Books: The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic By F.T. Lukens (2017)

"Assisting an intermediary between the worlds of myths and humans is easier than asking the football hero to homecoming. High school senior Bridger Whitt is determined to escape humdrum Midden, Michigan, so he can finally be himself (read: determine his hetero-, homo-, or bisexuality far from familiar faces). When he is accepted by a Florida college, he realizes the only way he and his single mom can afford it is to fatten his coffers via part-time employment. Answering a very peculiar ad, he’s hired to assist the terminally tackily attired Pavel Chudinov, who is charged with ensuring humans don’t mix with cryptids. And the sudden abnormal influx of creatures in Midden (troll, unicorn, mermaids, etc.) has them burning the mythic candle at both ends. As if dodging toxic troll spit while maintaining his GPA wasn’t challenge enough, Bridger must also contend with his burgeoning feelings for dreamy Puerto Rican neighbor Leo, who just might also be into him." 

 

At last weekend’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books event at USC, I stumbled into a small booth for Duet Books, a publisher of young adult LGBTQ novels. The persons running were some genuinely charming women who were more than helpful talking about the small line-up of books be presented here. One of the ladies was really excited about F.T. Lukens' The Rules and Regulations For Mediating Myths and Magic. It was on her enthusiastic love for the book that made me decide to get it.

Now, I don’t read much in this genre, which despite some mainstream publishers releasing books in this genre; a lot comes from indie-publishers like Duet Books or self-published houses like Jay Bell’s Something Like…series). Part of the reasons is that these tales have a tendency to lightly written with cliché ridden characters and well worn tropes that romance novels (both straight and gay) fall into. There may also be some internal homophobia from me, as well, so I've found myself passing up a lot of gay fiction. But still, even when I do read this genre, I’m always looking for something that can me offer something different, while still bringing something new to the table.

While there is some repetitive clichés that (maybe) these type of books can’t escape from (Oh, I do long for a gay male character who also has a plutonic relationship with a straight male one; I’ve grown weary with the idea that every gay male character in this genre has to have straight gal-pal like Astrid here), but the book is surprisingly warm, funny, and charming. But Lukens does constantly remind us that Bridger is an odd-ball (not a weirdo per se) and knows way too much convenient bits of trivia (the TV game show Jeopardy is named-dropped a lot here). Still, what really works here is the pacing and believability of the main characters, which I liked. I also appreciated that Bridger’s struggle with his sexuality was set more or less on the fringes of the book (and the fact that he's not sure if he's bi or gay is refreshing), along with Luken’s choice to make the supernatural aspect more prominent (and while she does some World Building here, she also chooses to limit this, which is fairly refreshing in fantasy novels these days). So those strengths outweigh some minor quibbles with the structure. 

Pavel Chudinov and his band of merry-odd co-workers (that includes two pixies and werewolf) are all well drawn out but as I read the book, I could not help but ship the main characters of Bridger and Leo. I could see both Grant Davis and Davi Santos (the stars of Something Like Summer) playing those two boys. Perhaps because I’m so close to the film, the cast, crew and Jay Bell, that this is unavoidable? And I could genuinely see Jana Lee Hamblin (who was also in that film and played Ben Bentley’s Mom) playing Bridger’s mother here as well. Play what you know?

The book does have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but I kind of hope that Lukens' writes another book featuring these characters. I like what she’s created here and would enjoy the further adventures of Bridger and Leo. 

Is it me, or does the silhouette character of Bridger on the book cover look like the cover artist is also a huge fan of The Venture Bros? 

Books: Contact By Carl Sagan (1985)

“There are two great powers and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.” –Phillip Pullman

For centuries humanity has dreamed of life and intelligence beyond the Earth; for decades scientists have searched for it in every corner of the sky; for years Project Argus, a vast, sophisticated complex of radio telescopes, has listened for a signal indicating the existence, somewhere in the universe, of extraterrestrial intelligence. Then, one afternoon, the course of human history is changed, abruptly and forever. The Message, awaited for so long, its very possibility doubted by so many, arrives. Contact has been made. Life, intelligence, someone, something beyond Earth, 26 light-years away, in the vicinity of the star Vega, is calling, beaming across space a wholly unexpected message to say that we are not - have never been - alone.

Here is another novel that has taken decades for me to read. And while I’m not sad I finally got to it, I’m somewhat conflicted over what has NOT happened in our world when this book was released in 1985, that not much has changed, especially with those whom look to space and see a future and those who want remain firmly Earth bound, believing in a God who apparently created an expanding the universe, and only populated one world among trillions with sentient life. As Ellie noted, “the universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space.”

While The Message received from Vega is what pushes the novel forward, what Sagan has done here in Contact, is also try to explore the world of science, mixed with belief, and with an added dollop of wonder. He succeeds fairly well here, and we see humans doing what humans have done for thousands of years, which is figure out how to separate people instead of bringing them together. Yes, everyone on the planet agrees to fund the Machine that the Message sent (and while I know this book was written in the mid-1980s, I was struck how primitive computers were back then and amazed at how the sciences have made a lot of technological leaps in 33 years), but it’s still couched in some jingoistic notion that only a handful of nations can and should respond to this call from the darkness of space –even when the message seems to be directed at everyone.

As his first and only novel, though Sagan’s prose does suffer with some long-winded lectures (and he does try to see both sides of the issue, which does not always work), and the pacing is fairly torpid at times (which is typical of the classic science fiction novels of Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke and many others). In the end, there have been better writers who were looking to corral non-scientific readers by wrapping popcorn ideas around real scientific thoughts, but the book meanders too much and only really comes together once Ellie and rest begin their voyage (which is left up to reader to decid whether she and the others experienced some sort outer space journey or was some form of mass hallucination, or some bizarre failure of Star Trek: The Next Generations holodeck).

I need to read more of Sagan’s nonfiction work to see his undiluted ideas on science and it’s place in the world, but Contact was still a good start. 

Finally, while I don't think Sagan was a futurist, it always made me smile when he mentions something (the book is set in 1999) that did not happen, like the dismantling of the broadcast networks and the demise of The National Enquirer. Also, he missed the microprocessor age, which would made The Message sent from Vega download much faster (and while discs were still being used to store information in 1999, I don't think they were as primitive as the ones described in this novel).   

Books: The Unhappy Medium by T.J. Brown (2014)

“Dr Newton Barlow has everything a scientist could ask for – a glittering career both in the lab and on television, a beautiful wife, and best of all, the opportunity to promote his rock-solid certainty that supernatural and religious beliefs are nothing but complete and utter hokum. But Barlow is about to take a tumble. Mired in accusations of fraud, incompetence and malpractice, Newton is cast out from the scientific establishment and ejected from the family home. His life in tatters, he descends into a wine-sodden wilderness. Then, after three lost years, Barlow is suddenly approached by his old mentor and fellow skeptic Dr Sixsmith with an extraordinary proposition, an offer that Newton simply cannot refuse. There’s just one small problem: Dr Sixsmith is dead.

“Thrown headlong into a new reality that simply shouldn’t exist, Dr Newton Barlow is about to come up against the best and the worst of human nature: tooled-up vicars, paper-pushing ancient Greeks, sinister property developers, a saucy rubber nun and possibly the most mean-spirited man ever to have walked the earth. Twice.”

The Unhappy Medium is another book I really, really wanted to like. And I do, because it can be a fun ride most of the time. But much like Dan Brown, author T.J. Brown is prone to showing off too much World Building here; mostly through some very clunky prose and sparse dialogue that easily deflates any tension. There is very little internal conflict (typical British stereotype) and no real sense of threat that La Senza is supposed represent.

The book seems to want to appeal to many genres, as well. It has some sardonic humor, but it borrows too much from Dan Brown, Monty Python, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, and Christopher Moore to be original (side note: where are the women who write supernatural satire? Please tell me). Not saying there is not a good idea here, and under a steadier hand (and a proper editor), this book could be winner.  

There is a second book in this series and while I’m tempted to buy it, with so many other books to read, I cannot see me really getting it anytime soon. This is a pity, because, again, there is some potential here. Maybe this works well as television series (though many would likely compare it too Buffy, Friday the 13^th: The TV Series, Reaper and other shows that focus on returning objects and escaped villains from The Other Side), but as a novel, it takes way too long for anything to happen. And with too many side trips that go nowhere, I found myself wanting to change the channel.