Starship Titanic

Starship Titanic is a sci-fi comedy written by Douglas Adams (of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and Terry Jones (of Monty Python). That is some fucking pedigree right there. Starship Titanic is also an adventure video game.  In fact, the book itself is merely an adaption based on the game, something of a rarity before 2007.  All books that are adaptions of video games or movies are kinda crappy- it is an immutable law of the universe.  For an example, feel free to check out my review of Halo Cryptum. Accordingly, the best Starship Titanic could hope to be is pleasantly readable.

Starship Titanic is a pleasant read.

It has some chuckles, but the the book is willfully slight. Even for a humor book, Starship Titanic is light on conflict, compelling characters, ideas.  At a little more than two hundred pages (with big font) Titanic wasn't written with big ambitions in mind. But for what it is, it is fun.  The pages slip by at a good clip, although the plot is weirdly lumpy. The characters, of whom there are quite a few, each have their own personal character arcs, a nice touch. The video game scaffold of the whole thing only rarely shows- mostly in various item collection subplots.

From the game.

Because of the insubstantialness of Starship Titanic, I struggle to find more words to describe it. If you are looking for a little more Douglas Adams style comedy, pick it up. It doesn't take too long to read after all. But Starship Titanic is by no means an essential. For that reason, it only recieves 5/7 cerebral arteries.

A Small and Remarkable Life

A Small and Remarkable Life, by Nick DiChario, is an interesting book.  It is a science fiction novel in the style of the movies E.T. or Batteries Not Included. You know, the type of deal where a charming/cute naive little alien teaches us all a lesson in life, laughter, and caring. On a side note, I find it weird that there is this entire sub-genre of life-affirming-cute-aliens stories. Why not life affirming manatee-men? Or maybe tiny rapping dinosaurs that wear cool shades?

ANYWAYS, A Small and Remarkable Life is in fact a twist on this type of story. The book is set in the mid-1800s, in an America that has yet to be domesticated, civilized. Although much of the book takes place in upstate New York this is not a gentle pastoral tale. It is a bloody story, filled with hard men, frontier justice, and mercy killings. As one can imagine, the collision between the brutal setting and the lovable little magic alien makes for an interesting conflict.

And a A Small and Remarkable Life succeeds. For what it is worth, the book is positively packed with both ignorant people living hardscrabble lives and a little guy who can heal both bodies... and souls.  I'm just not sure the conflict of tone is enough to sustain the whole book. While the setting and writing shines, the plot feels slack, empty in a way. The alien, Tink, is born, has a ton of traumatic encounters, dies. Tink forges no great friendships with anyone. And while he ends up helping some people, most of the inspiring stuff happens "off screen."  There are themes: the nature of the soul, the nature of mercy, etc. there isn't any real message, just sort of a muddying up of philosophical waters.

Wolverine of the X-men makes a guest appearance in the book.

Despite its short comings A Small and Remarkable Life is worth a read. Its short enough that you could read it in one sitting, even if you don't find it quite to your taste, as I did. And the prose is clear, the atomsphere is strong, the characters are multi-faceted. Its hard to argue with that. A Small and Remarkable Life recieves 2 out of 3 prize jams.

Disclaimer: Wolverine isn't in A Small Remarkable Life. That was a lie.