Ender's Game vs. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

 Ender's Game and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

by Orson Scott Card and Gabrielle Zevin

Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given you by good people, by people who love you.

On the surface level, Enders Game and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow have nothing in common. In fact, the only reason I even thought about these two books being comparable was because I read them one after another, and both had an impact on me, but I wasn't sure what is was. 

Enders Game is a science fiction novel written in 1985, and is about one boy, Ender, being the only hope for the human race to defeat a war against a bee-like alien species. The training for this was was done through strategy games and fake battles, and training began at 6 years old for Ender. 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is realistic fiction and about two people coming together and creating a game that turns into a successful business but also about their lives and how gaming played into that. It was written in 2023 and very real and full of events that affect their relationships and how they each dealt with success and failure. 

After sitting with these books for a while, I realized they do have a common thread; Games. 

All three main characters interacted with games throughout their lives. They all used games as a coping mechanism, Ender when he was feeling alone and hopeless in his training, Sam when he was in the hospital after his mom and he were in a bad car accident, and Sadie after Marx died before they could get married or meet their child. 

After I thought about this, lots of themes started overlapping between novels. 

This quote from Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, "But it is worth noting that to be good at something is not quite the same as loving it.", describes both Sam and Ender. Sam who was great at mathematics and was going through college for it, and Ender who was considered a genius at war strategy, but neither loved it. Sam had the opportunity to change courses, unlike Ender who would be responsible for the loss of the war if he left or gave up, couldn't. 

Another quote, "Video games don't make people violent, but maybe they falsely give you the idea that you can be a hero.", from Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, also describes Ender. Ender was chosen, over his just as promising siblings, because he was gentle and compassionate. The games didn't make him violent, in fact, once he found out the games were real, it almost destroyed him because, while he knew he was training for war and to kill the millions of aliens, he figured he would have time to mentally adjust from just winning games to winning wars. 

Games and gaming have become a huge industry in our society. Even people like myself, who are not games beyond the Wii and playing Club Penguin as a kid, hear about the release of new games like Halo and that football one (?). Online player games where you play against people all over the world like Among Us and campaign games have grown along with the availability of the internet. Streamers making playing games live their careers! With the Oculus, we move closer to having our own Oasis (from Ready Player One). Games are not going away, and are reaching wider audiences every year. 

Games are blamed for a lot, like violent tendencies in teenagers, and the fact that kids don't play outside anymore, online bullying and more. After these ideas were introduced to older generations, they became close to the gospel truth, even after many cases of research were completed and didn't support this argument. They ignore that the problems are coming from the real world, not these fake ones on screens.

All I can say, is that every gamer I know uses games to connect with friends who might live far away, or to release stress, or just to enjoy their free time, just like how Sam, Sadie and Ender used them. I mean, is it really any different than watching tv shows? Maybe it's better because the player is engaged and making decisions instead of mindlessly watching shows that just plays for the watcher. 

Anyways, thanks for exploring these books with me, I enjoyed both of these books and recommend reading both! 

:)

What If's

By Ashley

The Science Fiction and Fantasy genre's of literature can be hard to describe. They can take place anywhere, in space, under water, virtual realities, or nowhere at all, in some made up place like Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings. One author, Veronica Roth, described it as the genre of "What If's". What if these certain worldly limitations vanished, or what if humanity discovered this new technology, what if something or everything was different, what would it do to humanity. Authors make us these scenarios and let it play out, focusing in on one character living in that "What If", and playing out how they would respond. 

Thats what makes this genre so special, there are no rules and authors play gods. For me, the difference between Science Fiction and Fantasy is that in Science Fiction, those "What If's" come from a new discovery, something that someone discovered and explored and it changed the world as we know it. In Fantasy, these "What If's" are nothing new and have always existed. Thats not a perfect and all-encompassing description, but it's one way to look at it. 

I've been reading a lot of Science Fiction recently, and with a new advancement in AI technology being released to the public earlier this year, it's got me thinking about how technology is engrained in our lives, and how there are classic and new novels with evolved technology and human mutations as central parts of their "What If's". As technology progresses at this rapid rate, we grow closer to the reality in Ready Player One, with the Oculus virtual reality gaming system, with Artificial Intelligence created text, images, videos, and even music. Many of us work online and are dependent on its function for income. Computers are in everything, cars, fridges, watches, is it a huge stretch to expect that to continue and soon our homes have AI security systems, machines that cook full dinners for us? I don't think it is.

Here's where the human mutations enter the conversation. It's obvious that the generations that grew up with technology are going to be more versed, comfortable, and trusting of technology, and thats increasing with every new generation. The older populations struggle to embrace and adapt to it, but it's not slowing down for them, and it won't for us in the future. Why not somehow equip the human brain to adapt better, like updates in cell-phones and computers, through genetic methods or just new devices and implants? 

Let's step back, and consider what this does to humanity in these fictional stories. Does it even end well? In Ready Player One, reality is crumbling, in The Diabolic, humans build grand spaceships that repaired themselves that they forgot how to build them, replying on a few who kept that information from them, making the public dependent on very few people (that never goes well), and in Void, humanity depends on the net to do everything for them, but anyone with a HEX gene is hunted by the Government. In the end of most of these stories, the Hero/protagonist usually finds that humanity is suffering and stopped evolving

Advanced in technology is coming, and this isn't to say I am not excited to see what it does in the next 20, 30, and 40 years, and it's only even a disaster in Science Fiction, which is fictional, made up, conjecture.

It's fun thinking about, and if this topic is interesting, I recommend picking up some of the 6 books listed below that have tech and human mutations as part of their "What If's". 

:)

Cline, Ernest, 2011, Ready Player One, Random House Publishing Group.

Kincaid, S.J, 2016, The Diabolic, Simon & Schuster.

Falls, Kat, 2010, Dark Life, Scholastic Press.

Scott Card, Orosn, 1977, Ender's Game, Phoenix Rising.

Lassiter, Rhiannon, 2000, Void, Simon & Schuster.

Lowachee, Karen, "Survival Guide", The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Veronica Roth, 2021 Edition, HarperCollionsPublishers, 2021, pp 14-28.

  A Catcher in the Rye. 

 By J.D Salinger

I loved this book the first time I read it, but I remember being more confused than anything. I didn't understand the complex emotions Holden was going through, and I felt lost most of the time, but I was in high school at the time, and didn't have much real world experience.

This time though, it was hard to read but was impossible to put down. Thats the beauty of re-reading books after time has past, it always hit you a little different. But Holden went through a lot of things I can relate to. The way he thinks, the way he was alone, the way he kept asking the wrong people for company and attention. 

Maybe thats not something I want to admit to though, after looking into more of the history and effect this book has had on pop culture, apparently its been the backbone or justification or murders who probably felt the world was full of "phonies" just like Holden did. It's beeb banned and unbanned throughout its life because it might inspire some kids to leave school, fail schools, fail society as Holden might have.

Holden and his view of his life during this time gives the misery some company, and then it grow because it feels justified.

How it ended with Holden deciding that he was going to go home and most likely try again at another school and enter into what seems like an unending cycle, but there is some hope still at the end, like maybe one of the random people Holden met in New York made him want to take school more seriously. But who's to say what happened to Holden.  

I would love to read more reviews and other peoples thoughts on this book, and maybe I'll read it again in a few years. 

:)

 The Light of All that Falls

by James Islington

Choice is meaningless without consequences, and a privilege we do not deserve if we will not face them.

Now thissssss is how you DO time travel!!

What the heck, James, that was amazing! 

So obviously 10/10 I loved this book and the ending to the Licanius Trilogy, so much so that while I was reading that last 40 pages of this book and waiting for my pizza to cook, I let my pizza burn instead of putting it down for even a moment! I was shook at the ending, heck I was shook in the middle, James really had fun with the time travel and shape shifting aspect of these characters powers and I am here for it .

I loved these characters the entire story, I loved the plot, who intricate everything was, the amazing world building that Islington did here was amazing! This is just a great example of epic fantasy to me. 

He took the ending-of-the-world-as-we-know-it trope and gave is a fresh spin, I don't want to give too much away here, so please read them. 

:)

 The Echo of Things to Come

by James Islington

The lesser of two evils, or the greater good. Get a good man to utter either of those phrases and there is no one more eager to begin perpetrating evil.

The second installment of the Licanius Trilogy did not disappoint. Davian, Asha, and Wir are back, cleaning up the messes that the wave of the blind and almost collapse of the boundary that separates them and the unknown beyond. Wir is left fighting for his position in the country, Davian finally escapes North to the boundary with a team of augurs under a new amnesty that allows them to use Kan as the gifted uses essence, hopefully to fix the boundary, while Asha is thrown into the middle.

Caeden's sudden disappearance after winning the battle against the soldiers known as the blind that escaped the boundary into the south, took him back to his past. A man, another immortal being who seemed to know Caeden was waiting for him and helped begin to unlock the memories of who Caeden really is. He is the Veranate, 13 immortal beings, each with a unique talent for Kan, like time travel, or forgery. The 13 had all been friends until Caeden switched sides, believing that they were not fighting for El, the God of the old and new religions, but his direct opposite. The being of Evil, who had knocked the trajectory of the world off El's original plan. 

Caeden remembers his plan, that he had set in motion long ago, one that will affect the world as they knew it. 

This series contains epic characters and politics, and Islington took us closer to each character in this book, giving a little backstory into Asha, Davian, and Wir's life before going to Cadadel. It added a lot of depth, and urgency to the whole series. We still don't know who to believe, is Caeden, Tal'kamar, Avard Devad, really on the right side? Can Davian save the Boundary, should he? Lots of questions. 

I highly recommend this story and series so far, and am already halfway through the last book in the Trilogy. 

:)

 One Foot in the Fade

By Luke Arnold

You cannot fight for peace. You must give into it. You must let go. 

 Here we have the third installment of Fetch Phillips adventures, written into existence by Luke Arnold. I have to be honest, for the first two books, in my head, the main characters name was 'Fletch' not 'Fetch', so now that I know the main characters name, I feel like I can give an honest review. 

Again, the cover is really cool and this blue is fantastic, but the story itself, not so much. That's not saying it was bad, but just tired and too similar to the other installments in the series. This felt like book number 2, something that just bridges book 1 and book 3, and thats it. It didn't add huge amounts of substance. I feel that this either is leading to the last book, or Arnold is trying to 'Nancy Drew' it and make as many novels in this vein as possible. 

It was the same fast paced adventure that the other books had, but some things happened that I felt were just to fill the page and add some fluff to the story. Some new elements were brought in, some new characters and motivations, but the whole time felt like I've read this before.

My biggest ick from this book is that the title was used, verbatim, word for word, at least twice in the story by the characters. For some reason, that felt really cheesy and beneath Arnolds usually writing and story telling standard. Doing it once can be fun and add an almost 'easter-eggy' feel, but twice felt like an amateur wrote this and snuck it back in once the editor looked at it. I don't know why that really hung me up, but it did.

Over-all, this is still a really fun series to read, but this was the least strong book so far, in my opinion. 

:)

 Babel

by R. F. Huang

"English did not just borrow words from other languages; it was stuffed to the brim with foreign influences, a Frankenstein vernacular. And Robin found it incredible, how this country, whose citizens prided themselves so much of being better than the rest of the world, could not make it through an afternoon tea without borrowed goods" - Babel.

    Yes that is a long quote to start with, but this book deserves it. I don't joke when I say, that this book helped me understand the world better. I saw myself, people I know, and the world from a zoomed out view. R. F. Huang made me an ant and let me look at the world through a telescope. I loved it. 

   

    Robin Swift was the perfect protagonist for this story, it wouldn't and couldn't have been done as powerfully with any other character. Robin Swift is gentle, smart, and eager to please those who look after him. He was a survivor, and he hie behind that idea of himself for most of the story. After being taken from his homeland, taught languages and eventually was admitted to Oxford, the alma mater of his guardian who was also a professor there, he wanted to be grateful for this opportunity, to avoid working the docs and behind homeless back in Canton, Asia. 

    He tried to ignore the nagging feeling that he had not chosen this, that something wasn't right, and once he saw what his beloved London and Babel pumping Opium into China for profit, to keep the balance of the world that London had built with itself at the center, the fantasy that was his life at Oxford fade away. 

    He knew he had to take a stand, maybe too late, even though he was the last one to do it, he had to stand up for the all inclusive Other. 

    There were so many heart warming scenes in this story, between Robin and his friends and professors, the romanized educational setting that makes up the dark academia genre. This was the first one of that genre I could make it through, or love to pieces. 

    The whole time reading this, I couldn't help but think of a professor I had in college. I took a book binding class and we learned about the history of the book, what is a book, and why. We watched a movie on fonts, I'll never look at Helvetica the same ever again, but he also talked about words, and how they've traveled and changed throughout time and cultures, and this book explored the origin of words and what language is, as its core and in the philosophical sense. What is translation? The conversion of words from one language to another, or should it focus on the transfer of meaning as every culture has different idioms and metaphors. I hope this book finds him.

    Another scene that I think highlights what this book is about is when Robin, who is one of four translators at Oxford, is invited to hangout with the jocks (business majors types) of Oxford. When he does, and they're talking about their studies, and they try and intimidate Robin, by reading terrible poetry none the less, and when Robin wasn't intimidated, they cast him out, called him slurs and insulted his studies, only because they themselves couldn't do it. Robin saw the lack of substance in them that they refused to believe was there. Broaden that out to London England is the cocky business majors, and Robin is the rest of the world. 

    I think we see a lot of that today, and R. F. Huang did an amazing job of of making this book relevant. 

    I am so glad I picked up this book, and I read it slow, I spent about 6 weeks on it, and I think thats how it's meant to be read. It's not slow or written difficultly, but it's deep, and it needs time to sink it, or at least it did for me. 

    There's so much more to be said about this book, but I think it needs to be experienced yourself. 

I hope you pick this one up.

:)