Fantasist’s Scroll

I finished Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn last week.

It was good, but light. For one thing, the author, who uses a pseudonym, claims she was trying to represent a fantasy world that was Japan-like without actually referring to the classes of people involved by their Japanese names and titles. So, while it was obvious that she was referring to ninja and samurai, she never used those terms, but instead used vague descriptions or descriptive words. To me, it seemed a little forced sometimes. Also, I felt as if the book was written for someone in about the 8th Grade. Of course, USA Today is written at that level, so maybe I’m just biased towards the more well read.
In any case, those two small issues aside, it was a good book. The story focuses on an orphan who is taken in first by a great lord in exile or disgrace, depending on your point of view, and, later, by a clan of enigmatic mystics who are basically ninja. There are numerous plot twists of varying degree, though none are too surprising to the well-read. The themes are classically Japanese and the author is unabashedly enamored with Japanese culture. In fact, on her website, she cites a trip to Japan as the inspiration for the novel. Well, series, actually. This is the first book in the Tales of the Otori series and the last has just recently been published.
As a fantasy book goes, Across the Nightingale Floor is rather similar to any of a number of others, but as a novel about a fantasy Japan, which is not historical fiction, it stands virtually alone. In fact, I haven’t seen a book similar since I read Barry Hughart’s Bridge of Birds, which is about an Ancient China that never really was. And, though I have to admit Lian Hearn could have done more with her work, I still liked the first book enough to buy, and read, the rest of the series.

No, not a computer virus.

That’s right a real, live virus that was created in a lab. According to this article on USA Today, such a thing now exists. Once confined to the slum of science-fiction, completely artificial virii now exist. Thursday, November 13, a team lead by Craig Venter announced that they had created an artificial virus based on a real one in just two weeks’ time.
Now, at this point all they did was make a virus that infected bacteria, but how long before they’re moving on? Where will it end? With a “flu” like Stephen King imagined in The Stand? Or will it be more subtle than that? Or less?
Will we eventually feel that it’s okay to “manufacture” animals through the same process? Will we make unicorns and minotaurs? Where do you draw the line?
I sure don’t know, but it’s a little more confusing now that the line has been redrawn for us. The only good thing about all this is that it gives science-fiction writers a whole lot more to write about!

I’d like to give this book a good review.

No, really, I would. When I picked it up, I had high hopes for a deeply moving spiritual experience. Unfortunately, I didn’t get it. Oh, it was a good reminder that I need to be more connected to the source of my spiritual strength, which is God. But, mostly, it was watered-down New Age mubo-jumbo.

It started out okay, though it wasn’t what I expected. It was, essentially, a work of fiction meant to impart nine “insights” of a spiritual nature. I hadn’t expected a story at all, but I plowed ahead anyway. Even though it was written at about the same level as USA Today. Then, they started to tell me that I needed to be a vegetarian. Uh-oh… I disagree with that for a number of reasons, which I won’t go into here. Suffice it to say that was my first warning that this wasn’t my kind of book. But, I reminded myself of all the Hindu and Buddhist vegetarians and kept reading.
Then, they started seeing auras. Oh, they called it “energy fields”, but it was nothing more than auras. That’s not bad in and of itself, but it added a bit of hokey-ness to the whole thing that was hard to get past later.
And, from there on out, everyone was a characature of a stereotype found in pop-psychology or New Age literature. Not that it’s all that bad, but it didn’t endear the book’s author to me. And, ultimately, it all got in the way of my reading. It’s never a good sign when the medium obstructs the message.

Still, it wasn’t a total loss. I did gain a deeper appreciation for better books! And, it made me think about what “coincidenes” really mean. Are they just interesting accidents? Or, are they messages from a higher source? So, I vowed to pay closer attention to chance encounters and such.
Also, it made me think more about how we interact with each other. How most of us are not conscious of the way we talk to and treat others. I know that I have not always been very conscious of how I deal with others. So, I promised myself that I would pay more attention to my interactions with other people.

So, while I can’t honestly reccomend this book to anyone else, it wasn’t a total loss. Oh, and normally, I’d post this on a Sunday, since it was a book about spirituality, but I’m announcing a new site feature tomorrow. And, the next two Sundays as well. Stay tuned!

And, living batteries are born.

I love new power-related technology. Especially when it all turns back to the original power source: life. So, these two stories, one on USA Today and the other on SpaceDaily, about batteries that are powered by bacteria, just tickle me. The idea of germs, basically, keeping us in energy. Of course, some of you will make the extension to the Matrix, but that’s your hang-up, man.

Enjoy the stories.