Dawn of Wonder (The Wakening)

I've just listened to the best audio book ever.

That may be a little bit superfluous, but I don't care, I loved it.

I bought this book because it was on Audible's list of the best books of last year, and they were right.

The book is called Dawn of Wonder, and it is the first book in a series called The Wakening by Jonathan Renshaw.  From what I understand, this is Mr. Renshaw's first published work, and he is off to an amazing start.

As a synopsis with spoilers only for the first few chapters (of a total of sixty six or so), I will say this book is about a 12 year old boy whose best friend is kidnapped and sold to be sacrificed by a strange civilization.  He then chooses to dedicate his life to avenging her death.

The first thing that I noticed about the book, listening to the sample chapter, was the delicious way Renshaw described the natural world and its unnatural disturbances.  Beautiful, detailed descriptions are given to the fantastic "pearlnut trees" as well as to more familiar features of the landscape.

This book is definitely high fantasy in the sense that it takes place in some fictional world, but there are only a few instances of things that could be considered magical.  I would say the book is mostly pretty grounded in rational ideas, but occasionally something that resembles the supernatural does happen.

I would describe the action sequences as being over the top.  In trying to describe violence, puzzles, and traps, I would say it's along the lines of Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Caribbean.  It resembles slapstick, but it is serious, and the actions of the characters do have consequences.

I would say this first book in the series is appropriate for most young adult readers.  I would be remiss in failing to mention that there is a copious amount of child abuse in the book.  There is no lewd content or foul language, but it does deal with some very heavy themes (like slavery), and it also features a copious amount of violence.

Overall, I think the word outstanding fairly describes this ambitious first entry in The Wakening series.  I await the second installment with much anticipation.  I don't have any theories about where it's going to go from here, which is a rare thing for me.

Clan of the Cave Bear

So, getting back to my little project of reading as many good books as I possibly can, I recently read Clan of the Cave Bear.

Clan of the Cave Bear is the first book in a series called Earth's Children by Jean M. Auel.  I will start out by saying that the series becomes increasingly difficult to slog through.  I've been stranded in the middle of the third book for weeks.  They have a huge number of scenes that are so awkward and uncomfortable I find myself skipping almost full chapters.  I'd prefer the books spent more time on the anthropology they're drawn from and less time on romance and mating rituals.  There are people and places with names so ridiculous I won't even attempt to spell them.  The main male character is sometimes very irritating.  I will attempt to finish the series in its entirety, as I've heard nothing but good things.  I have the next two books at ready in case I finish the third one soon.

All of that said, I can remember hearing the title of the first book as long as I can remember, and there's a reason for that.  Clan of the Cave Bear is among the best books I've ever read.  I would never have imagined a story about Neanderthals could be so poignant and entertaining.  I was genuinely touched by Auel's imaginative storytelling and beautifully constructed characters.

The story follows a young Cro Magnum girl named Ayla who is adopted by a family of Neanderthal people.  Together, they have to find a new cave and survive a harsh environment.  Ayla's life is further complicated by the Neanderthal clan's ridged societal norms and customs.  There are many impulses Ayla has to deny in order to fit in with her adoptive family.  Ayla must carve out a role for herself in order to survive, with many obstacles along the way.

The most enjoyable part of this story for me are Ayla's Neanderthal family members.  They're complex, developed characters, some of whom are based in part on real skeletal finds.  My attachment to these flawed but lifelike characters really drove my interest through the first book.  It really helps my enjoyment of the book knowing the results of recent genetic testing that find Neanderthal genes in many modern humans.

There's a lot of science and scientific speculation in this book.  I'm sure many academics have tried to pick it apart and show which parts of it are likely accurate and which parts are completely made up.  Auel did a lot of research, but the book is definitely more art that science.  The line between the real and the imagined is blurred in a unique, distinctive way.  There are parts of it I would argue are science fiction, and there are parts that are unadulterated fantasy, and that's absolutely intriguing.  It makes me want to read more like it, though I wouldn't know where to begin to look for something like this.  So far the second and third books really lack some of the unexplainable magic of the first one, but I'm hopeful for a return to that.

While it did occur to me that Ayla has an unrealistic ability to excel at almost everything she tries, Ayla is an impressive character.  Even though the second book was mostly her alone in the wilderness, she was still much more compelling by herself than the other main character was interacting with a huge number of other characters.  She has a tendency to invent all the tools our ancestors needed to survive almost entirely by herself, but I still find her vulnerable enough that I care what happens to her.  I would describe the character as a feminist icon, a woman who does all the things she's not suppose to do.

A movie adaptation of this exists, but I can't imagine it could do the book any kind of justice at all.  Most of the dialog is spoken in sign language in the book, which would make it very difficult for most hearing people to follow if they did a faithful adaptation.  An adaptation with a lot of spoken words would take out most of the drama of the early chapters of the story.

I would give the first book all of the stars.  It's extremely enjoyable.

My Top Ten Mars One Candidates

I am fascinated by space travel.  I have this wonderful romantic vision of Earth's future, brought on in part perhaps by Gene Roddenberry's five year mission to boldly go.  When I first heard about Mars One's mission, I was firstly shocked I hadn't heard about it sooner, and secondly energized.  What an amazing time to be alive, when human beings are so confident they can make it to Mars!  Recently, Mars One narrowed the field of candidates to take this (one way!) trip to 100 people, and I'm sure the people in charge dread narrowing the field any further!  There are so many greatly qualified candidates.

At this stage, we aren't certain whether the final selections are destined for greater glory or doomed to die at some point along the way.  That's in the nature of exploration.  Many great explorers lost their lives in pursuit of the frontier of human knowledge.  One internet comment pointed out that if we cannot yet put a man at the bottom of the sea, how could we ever hope to reach Mars?  This is an excellent question.  I counter that question with another question.  How can we know whether we could do it or not if we do not try?  I think, in another life, one where I didn't love other people so much, where I had no strong roots to hold me here, and where I had been given a body more prone to athletics, this might have been my dream.  I might have wished for that rocket to another world as these 100 people do.

I've developed a list of the best ten candidates (in my opinion), and I will disclose that list to you here.  Before I do so, let me tell you a little bit about the process I went through to select these ten people.  First of all, any person who had a poorly produced video (bad sound, lots of background noise) was immediately disqualified from selection.  Secondly, if they were annoying or unfocused, I immediately lost interest.  The first people to set foot on Mars should be at least somewhat charismatic, if they're annoying I know I would not be able to suffer through watching video updates from them on Mars.  Thirdly, I tended to pick people who appeared to be somewhat young and healthy.  This is ageist and wrong in a job interview setting, but for the purpose of sending individuals to Mars, I felt it acceptable.  We're talking about a one way trip.  If the person is not in good health, they cannot come home.  The trip isn't scheduled for another ten years, so it's important that the candidate is still healthy ten years from now and has potential to work at the colony for a long time after that, which in my opinion should disqualify some of the candidates currently in their 50's.  My final selections tended to be resourceful people with multiple useful skill sets, particularly in physics, piloting, robotics, medicine, and agriculture.

I want the final Martians to be a diverse, hard working, intelligent group of people on whom a new society can be built.  In selecting these ten finalists (a list that would have to be further whittled down to six), I'm confronting some of the logistical challenges that I'm sure Mars One administrators are facing at this time.  Do not, however, mistake my choices here for purely scientific ones, because I can assure you, entertainment value was a factor in the final selection.

Here are my ten favorite candidates, five men and five women who I believe are ready to start the journey to Mars.

Cody
American
This gentleman makes the best argument for his usefulness on Mars of any candidate, and he does it while hanging upside down.  He has agricultural skills (including bee keeping!), he's in good shape, he is familiar with harvesting solar power.  He can work on the machinery.  He's got mining experience.  This guy is excellent,

Laurel
American
This young woman is studying both physics and premed, which certainly makes her stand out.  She's a clear speaker, with heartfelt opinions on why the trip to Mars is necessary.

Maggie
American
She's an electrical engineer and real life anime character with interests in physics, math, chemistry, and robotics.  When I saw her in her kendo outfit with her sword at the ready, I knew she was either a very serious martial arts enthusiast or someone from the con scene, and it turned out she was a cosplayer.  One of her pictures is of herself in a Roxas cosplay from Kingdom Hearts II.

Dr. Joseph Roche
Irish
He's an excellent communicator, which is necessary.  He's worked for NASA and teaches science.  He's charismatic and likable.

Tatiana
Russian
She's a PhD student in particle physics at Princeton University.  Her hobbies include mountain climbing and computer hardware.  With her cool Russian accent and her awesome anime hair, I would definitely watch her video updates.

Ryan
British
He's accessible.  He's a masters physics student.  He seems deeply passionate about going on this trip.  This is the guy that inspired me to make this list.  If I had to pick the final team, he would definitely be on it, because of these people, he's the most able to rationally explain why he wants to go even knowing he won't be coming back.

Laura
American (Eastern Woodlands Cherokee)
She's a human factors engineer and pilot.  She's a motivated, social person interested in plants and botany.  She has several active hobbies including biking and scuba diving.  I have my doubts about sending her, though, because her video was filmed by another person who asked her questions.  I could tell by his voice that he cared about her very much.  She has attachments, and I worry that leaving them would be difficult, but then I imagine all of these people would be leaving someone behind.

Pietro
Italian
He's a medical student.  He's got computer skills.  He's climbs mountains.

Maggie Lieu
British
She's a PhD student in Astrophysics, space science, and Astronomy.  She has teaching experience, which could be useful on the mission.

Taranjeet Singh Bhatia
Indian
Why Taranjeet:  He has skills in computers and robotics.  He's athletic.  He's charming.

That's my list of likely finalist candidates.  Let me know in the comments if I missed somebody you'd rather see on Mars, or if you think some of these people are the wrong fit.

Journey to the land of Xanth: Ogre, Ogre

This is the first Xanth book I've ever attempted to read, so I was in for some surprises.  I should start by mentioning that I'm only about a third of the way through this book.  The back cover says that the main character, "Smash," is going to escort seven girls through Xanth, and so far he's only picked up three.  Tandy, the Siren, and John are interesting enough, each going along with the quest for their own particular reasons.  Smash is certainly the most well developed character so far, an Ogre with a difference.  Early in the book, I was inclined to compare this character to Shrek, and they are very similar.  Smash is half human, and even his father was sensitive by ogre standards.

Things I didn't really like about the book so far:
There's quite a bit of plot going on.  I'm tempted to say this novel is too busy for my standards, with so much plot and subplot and so much complication in a short period of time.

The opening scenes with the demon attempting to rape Tandy are pretty repulsive.

Also, as this is my first excursion into the mythical kingdom of Xanth, I should mention my initial reaction to it.  I think it's a ridiculously silly place.  Lime soda trees and pillow bushes are too far off the deep end even for me.  I was completely overwhelmed with the author's desire to explore various words with the word cat in them and embellish them into a location.  Catfish, catamount, caterpillar, catacombs, catbird...  I'm sure some of them have escaped me.  Every step further he took that, the more incredulous I was about it.  Xanth is bizarre.

Things I liked about this book so far:
The Nightmares are really interesting, especially as a method of transportation.  That was creative and interesting.

There are a lot of really cool female characters in this book so far doing interesting, active things.

I like Smash as a character.  It's interesting to see that this existed before the Shrek films.

More to come...