The songs of Distant Earth: Arthur C.Clarke

Hey,
This is gonna be my first post...infact..in the entire blog!!
Well,
This book is one that comes from one of the "Big three" of science fiction, Arthur. C. Clarke.
Firstly, I have read quite a few works of Clarke, like Rendezvous with Rama & Space Odeyssey:2001...typical science fiction.
Those are infact classical science fiction today..but, one thing I got hold by chance was "The songs of distant earth".
The one word I get to describe this one is...Underplayed...
There is ofcourse the mandatory science fiction element...but, Clarke dealing with emotions is a rare one that I found in this one...Clarke is not brilliant in doing this...but nevertheless, comes out quite well on it. The finish is really brilliantly constructed, though it may seem to be coming suddenly, it adds substance to the story...

Science fiction guys, try to read this one...This would definitely not be on top..but it is a must read for those who begin science fiction...

That's it about the book...

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

One word that pops up in my mind when I think of "The Kite Runner" is brilliant. Just that - brilliant.

It is not often that a book can bring tears to my eyes. Unlike the spoken word or the shown scene, I believe it takes an awful lot of mastery for the written word to move your emotions that much. Khaled Hosseini does just that in "The Kite Runner". The novel is a canvas filled with imagery as varied as anybody's life story is. One thing that struck me about the book was the marked difference in the tone and the circumstances at the beginning of the story and at the end. They are a world apart, not literally though. Before I began to read the book, I knew that it had to do with Afghanistan. With newsreels of the Taliban flashing through my mind, I expected the book to be another graphic description of inhumanity. I was not prepared for the almost serene beginning and the way the book started lead me to assume that the entire book would be a look at an innocent past, now lost. I was wrong again. That is what fascinated me about the book. It was a reminiscence of a past, it was the horror of the past. It contained the truth of the present and the lingering question mark of the later. Everything tied down to the earth and everyday life.

The book takes us to a time and place when Afghanistan was just another country on the planet. A country with its class differences, just like many others. People were very rich or very poor. People were masters or servants. People were privileged Pathans or exploited Hazaras. Amidst the undercurrent of unrest, there was a sort of acceptance and calm. Then the world changed. Atleast Afghanistan did. Change swept past a number of times. Unlike other revolutions where the minorities usually won equal rights, the Afghan Hazaras were exploited even more. The difference in caste was not thrown away even under turmoil. The Kite Runner manages to take us through this roller coaster ride and immerse us in the sadness of it all. It manages to bring to us Afghanistan's modern history in its entirety, all in the span of a few hundred pages. It does this without an elaborate epic. Just a chapter here and a chapter there and yet you are left overwhelmed by the cruelty and the horror we are capable of.

The protagonist is a very normal human being - selfish, self-centered and cowardly. Even when his past stares him in the eye and his guilt tortures his soul, he does not change immediately change. He goes to the extent of becoming angry when he learns some truths that were hidden from him. He questions the sins of his father while conveniently forgetting his own sins. He is not about heroism or courage under fire. He is normal and human. It takes time for him to realise that he is meant to care for someone else. Not a selfless act mind you, but an almost selfish desire to redeem himself of his sins.

A little child is the protagonist's ticket to redemption. A little boy, not even a teenager, whose innocence is raped by a sadist. A sadist, like the rest of the Taliban, who used class and creed as his license to torture and demean a fellow human being. An evil-being that killed people claiming the law of the God, but did not find himself bound by the same law. I cannot do justice to the emotions that rushed through me when I unsuccessfully attempted to imagine how the child might have felt, how it must've hurt him. I cannot describe the honest hurt that the passages about the Taliban brought to me. The what-ifs that crept into my mind are best left undiscovered.

The book left me feeling helpless and praying that we, humans, be saved from ourselves. I am sure you will be, too. An astoundingly fresh first book!

Cell - Stephen King

Disclaimer: No spoiler-checks in place.

"The king of macabre" is what he is called and this chilling tale proves he still is the best writer of fantasy/horror fiction ever.

The book is simply titled "Cell". Yes, Cell as in mobile phones. The story, like most of King's works, is set in a contemporary current-day setting. What better represents the modern society than a cell? Mobiles phones have become the backbone upon which communication rides all over the world. In the story, this ubiquitous gadget is the carrier of the Pulse - the Pulse that churns the world into chaos in the matter of a few minutes.

The book contains all the trademarks of a Stephen King work - it's well paced, it scares you, it has gore and it makes you wonder "what if". No, the story is not about demons or ghosts. The main characters, both the good and the evil ("the normal and the abnormal" would be more appropriate), are biologically humans. They start out as everyday people. It's the pulse that changes a majority of them into the 'phone crazies'. Ofcourse, the pulse is only the facilitator of the story and is not the story by itself.

The words lend themself to visualization, often just enough to scare the wits out of you. The narrative is explosive to say the least. The best thing about the book is that no matter how much you contemplate, you will not want to predict the exact end. The story is told in such a way that, you can visualize a number of different endings to the story. This book is definitely not about mere suspense, yet it has all the ingredients to keep the suspense at near-boiling point.

Don't mistake the book to be just about blood, horror and gore. King quite masterfully expresses the emotions that we feel and the way we behave under certain situations. Not just the common emotions or characteristics, often the more primitive ones. We do know what these emotions are and how they manifest themselves but, we cannot express them as words. King's telling of it makes us go "That's exactly how I would have felt". That's the power Stephen King has over words.

The story uses the concept of the human brain as a computer hard-disk. What will happen if the current programming on the disk is fully erased? What happens when this erasure leaves only the 'primary directive' behind? How will humans regenerate or reprogram themself from scratch, if given a chance? "Cell" does not pretend to be a sci-fi book with answers. It merely uses a hypothesis and weaves a story around it. The result is a massively addictive book. Like every other Stephen King book I have read, the "Cell" made me curse the need to put it down at night. Given the chance, I would not want to move until the book ended...

Links:
Cell - the website
Stephen King

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories - James Garner

I read this book "Politically Correct Bedtime Stories". One word describes it - utterly hilarious. That's two words but never mind. The author, James Garner, takes up the challenge of correcting our once-favourite fairy tales (tales that tend towards fantasies, if you please) to suit the modern speakscape of political propriety. I found it a very light-hearted book and a subtle commentary on modern ethos and values. People still swear, with worser words, yet there is this undercurrent of caution to avoid any form of bias especially when it comes to describing people that we consider to be less-endowed than ourselves. Garner captures this very well.

Garner has garnished the book with a host of phrases that you would find in modern parlance - vertically challenged, chronologically accomplished and odour-enhanced. What the author has rightly done is a conscious attempt to keep the words non-crowded and using variations of the words. This helps because the reader is not troubled by monotony.

The tales are not exact replicas of the originals. Infact most of the tales have endings that are completely different in an effort to keep with the way things work now. Hence we have the wolf, the grandma and Red Riding Hood setting up an alternate household in the woods. Cinderalla and the other wommonfolk setup a designer label - CinderWear.

The book can be finished in a single sitting or consumed as short eats. Garner has wisely restricted each of the story to a few pages. If Garner had instead decided to rewrite the stories in their completeness, the book would've lost its edge and become an utterly boring attempt at humour or a PJ in the local parlance. In its current form, the book is a source of good entertainment and not overtly cliched.

The book's short, simple and hilarious. Recommended, if you have want to relax and guffaw. Also a good read if you are looking to improve your political correctness. This is not to mean that I think that you need improvement nor to endorse the view that political correctness is a necessary trait.

Disclaimer: The opinions above are mine (by right and otherwise) and the intent is not to infringe on the rights of the others to their opinions. :D