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I decided I need more space to talk about a book than I'm allowing myself in my master book list for the year, so I'm making a real post to talk about it. And, well, myself. Because I'm ultimately a narcissistic person, and that's what I do. ;)
I Remember the Future: The Award-Winning Stories of Michael A. Burstein
So, I will preface this by noting that I know Michael personally. He was my physics teacher in high school, and taught a SF-writing class that I attended there as well. He was the one who arranged an amazing small-group talk I had with Orson Scott Card in my senior year, and we still talk when we run into each other at conventions or the like, though we haven't seen each other in a few years. He was a fantastic teacher in the classroom but much more out of the classroom: I always knew his door was open to any student who wanted help or just to talk, and he was amazingly patient with those of us who had images of ourselves as writers someday, even when we almost certainly made idiots out of ourselves with him. ;)
So I read his stories from time to time through the years, early on because it was someone I KNEW, OMG OMG, and later because it happened to be an idea that resonated with me or because it was on a ballot somewhere and available for free download. I'd read around a third of the stories in this book, I think, and a handful of those that didn't make it in. (Incidentally, my favorite of his stories, "In Space, No One Can Hear" is not in this book.)
So anyway, I got the book when it came out on the Kindle with a mingled sense of expectation and fear. In some ways, I hate reading things written by friends, because I am afraid I will not like it. And I committed back in January to keeping a list of everything I wrote, with commentary, for '09. Since I know Michael actually reads my blog (hi, Michael!) I cringed from it a bit. But hey, commitment to self. So here we are.
So, in fairness... I did not really enjoy reading this collection. The problem, I think, goes back to my internal battle with SF. I love the ideas that spur SF, but I don't always like the execution. Some people compare Burstein to Asimov, and that may be fair. I don't like Asimov, either. Or Clarke. Heinlein was sometimes okay (Stranger in a Strange Land) and sometimes annoying and distant and weird as heck (Moon is a Harsh Mistress). I worked in a SF/Fantasy bookstore in high school, and I remember vividly that people harassed me to read more SF to balance my fantasy. I kept asking them to get me examples of SF stories that read more like fantasy, with gripping characters and comfortable-to-read prose and driving, enthralling plots full of human drives and desires. Science is great, I said, but if I wanted just science, I'd be reading science, not fiction.
I think one of my problems with this book is that the stories I was most inclined to like, I'd read before, so they didn't jump out at me. "Teleabsence," "Sanctuary," "Decisions," and especially "Kaddish for the Last Survivor" are really remarkable stories, and well worth the read. "Empty Spaces," which is new for this collection, also really grabbed and held my interest. The protagonist, Anita, reminds me to an almost painful level of myself, and the way her personal struggles and doubts both hinder and help her really makes this a stellar story for me. I went back and re-read it immediately after finishing the first time, and I suspect I'll go back to it again soon.
Huh. In retrospect, this book comes across better than I thought, with 5 out of 15 stories I really enjoyed. I think it really did suffer from the fact that 4 of those 5 were ones I'd read before, and only one of the remaining 10 falls in that category.
I think my problem with most of the stories is that in most of them, the science is really the main character. The science is the one with problems that need to be overcome, and while the science always has a satisfying resolution, the problems of the people that surround it sometimes feel artificial or too neatly tied up. Interpersonal problems are wrapped up without showing the intervening steps, and dialogue is sometimes stilted and unnatural.
As hard SF, it succeeds, and the fact that every story but one in the book has been nominated for a major award certainly backs that up. What it drives home for me, though, is that I'm really not a lover of hard SF.
I like science fiction as a genre, but it has always been about the maybes for me, the idea of people in this world or that future or under this system. I like reading about the societies of the future, the politics, the human ramifications. Also, I am a snob for language.
I love language. When I was a teenager, even early into my early 20s, I wanted to be a writer because I loved words. I wanted to do something with them, something amazing and real. The problem is that I don't have the follow-through to be an author. I can't envision plots, I can't script stories from point A to point G through the intervening steps, and I can't figure out how to construct a story in a way that's not painfully linear. If I'd chosen that path, I probably could have been a good speechwriter, now that I think on it. Instead, I program web applications. I still occasionally dabble or dream, but I've come around to the idea that it's not going to happen. Not what I hoped for, but hey. I chose different paths for myself.
I cannot help thinking, however, that beauty in prose is inherently worth more than anything else. I want writing to roll, to make the reading of it enjoyable for me. I'll forgive bad plots, stupid premises, and logical errors much more easily than I will bad prose, and well done poetic prose wins my intense admiration. I like it when the writing drags me along by rhythm and pacing of sentences, not just interest in the storyline.
At any rate. I will probably go back to the book from time to time, though picking and choosing the stories, and I'd cautiously recommend it to anyone who likes their SF hard or who is fascinated by unique ideas for their own merit: some of the stories in here have genuinely intriguing concepts.
(Incidentally,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wickedolbaggins, I am talking to YOU with that last. ;))
And now I am off to somehow summarize this for inclusion in my master book list. Hahaha. Maybe I will just do a link. ;)
I Remember the Future: The Award-Winning Stories of Michael A. Burstein
So, I will preface this by noting that I know Michael personally. He was my physics teacher in high school, and taught a SF-writing class that I attended there as well. He was the one who arranged an amazing small-group talk I had with Orson Scott Card in my senior year, and we still talk when we run into each other at conventions or the like, though we haven't seen each other in a few years. He was a fantastic teacher in the classroom but much more out of the classroom: I always knew his door was open to any student who wanted help or just to talk, and he was amazingly patient with those of us who had images of ourselves as writers someday, even when we almost certainly made idiots out of ourselves with him. ;)
So I read his stories from time to time through the years, early on because it was someone I KNEW, OMG OMG, and later because it happened to be an idea that resonated with me or because it was on a ballot somewhere and available for free download. I'd read around a third of the stories in this book, I think, and a handful of those that didn't make it in. (Incidentally, my favorite of his stories, "In Space, No One Can Hear" is not in this book.)
So anyway, I got the book when it came out on the Kindle with a mingled sense of expectation and fear. In some ways, I hate reading things written by friends, because I am afraid I will not like it. And I committed back in January to keeping a list of everything I wrote, with commentary, for '09. Since I know Michael actually reads my blog (hi, Michael!) I cringed from it a bit. But hey, commitment to self. So here we are.
So, in fairness... I did not really enjoy reading this collection. The problem, I think, goes back to my internal battle with SF. I love the ideas that spur SF, but I don't always like the execution. Some people compare Burstein to Asimov, and that may be fair. I don't like Asimov, either. Or Clarke. Heinlein was sometimes okay (Stranger in a Strange Land) and sometimes annoying and distant and weird as heck (Moon is a Harsh Mistress). I worked in a SF/Fantasy bookstore in high school, and I remember vividly that people harassed me to read more SF to balance my fantasy. I kept asking them to get me examples of SF stories that read more like fantasy, with gripping characters and comfortable-to-read prose and driving, enthralling plots full of human drives and desires. Science is great, I said, but if I wanted just science, I'd be reading science, not fiction.
I think one of my problems with this book is that the stories I was most inclined to like, I'd read before, so they didn't jump out at me. "Teleabsence," "Sanctuary," "Decisions," and especially "Kaddish for the Last Survivor" are really remarkable stories, and well worth the read. "Empty Spaces," which is new for this collection, also really grabbed and held my interest. The protagonist, Anita, reminds me to an almost painful level of myself, and the way her personal struggles and doubts both hinder and help her really makes this a stellar story for me. I went back and re-read it immediately after finishing the first time, and I suspect I'll go back to it again soon.
Huh. In retrospect, this book comes across better than I thought, with 5 out of 15 stories I really enjoyed. I think it really did suffer from the fact that 4 of those 5 were ones I'd read before, and only one of the remaining 10 falls in that category.
I think my problem with most of the stories is that in most of them, the science is really the main character. The science is the one with problems that need to be overcome, and while the science always has a satisfying resolution, the problems of the people that surround it sometimes feel artificial or too neatly tied up. Interpersonal problems are wrapped up without showing the intervening steps, and dialogue is sometimes stilted and unnatural.
As hard SF, it succeeds, and the fact that every story but one in the book has been nominated for a major award certainly backs that up. What it drives home for me, though, is that I'm really not a lover of hard SF.
I like science fiction as a genre, but it has always been about the maybes for me, the idea of people in this world or that future or under this system. I like reading about the societies of the future, the politics, the human ramifications. Also, I am a snob for language.
I love language. When I was a teenager, even early into my early 20s, I wanted to be a writer because I loved words. I wanted to do something with them, something amazing and real. The problem is that I don't have the follow-through to be an author. I can't envision plots, I can't script stories from point A to point G through the intervening steps, and I can't figure out how to construct a story in a way that's not painfully linear. If I'd chosen that path, I probably could have been a good speechwriter, now that I think on it. Instead, I program web applications. I still occasionally dabble or dream, but I've come around to the idea that it's not going to happen. Not what I hoped for, but hey. I chose different paths for myself.
I cannot help thinking, however, that beauty in prose is inherently worth more than anything else. I want writing to roll, to make the reading of it enjoyable for me. I'll forgive bad plots, stupid premises, and logical errors much more easily than I will bad prose, and well done poetic prose wins my intense admiration. I like it when the writing drags me along by rhythm and pacing of sentences, not just interest in the storyline.
At any rate. I will probably go back to the book from time to time, though picking and choosing the stories, and I'd cautiously recommend it to anyone who likes their SF hard or who is fascinated by unique ideas for their own merit: some of the stories in here have genuinely intriguing concepts.
(Incidentally,
wickedolbaggins, I am talking to YOU with that last. ;))And now I am off to somehow summarize this for inclusion in my master book list. Hahaha. Maybe I will just do a link. ;)
no subject
Hi!
If you ever want to discuss these stories off line at some point, I'd be glad to.
I'm glad "Empty Spaces" resonated with you.
"In Space, No One Can Hear" is one of my favorite stories too. Maybe the next collection.