n3rd

Nerd Cred++

As part of my continuing quest to increase my overall nerd knowledge and nerd appeal I've started what I feel like is a rather ambitious but rewarding project. I am reading all of the Nebula award winning novels in order. I've read a lot of Science Fiction but a significant portion of what I read is from newer authors so along the way I have missed a number of classic works and by doing this I hope to add a bit more focus to my reading list and get a chance to check out some of the amazing authors that are out there that I have heard great things about but never gotten around to checking out. I'm planning to include a few diversions along the path as it is warranted (reading sequels and such if I really enjoy a particular book) but I'm mostly plowing straight through. Turns out the local library has a woefully poor selection of SciFi so in a rare (for me at least) non-piracy move I am actually buying them all. Thus when I am done I will set them all up on a bookshelf so as to give people who come by one additional thing to nod politely at while they stifle a yawn. So here is a quick review of the ones I have read so far. I will try to avoid outright spoilers but a few tidbits of info will probably sneak in.

Dune by Frank Herbert

I mostly can't believe I had never read this before. It is everything its cracked it up to be. Its a beautifully detailed and realized world and the parts I found most interesting were all about the society that had formed so focused around water. Also the language they used was very well conveyed with strange and new words fitting into the flow very well without any need for additional explanation. This is a classic for a reason and I'm glad I got around to reading it. With such a fully realized world I was sorely tempted to check out some of the sequels but taking a diversion so soon into starting this project seemed unwise so those are all backburnered for now.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

This book actually tied with the next one on the list (the only tie for best novel) and it was again a classic I had never read. It did not impress me as much as some of the other books on the list but it was well written and the gimmick of writing from the perspective of a retard who gradually becomes more intelligent due to scientific experimentation was not so much interesting as not as distracting as it could have been. I feel like that sort of gimmick is at this point overdone but I can only assume it was a bigger departure at the time. And at the very least it was done in such a way that did not detract from the overall whole. Good story, some interesting comments on how we view the mentally disabled as well as how they view themselves but just nothing about it really grabbed me. The best notion it forwarded was the idea that the greatest work we can do in science is that of increasing human intelligence through which other advances will flow naturally from those who have been thus advanced. I feel like its really only borderline science fiction but its definitely worth the read.

Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delaney

This review will contain a few light spoilers simply because I knew nothing about it going in but really enjoyed it and want to get other people interested as well.

When Delaney wrote this book he always intended for it to be published alongside another novella he had written called Empire Star and now that they've both been out for ages they finally released a version in that fashion. If you decide to read this I strongly recommend you pick that version up. Babel-17 was a little wandery but it touched upon some really fantastic ideas. I had never even heard of Delaney before I started this but I am really impressed by what he has done here. There were a lot of features that I feel like were developed further in other novels I have read that were written since this but it featured a lot of clever ideas that were set up almost in passing to demonstrate the futuristic nature of the setting. The main overall plot focuses around a code being used to orchestrate sabotage operations against the good faction by the bad faction (good and bad really do belong in quotes here, we are clearly intended to empathize overall with the faction that our characters are a part of but even they question just how different the other side really is and what the point of all this war and bloodshed is, they don't exactly get deeply into this concept but its there nonetheless). The code is proving incredibly difficult to break so they contact a famous poet with a highly advance knowledge of linguistics to try to help them. It eventually becomes clear the code is not a code but in fact an entirely different language which explains why they were not able to crack it. As she tries to learn more the really interesting stuff starts happening. Some pretty deep theoretical stuff about the nature of language, and what its meant to convey, and what its structure says about the people that use it, comes across gradually as she is journeying across space to try to find the next sabotage site in time to hear the language first hand and catch the nuances that are lost on the untrained observer. So among some pretty decent space battles and such there are some downright intriguing philosophical observations. And along the way we learn a lot more about just why this poet is so good at distilling languages down to their essence. The novel as a whole feels a tad unpolished (not surprising since it was early in his career) but its got some fantastic stuff in it. Its a decent page turner but a fantastic novel at making you think. Empire Star is paired with it since its purported to have been written by one of the minor characters in the novel who is a past friend of the main character. Its overall much more standard scifi adventure where the hero is on a small planet and sets off on a mission of great importance into space (I'm sure you can't think of any other stories like that at all) but again it delves into some deeper issues as it progresses about the nature of intelligence and the ability to think about things in different ways progressing from the simplex to the complex and eventually multiplex. Much more standard overall but again some great stuff thrown in. Both are really worth checking out. Also a sidenote, by reading Empire Star as well this officially marks my first diversion from the strict list.

Thats all I have read so far but I am in the middle of the next one and looking ahead at the list there are a bunch I am looking forward to reading or rereading and some I've never heard of but am hoping to be pleasantly surprised by.