The Sword and Laser discussion

This book certainly invites comment. Most people take it as poignant. I get that, but I found it too over the top to take seriously. In many ways I found it farce. To some extent I think the author is telling us that it's not to be taken completely seriously. The individual pieces pull at heartstrings but taken in total are ridiculous.

Okay, spoiler protecting the whole thing rather than individually. Expect full book spoilers below.(view spoiler)[

We start off with a decent enough tale of wistful loss, a parent trying to forestall bad events for the good of her child (as well as all humanity, also her children as we find out much later.) It's wistful and poignant, yes yes. There's an implication of connection between current day and 100K or so years ago. Maybe it's time travel? It isn't addressed in that story. Missing out on your child's life for the good of your career? Yeah, that's a big one, for me more important than the "world changing" events of the story.

But, the over the top elements begin there. Global warming is killing us! Just as it has steadfastly failed to do since first proposed. Giant super viruses exposed in Arctic! Killing us just like they didn't in the past! Super evolved flesh changing health destroying!...is the Thing going to show up next? Bacterial Kaiju?

So, on to the next and the even more extreme euthanasia theme park. It's like Disneyland! Except the kids are all gonna die and some have to be enclosed in special jumpsuits so their pustulating sores don't leap out and kill, kill, KILL! The disease is some kind of super-COVID except it also conveniently kills whoever the author needs.

Have to acknowledge tho the artistry in interweaving the stories. Yep, Dorrie shows up again later. The brother from one story is the focus of another. A baby lifted out of a limbo realm is the grandmother towards the end. It's well constructed.

Each individual story can be taken alone. As a whole, though, the silliness starts to add up. Some large fraction of the population dies each year for...seven years? Wouldn't they run out of population? Or the need for those death hotels?

And then there's the expressly silly stuff. A researcher develops a quantum black hole in his head. Okay, that black hole, if it existed, would certainly not stay put. It would fall out of the guy's head immediately, on its way to the center of the Earth. So here I feel like the author is telling us, "don't take this seriously."

Then the "space travel" part. Where are they going? And why, after a thousand years of travel, has Earth not developed better ships to catch up to them? It would be more realistic for them to arrive somewhere and find a thriving human civilization waiting for them to arrive and wake up from stasis.

And then the final bit. Apparently all of Earth's history has been led! By a benign presence who ALSO gave up the ability to raise her daughter. Er, okay. A bit too on the nose. And even more on the nose as this presence is responsible for all of humanity's advancement. So much for human agency.

And! The cigar ship of earlier stories is obviously the Seed grower's daughter, come to visit! If only they could meet! A resolution to the missed connections of earlier stories! There would be a great reunion, and! Nope, left unaddressed. Sorry, I'm all poignanted-out and just kinda want it to end.

And maybe the author did as well. The individual stories work as wistful tales of failing to connect, life unlived, humanity together in groups yet still living apart. They kind-of make a novel, but not really. It's not near as connected as, say, Martian Chronicles. The ending is tacked on in a way that makes me wonder if the author needed a conclusion and made one as silly as possible. It's so different in tone as to be more like it belongs in a different work entirely. (hide spoiler)]

Anyone? I was kinda hoping to spark some discussion. Seems like we're a bit light on it this month. Gotta give Our Hosts some material to choose from!

John (Taloni) wrote: "Anyone? I was kinda hoping to spark some discussion. Seems like we're a bit light on it this month. Gotta give Our Hosts some material to choose from!"

You did too much of a thorough job with your summary above so there’s nothing else to say!

Haaaah! Altho, I was at least a *little* confrontational about it! In the hopes of getting a convo started of course *cough*.

*looks above* Yes, a little confrontational...

Agree with you 100% John. Some of the stories were great individually, but overall the book was a mess.

I was thinking the completely unsubstantiated, conservative talking points in your summary made this a pov most people were unwilling to bother addressing.

I have vented on discord and here. The science started losing me from the beginning and the stories were so obviously emotionally manipulative.

I was with them with the academic characters having to sacrifice family life for success (and to work on the climate change crisis).

(view spoiler)[ As for the benign presence who ALSO gave up the ability to raise her daughter she does this at least twice... FFS As Clare she does it again. Clearly not learning... (hide spoiler)]

^Yeah...I mean, it's clearly not intended to be rigorous. At times ridiculously so, other times just extending things to beyond what science will support.

I gave some thought to the book's creation. Sequoia Nagamatsu wrote these as individual stories. They started getting traction so he wrote more. In that sense it's like the Callahan's Bar stories by Spider Robinson. Individually great, don't really make a novel, more like a collection.

The other obvious comparison would be Martian Chronicles. To my amusement, Bradbury wrote TWO potential cappers: One has a handful of Earth people heading to Mars as Earth kills itself in a paroxysm of war. That's the one included in the book, "The Million Year Picnic." There's an equally good one, "Dark They Were And Golden Eyed" in which the Earth people become the Martians. Not in that literal sense of changing, but of becoming one with the new land.

So, HHWGITD. Individually the stories can work. They tug at heartstrings, often ridiculously so, but do evoke sadness. If we grant the author his premise, then these sad events could extend from today's life. I find the events so overdone I half expect John Cleese to come in talking about building an abbatoir. They're not the uplifting SFF I prefer. But there's no question Sequoia Nagamatsu hit a nerve, sold well and won awards. He's living the dream as a college professor teaching writing and writing what he wants on the side.

In putting together the book from the individual stories it seems his team asked him to provide an ending. So he wrote one. It doesn't really fit. The book is more a collection than a novel. The book is unremittingly bleak, the hopeful ending tacked on. Hey, just go ahead and end on a down note.

I think I managed to suspend my disbelief more than you did, John!

(view spoiler)[I definitely had issues with the whole lot, and in particular the deus ex machina (kind of?) of the last chapter - my reaction on finishing was definitely "thanks, I hate it". And the space travel one "by the way we cured the plague like three minutes after you guys left, lol sorry have a nice life). (hide spoiler)]

Ultimately, though (as I said on Discord), I love me some grief/death culture and this book was full of it, however clumsy. I enjoyed the connections of characters/events between stories. I would read more by Nagamatsu.