BOOK REVIEWS

1999, Part L: December 1999

1999, Christian Sauvé

Reviewed this month:

Plus, the inevitable end-of-year retrospective:

 

 

Guns, Germs and Steel
Jared Diamond

Norton, 1997, 480 pages, $19.99 Can. tp, ISBN 0-393-31755-2

Regular readers of these reviews have probably notices a personal fondness for books that explain How Things Works. This explains a fascination with hard-Science-Fiction, techno-thrillers, scientific vulgarization and other documentary works. Hard sciences -physics, chemistry, biology, etc.- lend themselves particularly well to vulgarization given that they're based on a set of fairly common theories and experimental body of proof.

The "softer" sciences -history, sociology, psychology, etc.- are decidedly harder to quantify. Everyone has their own pet theories and the nature itself of social sciences makes it much harder to prove theorems by practical experiment. One of the aims of Jared Diamond's excessively ambitious Guns, Germs and Steel is to provide a solid foundation for "the future of human history as a science".

It all starts with a very obvious question: Why was it that Europe conquered North America, and not vice-versa? Most high-school students can probably answer this question by pointing out the technological differences between the two civilizations. But that only brings up another question: Why was there such a significant difference? Was is because of Europe's more numerous population? And why was that?

Like a patient parent answering the endless "Why" questions of an inquisitive child, Diamond peels away all the layers of questioning until he can start from the very foundations of civilization. And, as he states in his introduction, the answers he brings forth are a conscious attempt to dispel all racial theories of history by highlighting environmental differences. Europeans were not smarter than American-Indians; they just happened to grow up at the right place.

The best parts of Guns, Germs and Steel come early on, as Diamond lucidly explains how, for instance, the presence of large domesticable animals led to the rise of sedentary agriculture, of resistance to disease, of mass production. He explains the mechanisms of technological innovation. He shows that agriculture wasn't necessarily an "obvious" choice to hunter-gatherers. His chapter on agriculture through enlightened selection ("How to make an Almond") is, easily, one of the most mind-blowing vulgarization piece I've read in a long while. Also be sure to read his lucid explanation of how language is "invented".

Most of the book is simply that; a whirlwind explanation of 13,000 years of human history. It's unusually readable for such a scholarly work. This book is going to end up on many college reading lists—indeed, on many general-interest reading lists too.

Still, the book isn't perfect. The fourth part ("Around the World in Five Chapters") is crucial to Diamond's thesis (It's a set of practical applications to the theoretical instruments developed in the rest of the book) but is of such a specialized interest that it's a noticeable notch below the interest sustained by the rest of the book. Also, in trying to dispel racial theories of civilization, Diamond doth protest too much, and ends up dangerously close to annoyance in overpraising non-western civilization. Finally -though a careful re-reading of the book might invalidate this criticism- Diamond's praise of societies where innovation is encouraged (in "Necessity's Mother") might run counter to his central thesis of non-racial difference; at some point, equal societies make their choices (eg; democracy/totalitarism) and these choices take the environment out of the equation and brings back the debate on purely social grounds.

Guns, Germs and Steel is a unique book, a ground-breaking study of civilizations as entities that's nevertheless as compelling as it is thorough. It has already won the Pulitzer prize, has figured prominently on bestseller lists and seems destined to a respected status in both popular and specialized fields. Indeed, its gets top recommendations from this reviewer; read it!

 

Managing Martians
Donna Shirley with Danelle Morton

Broadway Books, 1998, 276 pages, $35.00 Can. hc, ISBN 0-7679-0240-8

Your reviewer is lucky enough to work as a technical specialist in a unit doing research as to how new ideas and new trends that will shape the way we will work in the future. One of the most fascinating current trends is something called Knowledge Management. It's based on the idea that low-level white-collar work is becoming increasingly automated (no more typists, no more messengers, etc...) and that what remains is a type of office worker far more concerned with refined knowledge than raw data. Unfortunately, this knowledge, being intangible and formless, defies all previous theories of management.

Knowledge Management might be only a fad (only time will tell), but it is built on solid tendencies. Everywhere we look in this new economic context, it's obvious that purely intellectual work is accounting for a substantial part of growth. It's now a cliché that the nerds of yesterday are the drivers of today's high-tech sector, but these nerds cannot be managed in the same way than the worker class has traditionally been driven.

As far as nerd projects go, you really can't find better than space exploration. These "rocket scientists" are no ordinary workers, and their bosses must be no ordinary managers. Everyone applauded when NASA landed the Pathfinder/Sojourner probe on Mars on July 4th, 1997. A lot of effort has been expended in sending this little rover a few million kilometers away, and Managing Martians finally tells the pre-glory story from the point of view of the team leader of the Sojourner project, Donna Shirley.

Managing Martians is a book that attempts to do many things at once. It's an inspirational story of a country girl turned pro scientist. It's a business book on how to manage knowledge workers. It's a techno-scientific work of triumph through engineering. And yet, despite its disparate nature, it's an interesting account on all three viewpoints.

As a biography, it tracks Shirley's life through the difficult career path of a woman in a male industry. Born in 1941 in a small Oklahoma town, Donna Shirley knew early on that she wouldn't be just another one of the girls. Developing an early interest in aeronautics, she got her pilot license, went to college, found love, switched majors from engineering to English and found a job as a technical writer at McDonnell Aircraft. After finding out that this wasn't what she wanted to do with her life, she went back to college, got her engineering degree and ended up at JPL. The rest wasn't easier, as the whims of space politics decided where she would work.

Are good managers born or raised? Tough to tell, but Shirley's unconventional career path would later reflect on her management style and though Managing Martians doesn't claim to be a business book, it's still a pretty good illustration -through concrete example- of the new challenges of knowledge work. "When managing brilliant, creative people," she says, "at some point you find it's impossible to command or control them because you can't understand what they are doing." [P.88] The story of Sojourner truly gives a good idea of the realities of space exploration in all its bureaucratic, nitty-gritty details. Not much preaching here, but more than a few examples.

Of course, the book truly shines when considered as the ultimate insider's account of the whole Pathfinder/Sojourner project. Numerous technical issues are clearly explained and highlighted. Managing Martians succeeds at giving a sense of the quiet techno-heroism that's the hallmark of most top-notch scientific endeavor. No superheroes, just regular people doing the best job they can. Even Shirley doesn't try to claim undue applause, deferring often to the members of her team.

Hopefully, many people will read this book and get a sense of what it's like to "be a rocket scientist." Others will read it and learn a few things about how to run a high-tech business. Others will just enjoy the inside story of the Sojourner project. But all will get something valuable out of the book.

 

Ringmaster!
Jerry Springer and Laura Morton

St. Martin's Press, 1998, 273 pages, $34.99 Can. hc, ISBN 0-312-20188-5

Okay.

I realize that it's going to be impossible to review this book without saying it at least once: I like "The Jerry Springer Show". I know it doesn't make sense for a good, polite catholic boy like me to be a fan of one of the trashiest talk show in television history, but there you go.

Oh, it's not like I haven't tried to rationalize this odd preference. I like to say that it makes me escape from my dreary own boring life. I say that "The Jerry Springer Show" offers a variety of viewpoints, accents, attitudes and arguments that I'm unlikely to find anywhere else. I consider the show to be a good barometer for modern social morals. I think that Springer is a terrific host. The show is perfectly hilarious to watch in groups. And if you don't like it without having watched it, you don't know what I'm talking about.

WIth Ringmaster! Jerry Springer gets the chance to both describe his life so far and to give us a glimpse of the mechanics of his shows. As could be expected, his life is less interesting than his work.

Springer was born in London during World War II. He and his parents quickly emigrated in America after the war, and Jerry grew up in New York. He attended college in New Orleans where he discovered a passion for politics. After being a volunteer for political candidates, -and finishing both his military service and a law degree- he was elected on the Cincinnati city council in 1971. Forced to resign after a signed check of his was found in a whorehouse (yes, who would have thought it, a sex scandal), he nevertheless was elected as Cincinnati's mayor in 1977, at the age of 36. The multi-talented Springer then went in journalism as a news anchor and reporter. After a few years, he began host his own show, which went from an ordinary interview format to the wilder entertainment we now know today.

All of this is told as an "interview with God." Though Springer doesn't skip out on the essential details, we too often get just that; the essential details. His reasons to step down as mayor are not fully explained, and the whole matter dismissed in a single sentence ("running for governor") But Springer's biography, of course, isn't the real reason we're reading the book. This reason, of course, is to know more about Springer's day job, the "Jerry Springer Show". There, the book truly shines.

"Where do they find these people?" is the traditional question most neophytes ask of "The Jerry Springer Show." The book tells us that the show seldom, if ever, bothers to "find" guests: They receive nearly 3,000 calls per week/day on their phone lines, and the Springer producers call back the most intriguing stories.

"Is it true?" Here again, the book offers a few reassurances: In order to on the show, each guest is forced to sign a legal document making them responsible for the whole cost of a show ($80,000 US) in case they're lying. Most stories are cross-verified. Each guest has to sign another document detailing twenty "surprises" they might be told during the show.

The mechanism of the show is also endlessly fascinating: Make-up artists, dentists and psychologists are employed by the show. They've got a prop and wardrobe department. They must book guests on different planes and different hotels. The security people are Chicago Police officers. The audience is carefully selected for balanced demographics and looks. (Older people are placed at the back in case of front-line mayhem.)

In short, this is the perfect gift for any fan of the show. Ringmaster! is co-written for maximum readability (don't be surprised to read it in a single evening) and includes enough great anecdotes to justify your while. Non-fans of the show will obviously not be converted -Jerry attempts at instilling "respectability" are sincere but misguided,- but fans will lap it up with glee. Good fun.

 

The Winds of War and War and Remembrance
Herman Wouk

As historians look back on the twentieth century, one single event will loom large over the period: World War Two. Born from the sum of world history up to that point and influencing latter human affairs forever, WW2 has, in a few years, reshaped geography, history, science and countless lives.

Actually, it's misnomer to call WW2 "one single event" given that it was a conflict made of several elements not always linked together. As it took place over six years, it also contains far too much material to be simply resumed.

So you can imagine the built-in difficulties for Herman Wouk as he attempts to dramatize WW2 in The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. The sheer size of the result (nearly 2400 pages all told) is an indication of the magnitude of the task.

Succinctly put, these two books follow the various adventures of the Henry family and their acquaintances, from 1939 to Pearl Harbour (The Winds of War) and them from Pearl Harbour to Hiroshima. (War and Remembrance) Initially, there's Victor "Pug" Henry (waiting for a command assignment, but shuffled in a diplomatic role), his wife Rhoda (who might or might not be entirely faithful to her husband) and the three Henry children: Warren (promising naval aviator), Byron (devil-may-care wanderer) and Madeline (soon enough responsible for a radio show).

Love affairs, friendship, casual acquaintances and such soon expand this narrow cadre, with the result that we truly get a diverse sampling of the war from various point of view. One character always manages to be at the right place at the right time for most of the war's events. Though the plot mechanics often threaten to overwhelm the narrative drive, Wouk must be commended for his solution to the size problem of WW2.

Unfortunately, there's no solution to the size problems of the two books themselves. While a certain amount of padding is probably inevitable in 2,400 pages, Wouk more than overdoes it in this duology, inserting whole scenes of no narrative nor documentary impact and chapters than can be skipped without ill-effect. The Jastrows' story, in particular, is more than obvious (and manipulative) in its ultimate denouement, and attempts to drag it out only annoy rather than inform.

On the other hand, maybe because of these fluffy passages, Wouk does manage to bring back dramatic tension to World War II. For contemporary readers, it's a story of the past, a fixed sequences of events that lead to our reality. It's all-too-easy to forget that the issue of the war was unknowable at the time. The Winds of War excels at showing the possible early outcomes of the war's beginning; Germany invading England, the Allied powers suing for peace after Poland, etc... This sense of absolute incertitude is the strongest virtue of the first volume.

Wouk should also be praised for the passages presented as translated excerpts of (the fictional) General Armin von Roon's military analyses of WW2 as interpreted from a German point of view. These passages are clearly written, and present an alternate perspective of the events, often more complete and enlightening that what the story's protagonists see.

There are a few interesting storyteller's tricks sprinkled throughout the second volume, such as the remarkable roster call of American airmen sacrificed during the battle of Midway, or a straight admission that a fictional character never existed, but was inspired by hundred of others who did exist. Most of these asides work.

Herman Wouk's duology makes you not only understand the events of the Second World War, but also instill a certain emotion into them, whether it's incertitude, suspense, devastation or loss. Both books deserve to be read, if only for fulfilling the second's book title: War and Remembrance.

 

 

Science-Fiction in 1999

Despite the usual cries of doom coming from various genre enthusiasts, bemoaning the end of SF as we know it, 1999 has proven to be an adequate year, with some flagship works compensating for the slew of rehashes.

Your reviewer obviously didn't read even a significant portion of this year's SF output, but that won't stop him from commenting on what he has read. So, in rough order of preference:

My choice for the Hugo:

Ironically, the year's best SF novel isn't SF: Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon takes place in both WW2 or in tomorrow's real-world, but its viewpoint on the times is straight out of the best hard-SF. Technical details abound, scientific points are explained with relish and the whole thing is written like we wish most SF would be written. Great read!

Also on the Ballot:

Kim Stanley Robinson revisited his fictional Mars Trilogy with The Martians, a grab-bag collection of various pieces -fictional or not- about the trilogy. Alternate universe, story fragments, meta-commentary... The only serious complaint about the book is that it isn't long enough.

Robert J. Sawyer delivered the goods as usual with Flashforward, a competent, professional novel that's also his most satisfying since The Terminal Experiment. An original premise (everyone gets a glimpse of his/her life twenty years later) bolstered by great details and limpid writing.

Freshly translated to English in 1999 (from the original French-Canadian novel), Joël Champetier's The Dragon's Eye is an unassuming but enjoyable SF spy story. A bit nihilistic but seldom boring, it's worth a look. (Necessary disclaimer: The author's a good acquaintance of mine.)

Eric S. Nylund's A Signal Shattered magnificently concludes the story first begun in Signal to Noise (1998, now in paperback). Superb pacing, good writing and fresh techno-babble make the duology a good choice for escapist reading.

Worth a look:

Vernor Vinge gets back to SF in a big way with A Deepness in the Sky, a massive (600+ pages) novel that's pure-SF from start to finish. Takes a while to get going, but it's a treat for fans of the genre.

Bruce Sterling proves why he's considered one of the champs of the genre with his short story collection A Good, Old-fashioned Future. Thin (7 stories) and expensive ($9.99C), but superb.

For more far-out speculation, you could do worse than Rudy Rucker's Saucer Wisdom, a controlled hallucination about tomorrow's technology presented as UFO-freak ravings. Not entirely successful, but interesting.

If you want story anthologies, check out David Hartwell's Year's Best SF 4, a collection of 1998 stories with very few misfires. Anyone interested in French-language SF should grab SF'99 (Ed. Olivier Girard)... though it's only available in France.

New in paperback: Good 1998 SF novels worth mentioning:

Also worthwhile, now in paperback:

If we jump outside the narrow genre slots, two exceptional non-fiction books made it to paperback this year. David Brin's socio-technical book The Transparent Society is a stunning read about the other side of the "privacy" issues precipitated by electronic communications. Jared Diamond's 1997 Pulitzer-winning essay on civilizations Guns, Germs and Steel hit the bestseller lists this year, proof that some really good books do make it up there. Both are must-reads.  Don't forget:

 

Science-Fiction Movies of 1999

(The assistance of the Internet Movie Database at http://www.imdb.com/ was invaluable in the making of this essay. The excellent foreign films RUN LOLA RUN (LOLA RENNT, Germany) and OPEN YOUR EYES (ABRA LOS OJOS, Spain) aren't covered, given that they were seen in 1999, but respectively made in 1998 and 1997.)

Pretty good year, really.

There was certainly something for everyone, from the funky mindtrip of Cronenberg's EXISTENZ to the safe-as-a-sandbox ordinarity of STAR WARS EPISODE ONE. We ran the whole excitement gamut from the cerebral THIRTEENTH FLOOR to the slam'em action of VIRUS. We indulged in retro-SF nostalgia with THE IRON GIANT and witnessed the birth of a new cinematic style with THE MATRIX. There were masterpieces and disasters, blockbusters and dismal failures, but SF had a strong showing in 1999, and at least one bona-fide classic.

Things were not off to a good start. VIRUS was delayed from summer 1998 to January 1999, and expectations were low for this ALIEN ripoff. Expectations were fulfilled. But it wasn't -by a long shot- the worst SF film of 1999, as WING COMMANDER clunked in theatres in March to claim this honour. WING COMMANDER -originally slated for a straight-to-video release- is actually so atrociously bad that it generates a certain MST3K wisecracking pleasure. Most of its dismal business was attributed to people wishing to see the attached STAR WARS trailer.

Things improved shortly afterward. The main feature of SF cinema in 1999 was an existentialist thematic trilogy of rather good movies questioning the nature of reality. The high-octane version debuted in late March with THE MATRIX, a roller-coaster action film that nevertheless delivered the goodies as far as SF concepts went. It made ($175+) millions, acquired a cult following, quickly became the top-selling DVD ever and deservedly stands to become one of the SF highlights of the decade. This reviewer saw it twice in theatres and now own said DVD.

The remainder of the trilogy seemed far weaker after this dynamic first entry. Cronenberg brought his usual weirdness on screen with EXISTENZ, a quirky but increasingly engaging thriller. In any other year, THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR would have gotten some deserved accolades, but after the one-two punch of THE MATRIX and EXISTENZ, it got some unkind reviews for a slow pacing and a predictable plot. It's still visually interesting, though now mired in what seems to be an overlong "Outer Limits" episode.

There was another trilogy of sort, a trio of satires about media-SF fans. While your reviewer hasn't seen either TREKKERS (a documentary) or FREE ENTERPRISE (a low-budget film), GALAXY QUEST managed to be a competent SFish comedy, and a slight jab at the whole idea of media-SF fandom.

Wildly anticipated by a gaggle of newsworthy fans, (who probably wouldn't appreciate the satire of GALAXY QUEST) STAR WARS EPISODE ONE managed to gross over $400M, produced one instant cultural icon (the much-maligned Jar Jar Binks) but otherwise proved to be a disappointing empty shell of Lucas over-indulgence: Okay, so he's got complete control over every frame of film delivered to theatres... and yet he can't manage to do better than this? Boo!

WILD WILD WEST, for its part, betrayed its initial steampunk promise with juvenile silliness and incompetent pacing. The result has its place in the bottom five films of 1999.

The end of Summer'99 held one more surprise for SF fans, however, in THE IRON GIANT. An animated film with honest emotional power, it tanked at the box-office despite near-unanimous good reviews but now seems destined to be a popular video release. See it if you haven't already done so.

Finally, Robin Williams and director Chris Colombus surprised many pundits by producing a mostly-faithful adaptation (keeping the original shmaltzy tone) of Isaac Asimov's celebrated novella, THE BICENTENNIAL MAN.

Unseen but mercilessly trashed by critics: MY FAVORITE MARTIAN, BABY GENIUSES, BEOWULF, THE PROGENY, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: THE RETURN and THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE, etc...

Tangentially, SF also popped up in several non-genre films. OCTOBER SKY presented a coming-of-age story about intellectual discovery through a fascination with space exploration... a wonderful film, and even moreso for the average young SF fan. DEEP BLUE SEA was a superlative action film, based on the JURASSIC PARKish SF premise of genetically-engineered sharks. INSPECTOR GADGET and AUSTIN POWERS 2 were similarly shameless in stealing characteristic SF device as plot drivers for fun, fast-paced comedy. MYSTERY MEN also borrowed liberally from many genres, and the result was mixed but generally enjoyable as a superhero parody.

Horror and fantasy also had a very strong year, due to the presence of some really pleasing genre films (THE MUMMY, TOY STORY 2, THE SIXTH SENSE, DOGMA, SLEEPY HOLLOW, THE GREEN MILE) in addition to a bunch of decent ones (THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, STIR OF ECHOES, THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH) and few high-profile failures. (THE HAUNTING and END OF DAYS)

SF Prospects for 2000 include two highly-anticipated Mars project (RED PLANET and De Palma's MISSION TO MARS), the much-delayed-and-troubled SUPERNOVA (which already gets an award of some sort as having 1999's most wildly inappropriate trailer music), David Twohy's promising PITCH BLACK, Schwarzenegger's clone thriller THE SIXTH DAY, THE X-MEN comic adaptation, Disney's animated TITAN A.E., the dread-inducing BATTLEFIELD EARTH, the techno-thrillerish SPACE COWBOYS and the sure-to-be- ultraviolent-'caus-by-Verhoeven THE HOLLOW MAN.

Persistent, but so far unfounded rumors continue to surround upcoming cinematographic adaptations of COSM, DUKE NUKEM, ENDER'S GAME, FAHRENHEIT 451, THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, LOBO, THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, MEFISTO IN ONYX, MEG, RENDEZ-VOUS WITH RAMA and THE SPARROW. Wilder rumors surround sequels and remakes such as BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, MEN IN BLACK 2, EMBRYO: JURASSIC PARK, TOTAL RECALL 2 and X THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES. No one knows anything solid about the Spielberg/Cruise/PKDick project MINORITY REPORT. Finally, the IMDB lists more than fifteen intriguing-sounding SF projects for 2000, such as ABOMINABLE, AQUARIUS, THE CALLING, COLONY 12, THE CONVENT, DOGWALKER, FOILED, IMPOSTOR, MARS AND BEYOND, THE NEW WOMEN, ROBOT LOVE, SPLIT and WHERE PLANET ARE YOU FROM. Chances are that most of these will never make it to the big screens, but if they do, it would only take one of two of them to be any good to make me happy...

If you're curious, here's my top-ten list for 1999...

  1. FIGHT CLUB: Personally affecting, savagely funny, great direction.
  2. THE MATRIX: Entertaining high-energy SF with great SFX.
  3. TOY STORY 2: A great sequel that improves on the original.
  4. OCTOBER SKY: Touching coming-of-age story without the clichés.
  5. SOUTH PARK: Completely successful social satire; great musical
  6. THE IRON GIANT: Genuinely touching story; No Disney annoyances
  7. LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS: Simply very funny
  8. DEEP BLUE SEA: Mean, lean thrill machine; technically awe-inspiring
  9. THREE KINGS: Edgy political opinion; darkly funny
  10. THE MUMMY: Purely enjoyable crowd pleaser; great special effects 

...as well as the bottom 5...

  1. WILD WILD WEST: Singularly unenjoyable, unfunny, embarrassing mess.
  2. WING COMMANDER: Science-Fiction so bad it's actually kinda funny.
  3. VIRUS: Totally average monster-rampage-though-isolated-ship film.
  4. END OF DAYS: Awfully silly and boring Arnold-versus-Devil "thriller".
  5. CHILL FACTOR: Action/Buddy movie that fails on several levels.