“Rocketry may not be my True Will,

 but it’s one hell of a powerful drive. 

With Thelema as my goal 

And the stars my destination and my home,

I have set my eyes on high.”

Jack Parsons, Genius, Eccentric, Occultist, & Rocketeer

I am not a poetic man; both in the sense that I don’t write poetically (despite some of my readers’ assertions. I posit that, as a prose writer, I write prosaically in the most literal sense), and also that I do not often indulge myself in poetry. Not through any disdain for the medium, mind you, but simply a lack of motivation or interest. But sometimes, a book can trick you into reading extraneous literature (and poetry, as it turns out) in order to deepen your understanding and appreciation of the original text. Many great literary novels either require an intimate knowledge of other books within the author’s purview, or require a rather large desk on which to lay out several tomes at once to cross-reference the many inferences to other works. This is not necessarily a bad way to read, but it is a tad more academic than curling up in an armchair or bed to engross oneself in a story. Continue reading “In What Distant Deeps or Skies: Poetry In Science Fiction”

It’s been over 10 years since “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn hit the shelves giving readers a taste of (spoiler alert!) one of the most unreliable narrators ever. In the years since several authors have tried their hand at keeping readers on the edge of their seats using the same technique, some more successfully than others. Here are few I’ve come across recently that I can recommend.

Freida McFadden is one of the hot new authors in the thrillers and suspense genre. I put off giving her a try until recently and am sorry I did. My first venture into her work, “The Coworker,” will certainly not be my last! Dawn Schiff and Natalie Farrell are coworkers who have nothing in common. Dawn is the company accountant and is incredibly detail-oriented and deliberate in her work. She is also quite quirky and a bit of an outcast in the office. Natalie, on the other hand, is the company’s most successful sales rep and highly popular with her colleagues. One day Dawn, who is always punctual and reliable, doesn’t show up at work. Curious, Natalie goes to Dawn’s house and discovers a horrible crime scene. With Dawn presumed murdered, Natalie is soon under suspicion — it turns out that Natalie was quite the bully towards Dawn. I became very caught up in the story’s many twists and turns — and not just because Natalie was not quite what she seems, but because Dawn has some secrets of her own! Continue reading “Who Can You Trust? Books with Unreliable Narrators”

“History is written by the victors.”

-Winston Churchill (attributed)

What If… ?

The hallmark of sapience, from which we derive our taxonomic name homo sapiens, is hypothesis. The ability to plot possible effects from our choices is the greatest strength our enlarged frontal lobe grants us; to be able to plan for possibilities allows us to be proactive rather than relying on instinctual reaction. This intellectual capability leads to planning, planning leads to action, and the possible futures collapse into the single arc of cause and effect that makes up history.

Of course, this forethought can also be turned retrograde; it is a preeminent preoccupation of a hypothetical mind not to wonder about what has happened, but what could have happened. For most of the choices we make throughout life, though, this question is moot, as we cannot change what has already happened. Yet, we still delight in (or, perhaps, dread) this retroactive hypothesis to the point that there is an entire niche of stories that spans across fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction that speculates on this very idea. What if we had, like Robert Frost’s much-misread poem, taken that road less traveled by? Continue reading “The Roads Less Traveled: A Survey of Speculative Fiction’s Alternate Histories”