Political Thinking - More Books than Time

Finally, after his last 3 books that were glacially paced, with wooden dialogue and peopled by stock crews of greedy (and stupid) businessmen, corrupt (and stupid) political leaders, weak-kneed (and obtuse) co-workers, plus one resourceful hero, Modesitt delivers a good story with interesting people, genuinely worrisome situations, awe-inspiring settings and a plot. Welcome back!

Modesitt set Solar Express 100 years from now where not much has changed in terms of politics or people. The US and Canada (and maybe Mexico) are now Noram; China plus unknown other countries are now the Sinese; India is a world power and Europe is one big agglomeration with strong Russian leadership. African, Middle East, Australia and South America are smaller powers with the African/Middle East/Australian grouped into a union nominally allied with India.

Modesitt writes excellent hard science fiction, which this is, and good to excellent fantasy like the Imager series. He has three major habits that you either need to love or be able to ignore in order to enjoy any of his books.

Politics with head-shaking cultural observations and wooden dialogue
Slow pacing
Rinse and repeat characters.

As usual Modesitt can’t resist declaring his political beliefs in Solar Express. He imagines a news outlet, Hot News! that combines accurate reporting, innuendo, celebrity watching and political acumen. Hot News! stories cover global warming results, environmental havoc in polar regions, flooded cities and ravaged coasts and speculation about the Sinese intentions and the apparent inability for the Noram leaders to do anything.

The more interesting snippets are news articles and memos from the Noram government leaders that present facts that align to some Hot News! speculation with just enough to tease us readers. I wanted to know a lot more than Modesitt gave us!

The pace varies between really slow and slow with a touch of zip-bang. The pace fits the subject – neither pilot Chris Tavoian nor astrophysicist Alayna Wong-Grant can exactly hurry their work along – and is countered by the fast-moving Solar Express and geopolitical events. I got a little antsy about a third through, but the Hot News! punctuated the crawling science.

One pleasant change was the characters. Yes, we still had evil, greedy people who lust after power, but none appeared in person. “Colonel Anson”, Chris Tavoian’s superior officer is well-meaning and effective (many Modesitt superior officers are either venal or incompentent) and the minor characters Kit and Emma are warm and interesting. Chris and Alayna are interesting people, a bit reserved, but with feelings and interests.

Modesitt is one of the few authors who successfully write fantasy and science fiction (Bujold and Dave Weber are two others) and some of his science fiction has fantasy-seeming elements (Empress of Eternity and Hammer of Darkness). Solar Express is unusual in being set so close to today, with technology and politics we can easily extrapolate to. It made it easy to follow. Even if you don’t agree with his extrapolated climate, political and cultural changes you can visual them happening.

In Solar Express Modesitt slipped in a fourth annoying habit, dumping complex geographic and political backgrounds early, explaining some later and some not at all. For example, page 15 in one sentence he introduces: FuxEx burners (apparently the standard shuttle/small freighter), DOEA (Department of Off Earth Affairs, a government agency charged to oversee space), Policia Espacial (never re-introduced, likely the South American security force), Sudam (South American government), magline (OK, that’s pretty easy, basically a train on the moon), ONeill Station (believe the main transship point orbiting the moon, run by Noram), the elevator (moon to space elevator), standard climber (likely a car that runs on the elevator), main station (terminus for the elevator).

The next page gives us fusionjet (similar to the FusEx?), vasimr slowboats (never explained, likely just what they sound, a s-l-o-w way to move cargo) and Hel3, otherwise known as a helium isotope. I wouldn’t mind the dump if he gave just a bit of background first or omitted altogether if never revisited. It is not wise to make your readers feel stupid, especially when the author’s entire body of work holds up thinking as a great virtue.

The Amazon reader reviews for Solar Express are split, about 2/3 positive and 1/3 negative and almost no 3 stars. Modesitt in his blog attributes this to too many fantasy readers who were turned off by the science fiction aspects. Several readers complained about the characters communicating by delayed message vs. real time in person (as they would in fantasy series). However other readers noted the slow pace and abundant political commentary as turn offs so I think the criticism was more than reaction from disgruntled fantasy fans.

Overall, Solar Express is an excellent addition to Modesitt’s novels. 4 Stars.

To my shame I have never read nor heard of Michael Novak before reading his book, Writing from Left to Right: My Journey from Liberal to Conservative. The title caught my eye at the library and the clever illustration, of a pen with ink shading from blue to red, prompted me to take it home.

Novak is a Catholic and deeply interested in social issues and universal human rights. He was the United States ambassador to the `UN Commission on Human Rights in the early 1980s and the follow up meeting in Bern, Switzerland on Human Contacts. He believes (as do I) that we humans need economic liberty, political liberty, and liberty of spirit.

He was raised a die hard Democrat who believes his party has lost its way. No long does it seek to contain government power to allow individuals the freedom to pursue their own way; it now sees itself as the main, in fact, the only solution. Novak instead sees government as one option, one building block of community, among many, and the “other mediating structures” of family, church, associations, schools.

Among the best sections of Writing from Left to Right was near the end, dealing with his goals and beliefs about community. As Novak points out, no one person or group or political party is always right or always wrong. He calls for true discussion, dialogue, listening, to breech the gaps among groups. “The worst thing is to let ourselves imagine that our side is the side of the angels, and that the other side is the side of stupid and evil spirits. It….is better to imagine that the other side may be in some part right. That…forces us to think..to look at problems in more than just one way.”

In his view, the “most pressing crisis” deals with the growing number of poor. Novak points out that poverty is more than statistics, that when you examine who is poor today, who was poor 10 years ago, why they are poor, that you realize that first, few people start out poor and stay poor their entire lives. Lost in the worry about “inequality” is the fact that people do move between wealth tranches. That said, there are poor among us. Second, Novak points out that an equal evil is that of covetousness and envy. Of course current politics feed this and make those who are envious feel it is justified. And third, that the problem needs more than yet another federal government program.

In Novak’s mind, true community is built not on the basis of government, but on families, on genuine caring for one another, for associations. He sees four main weaknesses with the current model where the federal government is the first choice for a solution:

It’s expensive
Its spending is disproportionate to results
It generates self-defeating incentives and consequences
Relying on large government weakens all other social strengths.

The first 75% of this book was mostly new to me, bringing a fresh viewpoint to events of the 1960s-80s. Novak is not preachy nor does the intent of the book seem to be to convert the reader to his viewpoint. He has cogent arguments for his beliefs and is refreshingly honest in pointing out mistakes and inconsistencies in his and others’ thinking. Some of this first section was a bit tedious. As Writing from Left to Right moved into the 1990s and his observations on the current practice of politics and what passes today for clear thinking, I enjoyed it more.

I dislike broad terms like “Left”, “Liberal”, partly because they encompass such a tiny fraction of someone. And also because the inherent meanings have changed over time. A “liberal” in the 1960s or 1970s might not necessarily be a “Democrat” today. This is the path that Novak took and he shares with his readers his reasons and his journey. I recommend it.

Let’s Give a Big Welcome Back to L. E. Modesitt! Solar Express Review

Writing from Left to Right, Michael Novak, Journey from Liberal to Conservative