales, as he reveals the incredible life of Alfred the Great and the world of Viking England, he doesn’t hold back, putting his hero, Uhtred, through every trial and tribulation possible.  Uhtred finds himself tested by Alfred, by the priest because of his pagan beliefs, by his Viking friends, and by his Saxon friends.  Compared to the last four books in the series, The Burning Land has a lot more going on, as the end appears to be in sight for Alfred, for Uhtred, and for Cornwell.

England is still in a shambles, as hoards of Vikings march across the land, taking towns and slaughtering people, while Alfred defends his small domain in the south.  Alfred has become pious in his old age, turning to priests for advice and suggestions, which just infuriates Uhtred.  Each time he turns to the man for the final advice on what battle to choose and where to fight, and each time Uhtred leads him to victories, but he never makes it into the tales and stories recorded by the priests.  Cornwell is making a point here that we shouldn’t believe everything of the sources we read, that often reality is very different to what is recorded.  But Uhtred finds himself torn: owing allegiance to Alfred, but also wishing to join the Vikings up north in an effort to take back his land, Bebbanburg, taken by his uncle.  For some time he does fight with the Vikings, putting fear in the heart of the Saxons to the south, as Alfred is rumored to be very ill and possibly dead.  In the new year the rumors are proved otherwise and Uhtred returns to his lord and fights for him once more.

But time is passing; Arthur grows older and sicker, while Uhtred draws closer to fighting for his homeland.  There can’t be too many books left in the Saxon Tales, as Cornwell brings the series to a close in the n ext book or two.  One wonders how it will end for Alfred, and how Uhtred will fair.

If you liked this review and are interested in purchasing this book, click here.

Originally written on March 11th 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

“Carrion Comfort” by Dan Simmons (Dark Harvest Books, 1989)

One of the greatest violations humans can imagine experiencing is not being able to control themselves.  This is what is at the heart of Dan Simmons’ Carrion Comfort.  There is a secret society that has this ability: to control others, both mentally and physically, trapping their personality and will, and doing with them as they please.  It is their power, but it is also what sustains them, what keeps them alive and living through the decades: they feed off the power to control and overpower.  It has become a game to them, where each year they compete to see who can control the most.  Only now members of this secret society are being assassinated, while clues are leaking out about its existence.

Dan Simmons does what he does best, creating a compelling epic that defies the imagination and takes readers on a unique journey across time and space and the many places of the planet.  Carrion Comfort is an incredible, in-depth piece of work on freedom and control and what it feels like when these facets of our humanity are taken away.

If you liked this review and are interested in purchasing this book, click here.

Originally written on March 11th 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

“A Local Habitation” by Seanan McGuire (Daw, 2010)

Ace Faerie Private Eye October Daye is back with her second mystery to solve, and this one’s a doozy.  As Toby tries to settle down, licking her wounds from her last escapades in Rosemary and Rue, she is asked by her liege, the Duke Sylvester Torquill of the Shadowed Hills to check on his niece, Countess January O’Leary of Tamed Lightning, better known as Freemont, as he hasn’t heard from her in some time.  Taking a sidekick along – Quentin — to show him the ropes, she finds herself caught up in way more than she bargained for.

Arriving at Tamed Lighting, Toby finds what appears to be a simple company that produces computer fantasy games, except that all the employees aren’t human, in fact there’s not a single regular human that works there.  Then there’s the quiet way everyone acts around her, as if they’re hiding something.  Then the first person turns up dead.  As Toby unravels the mystery, it turns out bodies have been piling up, but when she tastes their blood to find out what happened to them, she gets nothing.  They are empty husks with no story to tell of their demise.  The mystery grows further when Toby finds herself under attack from someone or something.

A Local Habitation is a great sequel to Rosemary and Rue, ratcheting up the action and fear as Toby once again finds herself fighting for her life, while readers learn more of the complexities of this world that Seanan McGuire had created.  The good news is, after finishing A Local Habitation, as readers attempt to catch their breaths, they won’t have to wait long, with An Artificial Night due out in September.

If you liked this review and are interested in purchasing this book, click here.

Originally written on March 11th 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

For an interview with Seanan McGuire check out BookBanter Episode 15.

“Galileo’s Dream” by Kim Stanley Robinson (Spectra, 2008)

Kim Stanley Robinson tries something different to his usual classic science fiction novels in Galileo’s Dream, employing a combined story of Galileo’s life as a scientist with an unusual setup on a moon of Saturn in the distant future.  The result is an incredible novel that uses all of the great styles and abilities that Robinson has to offer with his complex, developed writing style, the excellent research, the hard science fiction, and an incredible, unique story.

Galileo’s Dream essentially has two storylines going on that involve Galileo Galilei: one is the moving story of Galileo’s life in becoming a hard scientist, scrutinizing everything, researching and learning, coming up with new inventions, and studying the heavens every day.  As his popularity grows and his ideas and theories on the Copernican idea of the universe – that everything does not revolve around the Earth, but that the planets revolve around the sun – turn to proven facts in his mind and he tries to publish works claiming this, he begins to feel the wrath of the church and more importantly the Pope who he though would be an ally and is instead turning into an adversary.

The other story to Galileo’s Dream is when Galileo uses his recently invented telescope with superior lenses, he discovers the moons of Jupiter – which are known as the Galilean moons – and in a moment is magically transported from the seventeenth century to the year 3020 on the moon of Europa where he must help the strange looking inhabitants with their own problems.  Each time he is transported back to his time, he remembers a little more of his forays into the distant future.

Galileo’s Dream is a unique story that could only have been conceived of in the mind of Kim Stanley Robinson, taking the reader on a journey they won’t soon forget, as they learn about the incredible life of someone often referred to as the world’s first scientist, as well as being entertained by an engrossing science fiction story set in the thirty-first century.

If you liked this review and are interested in purchasing this book, click here.

Originally written on March 11th 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.