The Left Hand of Darkness

Essentially, the entire novel is a report from our main character (Ai) talking about how he attempts to persuade a ruler of another planet (King Argaven of Gethen) to join the Ekumen (an intergalactic federation of some kind that is comprised of many planets in this universe). Long story short, it takes a long time to convince the King and after an unsuccessful attempt the book ends with Ai getting the Gethenians to join the Ekumen. Personally, I can't stand this kind of novel. It's a lot of notes on customs on a foreign planets, and has a lot to do with the politics of the world that's being created. The book seems to drone on and on and maybe it's because everything is so Alien to me or because I'm not a big sci-fi kinda guy, but I found it very hard to relate to and I was dredging through the text in order to finish it.
I think the most interesting thing for me was the supplementary legends and story's from the homeworld that were included in the text to foreshadow/complement other events in the book.
All in all, I can see why other people would be a fan. The novel is well written and it finds it's place in the science fiction genre. The book has some pretty interesting characters as well as thought out history and politics. However, it's just not my cup of tea so I don't think I'll be venturing back to Gethen any time soon.

Goblin Wood

This week I decided I'd go ahead and dip my feet back into fantasy and I read Hilari Bell's "The Goblin Wood"

I actually only have a copy because my sister was reading it and insisted I had to read the trilogy, but I only have enough patience for the first book. (Not that they're terrible works of literature, I'm just busy right now.)

Wow, I digress.
Anyway, the format for the book is pretty simple, it has to do with goblins, witches, and humans and there is sort of this good vs. evil type of motif going on. I think the most clever thing about this book (And I assume it is a recurring theme throughout the trilogy) is the sort of back and forth of multiple narrators from the perspective of both the "Human" side and the "Goblin"side. With these two main narrators we get this kind of omniscient view of the world while our individual narrators have very much skewed perspectives. The trick Bell really pulls off here is that she explores the fact that evil doesn't actually exist and it's all a matter of perspective and that conflict comes from miscommunication/misunderstanding. It's a pretty simple and altruistic moral but it's strung together rather beautifully through the perspectives of our two main characters (Makenna and Tobin).

The magic system is fun and believable and although the world isn't as fleshed out as Tolkien I still found it to be somewhat immersive and I enjoyed my time while I was there. All in all pretty good read, but it's definitely directed more at young adults than at 22 year old men.

Screwed Turns

For the reading this week I went and revisited horror and ghost stories. I read through Turn of The Screw by Henry James.

I think the problem for me is that I'm a person living in the 21st century and I'm reading a book from the late 19th century so my idea of pacing is a little different from theirs.  However the story still has strength. The plot is essentially the ghostly possession/haunting of two children in a wealthy home being observed by their governess. At first it's just the governess's observation of these geists but we soon find out the children are connected to these ghosts. The book catalogues the Governess's desire to protect the children she watches over and her slow descent as she realizes she is powerless.

I think that's the most fascinating thing from this book. This third party, someone who doesn't have anything more than a job obligation to these children so desperately wants to protect them. The fact that she's unable to save them and that she just has to observe is also something fascinating. She has to watch as two children slowly descend into whatever the ghosts have wished upon them.

That convention of powerless is something really empathizable and I see it come up over and over in Ghost/horror stories as a trope. This sense of power far beyond our own understanding is something  quite common to fantasy but I suppose if a normal human being was all powerful than the book wouldn't be too interesting would it?