Book Club of Two - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

My wife and I are both keen readers and while our reading tastes differ considerably, there is some crossover, books or authors that we both like. On those occasions we always enjoy discussing books we've both liked, and that's where we came up with the idea for a 'Book Club of Two' where we both read the same book at the same time. We can discuss as we go and compare notes afterwards. It sounded like a good idea, particularly as we both now have Kindles and can share books easily, so decided to give it a go. After a couple of false starts, we settled on 'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley. It's a Classic and critically acclaimed, but it is also science fiction, a genre I enjoy. Here's what I thought of it, then I'll give you my wife's thoughts as a bonus.

First of all it is a short book, only about 200 pages, so it is not one that is going to take months to read. What's more it is quite an easily read, there's some lengthy chunks of description and exposition in places, but for the most part the book flies along at a decent pace. So it already has a couple of advantages over other classics.

Frankenstein is a story that has long since entered popular culture, but how much do you actually know about the story? To explode one common misconception for starters, (Dr) Frankenstein is the name of the person who created the monster/creature, rather than the creature itself. In the course of study and research at a university, he discovers the secret of life and death, and creates a creature out of a mish-mash of body parts and then imbues life into it. The creature is let loose on the world, and the majority of the book then deals with the consequences of this.

It is a good story, and while it does come across as a bit cliched and obvious at times, one has to remember this was the first story of its kind. There were no such cliches or stereotypes when this book was written in the early 1800s. Most of the book is set in mainland Europe, particularly Switzerland, which is quite unusual and takes a bit of getting used to, albeit later on Frankenstein does visit Britain. Occasionally, I did get frustrated with how idiotic Dr Frankenstein was (a good example with only a small spoiler is that after creating the Monster, he basically runs away in terror - no wonder it turned out so badly...) but didn't detract much from the story. I particularly liked the part of the story where the monster tells his side of the story and what he's been upto after Dr Frankenstein ran away in terror from his creation. I started to feel sorry for the monster... for a while at least. I thought the book ended well too, but won't say any more about it as I don't spoil the book for anyone who might want to read it. Overall a very good book, recommended. I'd give it 8/10.

Now for my wife Kate's comments.

"It's hard to believe it was written more than a hundred years ago, it is more like current historical fiction. I thought it was engaging, a little obvious at times and a little frustrating (the decisions made by the main character at times), but it was excellent and no wonder it has stood the test of time."

We'll bring you another read from the Book Club of Two in due course!

Jump into the Escape Pod for great audio SF!

There are so many great places to read and listen to short stories online, especially science fiction but most of these are not well known. I've decided to periodically take a look at one, to shine a light on some hidden gems.

In my forays into the world of SF short stories, I came across Escape Pod (http://www.escapepod.org). It is a science fiction short story podcast with a new episode each week. Each episode features one new short story, sometimes a new one, sometimes a reprint (can you call it a reprint if it's an audio story?). I've listened to quite a few, and while I've not liked all of them, there's been some really gems and the rest are not bad at all. I'm not usually a big audio fiction fan, preferring to read, but I've found that short stories really do work for me in audio format as I can often listen to them in one sitting. Escape Pod also have some really excellent narrators that add an extra touch to the story.

As well as the story, each episode features a short preamble, a bit of a summary or reflection afterwards, and some listener feedback from a previous episode (incidentally, this is taken from the active forums on the website where listeners discuss each episode afterwards). It adds just a little bit to the overall package, but add something it does.

One of the really good things about Escape Pod is that if features old stories as well as new. There's some classic stories that have been given the Escape Pod treatment, including the following:

Episode 400 - Escape Party by Arthur C Clarke

Episode 100 - Nightfall by Isaac Asimov

Episode 453 - The Grotto of the Dancing Bear by Clifford D Simak

Episode 392 - Aftermaths by Lois McMaster Bujold (not sure if this is a classic or new story, but I love her books, so thought I'd include.

Episode 490 - Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

There's also stories by David Brin, Robert Silverberg, Ted Chiang and loads more. For a list of episodes, you are best checking out this wikipedia page.

Reading Arthur C Clarke - Early stories

As part of my recent enthusiasm for short stories, I've started on some classic science fiction stories. I mentioned Clifford D Simak last week, and I'm going to be reading more of his books soon, but I decided to take a fresh look at a rather more well known name in the field of science fiction - Arthur C Clarke. He's written many classic novels, but also many excellent short stories, and like many classic authors, many later novels started out as short stories.

There are a few of his short stories available online (I've already talked about 'Rescue Party'), but I decided to splash out on 'The Collected Short Stories of Arthur C Clarke', which includes all 104 of his published short stories in chronological order. It's quite expensive in paperback, but a bargain at £7.99 on Kindle. Here are my thoughts on the first few stories.

'Travel by Wire' was his first published short story, published in December 1937 in Amateur Science Fiction stories, what seems to be a short lived small press type magazine. Clarke would have been 20 at the time, and you can tell as it has a jokey vibe, relating student pranks and rivalries between different science faculties (though interestingly he didn't go to university until many years later). This story is based on the idea of a Star Trek style transporter (albeit 30 years before Star Trek did it), sending people down telephone wires and re materialising them at the other end. Told in a humorous way, it also has an amusing little twist at the end. Told in the first person (though often using collective 'we'), it is also very short, probably no more than 1500 words. It may be three quarters of a century old, but I really enjoyed it, and but for the mention of dates and a couple of quaint anachronisms it could have been written yesterday.

'How We Went to Mars' is another first person narrative, starting with: 'It is with considerable trepidation that I now take up my pen to describe the incredible adventures that befell the members of the Snoring-in-the-Hay Rocket Society in the Winter of 1952'. This was written in 1937 when national space agencies had not yet become interested in space, but amateur rocket societies were springing up everywhere. This tongue in cheek story is about a rocket from one of these societies which launches (with several members of the society on board including the narrator), aiming for Earth orbit. Unfortunately they lapse into a temporary coma, aren't awake when they need to break and overshoot. They are now heading to Mars... This is something of a tongue in cheek story, and is for many reasons now very dated. It is still however worth reading for a glimpse of a time when rocket technology was starting to come of age, and Amateur Rocket Societies were a big thing.

Sometimes, my thoughts on a story are indelibly linked in my mind with where I was when I read it and I read this story while sat in the sunshine on the deck, sipping a Starbucks coffee overlooking the boating lake at Center Parcs. I always like reading in the sunshine. Anyway, 'Retreat from Earth' isn't much about sunshine, it is about aliens who come to colonise Earth. A well trod path you might say (albeit not at the time it was written). But it is also about Termites, and it is a story about humanity's origins. This is also the first of Clarke's stories to be written in the third person.

'Reverie' is a strange inclusion in a book of short stories, as it seems to be an article about the state of science fiction (in the 1930s). It's quite short however and is certainly interesting, not least because it would not really be out of place today.

'The Awakening' is an early story about cryogenics, and one dying man's wish to be put to sleep for a hundred years in the hope that a century's advances in medical science will find a cure for, well, death. It's story that has been told many times before, but this could well be the first, and it is a good story too.

'Whacky' is the next story, and is one I really don't get, maybe it is just wacky! If someone has read it, perhaps they can explain it to me.

Arthur C Clarke sold 'Loophole' to Astounding Science Fiction in the closing months of the Second World War, and it was published in 1946. It is an example of the 'don't underestimate us humans' story, and is told in the form of a series of memos (I'd actually call them emails as that's what they look like, except for the fact that at this point there was a long time before they were going to be invented) between various alien military and political figures about a surveillance of Earth and the human race. Short and punchy, this is an easy, enjoyable read.

The next story is 'Rescue Party' which I've talked about previously - you can read about it here. Anyway, that's it for now, more soon.

From a Hangman to Alien Rescuers... more short story recommendations

Continuing on from last week's post, I've got more great short story recommendations, most of which you can read and/or listen to online. If you didn't catch last week's post, you can read it here. I've been reading mostly science fiction short stories, but have picked one or two non sci-fi stories that I've enjoyed recently too.

'Light of Other Days' by Bob Shaw. This was written in the 1960s, and I'd not heard of the story before and only barely heard of the author however I came across a Youtube video suggesting this was the best SF short story ever. I don't know I'd agree with that, but it is a really great story. It's only short, so you can easily read in about fifteen minutes. It's got a great science fiction concept (slow glass), but it is a story about people with the concept just part of the backdrop. Definitely worth a read.

'New Folks Home' by Clifford D Simak. This is my first short story by Simak, and I've previously only read one novel of his (Way Station - you can read my review here), but I really like this author. He had a long career, with his first story being published in 1931, and his last in the 1980s shortly before his death. He wrote what has been described as 'Pastoral SF', linking galaxy spanning science fiction concepts with a simple, rural backdrop. The link to this story is to an audio version of the story, from the great folks at Escape Pod. I'm not always a fan of audio stories over reading them on the page (or screen), but I thought the narration on this really good and fit well with the story.

'Item Not as Described' by J.W. Alden. While I've been reading a lot of older 'golden age' science fiction, I've also been reading quite a few new short stories. There's lots of places to read new stuff online, including quite a few 'pro' websites which publish short stories by some of the best modern SF writers (websites/e-zines like Clarkesworld, Lightspeed Magazine, Strange Horizons etc) but there's also a lot of semi-pro and small press websites and e-zines and there's some really good stuff on these too. This one was published in Kasma Magazine and is quite an amusing story, taking the form of a thread of email exchanges between someone who has bought an item on an online auction site which wasn't as described, the seller of said item and the customer service department of the auction site. However the auction site is something of a darker alternative to eBay! It's only short, but is a fun and amusing read.

'Rescue Party' by Arthur C Clarke. This is a true golden age SF story, from one of the masters of science fiction. An alien starship comes to the rescue of Earth when it is discovered that Earth's sun is about to explode, destroying all of the solar system. But where are all the people? Thanks to +Kenny Chaffin from Google Plus for this excellent recommendation.

And now for a couple of non-science fiction recommendations. As I mentioned in last week's post, despite enjoying a wide variety of novels in most genres, I'm struggling to find non-SF stories which I've really enjoyed. Possibly because the stories are either trash, trying to be too literary, or concentrating on the 'dark side of the human psyche' or similar, which most of the time just bores me.

Anyway the first of these is 'The Three Strangers' by Thomas Hardy. For anyone who doesn't know, Hardy was a classic English author of the Victorian era (19th century) who wrote rural English stories such as 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' and 'Jude the Obscure'. I've not read any of his books, but his short stories were recommended to me, in particular an anthology called 'Wessex Tales'. I've read several of these so far, and particularly enjoyed The Three Strangers, which is a country tale about a hangman. It is the sort you could imagine an old man telling his grandchildren while sat round the fire of a thatched cottage, deep in the woods.

The second of these is 'The Blue Girl' by Alex Grecian. This is a short story set in late 19th century London, a crime-mystery featuring Constable Colin Pringle. By his own frank admission, Pringle isn't a very hard working or dedicated policeman - he only joined the police force because he thought the uniform might attract pretty young girls. He isn't even a detective, however the sight of the blue girl floating in the canal makes him feel compelled  to do some investigating, because if he doesn't, no one else will. This short story is based on the author's Murder Squad books of Victorian detective fiction. I haven't read any of them, and only read this story as it was recommended to me by my lovely wife who is a fan of Grecian's books. I really enjoyed it however, and it is doing a good job of making me want to read his books. This isn't available free online as far as I can see, but is only 49 pence in the UK Kindle store.

Reading Short Stories

Unfortunately it has been a long, long time since I've managed a blog post - over two months - and that's after a very promising start throughout January. I haven't been idle however, I've picked up the writing bug and started writing short stories. Why short stories? Well partly at least because they are just that - short! I've always got lots of ideas, and short stories allow me to get more of my ideas onto the page. I may work my way up to something longer, but for now I'm really enjoying writing short stories.

As well as writing short stories I've also been reading them too. I've never been a big reader of short stories, always preferring novels, and I don't think that is going to change anytime soon, but I have been surprised how much I've enjoyed some of the stories I've read. There's also quite a lot that left my cold (and bored and at times confused). In this and more posts over the next few weeks I'll be talking about my findings and reviewing some of the stories I've read, particularly ones I've really enjoyed. Where these are available free online I'll include a link too (and so many stories are available on the internet). I've been reading quite a wide mix of stories, there's a lot of science fiction and fantasy short stories, but quite a few others too. The great thing is that you can easily read a big variety in a short space of time, no getting stuck in a book for weeks or months on end.

I'm going to start off with some science fiction & fantasy stories this time.

'Nightfall' by Isaac Asimov (available as an audio story here or as a pdf here). This was written in 1941 but has not aged at all, and is everything a science fiction story should be. The story is about a solar eclipse, but also is a story about superstition and ignorance versus knowledge and science. At least I think it is, it is a while since I've read this one.

'Fermi and Frost' by Frederick Pohl. (available online here). A story about the end of the world and nuclear winter. A bit dated now, but I thought this was a fabulous story. I talked about it a bit more in this blog post from a couple of years ago.

'The Paper Menagerie' by Ken Liu. (available here) If you don't read science fiction short stories, you've probably never heard of Ken Liu, but in science fiction circles he's considered one of the finest modern short story writers (modern as in the last 10 years). I suppose this is technically a fantasy story, but really there's just the smallest touch of magic in it, other than which it is a normal contemporary short story and a very good one too. It is about family, parenthood and the problems that can come when different cultures collide. This story won the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award.

Talking about good modern authors, Ted Chiang is another name most people won't have heard of, not surprisingly as he's not written any novels, and has only published 14 short stories in a 20 year career although many of them have won science fiction's top awards. You don't get many science fiction short story writers being written about in The Economist, but you can read this excellent article about him here. I've only read a couple of his stories so far, including 'Exhalation' about a strange universe inhabited by sentient mechanical beings. I read this online, but can't seem to find it now. There is a free audio version though. Chiang's stories can be quite philosophical, and really make you think.

There's many online magazines and websites which publish new short stories every month, week or even day. I'll maybe talk about some of these in a later post, but for now I thought I'd pick one I'd read recently. It isn't a classic or famous story (though it was nominated for the Nebula award in 2013), but is one I enjoyed a lot. It is 'The Sounds of Old Earth' by Matthew Kressel published online in Lightspeed Magazine. It is about a future polluted Earth, which is to be evacuated and and everyone shipped off to New Earth. It's about an old man who has too many memories and doesn't want to leave. It is also about frogs.

So there you go, five stories all available online. If you are after classic sci-fi, go for Nightfall, if you fancy a bit of nostalgia, go for the Sounds of Old Earth, and if you aren't much into science fiction or fantasy, have a read of The Paper Menagerie. Or just read them all.

If you read (or have already read) any of the stories, do comment and let me know what you think, or if you've got any short stories you really recommend - in any genre - then tell me, I'm always on the look out for good short fiction to read.

Next time I'll probably talk about some more mainstream, non science fiction/fantasy short stories, but despite reading some supposed classics I am struggling for stories I really love. Anyway, that's for next time.

The Rosie Project (and what makes a perfect book)

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Genre: Contemporary/comic
No. of pages: 300

Don Tillman in a thirty nine year old Genetics professor at an Australian university, and he has decided that he would like to get married. He has come to this conclusion  because studies show that married people live happier, more productive and fulfilled lives. Plus it is so much more efficient and economical, sharing the cost of living, cooking meals for two rather than one... Unfortunately he's never really had a relationship that has lasted beyond the first date, people - particularly women - do find him a bit weird, as his social skills are not very good. Also, he is very particular about the sort of woman he would be able to live with - they shouldn't drink (much), should be intelligent, must not smoke, be able to dance... One day he has the perfect idea of how to solve it - a very detailed questionnaire, so he can screen out all of the unsuitable candidates. So begins The Wife Project. He's after the perfect wife and many are unsuitable, none more so than Rosie...

Before I get on to what I thought of The Rosie Project, in the spirit of the story I would try out The Book Project and see how suitable this book is. So here's my list of what I'd need to make the perfect book.

1. Beautiful writing, the kind of prose that really sucks you in, makes you feel like you are there, drinking in every delightful word.
2. A good story, well constructed and not predictable.
3. Characters that you really get to know and care about what happens to them
4. A sense of awe and wonder
5. Lots of really fascinating detail, where you learn a lot.
6. A real page turner.
7. A happy ending
8. A world in which you can escape into and forget your real life worries
9. The right length, not too long that it takes forever to read, but not so short that it is over too soon.
10. An overall great feeling at the end that you've just read a fantastic book that you want to tell everyone about.

So how did this book fare? Well like Rosie, this book fails many of the criteria: the writing isn't beautiful (it isn't that kind of book, it is short and snappy rather than overly verbose), the book is nothing if not predictable and there's no sense of awe or wonder. You never really escape into it, like you would with some books, and it is not exactly a page turner though it is a quick read. So what does it have in its favour? Well I really liked the character of Don. He is rather odd by most standards but that just makes him quite endearing and I really found myself hoping and wishing everything would turn out for him. It is funny in many places, sometimes laugh out loud funny, and it has *very slight spoiler* a happy ending. And as for number 10, it did leave me with a great feeling of having read a great book (though now, a few days later this has faded a fair bit, quicker than may be the case with heavier fare).

So it fails many of the above tests, but then that's the point really isn't it? That's why you don't judge a book (or a woman) on the results of a questionnaire!

I feel I should mention one criticism of the book, which is that it isn't actually very reflective of people with Asperger's Syndrome and in fact is potentially quite insulting to them. I don't know about this, but although Asperger's is mentioned, Don doesn't think of himself as having this, and there is at most the inference that he has, it is never explicitly stated. I don't think the author intended this to be a serious book about people with Asperger's or similar mental conditions. It is meant to be a light hearted, heart warming and funny book, and in this the author has definitely been successful. I'd give this a 9/10, just. I nearly marked it down for being a bit too light and fluffy, but in the end I didn't have the heart to.

Guards! Guards! (Arrest that dragon!)

Book:  'Guards! Guards' by Terry Prachett
Series: Discworld series (book 8, but standalone)
Genre: Comic Fantasy

I'm a bit of a sucker for a beautiful book. I'm talking here about a really beautiful looking book (though obviously beautiful writing is good too). This is the way the publishing industry is going too, publishing really lovely hardback editions of books to try and entice readers to buying actual physical books for way over the odds. It worked for me. This is one of those gorgeous, textured hardcover books that feels great to hold. It's stylistic cover is all oranges, yellows and silver, with a large fire breathing dragon gliding over the cityscape of Ankh Morpork.

They do say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover though, so lets go and see what's inside. 'Guards! Guards!' by Terry Pratchett is a Discworld^* novel, the eighth in the series. For those that don't know, the Discworld novels - of which there are about forty to date - is a series of comic fantasy novels by Terry Pratchett, set in the fictional Discworld. Novels can, by and large, be read in any order and in fact many Pratchett fans would argue that the first couple of books aren't the best starting point. This book is the first book to feature the City Watch^{^} - Captain Vimes, Carrot, Nobby and Colon amonst others and is as good a starting point as any (Mort is another really good one to start with).

I'm not a diehard Pratchett fan by any means, I've read a few books before, but never any of the City Watch books, though friends have suggested these are some of their favourite Pratchatt books. So I thought I'd give this one a go. The premise of the book is that the City Watch is at an all-time low, the Captain is a hopeless drunk and his two sub-ordinates are just...hopeless. Then Carrot, an eager six foot plus dwarf joins the watch, the first volunteer in... well, a long time. Soon after his arrival a dragon arrives in mysterious circumstances and the Watch actually have a job to do for once.

I really enjoyed this book. Pratchett is a very funny writer. He makes a lot out of metaphors and word-play - for instance when one Vimes tells one of the Watch to 'throw the book' at the bad guy, that's what he does, literally. He makes good use of footnotes^# for particularly amusing additions to the main story, and so it is always worth reading those. Sometimes 'comic' authors try to be funny but just fall short, but not this author, he actually is very funny. What's more though, there is actually a good story - it is a somewhat stereotypical fantasy story - dragon threatens city - hero arrives to challenge it - but that is entirely the point here! This completely turns the story on its head and makes much fun of the stereotypes.

So that's good humour, good story and to add to that, there's good characters which you really care about too. They're funny and a bit silly, but sincere too, you believe in them. The main character Captain Vimes, starts out a drunkard who barely does anything, he doesn't want to be that way, but doesn't know how else to be. The arrival of danger in the city gives him the impetous to actually change, and be more the person he always wanted to be. Then there's Carrot, an eager young recruit who believes in (and knows off by heart) the law, when no one else does. He also takes everything literally, which is rather funny a lot of the time.

Pulling off both being funny and telling a good story is quite a challenge, but Pratchett really manages it well in this novel. I'm going to give this a solid 8/10.

If you enjoy this book, then you'll probably enjoy the rest of the Discworld novels. If you particularly like the characters in this book, then you'll want to check out the other two books in the City Watch trilogy - 'Men at Arms' and 'Feet of Clay'.

^*These are 'must read' books for  members of the Flat Earth Society, as the Discworld is literally that, a flat disc. Resting on top of four elephants. Who are atop a giant turtle. Which is flying through space. All fairly normal really.
^Watch is probably an apt name, as it is not like they actually do anything.
^# Like this. Not that I'm copying or anything. Erm.