THE STARS, MY DESTINATION by Alfred Bester

Hello again, everybody!  I think this book was a breath of fresh air for many of us; the core of this group loves science fiction, and Hugo award winners make us very, very happy.  There was no one at the meeting who was displeased with this one, except maybe for Kat because she was really digging on STEPPENWOLF and wasn’t too happy switching in the middle.

Now, I know me, and if I don’t write all this down tonight I’m going to forget it.  I also know that I am hopped up on flu medication and super sleepy so this might not make the most sense.  Bear with me people!  We will go for broad strokes and you guys are more than welcome to edit/add comments to flesh this evening out more.

Thing Number One: DID YOU KNOW? that Alfred Bester wrote the oath of the Green Lantern?  He did!  Apparently he had a lot of experience in graphic novels and screenwriting, which explains his extraordinary economy of words and a strong emphasis on the visual and cinematic flow of the narrative.

LATHE OF HEAVEN by Ursula K. LeGuin

Hello, Dean here.  Firstly, a bit of business: after some soul-searching on my part and discussion with everyone present at the last meeting, we will be changing April’s selection from Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse to The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester.  I’m sorry if this causes any confusion; they are both excellent books by wonderful authors, but Alfred Bester’s work is a little closer to the core of what the club is about.

Our most recent gathering focused on Ursula K. LeGuin’s Hugo- and Nebula-award winning novel The Lathe of Heaven.  This has long been one of my favorites and the Missus has grown to love it as well.  Everyone agreed that LeGuin’s prose was graceful, lyrical and very clear.  There was some disagreement, however, about the general worth of the plot. Criticism on this point argued that the double-edged nature of power is an idea that has been explored many, many times, as has the notion of “be careful what you wish for”.  The godlike ability that Orr wished to repudiate and that Dr. Haber desired was likened to the titular object in the horror classic “The Monkey’s Paw” and to tales of wily djinn turning someone’s wish into an ironic comeuppance.  Conversely, the careful incorporation of Taoist ideas into the book differentiates The Lathe of Heaven from the stories that preceded it: Orr understood instinctively the dangerous trap of his power and the moral quandaries that it raised.