Editor's Note: 'Bitter Seeds' is now available as a mass-market paperback; the other two novels in The Milkweed Triptych ('The Coldest War' and 'Necessary Evil') are available in hardcover. I'll review them in the coming weeks and post my interview with Tregillis as well.
It's natural to open up a book expecting the world, and not as we know it. Books offer us the world re-built to an author's specifications, some more than others. Ian Tregillis subverts most of the 20th century in 'Bitter Seeds,' the first volume of his Milkweed Triptych. In Germany, in 1920, Doctor Von Westarp is buying orphans. Those who survive his experiments will become a new breed of men and women. In England, a young Duke is indoctrinated into a family tradition of conversing with demons. As World War Two unfolds, these children and their peers inherit a very different earth from that upon which we walk.
Tregillis might seem to be working on a wide canvas here, and he is telling a big story, but he keeps a tight focus on a specific and very well-wrought cast of characters. On one side, we have the Gotterelektron-enhanced Nazi supermen and women, and on the other, a group of British Warlocks who negotiate for power with beings beyond all physical laws. Between the two, British spy Raybould Marsh tries to keep the world in one piece, which proves to be much harder in the Milkweed timeline than it was in ours.
Characters drive the action here, and there is a pretty big cast. The Nazis have Gretl, an enigmatic seer whose precognitive abilities drive a wedge in reality. Her brother, Klaus, can walk through walls. Reinhardt can start fires, while others have abilities both destructive and defensive — so long as their batteries are fully charged. Tregillis does a masterful job at creating characters who are drafted into the service of evil, but not so keen on as their masters. In some cases, the soldiers might have an edge on their supposed masters.
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On assignment, Raybould sees evidence of their work, and manages to round up the British warlocks. Their work can provide an effective counter against the power of the Nazi supermen, but at a price for country and conscience. The World War Two that follows is darkly, entertainingly different from recorded history.
Tregillis works with an extreme economy and makes a lot of very difficult things very easy to read. He sets up two complex opposing forces and crafts Nazis who are entertaining and involving but authentically awful. He drenches everything in grey, with a British war effort that is willing to make dreadful decisions and Nazi warriors who are beyond the reach of the Reich. The oppositions are fascinating, complicated and engrossing.
Wrangling all this into a tight plot that wraps up quickly might seem impossible, but Tregillis pulls it off with admirable ease, delivering a novel that is satisfying in itself, even as it is a gateway to the next two segments, which take place in different times. 'Bitter Seeds' manages to create a reality that will wrap up the reader, one that's hard to simply step away from. The magic seems rather scientific, while the science seems mad and more than a little magical. Tregillis wields both science and magic, art and craft to re-create the world to his own design. It's immersive, exciting, fun and manages to make our dark world seem a little bit better by comparison, even if it is just by virtue of the existence of the novel itself.
05-06-13:Glennon Doyle Melton Suggests 'Carry On, Warrior'
Fighting for Life in the Too Much Information Age
The world knows all about you; and yet, nothing about you. The last time you were greeted with the question, "How are you?" the chances are that you answered with some soporific ranging between "OK..." and "Great!" — something that had little or nothing with how you actually felt at the moment. The lurching machine of everyday social interaction was barreling towards you, and smart person that you were, you greased those wheels and let them slip past, avoiding both reality and actual conversation. Generally, that's a good idea.
But, speaking with another mom in a playground somewhere in Suburban America, Glennon Doyle Melton found that not to be the case. She actually answered that question, and in her answer found both herself and her calling. If only it was that easy for her, or for anyone else. It's an ongoing process, documented regularly at her blog, Momastery.com, and in book form, with 'Carry On Warrior: Thought on Life Unarmed.'
The second half of that title is just as important as the first, because "life unarmed," that is, without the armor we usually keep in place to protect our fragile egos, is what Melton's book and blog are about. The idea is that the information age is really just an opportunity to enter the too-much-information age. Melton tells you more than you think you might want to hear about her many addictions and the seemingly infinite failures that have, counter-intuitively, led her to success. She approaches life unarmed so long as what she reveals about herself hurts no one else. It's not an easy task, but her essays here, slightly revised from the site, are entertaining, enlightening and inspiring, though how all that enlightenment and inspiration works out will certainly vary from reader to reader. By and large, the book can get by on entertainment value alone.
Unless you're a die-hard fan of the site, this is not necessarily the sort of book you are going to read cover-to-cover, but you may end up doing so anyway. 'Carry On, Warrior' may consist of individual essays about the joys and non-joys of parenthood, laundry, trying to deal with other parents, marriage, addiction and all the other stuff of life, but there's more here than the isolated bits.
First and foremost, Melton's book is chock-a-block with great characters, and she's number one. This could be kind of odious, but Melton is so raw and so fresh that she pulls it off without seeming self-involved, even though the book is all about her self-involvement. If that seems like a paradox, it's the first of many. But Melton's other characters; her family, friends and readers, are all just as charming as she is. There's a level of everyday reality to the pieces here that makes everyone seem like someone you just saw at the grocery store — someone you'd be glad to sit down and talk to at length, over a cup of coffee.
Melton pulls this off with the help of smart, funny, plain prose. This is confession as art form, the too-much part of the too-much-information age that blogs have enabled. Melton's humor and most of her acerbic observations are at her own expense, and even so, they're never mean. They feel just real enough to get in under our radar. She even manages to write about her religion and spirituality without sounding insipid, condescending or proselytizing. As a reader who is sensitive to this, I was pleasantly surprised.
As individual pieces, the essays vary in quality just how compelling each one is. Some are must-reads ("Don't Carpe Diem") while others are more on the merely amusing side of the equation. That said, put together in a book, they form an arc of sorts, intended or not. As readers of the collection, sooner or later you're rooting for Melton to succeed, which in fact comes to pass. And when she does, you want something more, which she delivers. There's a reason to read a book like this even if you're disinclined to read a website. And if you do read the read the website, then reading these edited essays in the book will have a rather different effect on you. It may not make you tell the truth to everyone and thus set ye free, but the book does give you some perspective.
'Carry On Warrior' is probably a book that would more appeal to more readers than those most likely to pick it up in the bookstore. Glennon Doyle Melton is a fine writer with a gift for revealing more about herself to her readers than they might want to know in a manner that makes them glad they found out anyway. Confession may or may not be good for the soul, but it can be good for the reader.
New to the Agony Column
09-18-15: Commentary : William T. Vollman Amidst 'The Dying Grass' : An Epic Exploration of Simultaneity
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William T. Vollman : "...a lot of long words that in our language are sentences..."
09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Susan Casey : "...the reporting for this book was emotionally difficult at times..."
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
