Brief Interlude: A Review of Beyond the Sky and the Earth, Jamie Zeppa

Beyond the Sky and the Earth, by Jamie Zeppa is not SF.  If you were to sit down and try to find 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon separation between SF and this book you would be 5000 steps apart.  I cannot even use my well-versed sarcasm to pretend this book into SF as it is a memoir of young women's adventure teaching in Bhutan.  So why include it?  To be frank I debated if I could.  Thank the Maker is clearly a platform for praising SF.  Beyond the Sky and the Earth is clearly not.  Here I am reading through this book that I have read countless times and still feel as I always do when I turn it's pages, contentment.

Feeling content is a powerful experience to receive from reading. Sure, maybe in your world this might be the reason you read, in mine not so much.  Novels of late have taken me on harried, emotional rides pushing me to turn pages faster, skim paragraphs for the gist all in the pursuit of the 5 Ws (don't forget how) quickly enough to (errr....) post about them.  (Hey, I'm a committed blogger.)  My reading resembles more a junky's need then a past-time.  Don't misinterpret me though, I have been loving these past months, having enjoyed some truly incredible books:  The Expanse Series, The Unincorporated Series, The Rook.  Is it necessary for me to type them out since you now have read all those books that I told you to, right.  Right?!

It is nice to just read, though.  Sit down with something familiar, and turn the pages at a more leisurely pace. Beyond the Sky and the Earth is my little break from Thank the Maker. It is my way to get out of my head, out of reading for reading.  This book is my personal memory journal.  No, I have never tripped over to Bhutan for an adventure, fell in-love with my student resulting in the birth of baby.  No, I have never meditated, emptying my mind of all thoughts while prayer flags whip in the wind.  But thanks to Jamie's honesty and writing prowess I feel like I have.       

I have grown up with this book.  Odd now that I think back to how long it has been with me.  Way back, before life here, I was a daughter, living in the prairies of Canada ready to get out and live.  And live I did.  My move to Japan shook up my world view, expanded my understanding of who I was and more importantly who I will always be no matter the location or the experience.  I take something new away each time I sit down with the memoir.  The copy I own is littered with scribbles, arrows pointing to poignant paragraphs that had at one point in my life, meaning.  This is truly a great travel memoir.  For all you reluctant SF readers, I give you Bhutan.  Hey, even Dune Girl needs a break from SF from time to time.  

Read of the Year: A Review of Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey

In the final days of 2012 I finally found a book worthy to claim as the Read of 2012.   Among the alarming stack of books read there were some notable recommendations.   However there wasn't one book that screamed at me to scream at you to read it.  You must be thinking how can I even say that considering  I read Ready Player One.  Sure did, cannot argue that fact.    I am all for admitting that the book is cool.   So cool that I bullied quite a few friends into buying it.    But (tends to always be a but) when you think about it, would you read that book again?   The Read of the Year really is going to be something you want to go back to; what is the point of being blown away to never wanting to experience it again?  Because Ready Player One really is a hard copy experience of living/breathing/dying in the GAME, once you journey to the final level do you really need to experience that high again? I don't think so.    

That being said, what book knocked me over?  It is Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey.  Now this is where things get a little intense.  Not for the faint of heart, the book is SF at it's purest:  a truly operatic space adventure.  And what a lovely holiday it has been being riveted to the horror found within it's pages. Yes, I did type horror.   

The sub-category space opera has been used by me without fully comprehending it's meaning many a time.  Thanks to seeing the term splashed out in every single review of Leviathan Wakes I looked it up.   Apparently a book that exhibits romanticism or melodrama, usually between two warring factions is a space opera.  Oh, and all of this hububaloo must take place in space to make it legit otherwise you are holding in your hand Anna Karenina.  Now that would be something, Tolstoy in space.

Leviathan Wakes is turning out to be mega-long, keep-it-coming series.  Book two is out with the third to be released in the spring. Co-authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (James A. S. Corey is a sneaky pen name) created a universe in which humanity has expanded beyond the confines of Earth, and settled throughout the solar system.  Like The Unincorporated Series,  a percentage of humans have never lived on a planet, never seen blue skies, finds the idea of walking on Earth terrifying.  Politically you are either of Earth, Mars or the Belt.  The concept of being a Belter has drawn me into this story.  My imagination has come alive contemplating life in a hollowed-out asteroid.  The absolute of space has been wonderfully portrayed in Leviathan Wakes and it is this aspect that makes the book truly remarkable. There are not a lot of SF books that successfully draws you into a world that seems probable but also enviable   At least to a point, ignore the horror found in this book and you are all good.  I typed that word again, didn't I.