FACT SF Reading Group

January 2003

January 7: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

Seventeen people, including one first-time attendee, came to this meeting at Willie and Charles's home. Our topic was The Two Towers, the second volume in Tolkien's classic Lord of the Rings trilogy. The story involves friendship, honor, battles, poetry, loyalty, attempts to save the world, and talking trees. Everyone at the meeting had finished the book, and only one person had read the book for the first time in the past year. Most of us had first read it in high school or college.

About half of our group thought the book was wonderful. Tolkien's writing style was described as "beautiful language," "lyrical passages," and "masterful storytelling." Also, several people were impressed with the size of the story, with one calling it "unsurpassed in sheer scope, ambition, and ambition." It was noted how well Tolkien evoked a heroic and mythic tone to the story, with one person saying "Tolkien's mentors were Tennyson and Walter Scott, and you can feel the unbroken line back to Homer and Beowulf." Many people in this group said they reread the Lord of the Rings on a regular basis.

The rest of us liked the book quite a bit less. While agreeing that the basic story and some of the characters are interesting, this group tended to find much of the text did not add to their enjoyment. These people often said that they liked the book better on rereading, because they "knew which poetry and boring descriptions to skip this time." Comments included "needed editing," "fabulously overrated," and "stupid poems." A couple of people simply said, "this book is not for me." One person noticed a disturbing "backward-looking" element in the story, where the "evil people" have factories and the "heroes" have little technology.

We briefly discussed the recent film adaptation of The Two Towers. Most of us felt the movie was well made and enjoyable, but the plot and characterization strayed a lot from the book and seemed to miss the point of the story.

We came to no consensus about this book, but we had a pleasant discussion. Afterward, we had a nice dinner at Threadgill's.

January 21: The Duke of Uranium by John Barnes

Twelve people attended this discussion of at Judy and Jeff's house. Our topic was The Duke of Uranium, a futuristic SF adventure. The story follows a group of teenage high school friends who get involved in a plot involving kidnapping, conspiracy, aliens, and daring rescues. All but one of us at the meeting had read the book in its entirety, and the other person was just at the meeting to socialize and tag along for dinner.

Several of us found the story to be a fast-paced romp in a classic style. We liked the old-fashioned flavor of earnest young people yearning to do brave heroic deeds. We were interested in the details of the Hive, the space habit in Earth's L5 point where our protagonists grew up. The story brought up some interesting ideas about economics in outer space, a concept Barnes had dealt with in earlier novels like The Man Who Pulled Down the Sky and A Million Open Doors. We liked reading about our heroes going on an old-fashioned tour of the Solar System. Background elements of the story, involving competing underground political movements, were interesting and seemed like foreshadowing for future adventures of these characters. We thought it evoked some of the flavor of the Heinlein juveniles, but would be more accessible to today's kids. And we loved the notion of people being "registered social parasites."

Others in the group were disappointed. Many had enjoyed some of John Barnes's more ambitious adult novels and were disappointed to read a simpler story aimed at a younger audience. There were many comparisons to the young adult novels of Robert Heinlein, and we noted plot elements that seemed to be tributes to Starship Troopers and Podkayne of Mars. Many of us felt the Heinlein novels had bigger ideas and better-developed characters. Some in our group said that they enjoyed the world and the technology of this book quite a bit, but wished the author had populated his story with more interesting characters than this group of shallow teenagers. A couple of people felt the writing was less polished than they expected of a writer with Barnes's experience, and they wondered if he had written the book in a rush since it was "only" a paperback original.

While we came to no agreement about The Duke of Uranium, we had a fun meeting. Afterward, we had a nice dinner at Mongolian Grille.

-- A. T. Campbell, III