brent_kellmer

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I'm just about finished reading Moonseed by Stephen Baxter.  I love doomsday novels -- Niven & Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer is a favorite, but it goes back to Pat Frank's Alas Babylon, Robert Merle's Malevil, and Nevil Shute's On the Beach.  (Shute is an anomaly -- I tend to prefer humanity's survival -- go figure). 

Most of the early part of Moonseed is pretty good -- what is effectively a nano machine is brought back from the moon and eventually gets out and starts to consume the Earth's surface.  I mean, what's not to like.  From the jacket blurb, I'd kind of expected some of the stuff to contrived, but it isn't.

Until the end.  You see, there's a final solution -- make the moon habitable so that humanity can have a life boat.  Quite apart from the issues of how long that'd take, it's a cool idea.  Unfortunately, it's a cool idea poorly executed.

If you set up a solution and the solution is reasonable, I'll go along with it.  (How reasonable helps to dictate how I feel about the solution in the long run, of course).  The problem is that you really have to set it up.  Not just giving the hero the appropriate skills earlier in the story that he can use at the end to save the day.  But also putting the gun on the mantlepiece so that he can pick it up when he needs it.

Baxter fails in this -- the key to the solution is the use of a nuclear weapon to melt some of the water in the moon's crust.  Fine.  But the main character has to get the nuke to the moon.  In the story, he pushes the powers that be to do it, because he's got "a plan."  But he doesn't share the plan with them, or with us as the reader.  First of all -- even with the world ending, nobody's going to give over a nuke to this guy (no matter how respectable he is), without a clear understanding of what he's supposed to do with it.  And he goes forward with this plan that no one else really knows about, not even his fellow astronauts.  So it really comes across as a Deus Ex Machina.  Now I don't mind if I as the reader don't know the plan -- but keeping it in the head of the main character only -- especially when no one would have let him set things up without knowing the plan (or at least some plan) -- well, that's just stupid.  And contrived, which is a worse sin as a writer.

I'm going to finish the novel -- it's decent enough for that, but it turned out to be a considerable disappointment because of this issue.  I know Baxter's done better, so I'll probably continue to read other things of his, but this is a pretty low mark for him to have hit.

I didn't really mean this to be a review, especially of a book that's been since before Columbia went down, but rather a commentary on something to avoid as a writer.  If the hero needs that revolver on the mantlepiece in the endgame -- it needs to be there (and realistically, too) earlier.
 

Had to post about something Secundus did yesterday, even if I wasn't there to see it.  (This is related from the spousal unit, although it may not be word for word...).

A couple of weeks ago, we were in Seattle for dinner for T's birthday. Afterwards, we stopped by Whole Foods for a birthday cake (which beats what's available in Monroe hands down, unless T makes it herself).  On the way out of the parking lot, Secundus saw a homeless man asking for money and asked about it.  He made a comment that if he had some money with him, he would have given it to the man.

Fast forward to yesterday -- T and the boys were going to the dollar store (a fan favorite with the boys), and they passed a different homeless man.  Secundus turned to T and declared:

Secundus:  "I want to give him my money."  (He had $9 in hand for the Dollar store)
T:  "We can stop and give him a dollar if you'd like."
S:  "I want to give him my money."
T:  "Okay, you can give him a dollar."
S:  "I want to give him all the money."
T:  "How about a couple of dollars.  That way you'll still have some money for yourself."  (He is, after all, a kid and money to spend on doodads is important to them)
S:  "I want to give him all of it."
T:  "Okay, how about giving him $5."
S:  (thinks for a moment).  "How about I give him $7, and that way I'll still have $2 to spend."

So that's what he did.  And last night he told me that when he grew up he wanted to build a place where homeless people could live.  He's only eight and while sometimes he's really good at being 8 (which can be hard to live with), he's got a really good heart.

I know I tend to talk more about Secundus than about Primus (who's 11), but that's probably because S is more outgoing and outspoken than P.  P is quietly brilliant (he really is), and introverted, not to mention going through the phase of spending most of his time in his room listening to music and reading/working on the computer/(or lately) doing his math homework.

But I'm really, truly proud of both of them.
 

I've finally set up one of my Christmas presents at work, so I'm ready for any cube warfare....  (it's computer guided through the USB):



You know, just in case...

Tired -- very hard to get through this week.  At least this morning it was.  About to go get another dose of caffeine, and I usually don't have a second until the mid-afternoon doldrums.  I must say I'm rather annoyed that I won't have the chance to sleep in this weekend.  Sigh.  But I'm unlikely to go to RustyCon next weekend, so I'll sleep then.  Ah well, no rest for the weary, wicked, or insane.  I'll leave it to you to select which one(s) apply.

Finally got a response for the programming people for Norwescon, and it looks like I'll be doing panels there this year -- primarily on history, I'd expect, or military SF.  I put down some other interests as well, so we'll see what comes up.

I'll admit to being proud of myself for doing my step aerobics last night -- tired, spent most of the evening vegetating, but forced myself to do half an hour.  It's really hard to do sometimes, but I've got to do it if I'm going to live.  I'm tired of my disease controlling me, so I'm getting off my ass and controlling it.

I love working at a place where you go into the lunch room and find interesting magazines on the table for casual reading.  Today's magazine was the most recent Physics Today.  Much better than TV Guide.

You may have already seen this, but if not, it's well worth watching...  (from the American Museum of Natural History, by way of Lou Anders...)


 

Send a personal holiday message to the astronauts on the ISS: www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/12/17/Public-can-send-greetings-to-ISS-crew/UPI-76131261064410/  

So I really need the two weeks (plus 1 Weekend!) of doing absolutely nothing constructive. I really need the time to recharge. So if I get some writing done, that's marvelous. But I'm not planning anything.

I'm tired and I want to go to bed...

Okay, I better stop singing that because a really big shark is bound to show up. But I do want to go home. Now, not in fifteen minutes.

And then I'll only have 3 days left before vacation...

Not soon enough.

well worth your time (liberated from jamesenge )