Parable of the Talents

Lauren Olamina has, after losing everything, finally found family and community again. She's built a community on the land of her husband's family, a place where her religion of Earthseed can grow. From there perhaps it can spread to the greater world, and then to the stars. First though, she'll have to keep it against the rise of a much more terrifying temporal power seeking to make America great again. Will she multiply her talents, or find them buried in the earth? This is Parable of the Talents.

From goodreads

The story picks up five years after the conclusion of Parable of the Sower in 2032, she and her small group in the community of Acorn have grown and prospered. Lauren hopes to use the community as a base of operations to spread her new religion of Earthseed. However, America is still in decline, coasts are collapsing, violence and banditry is endemic, and the economy is in freefall. However, one man, a Senator and preacher named Andrew Steel Jarret, is promising a vision of Christian America which will "Make America Great Again" and restore the nation to the glory it once had.

Against this backdrop, Lauren must try and spread her religion, raise a family, and keep her people safe. 

The story, again deliver in epistle style, is buttressed by another viewpoint this time. Lauren's daughter Larkin (or Asha Vere) writes about her mother and the spread of her religion, how that affected her development, and the way it impacted history. It adds a very critical, and not necessarily sympathetic, lens to the story. I greatly enjoyed how this was seamlessly interwoven into the material and it actually created far more suspense than you might expect. It also adds a great element of tragedy.

Unsurprisingly, the book is one of immense suffering and loss. It follows the country through the years of President Jarret and his "Christian America" which merges the worst parts of theocracy and authoritarianism. Indeed, it actually impacts Larkin's development in a way many who had read of Franco's Spain would find very familiar. This does allow though, for the exploration of many aspects of authoritarianism, ideology, ministry and proselytism. 

The Christian America brand is selling a vision of America of old and - stop me if this sounds familiar - a time when things were better, American values were emphasized and America was a Christian nation. They preach from the pulpit and the political campaign, and they deliver charity, homeless shelters and project an image of American strength. That they also deliver witch burnings, vigilante justice, and fanaticism metted out by "Crusaders" is part and parcel.

In contrast, Lauren must try and spread her new religion covertly. To avoid drawing the ire of the more powerful (and quasi state-religion) of Christian America, she has to work with those she trusts. Eventually she has to get on the road and preach, in sequences that will be familiar to missionaries and pollsters from time immemorial. It makes for more harrowing tales, but does give a very good insight into how religions or movements can start. It was something I found fascinating, and these internal problems make up many of the asides in the book.

You'll be gratified (horrified?) to see there's action as well. It's one where we find, and lose, family and even see that family can be broken up pretty spectacularly. Religion can unite, and it can divide. To quote an old professor of mine "Religion is wonderful, until it's not," which you can broadly say is what many of the characters in this book discover! It does though, share how Earthseed develops, and that is well worth exploring for contrast.

I will admit that there were some scary parallels to contemporary politics, but considering this book was written in the 90s, well after the Reagan Administration and the Satanic Panic and Moral Majority era, it's pushing it to call the novel "prescient" in that sense, as the edition I picked up did. It does have a number of worryingly close parallels with the rise of climate change, authoritarian political activism, and others, but it isn't about those issues per-say, but about how Lauren and her family, and religion, live through those times. That may be an important message going forward.

The final act of the book though, for all the implications of Earthseed and its growth, did feel a bit rushed. There could have been a little more with a time skip to help, some more exploration of Lauren's relationship with her daughter, and more about the future, but all in all I did enjoy it. Not perhaps as much as the first installment in the series, but I greatly enjoyed how it did its best to wrap the series up. Well worth exploring. As before though, I leave you with the true Parable of the Talents:

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 25:14-30 (ESV)

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

Once upon a time, a 16 year old boy penned a fantasy series that went on to be a best seller. Now that boy has matured and taken his work to the stars. Christopher Paolini's latest work is extremely divergent from his best selling Inheritance Cycle. Now, grounded firmly in our world, he sets out to deliver a new science fiction epic which tells the tale of war among the planets near and around Earth.

The story begins on Adrasteia, a small possibly habitable moon orbiting the gas giant Zeus in the Sigma Draconis system. There xenobiologist Kira Navarez is working with a survey team to help catalogue the planets few indigenous lifeforms while the planet itself is prepared for terraforming. However, during her searches, she stumbles across something she doesn't understand.

Finding herself bonded with an alien artifact she is first poked and prodded by the forces of the League of Allied Worlds and the UMC (United Military Command) only to then be attacked by sentient aliens in a first contact scenario gone horribly wrong. With humanity suddenly at war, she may be their only hope at peace, or humanity may ending up sleeping forever in a sea of cold stars.

Image is my own

This work is one which is well grounded in speculative science fiction. From the way humans travel between star systems, the power for ships, the ship design and the various other aspects, I found myself greatly enjoying the near future (2257) that Paolini presented. It was both enjoyably alien and utterly relatable. That made it easy to get lost in the world he crafted, and gave me many hours of pleasurable reading. That there's a handy glossary in the back helped immenseley with keeping the various technologies and ideas straight.

The aliens too were quite intriguing. It made them as alien as possible without being uninterpretable. I won't spoil too much about them, but audiences are bound to be fascinated by the Jelly's as humans come to know them.

We also have a very strong cast. Kira is our only view point character, and we largely interact with the world through her eyes and senses. She goes from being a completely normal human, to something very much beyond, that. She interacts first with her own crewmates on the small survey team, the UMC on the UMCS Extenuating Circumstances, and finally, the very eclectic crew of the SLV Wallfish.

Out of all these groups we get to know the Wallfish crew the best. There's the gruff but surprisingly deep Captain Falconi, First Officer Nielsen, the excitable young Trig, taciturn Sparrow, machine-boss Hwa-Jung, crew's doctor Vishal and finally the possibly insane ship's-mind Gregoravitch. They all mesh very well together and create a cast I was very fond of and wanted to see succeed. I truly felt the peril for them as Paolini does not spare anyone if he can help it. And through the diverse cast he establishes the world quite creatively.

The story goes through various acts, broken up quite cleverly by FTL trips. In these we get more introspective and emotional moments, ones that really help define Kira as a character. From those we get to different star systems different action scenes, and many, many exciting new discoveries. All of which come together in a reasonably satisfying conclusion.

Sea of Stars is a long book, and it covers quite a lot of ground. However, it throws a lot of information at you. I found that there was probably too much crammed into a single volume. Just as we're getting used to the idea that humanity is in a war for its survival from an alien species another curveball is thrown at you. Then another, then another. No spoilers but I went from understanding to what the Jellys are to having to try and understand what nightmares are, what the Heptarchy is, and why I should care. Even at over 800 pages, there's almost far too many balls in the air. After the second and third acts the book manages to calm down and focus, but it still left almost too much to be solved in the final act.

While the story does set itself up nicely for sequels in an expanded universe, it did leave me struggling to piece together more than a few disparate threads.

The story though, does a good job exploring the future. Human and alien relations, and of course, an expanded sense of the self and the impact on a person this would have. Well worth delving in to if you're looking for a great new science fiction read.

The Battle of Ridgeway

In June 1866, the year before Canada would become Canada, a group of Irish patriots under the moniker the Fenians, crossed into Canada with a simple plan. They would invade Canada and hold it hostage in exchange for Ireland's freedom. If this plan sounds insane, it's because it is. However, many were convinced they could make it work, and many would die before the whole fiasco came to an end.

The Fenians were a group of Irish rebels who were determined to free Ireland from British rule. Active for roughly twenty years. Founded in 1858 by American Irishmen and former rebels from the 1848 rising, the Brotherhood would try to recruit men to fight for Irish independence. Their earliest successes came when many men gained experience fighting in the Irish Brigade and other bloody battles in the American Civil War. Indeed, many of the future Fenian leaders such as John O'Mahoney, Thomas Sweeney and John O'Neill would see their first action in the Civil War and gain experience leading men.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, there was a large number of armed men with experience in war, but no one to fight. Why not then, the Fenian leadership asked, lead an invasion of Canada to conquer the, at this point disparate colonies and hold them hostage in exchange for Ireland's freedom? This was not a universally popular idea, and it led to a split in the Fenian leadership. However, plans for an invasion went ahead anyways. It is estimated as many as 50,000 men volunteered to be a part of this invasion. When push came to show however, the Fenians only managed to get a few thousand men organized, and most were dispersed once the American authorities got into action.

On the Canadian side, British spies actually had managed to penetrate the Fenian organization. They had successfully predicted a previous Fenian raid on Campobello Island in April of 1866 which was dispersed without issue. This in turn, lowered the guard of the Canadian authorities in Canada West (Ontario) who felt there was nothing to fear from the Fenian menace. Alarms had been common in 1865 and in 1866 the Canadians felt certain that they could control a Fenian invasion.

When John O'Neill kicked off his invasion in June it was not a secret to either Canadian or American authorities. However, none could pinpoint the exact location the crossings would take place at.

It was actually meant to be part of a broader strategy. One Fenian force would march on Toronto, another on Quebec, and they would overwhelm the Canadians. In actuality, on O'Neill's invasion of the Niagara Peninsula got off the ground, and there were only a few other small skirmishes 

In a well planned action, the Fenians first disabled the only warship on Lake Eerie, the USS Michigan by subterfuge. This allowed O'Neill to begin landing men across the Niagara River. Without USN ships to stop him, he was able to cross nearly 1,400 men to the Canadian side. The quickly seized the town of Fort Eerie, and began trying to bring over Irishmen to their side. They received no local volunteers.

Meanwhile, the Canadians quickly learned of the invasion and ordered out the militia, calling over 14,000 men to arms. In Toronto, the men of the 2nd Battalion of the Queens Own Rifles hastily mustered in Toronto and was quickly delivered to the Niagara frontier by train. They were joined by a similar quick mobilization of the 13th Battalion of Volunteers from Hamilton and two other quickly mobilized companies of militia in an ad hoc brigade. They were placed under the command of militia Col. Alfred Booker who, like the men under his command, had no experience with war, unlike the oncoming Fenians. The Canadian forces numbered about 850 men, while their Fenian counterparts numbered between 700 and 800 men.

Learning of Booker's route of march (possibly by 'tapping' the Canadian telegraph lines) O'Neill swiftly night marched his men from their initial position at Black Creek to the Ridge Road near the village of Ridgeway which would give the battle its name.

Booker's men had bivouacked for the night at Port Colborne. He had originally planned to make straight for Fort Eerie and take the town from a supposed Fenian rearguard. However, early in the morning on the 2nd, he received orders from the superior authority, British Colonel Peacock leading the 47th Foot and a larger relief column with cavalry and artillery, that he was instead to move to Stevensville and meet this column where the joined group, then over 2,000 strong, would attack the Fenian positions.

For reasons never adequately explained, Booker followed the spirit of Peacock's orders, but not the letter. Instead of moving to meet the reinforcement column along Skerk's Crossing to Stevensville, he advanced to Ridgeway and took the Ridge Road. This would lead to the Fenians learning of the change and being ready to meet the Canadians on the afternoon of June 2nd.

The following battle was, for all intents and purposes, little more than a skirmish between infantry battalions. Though each was grandiosely a brigade, none was stronger than a full strength battalion of regular infantry. There was no cavalry or artillery, and so it would come down to the skill of each individual commander. Though the Canadians behaved admirably, advancing into the Fenian fire and driving off their skirmishers and discomforting the Fenian left flank, a series of events that has never been adequately explained soon drove the Canadians from the field.

For some reason, in the midst of the Canadian advance, the order to "form square" was given. Whether it was the sighting of a party of mounted Fenians who acted as scouts, or merely a mistake by a bugler, the Canadians dutifully carried out a formation which had been drilled into them. Booker, immediately realizing his mistake, ordered the men back into line. Other accounts maintain that an attempt to relieve the front line by bringing up a fresh company of men caused confusion. Whatever the case, the Canadian militia was soon milling about in disorder. Seeing this, O'Neill ordered a bayonet charge which promptly routed the Canadian center. In contrast, the Canadian flanks withdrew methodically, skirmishing with their opponents, but the men did not regroup, and individuals and companies disorderly withdrew to Port Colborne. 

Seven Canadians would be killed at Ridgeway, while another two would die of their wounds days later. A further 22 Canadians would die of disease sustained while in camp in the subsequent weeks.

Six Fenians died on the field at Ridgeway, with another three known to have died of wounds after the fighting ended. Fenian casualties are difficult to estimate as many fled to the United States afterwards. However, another four Fenians would die in the lesser known but nearly concurrent Battle of Fort Eerie. 

A small Canadian force on the tugboat W. T. Robb, led by Colonel Stoughton Dennis who in his first action of bravely running in the face of danger, led 50 men to hold the town and hopefully capture any stragglers from an assumed Canadian victory. Instead, they encountered over 800 Fenians retreating from Ridgeway and other positions. In a doomed last stand the Canadians fought, but many were wounded - miraculously none killed - and captured. Other than this brief humiliation though, the Fenians let them go as they had to flee the oncoming British reinforcements.

In the aftermath, much blame was passed for the defeat. Only a victory at Pigeon Hill by the Canadians would salve the bitter wounds of what happened on the Niagara Peninsula. Booker was ultimately found to be moderately to blame for the fiasco, but the Canadian government at the time was quick to try and pass off the blame to the individual soldiers themselves, rather than admit it had not handled the crisis properly. O'Neill meanwhile, would be feted as a hero to the Fenian cause, and it would be celebrated. He would subsequently lead two further failed invasions of in 1870 and 1871. The Fenians themselves would peter out by the 1880s, replaced by later incarnations of the Irish Republican movement.

It was Canada's first real test of battle. The nine men who died in battle or afterwards have never properly been remembered. While most Canadian students have learned the story of the Fenian Raids and their roll in helping shepherd the various colonies towards Confederation, it is a battle itself which is rarely explored. Peter Vronsky has written perhaps the best single volume on the battle, and I myself used it as a guide to this piece. It is a book well worth reading, and may enlighten many people on a sadly unappreciated piece of Canadian military history.

One can only wonder what might have happened had the Canadians not gone the way they had, or what could have happened had Booker gone straight to Fort Eerie instead. That though, is speculation for another time!