Review - World War Z by Max Brooks

When I first saw World War Z listed on NPR's top 100 Sci-fi and Fantasy Books, I told myself, "One of those zombie gore-fests?  Really?  I'll never read that."  But this changed when my "zombie" friend convinced me it was more story than gore, much like The Walking Dead on AMC.  He lent me the book and I promised to read it.

It turns out that Max Brooks is a great story teller.  He tells the story of mankind's ten year war against the zombies, presented as a series of interviews compiled by some unnamed character.  Rather than concentrate on the gore and the gotta-kill-em as most zombie movies do, Max explores how humans react to the disaster.

It begins with the story of a doctor who first came in contact with the disease.  At first he's skeptical of the villagers' superstitious stories, but when he sees firsthand a boy's arm falling off without the boy screaming, he realizes this isn't an ordinary disease.

As the epidemic expands, each country reacts differently.  Some make stupid decisions, resulting in more casualties, while others are wiser.  Some people shine as heroes, while others try to take advantage and earn money or power in creative ways.

It's clear that Brooks has thought out what one should do in a zombie attack, but sometimes the science and logistics don't quite work out.  For example, how is it the zombies only exist east of the Rockies in the USA?  How exactly can one person survive the roads of a busy city full of zombies?  But the story telling is so good, it's so easy to overlook these details.

Each individual story is hit or miss.  Most of them are hits involving an individual's story of survival.  The misses usually cover something logistical and are usually short.  One funny miss appears to exist only to jokingly refer to Brooks' own Survival Guide.

Brooks does a decent job in speaking in different voices, though the tone of each interview is similar.  He makes use of a lot of country-specific cliches.  For example, a Korean story talks about some secret the North is hiding.  A Japanese story talks about honor and involves one of those swords.  The military people tend to drop F bombs, while scientists apologize for even getting close to cussing.  These cliches are noticeable, but they work.

My biggest complaint about the book is that the identity of each interviewee is withheld in the beginning and each time the reader must figure out who the person is.  Sometimes this requires going back to reread earlier paragraphs.  At the beginning of each interview, we're only given the place (not necessarily where the events occurred) and a short blurb from the interviewer describing the scenery.  Had this been a real account of a real event, each interview heading would have included the person's name, and save the reader time spent on rereading.

But I can see what drove Brooks' decision.  There are a couple of stories that hinge on the interviewee's  identity being revealed at the very end.  But Max, did you really have to torture us through all the other stories where it would have really helped to know who was talking?

Overall, I highly recommend this book.  If you like The Walking Dead, you'll like this book.  And just like me, you'll probably choose your favorite story.  Mine is the Chinese submarine one.

Note: I dedicate this review to my zombie friend, Gary, who lent me the book.  Shortly after I finished reading it, Gary's cancer returned in full force and claimed his life in a matter of days.  I never got to return the book and tell him how much I liked it.

Gary, if you're reading this from the netherworld, and if you ever turn into a zombie, look me up and I'd be happy to hit the town with you.  You will always be my zombie friend.

Uncle Orson's Writing Class - 2012

I survived Uncle Orson's Writing Class.  For two whole days, Orson Scott Card -- that's right, the Orson Scott Card and not an assistant -- taught us how to write.  That was this past Monday and Tuesday.  For the rest of the week, 14 lucky participants get to continue on and complete the Boot Camp portion.  But not me.  I learned the stuff and came home.

If you're a big fan of Orson Scott Card, you've probably read his two books on writing, How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy and Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint.  Orson's Class pretty much covers the same information.  So if you attend, you may recognize a lot of the advice.  But what the Class has that the books don't is the master writer himself explaining and answering questions and giving assignments and critiquing you.

Also, you get his rants, which you might recognize from his Uncle Orson Reviews Everything column.  Some people expressed a little annoyance outside of class, but these rants are openings into a genius' mind.  I didn't always agree with his rants, but I enjoyed watching his thought processes and realized how quickly and with so much confidence how he'd go from one topic to the next.  If you want to write like a genius, then all you have to do is listen to one.  It's very eye-opening.

So one thing I learned: let your mind go wherever it wants to go.

I also learned that you don't have to accept everything your critics suggest.  Mr. Card says that if you "rewrite" your work, you're killing it off one small piece at a time.  After enough rewrites, you're left with something amazingly correct, but dreadfully boring.  He claims that when we write, our brains will naturally flow and you don't want to mess with that.  Once you know what the problems are with your work, you're supposed to just write it again--write another 1st draft that will be better than the earlier one.

He says one the worst advices is "show, not tell."  This is where you take a simple passage such as "Tom was irritated" and replace it with some action where you can see the emotion without being told ... such as "Tom tapped his foot repeatedly."  It's okay to "show, not tell" but if it doesn't flow the first time, that's a good indicator that it's not important to the writer.  Do enough of these replacements and your writing starts to look artificial, and the reader will say, "Just tell me Tom's irritated and move on!"

Mr. Card did clarify that he does "edit" his work, which is where you fix grammar, spelling, repeated words, and fix any places where the words don't flow naturally.  Anything more than that just needs another first draft.

The hardest part of the Class was when he asked me to get up and give a story pitch I had prepared the night before.  He laughed at my evident confidence.  Then when I read the pitch, I realized I had committed one of his biggest pet peeves: telling the story as a reminiscence or flashback.  Plus he said, "There is no story."  But then he added just a little here and there, and it turned into a real story that people would care about.  These ideas were already in my head, but somehow they didn't make it into my pitch.

Then someone after me got up there and Mr. Card said, "That is a great pitch.  You need to write that book, and it could start your career.  I'm serious."  At first I was a little embarrassed for messing up my chance to impress the master, but then realized: take what I learned, incorporate it into my stories, and nothing will be able to stop me.

The class was well worth the $175 I paid.  I highly recommend this class.  If you can get into Boot Camp, that's even better.  The things he teaches can be used by anyone and are simple to understand.

Waiting for class to start

Orson Scott Card really is that fast.

Ray Bradbury: Returned to the Dust

Ray Bradbury has joined giants Asimov and Clarke in the sci-fi netherworld, leaving giant shoes for the rest of us to fill.  Known mainly for writing short stories, Bradbury had a passion for literature.  He did what it took to get published, and he changed everything.

His works tend to be more "well-written" than "sci-fi."  He loved exploring the human condition, and sci-fi happened to be the backdrop of his stories.  As such, he is often the main sci-fi author included in high school English classes.

The prophetic Fahrenheit 451 teaches us the value of books and opposing viewpoints.  He warns of a time when undesired thoughts are burned.  With today's political correctness movement gaining more ground and more controversial speakers are being silenced, it appears that we are well on the way down this path.  Start memorizing those books!

In The Martian Chronicles, we earthlings kill off the "aborigines" and colonize Mars just in time to see us destroy Earth.  Near the end a father asks his son, "Want to see a Martian?"  He takes him on a walk and shows him their reflection.

Dandelion Wine provides a summer of fun.  Do you know anyone who actually tried to build a Happiness Machine?

Something Wicked This Way Comes teaches us not to trust anything that's too good to be true.  And, oh, to be young again!

I Sing the Body Electric reminds me of the grandmother I used to have.  I miss her.

I remember back to when Bradbury visited BYU in the late 80s or early 90s.  It was exciting to be so close to the legend.  He was told not to curse, but he still let a few slip out, triggering laughter from the audience.

Bradbury was undeniably one of the most valiant authors when it comes to getting works published.  He is the main inspiration behind the "Write One Submit One" initiative, where writers push forward in an effort to write one short story a week (or month) and send it out.  Here's Ray Bradbury on his persistence:




... and Bradbury kept on writing, even up until just recently.  His last novel, Farewell Summer, the sequel to Dandelion Wine, was published in 2006, and he had written several short stories after that.

Ray Bradbury was an inspiration, both in his words, and in his example.  He'll be greatly missed, and always remembered.

Review - Facebook Timeline (Sucks)

Last year I started my Facebook Writer's page.  It was pretty cool until something strange happened.  Facebook invented ... duh duh duh ... the Timeline!  At first I thought it was a neat feature, but then things started to bug me.  And then more things bugged me.  And now I just want to scream.

I mean, who comes up with this stuff?  Let's take a look at my page.  Here's what the top looks like from my point of view:

At the top, we see the Admin Panel.  This is useful as it keeps track of your notifications and some other choice stats.  Then comes what I like to call the "Take This Tour" box.  I love to ignore it.  There's also an "Add a Cover" button, which I haven't had time to look at yet.  If I happened to have an awesome panoramic picture, I could use that.  Only problem is, we humans tend to go up/down, not left/right.  Maybe I can find a picture of me lying on a bed.

Then I assume what comes next is what you would see if you went to my page.

First off, what's going on right where that red arrow is pointing?  There's something behind those boxes, but I can't see what it is.

Now this is where Timeline gets to be confusing.  First, under the banner stuff, we have the "Highlights" section.  I have no idea what this means.  It shows my friends who Like my page.  It looks like it shows my most recent post to the left (playing the piano).  To the right is something I wrote back in October last year.  Why it's there, I'll never know.  And there's my cousin's post right under it.  Hey Cous!  Your post may be immortalized in my Timeline!

Let's go further down the page...

It took me a while to realize that the line going down the middle is the "timeline."  The most recent posts are at the top, and later posts at the bottom.  But note how the boxes alternate between going to the left and right.  Wait--there's another name for this ... BUTTERFLY BALLOT.  Yes, we now know that a Florida Democrat designed this Timeline!

Oh, I'm not sure why my Avengers Review shows up twice.  It looks like RSS Graffiti messed up.  Not Facebook's fault--right?

Scrolling down a little more ...

See that "See More Recent Stories" button?  It appears between my May 8 Avengers post and the April section.  So, what exactly does "more recent" mean in this context?  My latest post is already at the top (the piano one), and you can't get more recent than that!  If I click on the button ...

... I have no idea what happened!  Now I'm in the middle of April for some reason.  Plus, I don't get a good sense that I'm seeing all of the posts.  The layout is so counter-intuitive!  For example, what's that big gray space in the lower right side?  And why is it talking about the 2 "people who like this"?  What is "this"?

And I haven't even gotten to the most annoying thing about Timeline ... the skinniness of the posts.  Check out what happens when you have a medium size picture...

That Writer picture is chopped off.  If you click on it, you can see the whole pic in some kind of popup window, but with the old News Feed, you could usually see the pic without having to click on it.  How about videos?  Let's see...

First, on the left, note the two videos where the arrows point.  Then look on the right, which shows what happens after I click on the videos.  One video works, but the other doesn't.  The broken one says "Video player is too small."  Well, that's just nice.  Now no one can see that video on my page because there isn't enough space.  It used to work.  Does that count?

And if I try expanding the horizontal space to get more room, what happens?

Yes--we get lots and lots of useless gray space around the sides and that one video still doesn't work.

The only thing I like about Timeline is that anyone can access any post no matter how old it is.  The only problem, though, is ... good luck finding it.

My suggestions: make the interface more intuitive and easier to use (both as an Admin and as a page viewer).  Do away with the BUTTERFLY BALLOT format and bring back the usual chronological-order News Feed.  Let there be more space so that we can see pictures without having to click on them and videos can have enough room to function.  Add a search feature that can help a viewer search for a desired post by keyword.  Don't litter the screen with stuff that may make sense to Facebook developers but not to us everyday folk (like quizzical "more recent stories" buttons that act weird and boxes that people Like for no apparent reason).

Timeline as it stands now is confusing and a possible deterrent to viewers.  I hate to say it, but I'm seriously thinking about taking my page somewhere else.  Google+ perhaps?

Too Good For Boot Camp?

Here I risk sounding cocky, but sometimes it's fun to rant about stuff that really doesn't matter.

This year I tried out for Orson Scott Card's Literary Boot Camp.  The plan was for me to go, learn, and then have something snazzy to put on my cover letters.  "I graduated from Literary Boot Camp."  Additionally, graduates get a boost out of the slush pile of IGMS.  Some people have launched their careers like this, and I figured my time has come.

I hemmed and hawed over what one page excerpt to send them, and I decided to send my flagship work.  This is the one short story that I've edited and had critiqued more than any other story.  It has exciting characters, tight dialouge, and a cool sci-fi backdrop.  I studied the first page as I put it into the envelope.  There was no way they'd reject me.

Well, let me tell you what happened ... I've never had anyone tell me "no" for the opportunity to shell out close to a thousand bucks.  :)

You see, Card doesn't necessarily pick the top 14 writers who apply.  Rather he picks the 14 that he deems would benefit the most from the class.  Here's an excerpt from the rejection email (which is clearly a form-letter):

Mr. Card asked me to make it clear, however, that not being accepted did not mean that your writing was judged “not good.”  His decision was based solely on whether he felt that the writer could gain from and contribute to the type of workshop he runs.  There were, as always, talented writers who were not accepted this year.

What this doesn't tell me is what group I fall into.  Was my story so sucky that I had no chance?  Or was my story just too awesome?

First off, let me say that I understand the form-letter rejection.  They can't go around telling this person, "You suck" and another person, "You're too good for us."  That could lead to hard feelings and issues.  Rather, the response I got was professional and appropriate.

But still, I wish I could know.  If my excerpt was good and blew their socks off, does that mean I can put "Too good for Boot Camp" on my cover letters?  No?  Dang!

If my excerpt was so crappy, even after all that work and editing and receiving critiques, then perhaps I just don't have the stuff.  If I could know this, then I'd happily give up this pipe dream and go play more Star Trek Online.

One consolation is that the rejection letter didn't sting for very long--perhaps an hour or so.  I think not having to pay all that money had something to do with it.  :)

Anyway, congratulations to the 14 who made it into the Camp.  You're one step closer to your dreams, and it will certainly be an awesome experience. 

I'll still be there for the two-day Uncle Orson's Writing Class.  So, if you're there in June, maybe I'll see you there.

The Legend Of Korra

With so much trash on the children cable channels, once and a while, it's nice to have a show worth mentioning.  The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra on Nickelodeon is one of these shows.

This sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place about 100 years later.  Aang has already died and Korra, a water bender, becomes the next Avatar.  Already having mastered three of the elements, she begins her studies with Aang's son, Tenzin, to master the last element, Air.

They end up in Republic City, which was founded by Aang.  Allowed to thrive, new technologies are introduced and the city currently resembles our own 1920s era, complete with cars and radios.  No Tommy guns, though.  :)

But Republic City isn't safe.  A crime syndicate known as the Tri-benders runs rampant.  Also, many non-benders, confident with the new technologies they created, wish to rise up and start a new era without benders.  This effort is led by the mysterious Amon.  Somehow he has learned the ability to take away bending powers permanently.  Armed with his chi-blocking armies (who can block powers temporarily), he poses a serious threat to our young Avatar.

Just like the original Avatar, this show has the perfect balance of serious adult-ish themes mixed with childlike humor.  In one scene, Korra can be escaping from a frightening situation, and in the next scene she's burping with her friend.

In the five episodes I've seen so far, the writers have already jammed in politics, exciting battles, steampunk, dealing with bullies, humor, an exciting game called Pro Bending which is like Quidditch only with rules that make sense, steampunk, fascism, militarism, and oh ... did I mention steampunk?

Check it out.  I'm glad that my kids are making me watch this with them.

Awake on NBC

Unlike The Firm on NBC, Awake is actually a good mid-season show.  I've been watching this over the past two months, and I'm hooked.  I'm bummed that there's a 90% chance it will be cancelled.  Not Firefly bummed, but I would still like to see another season of this show (or see a satisfying end over the next month or so).

After Michael Britten and his family are involved in a car accident, Michael somehow bifurcates into two alternate realities.  In one, his wife is alive.  In the other, his son survives.  He goes from one world to the next by simply going to sleep.  Which raises the question: which world is real, and which one is the dream?  Or are they both real?  Or both dreams?

The more interesting parts of the show are the ones where his psychiatrists analyze his situation.  Of course, each psychiatrist tells Michael that their world is real and the other one is the dream.

As a cop, somehow clues from one world's case help Michael to solve a case in the other world.  In some cases, these connections only make sense if one world is indeed a dream.  For example, in the trailer above, 611 refers to a parking space in one world and a building in the other world.  There's no rhyme or reason to it, but the clues always pan out -- well, almost always.

This will be another one of those shows that I've enjoyed watching and will miss when they cancel it.  I'm just wondering what NBC could have done differently to attract more viewers to this show.  Did people even know it was on?

Review - The Avengers

The Marvel epic known as The Avengers was this year's mother of all "sequels."  It follows not one, but four different stories: Iron Man (1&2), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger.  Nick Fury brings them all together to fight Loki, most awesome villainous brother of Thor.  Add in the Black Widow and Hawkeye, and you have a full ensemble of superheroes.

Expect the jam-packed action, explosions, and comic book violence.  Expect the snappy one-liners and epic battles.  You'll get to see Captain America throw his mighty shield.  The Incredible Hulk turns green and smashes.  Thor swings his hammer and brings down lightning.  Iron Man flies around in his suit and struts his ego.  Hawkeye will hit anything and everything with his arrows.  And Black Widow fights everyone with her legs.

With so many characters, it becomes a big challenge to develop each person sufficiently enough to avoid moving people like pieces in on a board in a dreadful plot.  (Think of your typical Saturday morning "Superfriends" episode.)  But Joss Whedon is the expert on the ensemble cast.  Look at his work with Firefly and Serenity to see how he successfully he can build multiple interesting characters.  In Avengers, he gives just enough from each character so that we know what each one of them wants--and what their weaknesses and strengths are.

Joss also wastes no time bringing people up to speed with annoying flashbacks from other movies.  If you haven't seen the movie Thor, you probably won't recognize Loki in the opening scene.  If you haven't seen any of the four (five including the one sequel) lead-in movies, you probably won't recognize Nick Fury, and will probably wonder where his purple lightsaber is.  But don't worry.  You won't be lost for more than a few minutes.  Once you get your bearings, the rest of the movie is enjoyable.

Well ... except for that one boring part in the middle when they were still gathering the good guys together ... and a scene near the end that at first made my wife and I look at each other and say, "Now that's plain stupid."

Since the 2-D version was hopelessly sold out, we settled for the 3-D version.  The ticket lady felt sorry for us and let us have the student price, which almost paid for the price of the glasses.  There were indeed some cool 3-D effects: in the beginning credits, and in the ending credits.  But nothing spectacular happened in the actual movie.  It wasn't terrible, but a few scenes were a little distracting when the depth didn't seem quite right, or a person moved around another unnaturally.  It's not worth the extra $3.

The movie is surprising kid-friendly, in my opinion.  I did mention the comic book violence worthy of a PG-13 rating.  I only remember one scene with blood, and even there the injury is mostly off-screen.  There is very little cussing; no F-bombs.  There's no sex, though the Hulk may appear partially nude after one of his episodes.  The movie's official rating mentions one drug reference, but I can't remember it.  So, bring the kids if they enjoy this superhero stuff.  Just be prepared to have little Iron Men running around afterward, and you might not want to let them play with anything shaped like a circle for a while.

This is definitely a movie to catch in the theater.  So, go see this movie and have fun.  Stay throughout the entire credits to see not one, but two extra scenes at the end.

Eleven Questions

After a stressful month at work, it appears that I have gone a whole month neglecting my blog.  (And my other writing has suffered as well.)  To make up for it, I will be launching another blogskrieg.  That means more blog entries for you to read!  Excited?

I'll jump start this with these eleven questions Erin Latimer, fellow writer, sent to me a couple of weeks ago.

1)If you got to meet a famous author who would it be?
I would have really liked to have met Isaac Asimov.  The day he died was a sad day, knowing I would never meet him.

If I must answer from the living, I would pick Stephen King.

2)If you got to say only ONE thing to them, what would it be?
I love your stories, and I love your technique.
 
3)Make up a fake (and short) book jacket with these words included: Dishwater, hedgehog, nylons,wobbly, sausages, dangerous, angry. Okay, GO...

4)Who is your book boyfriend/girlfriend?
I had the biggest crush on Amy from H. M. Hoover's This Time of Darkness.  I must have read that book a million times, and I told people I swore to find that girl and marry her.  I ended up marrying a blond.  Heh!

  
5)Your publisher is paying for you to go anywhere in the world and write a book about it. Where?
I would actually pick the moon (you know--sci fi and all that).  But realistically, I would like to explore some musical roots.  Send me to Vienna, and then I'll write a book on the unknown story about how Beethoven made friends with an alien who eventually caused his deafness.
 
6)What is the most HORRIBLE book character you can think of and why?
I'm sure I could think of a more horrible character, and I really love the Foundation series, but I'd have to admit that Hari Seldon from the first book is one of the most uninteresting characters ever written.  I'm happy that Asimov went back to redeem himself by exploring Hari in subsequent prequels, but in the original book Hari simply appears and says, "Here you go - psychohistory."

7) Who is your favorite villain?
There are so many cool ones to choose from.  Sauron comes close to my favorite, but we only get to see him from a distance.  The Baron Harkonnen, though--we get to see up close and personal.  He is absolute power run amok.

Image by Edward Pun

8) What is your favorite book to movie?
Almost every movie comes from a book.  :)   

The Wizard of Oz is one of my all time favorites.

9)  What was the most horrifyingly scary book you've ever read? Why?
I don't seem to get scared by books anymore.  More recently, I got a little creeped out by Watts' Blindsight, but Stephen King takes the cake.  Take your pick: The Shining, Cujo, It, Misery.
 
10) What book series do you wish you had written?
The Hitchhiker's Guide.  It's my kind of humor.

11)When is the last time a book made you cry and what book was it?
Hmmm ... haven't done that in a while.  My own book The Silver Lining (which is still in revision mode) gets me going, but we authors always have a soft spot for our own characters.  Thinking way back, I remember the last book of the Rama series: Rama Revealed got me going.  More recently, a couple of the vignettes in World War Z got close.

Write 1 Sub 1 - March 2012

I did it again!  In March, I successfully wrote one story and submitted one story.  Since my February submission was rejected so quickly, it got to go out again this month!

Write 1: "The Silver Lining: O My Father" (adapted excerpt from my first novel)
Sub 1: "The Depths of Inner Space" (come on, publishers -- it's one of my best stories so far :) )

Now, on to April.  I have a doozy of a story I want to do next, but I don't know if I'm ready yet.  There's isn't a definite name yet.  Island of Darkness?  Godspring?

How's your writing going?  Need a challenge to help you to remember to write?  Then check out Write 1 Sub 1.