God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

Going back to the list of writers I included in my recent time travel adventures but who are also writers of non-time travel novels, I come to Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Having read Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five during my time travel phase, this book was the obvious choice. Two characters from Slaughterhouse-Five - Kilgore Trout and Eliot Rosewater - made their first appearance in the 1965 novel.

I had been a Kurt Vonnegut fan in my teen years and had, of course read God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater ages and ages ago. Like all of the Vonnegut novels I read in my teen years, most of the Rosewater book had faded from my memory. Pretty much the only thing I can recall from that early reading is the mentioning of Kilgore Trout's paperback, Venus on the Half-Shell . In later years (1974) Philip José Farmer wrote a novel of the same name - using the pseudonym Kilgore Trout. There was a bit of a kerfuffle over Farmer's book. Vonnegut reluctantly gave permission to Farmer to write the book, although later Vonnegut was angry over a poorly written article concerning Farmer's getting Vonnegut's permission. The article was probably as badly written as the previous sentence.

As a side note - when I read Venus on the Half-Shell in 1975, I was like many who mistakenly assumed that the book was Vonnegut's own creation.

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is humorous - though hardly a knee slapper. I appreciate Vonnegut's writing now with a bit of nostalgia. I don't know, however, if I'd like Vonnegut nearly as much if I were only now discovering his work.

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

At the first of this month, I concluded my  two month  adventure with time travel by choosing to head off in a different direction with my reading. I decided to look at some of the writers that I'd read in those time travel days, and read some of their novels which are not related to time travel. The writers include - but are not limited to - Tim Powers, Octavia Butler, Kurt Vonnegut and Audrey Niffenegger.

Having finished reading Powers' Declare I continued on to Octavia Butler's science fiction vampire novel, Fledgling. I enjoyed Butler's time travel novel, Kindred so there was no question but that I'd be reading more of Butler's novels. The majority of Butler's novels are parts of multiple series. Although I will one day get around to reading Butler's Patternist, Xenogenesis and Parable series, I wanted to read a "standalone" novel this month and the only other novel, besides Kindred, that fits that category is her final novel, Fledgling.

The wikidedia description of the plot of the novel is much better than I could write :

The novel tells the story of Shori, a 53-year-old member of the Ina species, who appears to be a ten-year-old African-American girl. The Ina are nocturnal, long-lived, and derive sustenance by drinking human blood. Though they are physically superior to humans, both in strength and ability to heal from injury, the Ina depend on humans to survive. Therefore, their relationships are symbiotic, with the Ina's venom providing significant boost to their humans' immune systems and extending their lives up to 200 years. However, withdrawal from this venom will also lead to the human's death.

Butler had a unique take on the idea of vampires......I can't recall reading anything quite like this. It's very different from the standard Dracula legend.

Of course, other than the plot description posted above, I've no intention of providing "spoilers". Needless to say, I'm a huge fan of Octavia Butler, and I highly recommend Fledgling to those who enjoy Sci-Fi and Fantasy fiction.

Declare by Tim Powers

With the arrival of April, I decided to leave off my exploration of time travel novels and move on to something slightly different. I would look at the time travel novels and read other types of novels by some of the writers who had been on the time travel list.

I wanted to go on to others books written by the likes of Octavia Butler, Kurt Vonnegut, and Audrey Niffenegger ( to name just three). I had started my time travel adventure with The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers and thought it would be appropriate to begin April with another Tim Powers novel.

Big mistake.

Although I didn't hate The Anubis Gates , I didn't give it a very high rating, so I shouldn't have been surprised that this other book by Powers, Declare , wouldn't be a favorite either. It isn't that I hate Declare , it's just seems to drag on. It's not my cup of Vodka. The book has been described as "a supernatural spy novel" but it doesn't come off, in my view. The supernatural mumbo jumbo seems a bit pointless and the spy novel portion is ho hum.

As I write this, I've read 82% of the novel....it seems like I've been reading it forever, with no end in sight. I'm determined to finish the book, although I don't foresee my changing my opinion on the novel. 

The plot is non-linear, shifting back and forth in time from the 1940s to the 1960s. Sometimes, as with Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five the non-lineal skipping works. However, I see it as adding nothing to this story.

One character, Kim Philby, is based on a real person. In the novel, Kim Philby stutters. I don't know if the real Philby stuttered, by I found his dialog in the novel to be off-putting. I'm hoping he really did stutter, otherwise having him do so in this novel would be especially lame.

The March Reading List

April has arrived, and with it comes the list of books I read in March.

March is, of course 3 days longer than a normal February so naturally the list for March will include more books than the previous month.

Like February, the books I read In March were exclusively Sci-Fi Time Travel novels. Honestly, some were much better than others. Not only will this post contain the list of books read in March, but I'll also give my picks for the top five time travel books (read since my quest began in February).

First, the Top Five:
1) the "Oxford Time Travel series" by Connie Willis. This is actually a four book series, but for the purposes of my "top five" list, I'm counting the series as one book.
2) The Time Traveler's Wife   by Audrey Niffenegger.
3) Kindred   by Octavia Butler.
4) Slaughterhouse-Five    by Kurt Vonnegut.
5) The Time Machine   by H.G. Wells and it's sequel The Time Ships   by Stephen Baxter. Although these are two different books by two different writers, again for the purposes of my list, I'm counting these as one book.

Although some others were less than my favorite, there are two that deserve to be mentioned as the worst. The Thief of Time  by Terry Pratchett (which I couldn't bring myself to finish) and Time Enough For Love  by Robert Heinlein.

This month I'll be reading non- time travel books written by some of the writers in my time travel list. I've already put eight books in the queue. These will include books by Octavia Butler, Connie Willis, H.G. Wells and Stephen Baxter. More on that later.

So, here's the list for March.

The Time Traveler's Wife   by Audrey Niffenegger.
Tourmalin's Time Cheques  by F. Anstey.
The Langoliers  by Stephen King.
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August  by Claire North.
The End of Eternity  by Isaac Asimov.
The Chronoliths  by Robert Charles Wilson.
The Accidental Time Machine   by Joe Haldeman.
Tau Zero   by Poul Anderson.
Slaughterhouse-Five   by Kurt Vonnegut.
Kindred   by Octavia Butler.
All You Need Is Kill    by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.
The Masks of Time   by Robert Silverberg.