First, totally different subject… I saw somewhere that the
book I mentioned in my last post The Host by Stephenie Meyer is coming
out as a movie next year, goody goody, I can hardly wait. I loved the book and hope the movie won’t
disappoint… the premise doesn’t seem the easiest to transition from book to
film. We’ll see…
Anyway, I was thinking about The Host and of course
thought about a past book (see themed blog) and realized one of my favorites
was Needle by Hal Clement. So I
went to my trusty bookshelf and… well, it wasn’t there… OMG… no, no, this can’t
be. I went to my other bookshelf (I have
several but the pseudo-alphabetizing requires movement) and it wasn’t there
either. I could picture the cover, it
was paperback and relatively old, a reprint back in the seventies, likely. I have lost a book. Perhaps I loaned it out and never received it
(if you’re reading this please return it).
Worst case scenario… I sold a few books ages ago and - sigh- it may be gone forever.
Enough about me missing a book, I still remember the story…
okay, a little vague, I don’t remember the hero’s name or the… anyway the
reason I bring this up in conjunction with The Host is that it, too, is
a story about a (SPOILER ALERT) symbiotic life form living in a human.
Hal Clement copyrighted Needle back in 1949, so that
is a past book, for sure. Hal Clement
was born in 1922 and died in 2003 and wrote many books and was active in the
writing community. The book was reprinted
several times and may have started out with another title, or temporarily
adopted one in the 50’s.
Needle is a fun and well-paced story. It is not a Total Invasion scenario as The
Host is, rather it is a cops and criminal story with an extraterrestrial
cop chasing a criminal who got away and has moved into a human host. The problem was tracking the bad guy… er… bad
symbiote… down required the cop, also a symbiote, to work with a human, so he
stabs the guy in the foot while he’s swimming and invades his body and then
talks with him. They become partners
while on the case…
Okay, so my memory isn’t going to spoil the story for you, I think
there’s a hospital scene near the end and…
Find a copy, since I can’t seem to, and read it, especially
if you liked The Host.
Hal Clement came out with a sequel called Through the Eye
of the Needle (I think) and it had great reviews, alas, I did not read it
nor do I have a copy.
Although Stephenie likely won’t be seeing this it’s a hint
that she needs a sequel to The Host, I think Wanderer is an excellent
character, and, as I’ve mentioned before, some stories need to continue.
While searching through my shelves for the missing book I noticed
a lot of books that also need mentioning and, since I come woefully short on
substance for Needle, let me mention Foundation by Isaac Asimov,
okay, I know I was only going to mention the books that were less well-known
otherwise I would’ve been talking about The Hobbit and The Lord of
the Rings for a few blogs, especially since the movie for The Hobbit
is coming out soon.
So, if you’re really into science fiction and have not read
the Foundation series, the first was copyrighted in 1951, you may want
to check them out. It’s a complicated
work but it has the kind of world building that was once a popular theme in
science fiction. While I know that I enjoyed
the books when I read them the first time, I also know that I didn’t grasp what
the books were saying. It was kind of
like listening to a story and not realizing the moral until you let it
percolate a few weeks.
I know that Isaac Asimov created foundational ideas for
science fiction, both with world building and with simplifying things, like
creating the three laws of robotics, neat.
What impressed me about the Foundation stories, what lingers even
to this day, was the idea of creating a social engineering equation (He was a
math guy, too). The several alliances
within the story viewed this equation in various ways, good, bad, indifferent,
but the equation was running all the while, proving itself. When I think of the story I have this image
of an equation that is visible in three dimensions, a hologram that can be
enlarged at any point to show more of itself, the complexities. What it also points out is that human
interactions are standard, they can be measured, actions, reactions,
sentiments, sins and all the complex motivations can be analyzed.
Sure, simple, a single list of motivations but an infinite
result in their permutations through interactions.
The idea was essential in Foundation but it works
throughout all stories in every media format.
I also realized (totally different subject) I need more
bookshelves and a different approach to alphabetizing. Like, at first I had my paperbacks in one
section. Then I had to start putting
some paperbacks with the hardbacks but I already had A-Z in paperbacks here and
A-Z in hardback there. So then I put A-Z
with science fiction and fantasy here and mystery there and non-fiction and
inspiration over there. Then I had to
divide the hard backs A-Z science fiction here, then mystery, then fantasy and
inspiration and reference. Then I… well,
I’ve kind of given up but for a general stacking of what has been read and what
I need to read among what used to be organized.
Yes, I was just looking for another book…
No comments:
Post a Comment