New Voices #3: Speculative Fiction by Card and Condie

This is the third “New Voices” collection of reviews from Shelah Miner’s Mormon Literature students at BYU-Salt Lake. The first assignment was to review genre fiction by Mormon authors, including what they liked and didn’t like about the novel, and a brief analysis of an element or two from the text.

This set of reviews are of speculative fiction. The reviewers are Sherrie Goaslind (Matched, by Ally Condie), Jacob Covey (Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card), and Russell Peck (The Memory of Earth, by Orson Scott Card). Please be encouraging towards the students, most of whom are new to college-level writing assignments.

Matched by Ally Condie

Reviewed by Sherrie Goaslind

Matched, which won the 2010 Whitney Award for Best Youth Fiction Speculative, uses a futuristic Sci-Fi setting, with poetry and hidden symbolism sprinkled about; deepening the book’s central message of agency. Matched has a feel and a similarity to the The Hunger Games, absent the violence. The book begins slowly with trivial junior-high type conversations that change and mature into a Mormon version of The Giver, plus romance. Though the book has an off-putting teenybopper feel in the beginning, it quickly picks up to a fast and mature pace. The book needs a faster start to pull you in. Although it follows the expected storyline of a communist-type society and a freedom seeker, it delivers a freshly realistic suspense story. It moves quickly from being frivolous to becoming a pager turner with backbone.

Somewhere, in a suburban neighborhood, Cassia, the heroine of this story, learns to trust her own thoughts and feelings despite what “the society” believes. In the midst of her communist controlled type environment, she comes to experience agency, risk, love and consequences for the first time at the age of 17.  The cost of her choices slowly unravel her life, demanding all she knows and loves. For the first time she realizes that her Garden of Eden, the “society”, required a high price for its scientific elimination of all pain and suffering; no suffering, no choices, no pain. It was the only way of life she had known, it was her parents’ way and her grandparents’ way, but would it be her children’s way?  Cassia begins to understand the costs, and she’s ready to stop the payment and go at it on her own. Cassia’s develops from a naïve little girl to an intelligent, independent thinker.

Cassia’s society controlled her food, her clothes, her future husband and even her death. Slowly she comes to see things as they really are; fallible and corrupt.  This all begins the night she wore a green dress that matched her green eyes while attending her matching banquet. The matching banquet is an event where seventeen-year-olds find out who they will marry, believing that it will be a perfect match. The night instead marks the beginning of her awakening to the world as it really is. A technical error in the selection of her match results in a struggle, where she must decide if she will conform or reject her community’s way of life. She becomes awake to new ideas, and begins to see the cracks of corruption in the society with the help of her father, grandfather, and the partner that she chooses for herself, Ky.

Condie pulls her readers into Cassia’s perfect world, a world that Lucifer might have proposed, where agency is not an option. The theme of agency becomes key to the story. Cassia learns that happiness comes from being allowed to choose and grow from the consequences that come with it. Her message of how important it is to read and think independently is beautifully described in a book-burning scene. When Cassia is observing the books being burned, she has not yet become aware that her society is corrupt. The society occasionally finds books that have been hidden or forgotten about. Long ago they gathered up the books and burned them. They do have some books but only a select few, books that the society agreed were important. Cassia’s grandma had been over the poetry selection when only 100 poems would be allowed to stay in society. Cassia is watching and describing a book that she thinks looks a person, “books are like people…they have spines and delicate pages.” Cassia describes the death of a book like a human process.  “The book is cut opened, the spine is then cut out.” Cassia notices one page that escapes the fire and flutters up with the wind; she thinks that it looks as if the words are being sucked up, like a last breath, from the sky. Words and books are the forbidden Holy Grail.

Matched connects to it’s readers by showing a futuristic world and society that has gradually evolved into living a communistic way of life under the blanket of seeking after a perfect world. The underlying message is that it is so important to defend agency. The message resonates with anyone that worries about our country becoming too socialistic. The week after finishing the book, I was pulled over and given a speeding ticket. I wanted to fight it but realized that my chances were impossible. The message of the book made me think that we accept a system that makes it impossible to fight back when you believe differently. I related with Cassia’s grandfather who was inwardly rebellious, outwardly compliant. He told her, “It’s alright to wonder.” Grandpa is approaching 80 and will have his last banquet and then be given a peaceful death the next day by food poisoning. He refuses to leave a genetic scraping from his mouth for the society’s future plans to bring him back. Before he dies he leaves  something more important than his DNA, the spark that ignites his granddaughter’s rebellion. He gives Cassia a poem from before. This poem inspires her as she quotes it throughout. “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas. It becomes her guiding light as she accepts the punishments that await anyone that “wonders”.

Matched is full of symbolism and allusions that really elevate the story. The color green symbolizes life, as it is contrasted with the drab brown clothing they wear. Green eyes, the green trees that the society cuts down, and the green dress that she wears at the matching banquet. There are allusions that seem to originate from LDS teachings, like when it looks like it’s snowing but it’s only cottonseed trees described as looking like  “trailing clouds of glory.” When Cassia needs help and Ky has left she goes to the museum of history that is described as having no windows, as if it fades into the landscape, it’s closed as if it’s eyes are held tight. In contrast across from the museum of history is the all-seeing eye of the administrative building described like eyes always watching.

Matched appealed to me and will appeal to others because of its well developed characters that were interesting and likeable. I enjoyed finding a clean, well-developed story without the use of violence and liked the message that we all need to look and question our own society.

 

Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game: To Understand, to Love and to Destroy

Reviewed by Jacob Covey

I have heard about Ender’s Game ever since I was in Jr. High, but I had never taken the time to read it until now. I was expecting a light and entertaining Sci Fi story with little meaning. It was entertaining, but my other two assumptions were sorely wrong. Ender’s Game is a very meaningful and thought provoking book, with powerful lessons on the importance of strategy and the power of understanding others.

[Cut some plot summary] Card does a great job of involving several thought provoking ideas. One of the main ideas is that youth are capable of incredible things. I believe Card goes to the extreme to display this point by having Ender be six years old when he begins battle school, and having this six year old think and act much more strategically than most adults. When looking at other young heroes in books it is not easy to find a 6 year old. For example Harry Potter is 10 years old in his first book. Although Card may take this idea to an unrealistic extreme, I do agree that the youth of the world could do much greater and more important things if they were given the opportunity and responsibility.

Another idea is that people who think and act strategically outperform those who don’t. Ender Wiggin is the ultimate strategist. Every time he is required to do a new task he follows a pattern. He watches others struggle to do the task. He figures out what they do wrong and how he can avoid making the same mistakes. If the task is a competition he studies his competitor so he can predict how they will act. After his observations he finally acts, and when he acts he wins, and he wins quick. Card does a spectacular job of taking you into the strategic mind of Ender.

One of the best examples of Ender’s strategy is when he is first made the commander of a team during battle school. He was given a team of inexperienced and undersized soldiers, but he knew that no matter who was on his crew if he had the proper strategy they could win. All other teams were organized the same way, four toons of ten soldiers each. Ender organized his team with 5 toons of 8, and gave each toon leader more power to adapt their plans depending on what the opposing team was doing. It became the supervisors’ charge to make Ender lose, they would give his team two matches in one day or put up against two teams at once. No matter how unlikely a victory seemed Ender’s team won every match.

What impressed me most was Card’s ability to make these improbable wins feel realistic.  Ender’s strategy is so good and so logical that his improbable wins are very believable. Strategy runs deep in this book and when you read it, it causes you to think strategically. After reading this book I would often think to myself ‘what would Ender do under these circumstances.’ I’ve noticed myself trying to come up with Ender like strategies in school, work and even family relationships. The word “strategy” is not used very often in the book, but I believe this book teaches strategy as well as any book written on strategy.

I believe the most important idea that this book teaches is that if we put the effort into truly understanding someone we will grow to love them whether they are a friend or foe. This idea is plainly stated in the book when Ender is on Earth before he goes to command school. He talks to his sister about why he is disgusted with who he has become. He explains that he is good at understanding how his enemies think and that when he truly understands them he also loves them, but then he uses that understanding to “destroy them.” He states “I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves.”

Ender is referring to some pretty ruthless people when he talks about his enemies who he loved before he destroyed them. One of them is his first team commander Bonzo Madrid. Bonzo came from Spanish royalty and hated Ender from the start because Ender progressed so quickly. Later when Ender was a team commander himself, he was put into a match where his team went against two teams, one of them being Bonzo’s team. Against all odds and with incredible strategy Ender’s team beat both the other teams. Bonzo felt that Ender had humiliated him, and in his anger he attempted to kill Ender in the showers after the match, but Ender was able to predict his moves and he unintentionally killed Bonzo while defending himself.

On the surface it can be hard to understand how Ender could love someone like Bonzo, someone who mistreated him from the moment they met and who actually tried to kill him. If you try to dig a little deeper and consider what may have been, it’s easier to see how Ender could have loved Bonzo. Bonzo is constantly referring to his “Spanish Honor.” Bonzo’s father probably put a lot of pressure on him to progress quickly and always win. Bonzo might have felt like he would be considered a failure all his life if he were not the best at battle school. Maybe Bonzo’s first commander was terrible to him, but by digging deeper into these possibilities it’s easier to understand how Ender could have loved him.

Card is not the only author to have underlying messages of love and understanding, but I believe he does it in a unique way. He suggests that you have to truly understand someone, what they want and who they really are, and whether you want to or not you will love them. I have plenty of experiences that cause this to ring true to me. I feel like every argument or quarrel I have ever been in was caused by a lack of understanding.

Ender’s Game proved to be a book with meaning. During the time I was reading it I found myself thinking about the stories and their meaning throughout the day. The book can be as deep or as light as the reader would like it to be. To me it was very deep and its ideas have changed the ways I see the world. To sum up my thoughts I will simply say this, I think the world would be a much better place if we could all learn to think like Ender Wiggin.

The Memory of Earth, by Orson Scott Card

Reviewed by Russell Peck

In The Memory of Earth, book one of a five book sci-fi series, in which humans are cared for by the Oversoul, a computer able to communicate telepathically with humans. The Oversoul was created on Earth after large scale war which nearly destroyed the human race. Those who remained left Earth and traveled to the planet of Harmony, where this book takes place.

Humans have been genetically altered to allow the Oversoul to influence their mind, keeping them from thinking of anything that might lead to large scale destruction. Card leads the reader to this knowledge through character interaction. e.g. “Human is human,” said Issib. “But civilized—that’s the gift of the Oversoul. Civilization without self-destruction.”

This makes for an interesting mix of technology and old fashioned concepts, such as wagons and pack animals as the main mode of transportation, no long distance communication, but allowing for advanced machines such as a pulse (some sort of laser beam that can be used to hunt and kill animals as well as cook the meat) and a hover chair with computer controlled motion giving handicapped Issib an excellent mode of transportation that will even allow him to fly over buildings.

However, the Oversoul is breaking down and is losing control of the people, leading to thoughts and inventions that should not be taking place. The Oversoul feels the need to be returned to Earth for repairs. You get a sense of this from the introduction. e.g “The master computer of the planet Harmony was afraid. Not in a way that any human would recognize–no clammy palms, no dry mouth, no sick dread in the pit of the stomach. It was only a machine without moving parts, drawing power from the sun and data from its satellites, its memory, and the minds of half a billion human beings. Yet it could feel a kind of fear, a sense that things were slipping out of its control, that it no longer had the power to influence the world as it had before. . . . Thus it was that the master computer turned its attention to a handful of human beings in the ancient city Basilica”

This book follows the adventures of the family of Volemak and Rasa, along with their children (Elemak, Mebbekew, Issib, and Nafai). Volmak receives a vision from the Oversoul that the city of Basilica is headed towards destruction that the Oversoul has labored for thousands of years to prevent. This, along with continued encouragement from the Oversoul, spurs the family’s decision to leave the city and travel through the wilderness to a new land.

Their adventure follows the storyline of the beginning of the Book of Mormon. The father, Volemak (Lehi), receives a vision of the destruction of Basilica (otherwise known as Jerusalem) from a being called the Oversoul who is essentially the God of the planet Harmony. This leads to a journey through the wilderness where the family continues to meet increasing resistance, such as the loss of all of their pulses, leading Nafai (Nephi) to make a bow and arrow in order to hunt food for the family. These are only a few examples in a string of events that mirror, for the most part, the story of Nephi and his family.

To anyone who is unfamiliar with the Book of Mormon, The Memory of Earth will probably appear as a fairly well-crafted sci-fi story. As a Latter-Day Saint, it was very entertaining to first realize what the story was, as I had no idea it used the Book of Mormon as its main plotline when I first started reading. It was fun to see how many similarities I could find between The Memory of Earth and the Book of Mormon for about the first half of the book, but after that I realized that it is the exact same story in the long run so it was very easy to tell what was going to happen, which lessened the anticipation. There were also a few times when the conceit felt somewhat stretched, the author’s effort to keep so close to the Book of Mormon plot line caused some missed moments when the story could have been better if he had been willing to depart more from the script.

I felt that the Oversoul and Issib may have been the most well thought out characters in the book. The others felt more like they were forced into a persona in order to make their actions fit the prewritten script.

I would recommend this book to LDS readers for the entertainment value of finding the ways that Card was able to use the Book of Mormon to tell a sci-fi story. To others I would say that The Memory of Earth is a decent read with religious overtones where the characters actions do not make sense at times, but are fairly well thought out for the most part.