Well now, this feels just like starting over.... The sun has been out a lot more the past few days & I'm feeling a lot better. On Fri, temps actually got up 2 around 60 on the front porch. I hear that in some parts of the country (tho not the West) it's bn Spring 4 weeks -- sunny, temps in the 60s, 70s, even 80s. This wknd's sposta B nice -- I hope this time Spring is here 4 Real & this isn't just the weather softening us up 4 more clouds, rain & cold. 2 yrs ago it rained until mid-June, so who knows? Cms like I otta B able 2 complain 2 somebody about this -- the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, perhaps? U don't think NOAA does Weather Control? Don't kid yrself -- Global Warming is a hype, invented by those gov't weather boffins at NOAA. Just remember the X-Files Theory Of Reality: Whatever's going on is just a put-on 2 distract U from What's Really Going On....
...That's an OK opening, I guess. Meanwhile, I'm still thinking about going back home 2 Idaho where the sun shines a lot more often. The girlfriend & I hadda long talk about this & she thinks I should go. B4 I really go nuts. My Dad has bn welcoming enuf, but the job situation is a little unsettled, as it is everywhere. Won't do me NE good 2 go Back Home & have no way 2 pay my bills. That'll just give me something else 2 get Dpressed about.
Dad's gonna keep his eyes on the want ads & sez he'll send me a copy of the 1st worthwhile Sun paper. He & the girlfriend also think me catching a bus down there & checking-out the situation in-person when I get some vacation time in June is also a good idea. Want 2 B fairly sure about something B4 I jump & risk financial ruin....
...Hung out w/ the girlfriend 4 a coupla days, watched movies (AVATAR, THE BLIND SIDE, etc.), relaxed & soaked up some sun, & sat out in the yard while the wind blew 2 40 mph & the GF's youngest daughter cracked jokes & the GF's potential future-son-in-law worked on his car. My roommates R OK people but I needed 2 get outta here 4 awhile. So I did. & I'm grateful 2 the GF 4 bailing my ass out yet again. Thank Ghod she cares & she never gives up. I might even start checking my e-mails again....
Oh, & I've bn reading. Ian McDonald's CHAGA (1995, in the US it was called EVOLUTION'S SHORE) was, 4 mosta its length, the best science-fiction novel I've read in years -- vivid, involving, awe-inspiring, even funny. But the Nding was disappointing, sidetracking from an alien/sense-of-wonder-type story 2 a sorta replay of Arthur C. Clarke's RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA, even tho the Nding was vivid & well-told as well.
CHAGA is a sequel of sorts 2 2 earlier McDonald short-stories, the brilliant & disturbing "Toward Kilimanjaro," & the vivid tho inconclusive "Recording Angel." The chaga itself is an alien life-form, a biological package that crashes like a meteor atop Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro, then starts ... eating the continent of Africa, replacing all the native plants w/ an environment of its own. People who venture in2 the chaga R changed -- they start mutating. They grow Xtra arms & legs, can communicate w/ animals, can alter their environment.
The book follows the adventures of reporter Gaby McAslan as she follows & tries 2 Xplain 2 the world what the chaga is like & what it does 2 people. Meanwhile, the UN cordons-off the chaga, & the country of Kenya is slowly Bing evacuated as the chaga advances by 50 feet per day. More chagas crash 2 earth in other parts of Africa, & in Ecuador, Venezuela, the Indian Ocean. When another package appears in space & Cms 2 B on a course 2 blot-out India, the UN's space program moves 2 Xplore the newest bio package up-close.
Much of this is brilliantly handled. McDonald wisely does not Xplain 2 much about the chaga, even tho the middle of the book features a long trek thru the alien forest. That environment is Dscribed vividly & colorfully, but McDonald doesn't make the mistake of Xplaining 2 Much & ruining the awesome mystery at the center of his novel. He resists NE attempt 2 Xplain What the chaga is doing & Why. & the book is more powerful as a result.
Bsides, there R some great mysteries here. There R apparently humans living -- thriving -- inside the alien forest. The chaga appears 2 B adapting 2 humans, Cms 2 want 2 help us Bcome more than we R. & Xposure 2 the chaga apparently cures the AIDS virus.
There R some problems w/ the book: The British Vista paperback I got cheap has a lotta typos in it, more as U get farther in2 the story, & toward the Nd words R dropped making it difficult 2 concentrate. There's a section in the last 100 pgs where Bad Things Happen that didn't necessarily need 2, & it Cms like McDonald was in sorta a bad mood when he wrote it. Summa this stuff is brutal. Gaby herself is Dpicted as rather selfish & irresponsible, tho probly no moreso than NE other reporter I've ever met.
But there's a happy Nding 4 just about everybody, U learn what happened 2 the characters in the previous stories in the series, & I've since learned the book has a sequel called KIRINYA that I'm now gonna havta track down. CHAGA is also WAY better & way more controlled than McDonald's 1st novel DESOLATION ROAD. At no point in this book does the plot machinery overwhelm the story -- it all Cms 2 flow pretty naturally. & at the center of the story is a pretty awesome vision. Mosta the characters U get 2 know R pretty great 2.
Somebody musta read the book -- it apparently won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award 4 best SF novel of its year, even tho 4 awhile I couldn't even tell if it was ever published in the US (I had the wrong title).
McDonald's got 1/2 a dozen other novels out there. The 1st 1/2 of DESOLATION ROAD's pretty amazing 2. I couldn't get in2 OUT ON BLUE SIX, but I might havta give it another try. & there's KIRINYA 2 track down as well....
Nice talkin 2 ya again. More soon....
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