Bump in the Night - Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Controversy around books for teens is hardly new. From Harry Potter to The Giver to Catcher in the Rye, almost every celebrated young adult novel has been challenged at one time or another. Most of us would agree that banning a book because it contains magic or swear words is, well, silly. But what about truly edgy fiction that deals with subjects like drugs, sex, or graphic violence? Is special handling of books for certain audiences ever warranted?

Last week, a librarian friend in my bookclub mentioned Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. The novel centers on a girl’s struggle with an eating disorder, and some people worry that its depiction of the illness could “trigger” anorexia or bulimia in vulnerable teens. While she didn’t want to censor the novel, my friend was worried about how middle schoolers might react if they stumbled across it in the school library without knowing what it was about. Would it be better to keep it somewhere where it could not be read without adult guidance?

Science fiction and fantasy are full of similarly “uncomfortable” books. Take Unwind by Neal Shusterman. Unwind takes place in a futuristic America where the Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights, unwanted babies are legally abandoned at strangers’ doorsteps, and teens can be turned into living organ banks at their parents’ discretion. While the questions it raises about abortion, humanity, and free will are intriguing and important, I wonder if I would have found it more disturbing than thought-provoking if I had read it when I was younger.

I don’t think I will ever be able to advocate book banning or censorship – without freedom of speech and access to a variety of ideas, how will we learn to intelligently discuss controversial issues? – but it seems like there should be some middle ground. Is there a way to acknowledge and address the difficult issues in some novels without forcing them underground? Maybe rather than censuring such books, we should encourage more candid discussion of them among teens and adults alike.

And now for a quick shout-out:

If you want to read another excellent blog by teens who are passionate about writing (most of whom are aspiring novelists in a variety of genres), I suggest you visit Teens Writing for Teens, where I occasionally post under a pseudonym.

Go on – click it. You know you want to. I’ll wait here.

Today, books are undergoing their first major transformation since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press around 1440. E-books are rapidly gaining in popularity, and some people speculate they may one day replace traditionally bound books. What does this development mean, if anything, for the future of reading?

For my seventeenth birthday,* my parents bought me a Kindle. I was grateful and curious to try it, but also a little apprehensive. Most of the book lovers I know are staunchly opposed to electronic books (my English teacher even gave me a book of essays that argued e-books would lead to the downfall of literature). Was the slim white tablet in my hands a harbinger of literary doom? I doubted it, but the only way to find out for sure was to download a book and start reading.

Though I hate to be anti-climatic, reading on the Kindle was surprisingly similar to reading a real book. Pages looked almost exactly like paper on the screen, and the buttons used to navigate from one page to the next were intuitive and unobtrusive (once I stopped preemptively clicking before I reached the bottom of the text). It was more difficult to flip between sections, but that wasn’t much of a problem since I was reading a novel. The machine was light – lighter than a hardcover book – and I found myself thinking how convenient it would be to store all my books in one place.

But I am not a complete convert to the e-book phenomenon. Something intangible was lost in the translation from typeset word to pixel. After I finished the novel, I was satisfied by the story but nostalgic for the scent and texture of paper. Though the bookmarking feature on the Kindle was practical, I missed the small satisfaction of dog-earing pages and leaving my mark (however abhorred by librarians) on the text. And when the e-reader died in the middle of a long road trip, I longed for a book that didn’t have to be recharged every couple of days.

What’s your opinion on electronic books? If you have tried an e-reader, was the experience markedly different from reading a traditional book?

*Seventeen sounds so much older than sixteen, doesn’t it? If you hear an ominous creaking noise, it’s probably just my arthritic fingers shuffling across the keyboard…

Last week I had the opportunity to read a friend’s novel, and it made me think about the challenges of critiquing other writers’ work. Ideally, you want to give useful, constructive feedback without simply babbling about how much you enjoyed their story (which I was tempted to do last week) or making it sound like you think everything should be scrapped and rewritten. So how do you strike a balance? What does it mean to read a piece with writer’s perspective? Though everyone has a different critiquing style, I thought I would tell you a little bit about my process.

My method for critiquing others’ stories is very similar to what I do when I edit my own. First I try to immerse myself in the plot as fully as possible, and I make notes whenever something jars me out of the narrative. As I read, I make a list of words, descriptions, and plot devices that I feel the writer tends to rely on too heavily. After I finish the piece, I re-read my notes and try to see if I can find any patterns. Were the character motivations unbelievable in certain situations? Did I feel like the first half of the piece dragged? Was there a lack of sensory description that prevented me from fully connecting with the story? I also jot down a few general thoughts about the pacing, plot, character development, and setting of the story as a whole.

When I’ve assembled my notes into something vaguely coherent, I write a letter to the writer of the piece. I always start out by thanking them for giving me the opportunity to read their story, both because it takes a lot of courage to let others look at your writing and because I always learn a lot about how to improve my own work when I critique someone else’s (we usually make at least two or three of the same kinds of mistakes, if not many more). Then I talk about what I liked in the story – situations or characters made me laugh or squirm, imagery that was particularly strong, places where I couldn’t put the story down (or close the file, as the case may be). Finally, I give the writer a summary of what I didn’t think worked as well and some suggested changes.

Have you ever had the chance to offer someone feedback on their writing? Did you use a particular method? How did it help you as a writer?

Threatened and Endangered Species Database (TESD)

Unicorn
Listing Status: Endangered

Appearance: The first accounts of unicorns were written in ancient Greece by natural philosophers such as Ctesias and Aristotle. Faster and more powerful than ordinary horses, unicorns are most easily distinguished by the single two-foot-long horn in the middle of their foreheads. Observers who have managed to approach unicorns in the wild report that they also have cloven hooves, goat-like beards, and lion tails, but these rumors have yet to be verified.

Natural Habitat: Unicorns originated in India and migrated to European forests during the Middle Ages.

Conservation Threats: Unicorns’ self-destructive tendencies are unparalleled in the animal kingdom. They are extremely solitary creatures, and their reluctance to seek each other out to breed severely limits population growth. When pursued by predators, they will throw themselves off precipices to evade capture (the unicorn is born with an instinctual belief that it can survive great falls by bouncing off its horn – an instinct that is, unfortunately, misguided). Unicorns prize pomegranates above all other food (both they and the fruit have been portrayed as symbols of fertility), and, when given the chance, will gorge themselves until they fall into a stupor that leaves them venerable to predators and poachers.

Unicorns also face man-made threats. Their horns were highly sought after in medieval times for their ability to neutralize poison. In the 21st century, this trait has led to overhunting by school children who have been forced to endure educational videos and college students in search of a cure for the common hangover. Notoriously fond of virgins, unicorns have been known to walk onto highways near billboards of young women and runways that service particular airlines, and have even been accidentally crushed in olive oil presses. Poachers often target unicorns for their hides and milk, which are sold as aphrodisiacs on the black market.

How You Can Help: Take care when planting pomegranate trees or displaying pictures of virgins, make sure that your powdered unicorn horn comes from a licensed breeder, and turn your backyard into a forest glade habitat for local specimens.

Warning: this review contains mild spoilers.

“It takes a graveyard to raise a child,” or so the old saying goes.

In Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, a young boy travels from a murder scene to a tomb without dying in between. Adopted by ghosts and a “solitary type” who is neither dead nor alive, Nobody Owens must learn the customs and rules of the dead – the difference between Fading and Dreamwalking, ghoul-gates and unconsecrated ground – while preparing for a future when he will have to confront his family’s killer among the living. When the secret society of “men called Jack” return to finish him off, Bod must call on all his cunning, a little bit of magic, and friends from both the graveyard and the human city to protect himself and his home.

After a somewhat slow start, The Graveyard Book immerses readers in a world so well developed and easy to visualize that it is hard to believe it isn’t real. Everything from the types of creatures that inhabit the graveyard to Bod’s guardians’ personal histories is imaginative and multi-layered, yet the plot is never bogged down by excess information. Each chapter is both a self contained adventure and a piece of the larger narrative, and because two years pass from one to the next, we get to see Bod grow and develop as his story becomes more complex. Individual characters – especially Silas, who could pass for a vampire in another book, and Miss Lupescu, who might be called a werewolf – rise above their species’ stereotypes to become, more than anything else, human.

If the book has one weakness, it is the lack of similar complexity in its villains, the men called Jack. The men Jack seem to be killers without remorse or a reason for acting the way they do. Although we learn that they belong to a secret society that is trying to kill Bod because of a prophecy, the exact nature of this society and Bod’s threat to it are never fully explained. But since The Graveyard Book is really more about Bod’s personal development than the forces that sent him to the graveyard in the first place, this lack of depth is more of a minor disappointment than a major annoyance.

All in all, The Graveyard Book is one of the most creative, well written, and emotionally sincere novels I have read this year, and receives four out of four dragon scales.

I fear that I may be impinging on the movie blog’s territory, but this wouldn’t be much of a sci-fi/fantasy blog if it didn’t include at least some mention of the new Star Trek movie.

First, I must admit (as if it wasn’t obvious already) that I am something of a nerd. When I was younger, I camped out in front of the TV every Wednesday night to catch new episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and spent my Sunday afternoons watching reruns of The Next Generation. I have never been to a Star Trek convention and I don’t speak Klingon, but I was the only person in my English class who knew that Vulcans and Romulans share a common ancestry. That said, I don’t know much about the original Star Trek beyond the basic story line. When I heard about the new movie, I was excited to see the origins of the characters and the ship that started it all.

So how does the film measure up? Well, as an action/adventure movie, it is solid – there are plenty of laser fights, cool graphics (the interior of the Enterprise is particularly well done), monsters, fast cars, and even some hand-to-hand combat. It is surprisingly light on science for a movie that takes place in space – no, dark holes do not work like that – but Star Trek never intended to teach viewers about physics. If you go in expecting mindless entertainment, you won’t be disappointed.

But what was missing, at least for me, was a sense that anything was really at stake. I think every prequel faces this challenge – if we already know (or can guess) what will happen to the characters, it is much more difficult for us to become emotionally invested in action sequences and personal conflicts. There needs to be some unknown twist, some moral conundrum that changes our perception of later events. That’s why prequels about villains are often so engrossing – we get to see them from a completely different point of view. In this film, the characters and the settings are merely younger copies of their older selves. Though it takes place in an “altered timeline,” all the protagonists eventually fall into their expected roles.

How do you feel about prequels? If you saw the Star Trek movie, were you glad that things unfolded more or less as expected (with some leeway for alterations to the original timeline)?

People all over the world were unnerved this week at the spread of “swine flu”, those of us who read science fiction probably more than most. Pandemics often set the stage in post-apocalyptic fiction, throwing the heroes into an anarchic wilderness where they are chased by coughs, internal hemorrhaging, and the occasional zombie. Beside these fictional diseases, swine flu seems relatively mild – few to no brain-eating monsters have been spotted, though this video clip begs to differ. Here is a glimpse at some worst-case-scenarios that help put the current outbreak into perspective:

Captain Trips: Codenamed “Project Blue,” Captain Trips is a constantly mutating form of superflu genetically engineered by the US government for use as a biological weapon. It affects 99.4% of all humans (the remaining .6% having unexplained natural immunity) and is universally fatal. Symptoms are initially similar to those of a common cold or flu, but eventually progress to swelling and necrosis, bloody mucus, high fever, and delirium. Source: The Stand by Stephen King.

Vampiris: As the name suggests, Vampiris is a bacterium that causes many symptoms associated with traditional vampirism, including photosensitivity, fear of mirrors, garlic, and religious symbols, overdeveloped canines, and a hunger for blood. Because the bacteria turn into dust when they are outside of a human host, victims can be killed if they are cut deeply enough. Bites from vampire bats infected with the bacterium may provide immunity. Source: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.

Andromeda: The extremely contagious Andromeda Strain can be spread through the air – fitting, perhaps, since it came from outer space. Neither a bacterium nor a virus, Andromeda has a sulfur-based crystal structure, mutates rapidly, and can turn matter directly into energy. Symptoms include rapid (and fatal) blood clotting, internal bleeding, and insanity. Source: The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton.

Solanum: Solanum is a virus that turns people into zombies. How? The virus dissolves the frontal lobes (the part of your brain responsible for complex thought), stops your heart, then reanimates you as a toxic puppet that does not need oxygen and does nothing but try to devour living humans. It can be spread through bodily fluids (most often the saliva from the bite of an infected person), and can only be cured by quickly amputating an infected limb. Average time from infection to zombification: 23 hours. Source: The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks.

Sometimes I choose to read a book because it has been recommended to me by friends or received positive reviews, and sometimes I choose to read one simply because it has a shiny cover. City of Bones, the first novel in Cassandra Clare’s Moral Instruments trilogy, fell into both categories.

Fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is a mundane, which means she doesn’t know anything about demons or Shadowhunters – until she stumbles into the middle of a confrontation between them in a dance club. At first, she is reluctant to admit that she saw anything at all. Then her mother vanishes, she gets attacked by a demon, and a group of teenage Shadowhunters shows her that magic, werewolves, and vampires are real. Soon Clary is swept up in their quest to find the Mortal Cup (a powerful object that can be used to make more Shadowhunters) and rescue her mother – the only person who knows where it is – before errant Shadowhunter Valentine can use it for his own ends.

All in all, the world of City of Bones (Manhattan, but with subtle alterations that mundane humans cannot see) is innovative and engrossing, with clever details – like bat sandwiches and flying motorcycles that work on demon energies – and plenty of action sequences to keep readers engaged. While City of Bones avoids the worn teen-girl-meets-hot-supernatural-boy trope, there is a hint of romance between Clary and both her childhood friend, Simon, and the sarcastic, distant Shadowhunter, Jace, which adds a welcome dimension to the plot.

Like any novel, however, City of Bones has its flaws. In their eagerness to share the details of their world with Clary (and the reader), the Shadowhunters have a tendency to launch into long speeches that reveal far more than is necessary for the plot and slow down the pace of the story to the point where vital tension is lost. While the main teen characters all have believable voices, the adults begin to blend together, becoming either evil minions or clueless and overprotective guardians. There seem to be few moral shades of grey – people are either good or evil, even if they turn out to have a different allegiance than we were originally led to believe (something that happens with dizzying frequency). Though other characters are hurt, Clary rarely seems to be in any real danger – solutions to problems come to her with little or no effort on her part.

Despite these weaker areas, I found City of Bones to be a quick and mostly satisfying read. I have heard that Cassandra Clare truly finds her “voice” in the later books of the trilogy, and I am excited to see how she continues to flesh out the unique and quirky world she has created. For now, City of Bones receives 2.5 out of 4 dragon scales.

For writers who live for the wild ride of typing out a first draft – complete with thrilling plot twists, unexpected character development, and spontaneous dialogue – the editing process can seem tedious at best. Thankfully, there are many methods you can use to infuse creative energy into sometimes monotonous revisions. Below are some of the usual steps writers take to edit their work and my suggested enhancements:

Ordinary editing: Tweak unrealistic dialogue.
Editing gone wild: Read your dialogue out loud with a friend. Better yet – dress up in costume and act out the scenes. Wherever you accidentally diverge from the words written on the page – by, say, adding a contraction where there wasn’t one or substituting a more natural phrase for one that was somewhat stilted – consider changing the text. Acting out the scene, while not strictly necessary to get a feel for the sound of your words, can also help to add a sense of realistic pacing. If your protagonist is about to be skewered by the villain, it’s unlikely that he or she will have the time or inclination to go off on a long diatribe.

Ordinary editing: Search for plot holes.
Editing gone wild: Whenever you find a plot hole in your story, drink a shot. Okay, I’m just kidding – I don’t advocate underage drinking! – but there’s no reason why sniffing out plot holes can’t become a game of sorts. Reward yourself with a quarter or a piece of candy for every inconsistency you find and fix. Or trade stories with a friend and play plot-hole-or-dare, which is sort of like truth-or-dare in that you have to find a trouble spot in your friend’s writing and suggest a way to fix it or accept a dare.

Ordinary editing: Fix inconsistencies in character description and development.
Editing gone wild: Create character profiles for your protagonists and antagonists modeled off of police reports for suspects. Start with the basics – height, eye color, age – and move on to intimate details that only a PI or a writer would know. If you are an artist, you can even include a drawn “mug shot.” You can refer to this profile later when you’re wondering whether your character’s eyes changed color between scenes or if he would really be as nice to his crazy aunt as he was during their last conversation.

Ordinary editing: Rewrite confusing sentences.
Editing gone wild: If you are having a particularly difficult time conveying a scene or character motivation, try writing it out as you would explain it to a friend (colloquial language and frustrated authorial intrusions absolutely allowed). Parse out unnecessary words, clean up overly informal phrasing, and you may be almost there – or at least have an understanding of how to get there.

Okay, I’ll admit it – some of these suggestions are not that wild, and maybe that’s because I actually enjoy editing. I know, I know – but to me, there is something extremely satisfying about making your prose as clear as it can possibly be. How about you – do you enjoy editing? Are there any techniques that you use to make the process more interesting?

Unbelievable or Just Undead?
by Beonda Grave

If you thought zombies were just another B-horror movie staple, think again. Zombies are real. I’ve spent my scientific career gathering evidence from the villages of Haiti to the castles of Europe to prove once and for all that life does not have to end at death. Now I’m bringing the secrets of the undead to you, the loyal readers of Mythical Creature Monthly, in a feature that will put a silver bullet through the world’s understanding of fantasy and reality.

My search began on a Caribbean beach dotted with bokors, or Voodoo sorcerers, and the inescapable marks of the living dead. Villagers here believed so strongly in the existence of zombies that they enacted a law against creating them in 1835. When I asked my host family why they kept a large jar of salt by the door, they told me it was for protection – a pinch of it could give a zombie free will and make him or her return to the grave. But other local scientists were less than willing to consider the “reanimated corpse” hypothesis. One particularly insolent man kept insisting that zombie-like behavior was caused by a neurotoxin found in puffer fish. When I was laughed out of a scientific convention for suggesting that zombies could be created from the souls of the newly dead, I realized it was time to move on.

Next I visited France, where an old acquaintance had managed to acquire a copy of a medieval text by Walter Map. According to Map, “revenants” regularly rose from the dead to get revenge against their murderers. Skeletal and silent, these zombies rarely left the graveyards in which they had been buried and posed little danger to the general population. But Map had referenced no concrete evidence to back up his assertions, and so, as a scientist, I was compelled to discard his findings. I left France empty handed, my hopes of uncovering the truth about zombies at an all-time low.

That’s when I met him. A real, genuine, living (though not quite breathing) zombie, right there in the airport elevator next to me. He answered all my questions with aplomb, and told me a secret about the living dead so shocking, so horrifying, that Mythical Creature Monthly will not allow me to repeat it here. But I can tell you with all sincerity that zombies exist – and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay stock up on salt and lock your doors on the next Friday the 13th.