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Sunday, March 01, 2009
Books for February. ON TIME even. How shocking!
I actually read several books that were new to me this month. I didn't write everything down as I went along, so I hope I'm not forgetting anything.
- Last Light, Dawn Light, Night Light, and True Light -- Terri Blackstock -- overall, 3.5
- This is a Christian fiction series that was recommended to me by a friend. Like most Christian fiction, the writing is not... excellent. And unlike some Christian fiction, these are Very Christian, so if you're of a different persuasion you might not be terribly interested. However, I found the plots and the premise of the series really compelling, enough so that the slightly weak writing style -- and it's not terrible, it's just not great; think of a level between, say, Harlequin and LaHaye -- wasn't a deal-breaker. Blackstock tells the story over the course of four novels of a community that's plunged into darkness and chaos by an astronomical event that behaves like an EMP. (if you don't know what an EMP is, you might need to go to Survivalist Freak school -- or Google, whichever floats your boat -- for a few minutes and come back.) There was nothing in the books that my husband and I and most of our real-life friends haven't already considered and planned for, but -- and this is what I liked best about the series, to be honest -- for the millions of people who go through life completely dependent on technological gadgets (she typed on her laptop), not thinking about any potential life-altering disasters beyond a sick babysitter or a fender-bender, this series is a real eye-opener. What do you do if absolutely nothing electronic -- nothing with a circuit board in it -- ever works again? What will your neighborhood do? What will your city be like? What becomes important then? What would be important now if something on that scale might possibly someday happen? What if it's not that exact disaster but one of a different brand? All interesting questions, all things that I have heard previously-oblivious people discussing after reading this series.
As novels, as I've said, these are readable books. The plots get a little more contrived in each episode, and are less centered on the disaster that forms the backbone of the story and more on the kind of drama that could occur anywhere under any circumstances, but the pace is good and most of the dialogue doesn't stand out -- which dialogue shouldn't, because if it does it's almost always because it's bad. My favorites of the four books were probably the first and the last -- the first for Survival Freak School reasons, and the last because the story in that one really will break your heart and make you think about your faith in God in new ways.
Verdict: If you are a Christian or you don't mind overt Christian fiction, do read these, unless you REALLY can't stand better-than-mediocre-but-not-amazing writing.
- This is a Christian fiction series that was recommended to me by a friend. Like most Christian fiction, the writing is not... excellent. And unlike some Christian fiction, these are Very Christian, so if you're of a different persuasion you might not be terribly interested. However, I found the plots and the premise of the series really compelling, enough so that the slightly weak writing style -- and it's not terrible, it's just not great; think of a level between, say, Harlequin and LaHaye -- wasn't a deal-breaker. Blackstock tells the story over the course of four novels of a community that's plunged into darkness and chaos by an astronomical event that behaves like an EMP. (if you don't know what an EMP is, you might need to go to Survivalist Freak school -- or Google, whichever floats your boat -- for a few minutes and come back.) There was nothing in the books that my husband and I and most of our real-life friends haven't already considered and planned for, but -- and this is what I liked best about the series, to be honest -- for the millions of people who go through life completely dependent on technological gadgets (she typed on her laptop), not thinking about any potential life-altering disasters beyond a sick babysitter or a fender-bender, this series is a real eye-opener. What do you do if absolutely nothing electronic -- nothing with a circuit board in it -- ever works again? What will your neighborhood do? What will your city be like? What becomes important then? What would be important now if something on that scale might possibly someday happen? What if it's not that exact disaster but one of a different brand? All interesting questions, all things that I have heard previously-oblivious people discussing after reading this series.
- The Breakdown Lane -- Jacqueline Mitchard -- 4.5
- You may have read Jacqueline Mitchard before; I will never forget sitting in our library, the first time I'd gone to the library alone since LT's birth two years earlier, and read nearly the entirety of The Deep End Of The Ocean in one bleary-eyed sitting. I really, REALLY like Jacqueline Mitchard, Oprah endorsement and all. (Whatever I may think of the woman, her politics, or her show, she does frequently pick good writers.) The Breakdown Lane, which is actually a few years old, did not disappoint. The thing about Mitchard's books, at least the ones I've read, is that they take extraordinary circumstances and find the ordinary life in among the drama. Here she tells the story of the end of a marriage: one of the seven original plots, right? But this is not your ordinary divorce: after twenty years, a husband tells his wife that he's going to take a little 'sabbatical" from the family, and takes off to live, incommunicado, in a commune. Meanwhile, his ballerina/advice-columnist wife is left at home with a seriously depleted savings account, a newly-raging case of multiple sclerosis, a rock of a fifteen-year-old son with learning disabilities who steps up to care for the family by, among other things, taking over his mother's column, a self-centered fourteen-year-old daughter, and a toddler. This sounds like the makings of a pity-party trainwreck, but that's absolutely not what this novel becomes. (Nor is it a saccharine Anthem to the Human Spirit, which would almost be worse.) Mitchard's prose is intricate and grand and everything in between; her story is at once completely original and as old as sin; her characters are the rare type who are so real and beautiful and lovable and flawed that you are actually mad that you can't hope to run into them somewhere and tell them what you think of them. (I absolutely loved 15-year-old Gabe and his cool head and his alternative education; I also really liked Matt, who comes into the story rather late. But really, everyone's brilliantly done down to the two-year-old.) Please do yourself the favor of reading this. (Thank you, Rosina, for telling me about it.)
Comments
So the series you mention. It sounds Jericho-esque. Is it? I am intrigued but your description of "between harlequin and LaHaye" really paints a vivid picture for me and not in a good way. I slogged through all of the Left Behind series because I needed to know what happened but the plot went far beyond ridiculous more than once (DEW weapons, anyone?). Not to mention the fact that they had a bad habit of killing off any non-white character.
I have never read Mitchard, although I have read quite a few articles by her (she pops up rather frequently in the magazines I have a bad tendency to get for free). I'll have to go look for some.
Posted by: mary at March 1, 2009 06:18 PM
Argh. Just lost a whole long comment. The gist was, living in Taiwan has made me see that there are a lot of parts of the world where even the most finely-honed survival skills wouldn't be enough. Despite the fact that people here eat both a far higher percentage of available animals and a lot more parts of any given animal, despite my suspiscion that a lot of older people, at least, are fully capable of getting me from the pen or forest to the pot to the table, all I have to know is the population density here to know that most people would not survive the demise of a civilized infrastructure.
Posted by: Dichroic at March 1, 2009 10:11 PM
Argh! Should be "meat", not "me" in the above content, being taken from pen to talbe. THAT must have been confusing!
Posted by: Dichroic at March 2, 2009 09:12 PM
DEW's are real (although not yet man
portable)and are shockingly similar to what is described in the Left Behind
series in their anti-personnel role..
Here is a quote, and a source (there are many)
http://www.heritage.org/research/ballisticmissiledefense/bg1931.cfm
"
A subset of HPM devices can affect the human body. Millimeter waveband energy can penetrate human skin to a very shallow
depth, heating the tissue below. This produces a burning pain without actually damaging the tissue. The pain forces the
person to flee the area. This type of weapon shows great potential as a riot-control device or area-denial system.[20]
Posted by: T at March 3, 2009 02:02 PM
Mari: This is definitely not an author you read for the sake of a love of the way words fit together. She's not BAD. Just... utilitarian. Says what needs to be said to move the story along, and does it without offending a word-lover's sensibilities too harshly, but then again without giving such a person anything to get excited about either. re: the Jericho comparison: This series is nowhere NEAR as intense as Jericho. It's like Jericho-lite. Jericho for female Christian fiction fans who would read Harlequins except for the smuttiness. KWIM? (I don't mean that to trash her as much as it sounds like. Again: not BAD. Wouldn't read it for the wordsmithing, but the story is worth it.)
Paula: Ask me why I don't live in a major metropolitan area. Well, there are a lot of reasons, but that's a biggie. :)
Posted by: Rachel at March 3, 2009 02:08 PM
Rachel: Sure, but it's a lot easier when you were born there. If you happen to be born in Taiwan (or probably Indonesia, though I haven't been there to check) while there are rural mountainnous areas, given the overall size and population density of the island as a whole, they're probably not far enough from the cities to help much. Certainly not after the people in the cities start to get hungry. And while it's probably not unreasonable to tell an American, "If you believe Doomsday scenarios are likely, you need to take responsibility to develop survival skills and move to an area where survival is feasible," it's a lot harder for anyone who would need to emigrate to another country. People are going to die (probably including me, if that scenario were to play out anytime in the next two years) and in most cases ("most" based on a worldwide estimate) there may not be anything they can feasibly do.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to rant at you. I think a lot of Americans too often forget that their own set of situations and resources are not the only ones, not even the most common. But I do NOT assume you're one of those who forgets.
Posted by: Dichroic at March 4, 2009 12:33 AM
Paula, I understand. But you're right, I never forget how lucky/blessed I am to be in the position I'm in, and not just because it's a pretty decent place to try to survive a global disaster ;). I can get very... contemplative about the whole thing sometimes -- that this genetic material and this soul and spirit came together in this place and at this time to make me, and that the other six (and a half, by now?) billion people in the world are also such 'fortuitous concatenations of atoms' with souls and spirits who happened to be born in different times and places. Why me here now? Why do I get to be one of the lucky ones to live in abundance and freedom and health and overall joy? Not that my life is the only good kind of life, that's not what I'm saying, but you know that. :)
Posted by: Rachel at March 4, 2009 01:03 AM
