We’ve started listening to audiobooks on our long drives between campgrounds. I’m not sure why it took us until this trip to think of using the driving time to listen to books, maybe because neither of us are regular consumers of “books on tape” (such an old-fashioned word). But here we are and here are this trip’s books.
1. “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir (Weir wrote “The Martian”, adapted into a movie with Matt Damon.) Narrated by Ray Porter
The book is set in the near future. The sun is dying. Scientists predict it will lead to an ice age that will make the earth uninhabitable in 30 years. International divisions are set aside as a global effort is mounted to understand what’s happening and to find a solution. The protagonist, Ryland Grace, a former microbiologist turned middle school science teacher, is tapped to join the research team, based on his past research. Grace discovers alien microbes are feeding on the sun’s energy. He names them astrophage, Greek for ‘star eater’. When astronomers discover a sun-like star that’s unaffected by astrophage, the team sets out to design and build a spaceship to travel to the star to learn why. And Project Hail Mary is born.
Three scientists will crew the ship to search for the answer and send the data back to earth. It will take several years to reach the star so it’s decided that the crew will be placed in comas. Grace is forced against his will to join the crew when a deadly lab explosion results in a need for a new science officer. He’s not interested in joining the suicide mission, but he’s the only other qualified scientist with the coma resistant gene that minimizes the risks of prolonged coma.
The book opens with Grace waking up on the ship, the two other crew members are dead and he has amnesia. His memory gradually returns as he pieces together the puzzle of where he is and why. He encounters an alien ship heading for the same star. He makes contact and discovers another stranded traveler also on a mission to save its dying planet from the affects of astrophage.
The alien is a five-legged spider-like creature that communicates in musical tones who Grace calls Rocky. He sets out to understand Rocky’s language by developing a computer program to translate the tones into English. Eventually the two of them are able to communicate with each other.
The heart of the book is the relationship that develops between Grace and Rocky as they work together to save their respective planets. It’s a heartwarming story of reaching across differences and forming a relationship of trust, loyalty and genuine affection.
There’s lots of science in the book. And some readers may find it too technical. But it was written well enough that it was easy to read (in our case, hear). And the story was suspenseful enough to keep us interested.
2. “The City Born Great”, a short story by N.K. Jemison, Narrated by Landon Woodson
Michael found this selection through OverDrive at our public library. N. K. Jemison is a science fiction and fantasy writer. She was the first author to win the Hugo Award – the Oscars of the science fiction/fantasy world – three years in a row. I’ve read the first 2 books in Jemison’s “The Inheritance Trilogy”: “The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms” and “The Broken Kingdoms”, and liked them both very much, especially the first one.
“The City Born Great” is dubbed an urban fantasy. (Jemison later expanded the story into a novel titled, “The City We Became”) The premise of the story is that some cities develop character and soul and must be midwifed into a living, breathing organism by someone who will be its protector from evil forces out to destroy it.
The story is so fantastical, and along with my limited imagination, I sometimes had trouble following it. It’s about the birth of NYC and its protector, a young black man who is homeless and living on the streets of NYC. He can hear the faint music of the city. He’s a reluctant protector, especially when he encounters the evil destroyer in the form of 2 shape shifting police officers. It’s such an inventive story and I really like Jemison’s writing, even if I don’t always “get it”. I liked it enough that I plan to give it another read. Maybe it’ll make a little more sense the second time around. Or maybe I’ll just move onto the third book in the “Inheritance Trilogy”.
3. “Lafayette in The Somewhat United States” by Sarah Vowell, Narrated by Sarah Vowell, John Slattery, Nick Offerman, Fred Armisen, Bobby Cannavale, John Hodgman, Stephanie March, Alexis Denisof
Sarah Vowell has written several nonfiction books on American history and culture. She’s not an historian, she self-identifies as historian-adjacent. When a subject catches her attention, she takes a deep dive into learning all she can about it. She then writes not only about the subject, but about her research travels and the culture of the time. Her books are part history, part travelogue, part social commentary wrapped up in wisecracking humor. I like her sense of humor. She’s also done some acting and is the voice of Violet in Pixar’s “The Incredibles”.
Her seventh book is about Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, well known to Revolutionary War history buffs and well-loved by “Hamilton: The Musical” fans. He’s typically referred to by his title, Marquis de Lafayette or simply, Lafayette.
Lafayette, a member of the French aristocracy, came from a long line of military officers. His father died in battle; his mother died when he was 12 years old leaving him all of the family’s lands and money. He had an adventurer’s soul and a hunger for glory. He found the American colonies’ fight for independence a noble cause and at 19 snuck out of France, against his father-in-law’s strong objections, to sail to America and offer his services to the Colonial Army. He became a trusted member of George Washington’s advisors. Washington considered him the son he never had. And the significance of France’s help in winning the war can’t be overstated; without it we’d probably be British citizens.
In 1824 at the invitation of President Monroe, Lafayette – the last surviving French general of the America Revolution – spent over a year making a grand tour of the 24 US states. He was treated like a rock star everywhere he went. 80,000 people (65% of the city’s population) greeted him when he disembarked in New York Harbor. Some say he was America’s first celebrity. It’s hard to find an American town that doesn’t have a street, a square, a park, a county, a monument named for Lafayette. And there’s Lafayette College, Lafayette River, Lafayette, Louisiana, California, Georgia and the list goes on. My first office was on Lafayette Street in Pawtucket.
In Sarah Vowell fashion, she starts with Lafayette, then meanders into an in depth telling of the Revolutionary War and weaves in her own social commentary. I really like her books, although they’re not everybody’s cup of tea. Michael, the history buff, had mixed feelings about the book. He likes his history a bit more straightforward. I like my history delivered with humor and Vowell’s quirky sensibility.
4. “Here and Then and Now” by Mike Chen, Narrated by Cary Hite
Here’s the premise. It’s 2149 and time travel has been perfected. Given the flaws of human nature some nefarious individuals travel back in time to exploit historical knowledge for financial gain – think someone who knows the winning number of the biggest lottery payout going back to play that number and collect the prize (maybe even offing the original winner). Temporal criminals. The Temporal Corruption Bureau (TCB) is established to travel back and apprehend these criminals and minimize temporal disruptions.
Kin Stewart is a TCB secret agent. He finds himself stuck in 1996 when the mission he’s on goes awry and the technology he needs to return is damaged. He waits to be retrieved by the TCB. Days turn into weeks, weeks into months, months into years and no one comes. Eventually accepting that he may never return to his own time – and gradually losing memory of his real life without the “metabolizers” that counteract the effects of time travel on bodily and cognitive functioning – he creates a life for himself. He takes a job in cyber security, falls in love and marries, has a daughter and is living happily in San Francisco when the TCB are finally able to track his whereabouts and an agent is sent to retrieve him.
The problem is 18 years have passed for him, but it’s only been 2 weeks in 2149 since he went missing. Kin doesn’t want to leave his wife or now 14-year-old daughter, but he has no choice. His life in what’s referred to as 21A (early 21st century) has already broken protocol and created temporal distortions. He’s sent back against his will.
Back in 2149 he has a fiancée, who doesn’t know the true nature of his job. They were planning a wedding and a life together before the mission. He has difficulty settling back into 2149 pulled by his attachment to his wife and daughter and haunted by how his sudden, unexplained disappearance affected them. Against TCB rules, he accesses the Bureau’s archives to learn their fate. And what he learns only adds to his guilt and intensifies his need to be a father across time.
It’s an interesting story, less science fiction and more about family relationships. Most parents can identify with the intensity of emotions you feel when your kid is in trouble and there’s little you can do to help. We found some plot holes that seemed obvious to us. But the story of a father’s love and commitment and willingness to sacrifice all to help his daughter overshadows the minor plot problems – at least for me.
We have just a few chapters left, enough to get us home. But I’m already glad we stumbled upon the book. And I’ll be looking out for more books from Mike Chen.
The Cruznick Adventures 