FACT SF Reading Group

January 2000

January 4: Bloom by Wil McCarthy

Eight people attended the discussion of Bloom, including one first-time participant. Five had finished the book, one had read half of it, and the rest were there simply to socialize.

Bloom is a futuristic SF novel set in a world where the Earth has been invaded and taken over by a mysterious growth called the "Bloom". A few Earthlings have managed to escape, and they have carved out new civilizations on Jupiter's moons and in the Asteroid Belt. The book follows a group of human scientists who travel back toward Earth on an expedition to learn more about the mysterious Bloom.

We thought this book contained several interesting ideas. The scientists had a lot of technical discussions about the nature of the Bloom, and we appreciated the details on their attempts to model it with a computer using artificial life techniques. The various theories about the Bloom were interesting, and the final truth about it was an original idea.

Unfortunately this book had serious problems. The writing style was too heavy on information dumps. The plot was a minimal structure on which to hang the technical developments, and one person felt all the plot points were telegraphed. There was a "revelation" every 50 pages or so, but must of them were big letdowns. The book felt like the author was trying to write a novel in the Hal Clement tradition, but Wil McCarthy is no Hal Clement. There were major scientific errors, and the story was just not engaging.

While the author created an interesting universe for his story, it was not well utilized. The scientists were so focused on their specific mission that they couldn't be bothered to look out the window as they passed by wonders.

Overall we found Bloom to be an adequately written but flawed hard SF novel. It's not nearly as good as either of the previous McCarthy books discussed by our group, Aggressor Six and Murder in the Solid State.

-- A. T. Campbell, III

January 18: Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone by J. K. Rowling

On January 18^th, a dozen readers met to discuss Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling. Our group included two persons who had not previously attended one of our meetings, one of whom was an 8-year-old.

Our normal discussion leader was in Houston for family reasons, so I was drafted into taking notes. Unfortunately, my notes are in a box somewhere in my new house so I must attempt to reconstruct the meeting from a cold-obscured memory.

Everyone liked the book (in fact, some loved the book), but some expressed various reservations. A few were disappointed and felt it didn't live up to its bestseller hype. The counter argument to this was that few books on the bestseller list live up to their hype and that this particular entry on the list was more worthy than most.

We also argued about some perceived moral ambiguities. One reader felt that with all their other courses, the students at Hogwarts should be studying the ethics of magic. There was also some concern expressed about how Harry and his friends break rules, and we disagreed on several plot points: for example, some said that all the adults were stupid so the children had to do extraordinary things, while others argued that the adults were not necessarily foolish, merely misinformed.

We also discussed the various levels of the story: an English boarding school novel, a fantasy quest, a mystery, and even a sports story. Some of our discussion members who are interested in writing also noted that the book had an interesting structure -- every chapter advances the plot by two major points, giving readers a double punch and a feeling that the story keeps moving with no real lag time.

We also discussed the probable intended age level for this novel, but without my notes, I hesitate to elaborate on the part of the discussion. Likewise, we discussed other sf/fantasy books and authors that might be appropriate for younger readers who enjoyed this one.

Some members of the group had already read later books in the series, while other folks would like to read the next book but can wait for its paperback release.

All in all, a worthwhile book, especially for younger readers and other folks interested in fantasy books.

-- Lori Wolf