Yes, I picked it up because it’s by the Harry Potter lady; but it’s hard to imagine how a book could be further away from Harry Potter. This is an ultra-realist novel for adults. By ultra-realist, I mean that not only are there no magical or science fictional elements. There aren’t even any implausible elements or plot devices. (OK, maybe one involving some SQL injection, but it at least falls into the realm of the possible.) That is, this is a book about people who behave pretty much exactly like real people do; no heroes or villains here, though there are more and less likeable characters.
If Rowling’s name were not on the cover, I doubt anyone would ever have suspected this book was by her. It really is that different. The language is different. The point of view is different (third person omniscient instead of Harry Potter’s less common third person limited omniscient view). The novel is far more character driven than the plot-centric Harry Potter novels. There are no big reversals where you discover the good guy is the bad guy and the bad guy is the good guy. (This would be quite hard to pull off in third person omniscient, in any case.)
However, there is one thing that really stands out; and both connects this novel to Rowling, and distinguishes it from most other fiction including the Harry Potter novels. The children are equally well-drawn as characters, and equally important to the story as the adults. Although this is an adult novel, it is not one that makes the mistake of treating children as set dressing. The children here are real and significant. In LessWrong speak, everyone’s a PC. There are no NPCs. Most adult novels ignore children. Most children’s novels ignore adults. It is rare to find a novel that treats both children and adults as characters in their own right.
There’s some overlap with Harry Potter, but it’s not obvious. One thing is that the last HP novel was naturalistic in the sense of having a lot of wandering around in the woods and (if I recall correctly) bickering.
Another is that HP shows a lot of mistrust of institutions. Personal loyalty in small groups takes up the slack. In A Casual Vacancy, the one person who’s maintaining loyalty in a small town dies, and we see the consequences of a moral keystone being taken away.
Olaf Stapledon is little-known these days, but is a fine example of just how well-written British science fiction could be at the same time as Gernsback was just starting American science fiction. (Hence Aldiss in Billion Year Spree having a bit of a rant about how Gernsback ruined SF for decades, and it took until the New Wave for American SF to rediscover any sense of literary value.) Have you got to Odd John and Last Men In London yet?
Stapledon’s philosophy background probably helped, among other things. Word is that Arthur C. Clarke was directly influenced by reading his stuff too.
I honestly found Odd John rather tiresome at times (too pseudo-Nietzche plus tired early-twentieth-century myth of progress, the combination seems to rub me the wrong way), though it’s got some great… Stapledonisms (?) sprinkled around. I also liked Sirius. The books Last Men in London and Death into Life are on my reading list with a pile of other things.
The entire Flashman series. I was pointed at it by a Hitchens piece. It’s historical adventure fiction potboilers about the British Army in the Victorian age; pretty lightweight, but the author has gone to some pains to make it as historically accurate as possible, with footnotes. I’m moving house at present and it’s a nice diversion between packing boxes, and an easy way to learn a bit of history.
Elantris and The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson are both very entertaining. Moderately but not explicitly rationalist as the magic is systematic and the main plot revolves around investigation.
I haven’t read it, obviously, so I’ll just paste the blurb here from Amazon.
In the near future, humanity has experienced a great schism. The larger part is ruled by instinct and pleasure: they are ageless, beautiful yet wholly dependent on technology designed by previous generations to sustain them. Having no social structure or self-consciousness to speak of, to the minority they are simply known as the Others.
But into this unmarked, timeless community walks Fred, the first visitor from a far-off land. His people are the N-Ps, governed by logic, revolted by the mindless, unfettered sollipsism of the Others. In all respects a model N-P, as Fred conducts his studies, he finds himself caught in an awkward relationship with his test subjects.
Fred begins to feel for the childlike members of the Dwelling he observes. Embracing their gaudy, hyperreal life of screens and implants, Fred begins to be changed himself, even as he begins to affect the minds of these Others in ways that may not be to their benefit.
Fiction Books Thread
The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling.
Yes, I picked it up because it’s by the Harry Potter lady; but it’s hard to imagine how a book could be further away from Harry Potter. This is an ultra-realist novel for adults. By ultra-realist, I mean that not only are there no magical or science fictional elements. There aren’t even any implausible elements or plot devices. (OK, maybe one involving some SQL injection, but it at least falls into the realm of the possible.) That is, this is a book about people who behave pretty much exactly like real people do; no heroes or villains here, though there are more and less likeable characters.
If Rowling’s name were not on the cover, I doubt anyone would ever have suspected this book was by her. It really is that different. The language is different. The point of view is different (third person omniscient instead of Harry Potter’s less common third person limited omniscient view). The novel is far more character driven than the plot-centric Harry Potter novels. There are no big reversals where you discover the good guy is the bad guy and the bad guy is the good guy. (This would be quite hard to pull off in third person omniscient, in any case.)
However, there is one thing that really stands out; and both connects this novel to Rowling, and distinguishes it from most other fiction including the Harry Potter novels. The children are equally well-drawn as characters, and equally important to the story as the adults. Although this is an adult novel, it is not one that makes the mistake of treating children as set dressing. The children here are real and significant. In LessWrong speak, everyone’s a PC. There are no NPCs. Most adult novels ignore children. Most children’s novels ignore adults. It is rare to find a novel that treats both children and adults as characters in their own right.
There’s some overlap with Harry Potter, but it’s not obvious. One thing is that the last HP novel was naturalistic in the sense of having a lot of wandering around in the woods and (if I recall correctly) bickering.
Another is that HP shows a lot of mistrust of institutions. Personal loyalty in small groups takes up the slack. In A Casual Vacancy, the one person who’s maintaining loyalty in a small town dies, and we see the consequences of a moral keystone being taken away.
Star Maker, by Olaf Stapledon
Last and First Men, by Olaf Stapledon
Olaf Stapledon is little-known these days, but is a fine example of just how well-written British science fiction could be at the same time as Gernsback was just starting American science fiction. (Hence Aldiss in Billion Year Spree having a bit of a rant about how Gernsback ruined SF for decades, and it took until the New Wave for American SF to rediscover any sense of literary value.) Have you got to Odd John and Last Men In London yet?
Stapledon’s philosophy background probably helped, among other things. Word is that Arthur C. Clarke was directly influenced by reading his stuff too.
I honestly found Odd John rather tiresome at times (too pseudo-Nietzche plus tired early-twentieth-century myth of progress, the combination seems to rub me the wrong way), though it’s got some great… Stapledonisms (?) sprinkled around. I also liked Sirius. The books Last Men in London and Death into Life are on my reading list with a pile of other things.
Descending:
Daemon, Suarez (review)
Shades of Grey, Fforde (review)
Young Philby, Littell
Freedom (TM), Suarez (anti-recommendation)
The entire Flashman series. I was pointed at it by a Hitchens piece. It’s historical adventure fiction potboilers about the British Army in the Victorian age; pretty lightweight, but the author has gone to some pains to make it as historically accurate as possible, with footnotes. I’m moving house at present and it’s a nice diversion between packing boxes, and an easy way to learn a bit of history.
Elantris and The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson are both very entertaining. Moderately but not explicitly rationalist as the magic is systematic and the main plot revolves around investigation.
Not a recommendation or a discommendation, just a drawing to attention of a novel on LessWrong-relevant themes:
Susan Greenfield, the neuroscientist turned science writer, has written an SF novel, out in July, 2121: A Tale From the Next Century.
I haven’t read it, obviously, so I’ll just paste the blurb here from Amazon.
Sounds like Eloi, Morlocks, and Fun Theory.
I also randomly found this interview with her from 2011 that touches on the themes of the book.