Reading, voting, and other solitary pursuits
I just finished Alice McDermott's Child of My Heart, again amazing myself on how much I enjoy and savor her short books. My tastes in literature tend towards science fiction and fantasy, with a good shot of biography and nonfiction; the idea of reading about about Irish American families in 1950s & 60s New York would normally make me back away very, very quickly. Somehow though, McDermott makes her characters so specific, and so real even this sentimental coming-of-age story seems so individual and particular and luminous I spent a great part of last weekend reading it.
Which compares to the weekend before in which I spent part reading Allegiance, by Timothy Zahn. A Star Wars novel, and what's more, a Star Wars novel set between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. As a big Luke & Vader fangirl this should have been my book. Especially considering the publisher was pushing this as the novel that filled in the gaps for Luke, Leia, Han, and Vader between those two movies. Zahn is not one of my favorite SciFi writers; but OK, you've got my $20.
Which was a mistake.
Zahn writes serviceable prose, give him that. The action moves forward briskly. Give him that. But when you can't keep his forgettable characters straight, who cares? Vader has two short cameos in the novel, both of which are merely there to show how much better Zahn's original character Mara (why not name her Mary Sue and be done with it) Jade is. At the beginning, Han has a promising few paragraphs on his ambivalence about the Rebellion cause and his annoyance at being taken for granted by the Rebels. Which is promptly dropped and cleared up a few lines at the very end of the book. Leia and Luke have very short - and I mean very short storylines in which they are constantly bumbling, fumbling, and being rescued.
Unlike Mara Jade, who is brave, talented, inventive, and beautiful. The vast majority the book is given to Mara's brave adventures and the brave adventures of five brave adventurous rogue stormtroopers. There's the leader guy, the biker scout guy, the pilot guy, the mysterious, has all the answers that if only opened his mouth they could have avoided the entire mess guy, and some other guy - maybe sharpshooter guy? I forget their names. And I had trouble keeping them straight. Because Zahn does nothing to develop them as characters or people or even plot points.
But yet all of his characters are so much more fascinating and brave and bold and worthy than Lucas's. Surely we love them all?
Well, no.
His characters have one attribute. Just one. I'm not sure they rate as even single dimensioned. Which when I compare it to McDermott, where the action sometimes seems to simply float along; but I'm so interested in the character's feelings and journeys, that I'm happen to drift along with them.
So basically I want my $20 back.
On a totally different subject, it's a good thing Mayor Dave won one of the top two spots in the primary election yesterday. He was a terribly good sport to appear in the latest Chad Vader adventure; but he makes the "Guess which is a local politician not an actor" game pretty easy.
The weather is much warmer, highs in the forties. But the lows are still in the twenties. Which means every morning is an adventure in ice skating until the sun has been up for a couple of hours. All I want to do is get from here to there without frostbite and without falling. Spring is in sight; but just barely.
Which compares to the weekend before in which I spent part reading Allegiance, by Timothy Zahn. A Star Wars novel, and what's more, a Star Wars novel set between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. As a big Luke & Vader fangirl this should have been my book. Especially considering the publisher was pushing this as the novel that filled in the gaps for Luke, Leia, Han, and Vader between those two movies. Zahn is not one of my favorite SciFi writers; but OK, you've got my $20.
Which was a mistake.
Zahn writes serviceable prose, give him that. The action moves forward briskly. Give him that. But when you can't keep his forgettable characters straight, who cares? Vader has two short cameos in the novel, both of which are merely there to show how much better Zahn's original character Mara (why not name her Mary Sue and be done with it) Jade is. At the beginning, Han has a promising few paragraphs on his ambivalence about the Rebellion cause and his annoyance at being taken for granted by the Rebels. Which is promptly dropped and cleared up a few lines at the very end of the book. Leia and Luke have very short - and I mean very short storylines in which they are constantly bumbling, fumbling, and being rescued.
Unlike Mara Jade, who is brave, talented, inventive, and beautiful. The vast majority the book is given to Mara's brave adventures and the brave adventures of five brave adventurous rogue stormtroopers. There's the leader guy, the biker scout guy, the pilot guy, the mysterious, has all the answers that if only opened his mouth they could have avoided the entire mess guy, and some other guy - maybe sharpshooter guy? I forget their names. And I had trouble keeping them straight. Because Zahn does nothing to develop them as characters or people or even plot points.
But yet all of his characters are so much more fascinating and brave and bold and worthy than Lucas's. Surely we love them all?
Well, no.
His characters have one attribute. Just one. I'm not sure they rate as even single dimensioned. Which when I compare it to McDermott, where the action sometimes seems to simply float along; but I'm so interested in the character's feelings and journeys, that I'm happen to drift along with them.
So basically I want my $20 back.
On a totally different subject, it's a good thing Mayor Dave won one of the top two spots in the primary election yesterday. He was a terribly good sport to appear in the latest Chad Vader adventure; but he makes the "Guess which is a local politician not an actor" game pretty easy.
The weather is much warmer, highs in the forties. But the lows are still in the twenties. Which means every morning is an adventure in ice skating until the sun has been up for a couple of hours. All I want to do is get from here to there without frostbite and without falling. Spring is in sight; but just barely.