jordangreywolf | [Books] More on Cascade Point, Deadman's Switch, Allegiance

One silly, fannish highlight for me, at the convention: Over the past year, I've been catching up on a few books by Timothy Zahn that I've picked up as "airport books" -- that is, I buy the book, and I deliberately DO NOT READ IT until I'm on a project that requires travel, and then I pack it and take it along to read when I'm stuck in an airport. I've read a number of short stories in "Cascade Point," an interesting older novel called "Deadman's Switch," and then another Star Wars novel I somehow skipped, "Allegiance."

Timothy Zahn was scheduled to speak at a panel at 3 pm on Friday, about "Villains and Anti-Heroes," and I SO WANTED TO SIT IN ON THAT, but I needed that time to set up for my game. (And I DID need that time, even if I had only two players. I wouldn't go back and change that, out of fairness to them.)

As things worked out, when I finished up my last game and got things packed away, I still managed to get to the Ice Cream Social sometime after 2 pm, and Timothy Zahn had a table set up outside the reception hall, with a few of his books on display. I had my carry bag with me, and as it so happened, since I had just come back from another trip to Arlington before turning right around to go to Tampa, I still had my "airport book" with me -- "Allegiance." I tried to "headline" my gushing about "Cascade Point," "Deadman's Switch," and "Allegiance." He was kind enough to offer me some insights. I ... was terrible, as usual, blurting things out while he was speaking, interrupting as soon as a thought came to my head, and I had to stop and apologize ("I have a terrible habit of speaking as soon as a thought enters my head!"), but he was gracious all the while.

Cascade Point
About Cascade Point, I really loved the little blurbs before each short story that helped to give an insight as to where the author's mind was when he wrote the story. This was back in the late 1980s, and I think several of the stories were published in the early 1980s. Some of the technology was certainly dated, but I noted that many of the concepts still felt relevant today -- and, as I was still just a kid back when these stories were first published (and my reading list wasn't all that terribly sophisticated), I think I was also just wowed that some of these concepts were coming up that long ago -- some of them, I'd thought of as more modern innovations.

Deadman's Switch
About Deadman's Switch, I was fascinated with the novel's treatment of religion, and its subtle subversion of expectations in regards to many tropes I've come to expect from science fiction with male protagonists, at least from that time period. As I noted, "When I see religion mentioned in a science fiction story, either I get the sense that the author has a horse in this race and there's some religious authority who can never be wrong, or else religious characters are viewed with scorn or in a patronizing manner, or else it's some kind of mushy 'feel-good' pseudo-religion where all the hard corners are scrubbed away. This presented characters with religious -- and areligious and anti-religious -- beliefs in ways I'm simply unaccustomed to reading about, anywhere."

He explained, at least partially, that it all grew out of a seed of an idea that was just the basis of the original scenario presented to the reader: What if, in the exploration of space, we somehow came across a phenomenon that seemed to demand a more primitive means of traversal? I.e., that in order to visit this planet, you basically had to perform a human sacrifice? He had to imagine some sort of situation that could make sense of such a barbaric requirement, but he also felt compelled to explore how different people, with different beliefs, and coming from different stations of life, would approach or react to such an arrangement.

The other part I noted about was how I thought it was interesting that while there was one main protagonist who stayed with the story -- as the viewpoint character -- throughout, at different stages of the story, he's paired up with different people who are his allies in different ways, and they are by no means uniform in their beliefs. At one part in the story, it looks as if the female character is being set up as his "potential love interest" -- yet that's NOT how the story unfolds -- and that's just the first of several "tropes" that get "subverted" -- not in loud and flashy ways, but subtle ways ... but the undercurrent I picked up from that was that this writer is not "following the rules" -- it's like I'm watching a supernatural movie and there IS NOT a creepy soundtrack that's letting me know when I'm supposed to be scared, or perhaps what I'm seeing is actually at odds with those cues. It tells me that if those "rules" can be "broken," then maybe this writer will break OTHER "rules" as well. Maybe everything is up for grabs. And thus it makes the stakes in tense situations seem all the more real.

Allegiance
And lastly, there was the matter of "Allegiance." I resisted the urge to trash "Last Jedi" and the latest post-Legends era of Disney Star Wars, but I at least let out, "I really wish there were some way I could see the Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade of these books in cinematic form." Yeah -- not much chance of that happening now.

Anyway, the story took place in the time period after "A New Hope," but before "Empire Strikes Back" -- the period I now think of as the "Classic Star Wars" period. (Once you hit "Empire Strikes Back," the pace of events is just too tight to reasonably fit in many stories or side-quests for our heroes, before the Empire is gone, unless you go for totally different perspectives, such as LucasArts' "TIE Fighter" game.)

There were interesting little observations and moments that made me think of the classic characters - Leia, Han, Luke, Chewbacca -- in relation to the events of "A New Hope" that had just never occurred to me as a kid of 7 years old ... and, for that matter, for quite some time thereafter, since I guess I just took all that for granted.

I loved how he covered something such as Mara Jade infiltrating her way into a tramp freighter with JUST ENOUGH evocative description for me to picture the scene, JUST ENOUGH technical details for her reasoning to seem plausible, JUST ENOUGH technobabble to remind us that this is Star Wars, and all this while keeping things moving at a good pace.

I remarked -- with an apology in advance -- that the story managed to embody one of my pet peeves in action-adventure, in that it had so many AMAZING COINCIDENCES that made the story possible ... and yet, I loved the story anyway, because it was all so enjoyable. It was, I noted, somewhat evocative of a classic farce: that is, not the slapstick comedy aspect, but that it was a story that built heavily upon a series of coincidences and resulting misunderstandings on multiple levels, resulting in unusual interactions only possible because of that combination of events. (Of course, there WAS a "rational explanation" for all this, in a way, thanks to the peculiarities of the Star Wars universe -- there is, after all, THE FORCE, the ultimate plot device! ;) )

And I LOVED the brief exchange between Luke Skywalker and the voice of Ben Kenobi -- useful as a plot device to guide Luke in directions he might not reasonably, instinctively go, but also insightful for the exchange when Luke complained that Ben could make this all a lot easier if he'd just tell him everything he should do, right now, rather than making everything so vague and puzzle-like. "And your uncle could have carried you on your shoulders until you were fifteen," Ben says (paraphrased from memory). He basically says that the fate of the universe should be in the hands of the living, and therefore he's doing what he must in order to teach Luke, but that ultimately it will be up to him.

But mostly, I was intrigued by his portrayal of characters who the reader can sympathize with, while simultaneously DISAGREEING with them. We have some Stormtroopers who run afoul of a wicked ISB agent, who witness (and, sadly, in some cases, PARTICIPATE IN) atrocities, and reach a breaking point -- but they still believe in their vows to uphold the (purported) values of the Empire, and to protect its citizens, and they still believe that the Rebels are agents of chaos and destruction. Mara, likewise, is noble and heroic, but you'd still need to be careful around her.

And Darth Vader was interesting. Unstable. It felt like a sensible extrapolation from how he was portrayed in the movies.

Anyway, it's that balance of characters and their motivations that interests me. All too often, I'll read a story with some villain who's given a certain degree of fleshing-out and characterization, but one of several unfortunate things happens:

1) The character is largely sensible, sympathetic, etc., but then it's as if the author suddenly realized, "Hey, wait, this villain is too likable compared to my hero! I'd better fix this and quick!" So suddenly there's a Kick the Dog moment, or perhaps a not-very-convincing "reveal" that he was a villain all along and merely "acting" (even in those scenes where nobody, in-story, was watching, and we, the "omniscient" readers were the only ones around to be fooled), so that he can be properly Bad.

2) The writer comes to love his creation too much, and chickens out. "Chickening out" is a very subjective evaluation on my part, because, after all, can't a villain reform? This isn't such a big deal for light programming, where the worst offense a villain commits is stealing a recoverable relic, or just being the "mean girl" in high school drama. It's a little more problematic when the villain is guilty of cruel murder earlier on, but it's some serialized show and it seems that the writer has FORGOTTEN about all that (or at least hopes the viewers have), and everyone just pretends it never happened.

(Darth Vader might be redeemed at the end, but at least he conveniently dies. It would have been a bit more *awkward* if Luke managed to rescue "Daddy" and everyone gathers for a group hug at the end of Return of the Jedi.)

I can understand how characters who are normally opposed to each other might temporarily set aside their rift in order to join forces against a common foe. I mean, hey, that can make for a cool story moment, with that bittersweet bit at the end when -- oh yeah, we defeated the New Big Bad, so you're back to being my enemy again, aren't you? (Gee, it was COOL working with Lord Megabad for one little adventure. Curse this sudden but inevitable betrayal!)

Sometimes I think authors just sort of forget the motivations the villain had for being a villain in the first place ... or maybe the author never really HAD envisioned a motive beyond, "Hey, we need a villain."

So, that level of nuance can make a character really seem REAL to me. Right now, we're working together, but that does not mean we have TRUST. It doesn't mean that suddenly all your personal motivations wash away and now you're just another good soldier of Good Guy Faction A. And it can be fascinating to see characters working together who have their own goals -- some more honorable than others. (Especially perplexing is when it's the nominal VILLAIN who is arguably the most honorable!)

Anyway, most of that applies more to a character such as Thrawn than to Mara, per se, but it was a great book.

Thrawn: Allances
Incidentally, it turns out he had some books for sale, and I needed a new "airport book." So, I picked up "Thrawn: Alliances," and he kindly signed it for me. I am so far resisting the urge to start reading, until my next trip (in a couple of weeks).

On my to-read list:

Survivor's Quest

Outbound Flight

Choices of One (follow-up to Allegiance)

Scoundrels

[Books] More on Cascade Point, Deadman's Switch, Allegiance

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