The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam

Published by Flatiron Books on September 6, 2016

Like any account of war, particularly a civil war that arises out of ethnic conflict, brutal images dominate The Story of a Brief Marriage. Dinesh is in a refugee camp with other Sri Lankans, including children and adults who have lost limbs to shelling and mines. Bombs have flattened the hospitals, so doctors without surgical instruments or anesthetics perform swift amputations with kitchen knives. Dinesh transports the wounded and buries the dead. Staying in the camp, he hopes, will help him avoid involuntary recruitment by the movement.

The camp’s de facto administrator is a former school principal who lost his wife and son in the war. Since life is precarious, he feels a duty to arrange the marriage of his daughter, assuring that someone will take care of her in the event of his death. He decides that Dinesh has the intelligence and character to make him a good match for Ganga. Dinesh is not certain that he is in a position to take care of anyone, but he swallows his reservations and accepts the marriage as a matter of duty.

Humans are capable of astonishing horrors. It is always worth reading books like The Story of a Brief Marriage to be reminded of the senseless, wasteful, and tragic nature of ethnic conflict. The novel is relatively short, which I appreciate when the subject matter is so depressing. It is nevertheless important for people who have no personal exposure to ethnic conflict to gain an understanding of those conflicts from the personal accounts of others, fictional or otherwise.

Unfortunately, the atmosphere created in The Story of a Brief Marriage is stronger than the story it tells. In fact, the title tells the story -- more an incident than a story -- and much of the book’s content seems like filler as the reader waits for the inevitable end to arrive.

Some of the author’s choices of content are strange. The pages devoted to Dinesh’s effort to take a satisfying dump, like the pages devoted to Dinesh’s memories of a dying gecko, I could have lived without. A long stretch during the middle pages, during which Dinesh walks around in the dark and washes clothes while thinking about his life, is inexplicably dull. This is followed by two chapters that are only slightly less dull as Dinesh lies next to Ganga and wonders about their future. Writers can use soaring prose to make contemplative passages memorable, but the simple elegance of Anuk Arudpragasam’s writing style isn’t enough to overcome the weakness of the storytelling.

Any honest book about ethnic content (and The Story of a Brief Marriage is undeniably honest) is enlightening, to a degree. I am tempted not to say anything bad about a novel that addresses such an important subject. Still, this novel struck me as less enlightening than others of its kind. I can recommend the first half for its compelling atmosphere but the second half failed to sustain my interest.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Forsaken Skies by D. Nolan Clark

Published by Orbit on September 6, 2016

Forsaken Skies is a science fiction action novel, a space opera with a bit of military sf thrown in, although the military characters act in a rogue role, not in a sanctioned military operation. With one small exception, the ending is entirely predictable, but the story is well executed and the “feel good” nature of the ending will satisfy space opera fans who want to feel good after investing time in a fairly lengthy novel. Above all, the story is fun. That’s really all that I ask of space opera.

The story begins with a chase through space as Lanoe pursues Thom through wormholes while narrowly avoiding a disastrous encounter with a space station. A collision is averted by the quick thinking by a fellow named Valk. His actions also reveal the presence of two Nirayan stowaways who have come to the station in search of military protection for Niraya, which has recently had an unfortunate visit by a deadly machine. An invasion fleet, presumably bringing more such machines, is on the way.

Centrocorp is duking it out with another poly (transplanetary commercial monopolies) called DaoLink, making DaoLink a likely source of the attack. Many on Niraya view the attack as God’s judgment, although they have some difficulty explaining why God would need to send a fleet of ships instead of, for instance, turning all the Nirayans into pillars of salt.

We eventually learn that Centrocor doesn’t want to spend the money to defend Niraya. And so, naturally enough, Lanoe decides to take on the attacking fleet with the help of a small handful of military pilots (plus one civilian). Although retired as a pilot, the legendary Valk joins that team.

This lengthy novel has an abundance of subplots, including: (1) whether the pacifist Nirayans are willing to pony up for a fight; (2) whether the invaders are polys or aliens; (3) whether Lanoe will renew his romance with his wingwoman, Zhang, who recently exchanged her legless body for that of a younger blind woman; (4) whether Valk and Thom and Lanoe will replace their disenchantment with meaning or purpose (or death); and (5) what the heck us up with Valk anyway?

Predictably, the assembled team of pilots consists of a bunch of misfits, each of a type familiar to readers of science fiction and war novels. The well-born son who has issues with his father. The fighter pilot who lost her nerve. The old pilot who has been relegated to a desk job until he decides it’s time for a last hurrah. The young pilot who is a flying ace but lacks discipline. The aging leader who wants to find a cause worth fighting for. There’s even a familiar engineer who explains science to all the pilots. No, the engineer isn’t named Scotty.

Also predictably, three or four plucky humans can outwit, outfly, and outshoot an entire fleet of enemy ships. It’s good to be human.

Readers should not expect breathtaking prose from Forsaken Skies. Clichéd phrases and melodramatic dialog sneak in a bit too often. I don’t know how many times weapons belched fire or belched missiles or belched something else, but someone should give the weapons systems a dose of antacids. Most of the time, though, the writing is fine and the plot moves along at a steady pace.

Nor should the reader expect deep thought, although Lanoe does philosophize about the military industrial complex that drives war (without using that phrase). This is an action novel, not a novel of ideas, but the action is exciting and easy to visualize, so that’s fine. I can recommend Forsaken Skies to space opera fans who aren’t looking for anything other than a familiar story.

RECOMMENDED

Postscript: I write this review with a vague awareness that a controversy rages between fans who think science fiction is at its best and finest when it tells space opera stories and fans who think science fiction should push the boundaries by dealing with cutting-edge social issues. The former, "conservative" view apparently believes that science fiction should have stopped evolving in the 1950s, while the latter, "liberal" view sees science fiction as a vehicle for advancing social and political issues involving feminism, gender identity, and the like. The controversy apparently manifested itself in an alleged attempt by the conservatives to game the Hugo awards.

Science fiction has long been associated with an open-minded willingness to embrace new ideas, which makes it odd for fans to argue that science fiction shouldn't address the future in political terms. Even classic old-school science fiction, including 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, used science fiction to illuminate political and social issues. Hell, even the original Star Trek blended space opera with scripts that dealt with racism, militarism, and other social issues. The scope of science fiction is certainly broad enough to accommodate both space opera and stories that focus on social evolution, as well as all kinds of other stories. If Hugo awards are more likely to recognize a story that is new and different and provocative rather than a comfortable story that emphasizes the familiar, I don't understand why that merits complaint.

Darktown by Thomas Mullen

Published by Atria/37 INK on September 13, 2016

Darktown begins a few months after the first black police officers are sworn into the Atlanta Police Department. The key characters are a new black officer named Lucius Boggs and a new white officer named Dennis Rakestraw (Rake). Boggs is partnered with another black officer named Tommy Smith. Rake is partnered with Dunlow, an aging cop who prefers to beat black suspects rather than arrest them. Dunlow also encourages witnesses to lie and solicits bribes. Part of the novel involves the moral dilemma that Rake confronts as he decides whether justice includes finding the truth about crimes against black victims rather than blaming the crime on a convenient black suspect.

The primary plot thread concerns the murder of a black woman. Boggs and Smith last see her alive as she flees from a white man’s car. The white man is drunk and crashes into a light pole, but when they call white officers to investigate (because they have no authority to arrest or detain white suspects), Dunlow has a chummy conversation with the driver and lets him go. After the woman’s body is found, Boggs investigates her murder. Since he isn’t a detective, he places his job at risk by delving into a murder investigation, but the murder doesn’t seem to interest the white detectives. Whether justice will be done is the question that carries the novel.

Thomas Mullen has a nuanced view of his characters. The racists have their good moments and the victims of oppression have their bad moments. There is enough complexity in their personalities to make the primary characters realistic, rather than the stereotypes that novels set in a racist environment often become.

In the first half, the plot is just a frame for a larger story of racial injustice. The story’s background details stand as a reminder of how blatant racism endured in the south after the Second World War. Black officers entered the police station and the courthouse via a separate entrance, but they were headquartered in the basement of the black YMCA. They could not enter the courthouse wearing uniforms, but were required to change into their uniforms before testifying (and were assigned a broom closet for that purpose). Unlike white officers, they were not paid overtime for testifying.

The purpose of hiring black officers (at least from Boggs’ perspective) was to stop police brutality, but white officers continue to beat and kill black citizens. Yet the black community leaders (including Boggs’ father), eager for the new black officers to make waves in the department, don’t understand or appreciate what the new officers must endure every day if they want to keep their jobs — and their lives.

The first half might be a bit overdone, sacrificing pace for building a background. Fortunately, the story builds tension in the second half as Boggs and Rake pursue separate but converging investigations when they should be walking their beats. The crime is more complex than it first appears to be, which gives the story an extra shot of intrigue. The plot has the hallmarks of a classic noir mystery, making the novel an enjoyable read both for mystery fans and for readers who want to get a better sense of life in the segregated south shortly after World War II.

RECOMMENDED

A Death in the House and Other Stories by Clifford D. Simak

Published by Open Road Media on July 5, 2016

A Death in the House is volume 7 in the Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak series published by Open Road. The introduction attributes Simak’s apparent hiatus from science fiction in the mid-1930s to his work as a newspaper editor, moving from town to town in the Midwest after being hired to save sinking newspapers. At the same time, shrinking markets for sf left him with few places to which he could submit his work. Fortunately, the hiatus did not last long and Simak went on to produce some of science fiction's most memorable stories.

The stories (with publication dates) collected in this volume are:

"Operation Stinky" (1957) - A smelly alien meets a drunken human. This is an amusing story that previews themes that Simak developed in greater depth in “A Death in the House,” also collected in this volume.

"Green Thumb" (1954) - This intelligent alien plant story that also previews “A Death in the House.”

"When it’s Hangnoose Time in Hell" (1946) - A western.

"The Sitters" (1958) - Aliens prove to be twisted babysitters. Those who benefit might approve of the aliens’ approach but parents will be horrified.

"Tools" (1942) - An intelligent cloud of radon from Venus is messing with humans, but the radium industry is big business and profits matter more than people. Like many of Simak’s stories, “Tools” is optimistic even as it cautions against greed and other deadly sins.

"Target Generation" (1953) - A generation ship story with some twists. The story has some features in common with Brian Aldiss’ excellent 1958 novel, Non-Stop.

"War is Personal" (1945) - A “pilots behind enemy lines” war story.

"Nine Lives" (1957) - A time travel story with cats.

"A Death in the House" (1959) - A farmer finds a smelly plant-like alien that soon dies -- or does it? Simak’s humanity shines through in this story, as well as his sense that aliens (and by extension, humans who are different from us) are just as capable of empathy and kindness as we are. It’s my favorite story in the volume and one of Simak’s best.

"The Birch Clump Cylinder" (1974) - An alien starship drive that uses time as a source of energy falls to Earth, setting up a clever time travel story.

None of the stories in this volume are duds and all except the war story entertained me, but only one -- the title story -- shows Simak at this best. It’s interesting, however, to see how two of the earlier stories shaped the title story.

RECOMMENDED

Livia Lone by Barry Eisler

Published by Thomas & Mercer on October 25, 2016

Livia Lone follows a current trend in “vigilante justice” novels. A woman who suffered horrific abuse as a child becomes a hardened killer as an adult who avenges crime victims by killing their victimizers. My favorite of those is Taylor Stevens’ Vanessa Michael Munroe. Livia Lone struck me as an attempt to blend Munroe with Barry Eisler's professional killer, John Rain. Unfortunately, Lone isn’t as interesting as either Munroe or Rain. In fact, Livia Lone (speaking of either the character or the book) is predictable, too often boring, and way over-the-top.

Livia Lone is a cop, but in her off-duty time she murders rapists. That hobby lets her kill time while she waits for her true prey to be released from prison. Timothy Tyler was once her captor, and she wants him to tell her what happened to her sister after they were both trafficked as children from Thailand. Livia’s backstory is told in chapters that alternate with the present day.

The chapters set in the past explain how Livia came to be the person she is. Barry Eisler describes (in scenes that deliberately avoid being too graphic) sexual abuse by her captors and then by the influential American who adopts her. Contrasted with the evil adults who abused Livia are good adults who are kind to Livia. Livia’s backstory comes across as manipulative rather than honest, and characters from her past seem to exist only to make the reader cheer or boo.

In the present, Livia is a police detective specializing in sex crimes, particularly those involving children. Livia is on a crusade. That’s a bad quality in a real cop because crusades impair objectivity, but it’s also a bad quality in a fictional cop because crusaders do not tend to have multi-faceted personalities. That’s the novel’s biggest problem.

Nothing about Livia is surprising. Her life follows a blueprint. She is the icon of an abused child who overcomes her past by empowering herself. The only thing unique or interesting about Livia is that she conflates killing bad people with sexual bliss.

Other characters suffer from the same one-dimensionality. Livia’s classmate, his father, and a cop who eventually becomes involved in her life are such exemplars of good they should be wearing halos. Villainous characters are exemplars of pure evil. That’s common in thrillers (many readers seem to like a clear dichotomy between good and evil) but the failure to reflect the real world keeps me from recommending the novel to readers who are looking for something that might make them think.

With the exception of a few good people, every male Livia knows is a rapist or a child molester. Other than Livia, nearly every female is a victim, and they all agree that murdering victimizers is the best kind of justice. It’s enough to make me give up on the human race.

To give the story some action, Eisler has Lone confronting an attacker from time to time, but the scenes are so contrived that they do nothing to change the story’s predictable nature. Some of the abuse visited upon victims (but not Livia, because readers wouldn’t like that) is taken so far over-the-top that I just couldn’t believe any of it.

As I mentioned, the only interesting aspect of Livia is her kinky sexuality, even though I didn’t believe a moment of it. Oddly, Livia needs to get rough with a guy before she can enjoy sex with him. Of course, if a guy needs to get rough with her in order to enjoy sex, she kills him (which in itself is a kind of a sexual experience for her). The double standard would be an interesting character trait if it were acknowledged and explored, but like anything else that might give complexity to the story, it’s just ignored. Still, Livia’s kink is the only interesting aspect of her personality. People who feel justified about being a serial killer should be interesting, but Livia isn’t.

I’m disappointed that Livia Lone isn’t a better, deeper book. It is written in prose that flows smoothly and, while it could have been much tighter, the story moves at a reasonable pace. Many of Eisler’s fans will like this new series despite (or perhaps because of) its lack of nuance. I have no problem with that, but I don’t plan to read another one in this series and I can’t recommend this one. It gets a big ho-hum from me.

NOT RECOMMENDED