Book Review : Anne McCaffrey - The Rowan (The Tower and the Hive, I)

I must admit I decided to read The Rowan for two reasons. Firstly, I had never read anything by McCaffrey and secondly, judging by the curious looking cat on the cover of my second-hand hardcopy, I figured that the story featured a feline character of sorts. 

Well, there is a feline in the book - a precious barque cat, to be precise. True to their independent nature, however, it abandons its owner - Altair's most gifted telepathic inhabitant, the Rowan aka Angharad Gwyn - halfway through the story. 

Anne McCaffrey - The Rowan, ACE / Putnam, C.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1990, Cover Art: Romas (Romas Brandt Kukalis)

Sadly, as soon as my main motivation for reading the novel was evicted from the story line, my interest in the rest of the book declined rapidly. In the end I decided to abandon it for a while and read something else instead. When I resumed reading this morning, I couldn't help wondering why this book ever got written, let alone published. To be fair, there are another five books in the Tower and Hive series and reading them might provide an answer. Yet, I simply was not drawn in enough, so it's unlikely I will pick any of the sequels any time soon.

The Rowan is the life story of McCaffrey's character of the same name, an orphaned and extremely gifted telepath from planet Altair. Growing up in one of Altair's remote mining communities, the Rowan loses her entire family in a mudslide and is rescued thanks to her ability to project her excruciating cries for help telepathically. 

As her wailing is picked up by the authorities, the child is saved and eventually taken care of by a foster mother. Being extraordinarily gifted, she receives training in all things telepathy and telekinesis from Altair's prime telepath, Siglen, under the watchful eye of  T-1 Earth Prime, Reidinger. The Rowan child is destined to become one of FT&T's T-1 primes, one day to be in charge of her very own tower on another planet.

Altair is a mining planet and vital supplier of raw materials destined for Earth. All cargo leaving and arriving on the planet is transported with the help of telepaths with telekinetic abilities, also known as the T-1 Primes. Human space travel underlies the same telekinetic principles. With the entire logistics of all planetary existence hinging on the exchange of raw materials between Earth and its colonised planets, the most gifted telepaths are crucial for the continued operation of this supply chain and thus assume a somewhat privileged position in society.

Part one of the series sketches the Rowan's life from the early tragedy of losing her parents to becoming herself a T-1 Prime, and eventually wife to Jeff Raven, and mother of their son, Jeran.  Oh yeah, and I forgot....! The Primes get to fight a telepathic space assault against an invasion of alien enemy beetles in defence of Deneb, Jeff's home planet. 

I'm not sure which target audience this book is aimed at. Perhaps, McCaffrey wrote it with a teenage audience in mind, given that most of the positive reviews I have found come from readers with book nostalgia, revisiting a favourite teenage read. The telepathic love story between the Rowan and Jeff may well appeal to a younger audience. 

Though the plot is well paced, I simply couldn't relate to the characters in the book. They all remained more or less remote to me. The technical aspects of the story, i.e. mainly telekinetic transportation and telepathic communication, didn't overwhelm. This is a bonus for all those who enjoy a less technical sic-fi novel. Yet, the concept of super-talented telepaths shunting space ships around with the mere power of their minds appears a trifle far-fetched. I didn't enjoy McCaffrey's writing style all too much in this one, but I haven't been put off completely. One day, I'm sure, I will give the Pern series a go. 

Book Review: Darcy's Utopia by Fay Weldon

A 90s book. So nineties, it's unbelievable...

Fay Weldon, Darcy's Utopia

Darcy's Utopia ended up on my '2017 clear-out pile' but was one of the more entertaining reads over the past six months. (This says a lot about my rather constrained, clear out-focussed reading list.)  

A full review will be coming up at some point, when I can be bothered to think of something to say about the book ... or find the time to write it down.

In the mean time, my initial verdict: Fay Weldon was actually not quite as annoying as some of the other authors, I had the misfortune of making acquaintances with recently. 

I'm looking at you: Milton Hartoum, and you, Elizabeth Kostova! (Kostova's epically long and equally disappointing 'The Historian' proved to be a tedious, hard slog and Milton Hartoum's 'Orphans of Eldorado' is taking way too long to finish, considering its length of a mere 164 pages.) That says a lot about Weldon's competition in my current reading pile.

Darcy's Utopia charts the ascent and decline of Weldon's heroine, Eleanor Darcy. For the most part, Darcy's story is relaid through a series of interviews she gives to two journalists,  Hugo Vansitart and Valerie Jones, who in turn hook up with one another for the duration of their research of Eleanor's life story, leaving children and partners behind to pursue a short-lived fling.

The book was released in 1991 and whilst I was not particularly smitten by the actual plot, I found this to be quite an entertaining glimpse into the United Kingdom's not so distant past.  Darcy's Utopia aspires to be a lot of things, part societal satire, part comedy, but it failed to  impress me in the end. 

Weldon's heroine starts life as Apricot, a child born out of wedlock on a council housing estate in post-War London with a slightly bewildering family background. Through a series of relationships, Apricot climbs the social ladder, finally becoming Mrs Eleanor Darcy, wife of a high profile economist and adviser to the prime minister.

As briefly mentioned already, I enjoyed this book mainly because of its accounts of society in post-War Britain from the 1950s onwards. I also enjoyed Weldon's writing style. Did I care about the characters or the story? Not really.

Cover Art by George Barr, Maren,Tim White, Darrell K. Sweet et al.

An eclectic selection of sci-fi and fantasy artists have created the covers for Marion Zimmer Bradley's books and anthologies.

The below is a selection of cover art for MZB's publications. The photos are taken from the paperback hardcovers. The entire pictures are available here, featuring works by George Barr, Tim White, David A. Cherry, Richard Hescox and Maren, whose actual name is Mariano Pérez Clemente. 

Whereever possible information on the cover artist and edition has been included. Sadly, the cover art the for The Forest House (MZB's Avalon Series) remains uncredited in the edition by Michael Joseph.

George Barr, Darkover Landfall

Marion Zimmer Bradley: Darkover Landfall - 1972

Publisher: DAW Books, Inc.

This edition: 15th printing (first printing, December 1972)

Cover Art by George Barr

For a review of Darkover Landfall, please click here.

Cover Art for Marion Zimmer Bradley

Darkover Landfall Marion Zimmer Bradley, photo courtesy of Clarice Asquith

Marion Zimmer Bradley: Darkover Landfall - 1972

Publisher: DAW Books, Inc.

This edition: 15th printing (first printing, December 1972)

Cover Art by George Barr

Border Art by Richard Hescox

For a review of Darkover Landfall, please click here.

Snows of Darkover, Edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley, photo courtesy of Clarice Asquith

Snows of Darkover

Edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Cover Art: Tim White 

Publisher: Daw, 1994

The Ages of Chaos, Darkover Omnibus (Stormqueen and Hawkmistress) by Marion Zimmer Bradley photo courtesy of Clarice Asquith

Stormqueen & Hawkmistress (Darkover Omnibus)

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Cover Art: Romas Brandt Kukalis

Crime and Punishment

....or a Zero Tolerance Policy towards late returners:

Library Fines in Warren County, Vicksburg (Mississippi) Public Library

This was stuck to the inside cover of one of my latest paperback finds. 

I just love vintage paperbacks. You simply don't get the same amusement with a kindle.

To Kindle...or Not to Kindle

A pressing question...I know. With advertising for the Kindle as well as other e-Readers virtually everywhere, I have found myself thinking about the pros and cons, and, I am afraid, the answer is "No!" - I shan't be kindling, at least for the time being.

Having considered all of the advantages e - Readers have to offer, such as saving precious storage space, portability as well as access to rare and out - of - print books, I am still not convinced that e-Readers are the right route for me.

Thinking back to my time at university, my course required me to consult a wide variety of online publications. Confonted with the choice of reading them from the screen of my computer or printing them off, I always favoured the latter. I am aware that e - Readers should not be compared to simple PDF files and that the general reading experience is said to be akin to reading a printed text, but the similarities between the text display of an e-Reader and the text on a computer screen are all too obvious, at least for me. I feel that the screen separates the reader from the text and the text, stored in and displayed on an electronic device, somehow loses its physical presence. Perhaps it's just me, but apart from enjoying a good book, I also enjoy handling the book itself and, if applicable, being mesmerized by its cover art.

Deriving enjoyment from the handling of books comes in many different forms. Firstly, there is the aspect of having the physical books sitting on your shelf. Easily accessible and within reach whenever I want to pick them up. In my case they are grouped either by author or by genre. From time to time, it's necessary to clean the shelves and dust the books. When doing this, I often come across things I left behind amongst the pages. This could be as mundane as old bookmarks (or any type of flat object that could have served as a bookmark) or things that were tidied away as they were cluttering a space somewhere else, such as photos or greeting cards. I always feel that items stored in my books build a connection between myself and the book. This could be a photo or a train ticket, thus reminding me of a trip or the time in general when I read a certain book. Then there are second - hand books or charity shop books. Most of these have unique signs of wear or at least an indication of previous ownership, making the object all the more interesting. Compare this to the clinical sterility of an e-Reader.

Secondly, there is the aspect of cost. E - readers command a relatively high price tag. At this point, I usually calculate how many second - hand books I could purchase for the price of a Kindle, making an e-Reader a rather bad choice from a purely monetary point of view. The charity shops and second - hand book shops are full of cheap paperback copies. To "consume" these you are not required to purchase a specialist device. Just go in, choose a few books that interest you, part with a pittance and read for hours ever after. It really is as simple as that. Tying in with being stingy in general, I enjoy using my local library, especially for nonfiction, classics and foreign language novels. Even though it's only a small library, it's full of interesting titles, which are available for free, provided you do not let the fines mount up.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the proponents of e-Readers always highlight their portability. Portable they may be, especially when compared to a hardback, but I am not so sure whether an e - Reader would be suitable for the kind of journey I have in mind. I tend to read a lot of my books during my commute to and from work. Selected paperbacks are crammed in my handbag and get squashed by my lunchbox, umbrella and keys simultaneously. Now would I risk exposing my e-Reader to the carnage that goes on in my bag? I don't think so. Another downside is that e - Readers require charging. Now, I forget to charge my mobile phone on a regular basis and I am sure I would be faced with the same dilemma when owning an e - Reader. Tough. No charge - no reading time.

These are the main arguments that prevent me from making the jump into e-Reader ownership.  Perhaps one more is worth mentioning. As already discussed in other blog posts, I am a great fan of book cover art and illustration; and I fear that both will be threatened by the expansion of e-Readers. As an art form, both are generally under - valued and the craftsmanship of illustrators has traditionally not been sufficiently recognised. Removing the reader one step further from the physical experience of the book is likely to exacerbate the existing predicament of illustrators in particular and book illustration in general.

Judge A Book By Its Cover

Most book lovers also have an appreciation for cover art and, personally, I always find myself strangely drawn to the book covers of fantasy and science fiction novels. I am aware that this may not be to everyone's taste, but I - for one - enjoy looking at it.

I recently found a number of flickr groups paying tribute to cover art and cover artists. Whilst some might not see the point of photographing the covers of the books on your shelf and sharing these images with others, in my humble opinion it is a jolly good idea.

By no means representative, but nevertheless a first impression of what is on offer over at Flickr, here is a selection of book covers featuring in the group "Hi - Res Science Fiction Book Covers":

Hi-Res Science Fiction Book Covers, a group on Flickr

And this is an overview for the "Books of Fantasy"  group

Books of Fantasy, a group on Flickr.

These groups are just a taster for what is on offer - the perfect destination for an afternoon's browsing and to gather inspiration for your to - read - list.