A Case of Conscience - James Blish

   1958; 188 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres: Religious Science Fiction, Christian Futuristic Fiction.  Laurels: Hugo Award for Best Novel, 1959 (winner); Retrospective Hugo Award, 2004 (winner).  Overall Rating : 3½*/10.

 

    Good news!  We’ve landed on a far-flung planet called Lithia, and have found sentient life there!  Even better news!  Although the Lithians are about twelve feet tall and kinda resemble T-Rexes, they don’t seem to be interested in eating or attacking us!

 

    They’ve even allowed a small delegation of Earthlings to live among them and learn about their ways.  We've sent a four-man team of terrestrials there, and charged them with studying Lithia, particularly from a technological standpoint, then writing up recommendations on what our next steps should be.

    After all, just because they don’t want to invade us doesn’t mean we can’t invade them.

 

    Our team has a physicist, a geologist, and a chemist on board; all logical choices for the task at hand.  The fourth member is not a scientist though, he’s Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez, a Jesuit priest,

 

    I wonder what kind of recommendations he'll make.

 

What’s To Like...

    A Case of Conscience is divided into two sections of similar size.  Part One takes place completely on Lithia, chronicling the interaction between Father Ruiz-Sanchez and a Lithian named Chtexa, and culminating in the team's final recommendations.  The scene switches in Part Two to Earth, featuring Chtexa’s offspring, Egtverchi, whose embryo was brought back to Earth by Father Ruiz-Sanchez.

 

    There’s a time-gap between the two parts, both story-wise and writing-wise.  We meet Egtverchi as an adult Lithian, skipping over his birth and early years entirely.  And while James Blish’s publisher loved his original story, it was only 80 pages or so in length, far too short to be issued as a novel.  So Blish was asked to write a sequel of about the same length, which became Part Two.

 

    Pay attention to Amazon’s genre listings for A Case of Conscience.  The Kindle blurb calls this “Christian Futuristic Fiction” or “Religious Science Fiction”.  The other formats say the genres are things like “Space Opera” or “Science Fiction Adventure”.  Take my advice when deciding whether to read this book:  rely on those Kindle version’s genres.

 

    The main philosophical-religious question in the book is: what happens if we discover an extraterrestrial world with a Code of Ethics remarkably similar to outs, but without any concept of a God?  Part One focuses almost exclusively on Father Ruiz-Sanchez’s thoughts about that, and by extension those of the Catholic Church.  And although this is a work of fiction, it is worthwhile to ponder on how the Christian Church – whether it be Evangelicals, Catholics, or Universal Unitarians – might react to news that sentient life was discovered somewhere else in the galaxy.

 

    At 188 pages (181 pages if you skip the world-building appendix at the back.), this is a short book, but it's not a quick read.  There’s a lot of technical verbiage to plow through, and even though I am a chemist by trade, the science-y stuff slowed things down for me.  Some of the spelling and punctuation is funky: “storeys”, “off beat”, “omni-present”, “near by”, etc.) which also made things drag a bit.  Keep in mind James Blich was an American writer, so “storeys” here is not a Britishism, it’s just weird.  OTOH, I did thoroughly enjoy the use of words such as “whelmed” and “ensmalled”, as well as the mention of Mithraism and Manichaeanism.

 

    The ending is somewhat wry, which I liked, but it felt telegraphed and not very twisty.  There’s room left open for sequels, but AFAIK, no more were ever added, either by Blish or by others.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Heuristic (adj.) : enabling someone to discover or learn something for themselves.

Others: Comminates (v.), Parsimony (n.), Vastation (n.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.1/5 based on 208 ratings and 93 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.63/5 based on 5,843 ratings and 463 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    Agronski: “We don’t know whether our peripheral clues about Lithia are germane or just incidental.  Something enormous could be hidden under the surface without our being able to detect it.

    Michelis: Agronski, stop sounding like a Sunday supplement.  You underestimate your own intelligence.  What kind of enormous secret could that be?  That the Lithians eat people?  That they’re cattle for unknown gods that live in the jungle?  That they’re actually mind-wrenching, soul-twisting, heart-stopping, blood-freezing, bowel-moving superbeings in disguise?”  (pg. 32)

 

    “I can see that you are going to have difficulties in collecting these meteorites,” he said.  “Have you offered incentives?”

    “Oh, certainly.  Everyone understands the importance of the program.  We are all eager to advance it.”

    This was not quite what the priest had meant by his question.  He searched his memory for some Lithian equivalent for “reward,” but found nothing but the word he had already used, “incentive.”  He realized that he knew no Lithian word for “greed,” either.  (pg. 35)

 

“Ah, of course, you are mammals; that is doubtless the difficulty.”  (pg. 42)

    The text is relatively “clean”, which is typical for Sci-Fi penned in the 1950s.  I counted ten instances of cussing in the first 20% of the book, and those were just mild variations of “hell” and “damn”.  I don’t recall any adult situations, booze, or drugs.

 

    What disappointed me most was how much of the text was philosophical musings, and how little action was contained therein.  I was looking for something akin to the “do we greet ‘em or eat ‘em?” themes examined in the Little Fuzzy books written by H. Beam Piper and John Scalzi and reviewed here, here, and here), or at least lots of Space Opera thrills-&-spills.  I guess I should’ve read the Amazon blurbs first.

 

    3½ Stars.  So how did A Case of Conscience manage to win not one, but two prestigious Hugo Awards?  My best guess is that it was due to James Blish’s uncommon target audience.  1950s Science Fiction was almost always geared towards male YA readers.  Here, the target audience seems to be adults interested in the religious ramifications of “first contact” scenarios, as well as those who want a "hard science-fiction" tale of what would happen if we do ever run into other beings out there.  For those readers, Blish's book will be a fascinating study.

Cockroaches - Jo Nesbo

   1987 (in Norwegian), 2013 (in English); 437 pages.  Book 2 (out of 12) in the “Harry Hole” series.  New Author? :No.  Genres : Crime Fiction; Mystery Thriller; Thailand.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    It’s a delicate diplomatic situation.  The Norwegian ambassador to Thailand has been murdered.  Someone stuck a knife into his back.

 

    Unfortunately, it didn’t happen at the Embassy, nor the Ambassador’s residence.  It took place instead in a seedy motel room.  The kind you rent to “meet” a cute little hooker.  So says the motel manager who rented him the room.  So says the hooker who discovered the corpse.

 

    The Norwegian government has decided to send Detective Harry Hole to Bangkok to investigate.  His primary mission is not necessarily to solve the murder; that’s neither here nor there.  Rather, it’s to make sure that the embarrassing details of the case are covered up and kept out of the newspapers.  And they’ve drummed that repeatedly into Harry’s head.

 

    Unfortunately, Harry has a history of having trouble obeying orders from higher-ups.

 

What’s To Like...

    Cockroaches is the second book in Jo Nesbo’s fantastic Harry Hole series.  Book One, The Bat, is set in Australia, (and reviewed here); this time Harry and the reader are treated to a trip to Thailand.  It was fifteen years before Cockroaches was translated into English.  By that we mean “The Queen’s English”, not the American variant, so we have strange spellings such as kilometres, defenceless, and aluminium; and weird terms such as torches (flashlights), windscreens (windshields) and hoovering (vacuuming).

 

    Many years ago, I spent three days in Thailand, and I can attest that Jo Nesbo does a fantastic job in capturing the “feel” of Bangkok here: the heat, the humidity, the tuk-tuks, the unbelievable amount and diversity of the city’s daily traffic, and the national pride that Thais have in being the only Southeast Asian country that was never a European colony.  It’s all real, even the ubiquitous pimps showing foreigners pictures of their "working girls".

 

    The Mystery aspect of the story is done equally well.  It quickly becomes clear that this is not merely a “call-girl tryst gone bad", and it was fun tagging along with Harry as he doggedly – and against his superiors’ wishes – tries to get to the bottom of the murder.  Some key clues pop up along the way, but properly interpreting them is quite challenging, and a couple of them are red herrings intended to mislead.

 

    In addition to the British-English terms, we get to learn some words and phrases in both Thai and Norwegian, and I always like that.  One of the latter was “faen” a Norse cussword, which I’ll let you google to find out what it means.  Harry’s musical tastes are impeccable: at one point he wears a Joy Division T-shirt, and he also makes reference to the obscure prog-rock band Camel, whom I greatly like.  He also attends his first quasi-legal cockfight, which was enlightening for me as well.

 

    Everything builds to an excellent ending that’s full of both excitement and twists.  Harry’s keen crime-solving logic saves the day; to be honest I still didn’t have a clue who did it when he broke the case.  All the storylines are seemingly tied up, although there’s a teaser on the last page to make you think twice about that.  Cockroaches is both a standalone novel and part of a series.

 

Excerpts...

    ”His career has ended in a cul-de-sac.  He came from some job in Defence, but at some point there were a couple too many “buts” by his name.”

    “Buts?”

    “Haven’t you heard the way Ministry people talk about one another? ‘He’s a good diplomat, but he drinks, but he likes women too much’ and so on.  What comes after the ‘buts’ is a lot more important than what comes before; it determines how far you can get in the department.  That’s why there are so many sanctimonious mediocrities at the top.”  (pg. 117)

 

    “What is it about you Thais and heights?  According to Tonje Wiig I’m the third Norwegian to be thrown out of a house this week.”

    “An old mafia modus operandi.  They’d rather do that than plug someone with lead.  If the police find a guy beneath a window they cannot rule out the possibility that he might have fallen accidentally.  Some money changes hands, the case is shelved without anyone being directly criticised and everyone’s happy.  Bullet holes complicate matters.”  (pg. 130)

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Ludic (adj.) : showing spontaneous and undirected playfulness.

Others: Alopecia (n.); Bodger (n.); Trainers (n., shoes).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.3*/5, based on 3,800 ratings and 1,478 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.73*/5, based on 50,252 ratings and 3,018 reviews.

 

“Who on earth pays half a million for a tape recorder?”  (pg. 146)

    There’s not much to gripe about in Cockroaches.  Be aware that this is a gritty, police-noir series, so there’s a fair amount of cussing (18 instances in the first 20%), violence, and adult situations, including one roll-in-the-hay.

 

    Despite all its positive attributes, Bangkok is also known as a center for child-pornography and pedophilia.  Both raise their ugly heads in Cockroaches.  Don’t read this book if this is going to upset you.

 

    About the only other thing I can quibble about is the choice of title.  I only recall two instances of cockroaches making the scene, and neither was important to the story.  I think I’m happier that they didn’t have a greater impact.

 

    9 Stars.  I still maintain that the best police-procedural murder-mysteries are written by Scandinavian authors: Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo, Jo Nesbo, and others.  Cockroaches does nothing to dissuade me from that lofty opinion.

Fireproof - Gerard Brennan

   2012; 248 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres: Satire; Urban Fantasy; Romance; Northern Irish Literature.  Overall Rating: 7*/10.

 

    Bureaucracy.  It’s a plague, even in the afterlife.  Mike Rocks has been sent to Hell but is immune to the standard “eternal fire and brimstone” punishment, all because of bureaucracy..

 

    Frankly, he’s an embarrassment to the place.  He has no fear of his demonic roommate and shows only a bit of cautious respect to Lucifer himself.  What’s an Archdevil to do with such a miscreant?

 

    Send him back to where he came from: Belfast, Northern Ireland.  Command him to start “The True Church of Satanism” there, gain converts, and make headlines.

 

    That’s all well and good, but what incentive can Lucifer give to Mike to make him want to accept this mission?

 

    Well, since Mike’s death was a brutal gangland “hit”, he'll get the chance to wreak vengeance on his executioners.

 

What’s To Like...

    Fireproof is a humorous look at the afterlife, where most of the focus is on the Satanic side of things.  The tone is generally lighthearted, but not exclusively: there’s a bit of brutal violence thrown in to keep male readers turning the pages, plus a dab of romance to keep the interest of female readers.

 

    For the most part, the story is set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which I gather is Gerard Brennan’s stomping grounds.  That means the book is written what I’ll call “Northern Irish English” which is closely akin to “The King’s English” but with a few new “regional” terms mixed in.  Some of those are listed below, there were lots more.  A couple scenes take place in Hell, and the Epilogue has a new setting which, while not specifically identified, can be pretty much sussed out.

 

    The secondary characters are skillfully done.  I especially liked Cadbury, a squatter wino who holes up in Mike’s apartment whilst the latter was in the Underworld, and who becomes Mike’s butler and begins to exhibit several handy paranormal qualities.  Cadbury should not be confused with his brother “Nestle”, whom we meet late in the tale.  There's an imp assigned personally to Mike who's also a hoot.

 

    Two plotlines are spotlighted in the first half of the book: a.) Mike's tasks of evangelizing and revenging, and Cathy's efforts to help keep a Catholic-church-sponsored Youth Outreach Centre financially afloat while also learning the new and potentially lucrative career of a professional assassin.  It is not a spoiler to reveal that they eventually meet up and form a team to facilitate both their goals.

 

    The ending is a two-step affair.  First comes the climactic fight with a Hell-spawned beast, with a neat little plot twist that transforms Mike into the underdog.  After that’s resolved, the focus becomes Mike’s one remaining vengeance target, the man who ordered the hit on him.  From there, things wrap up nicely with the aforementioned Epilogue, which will leave you hoping for a sequel and which, AFAIK hasn't been written.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.4/5 based on 83 ratings and 70 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.79/5 based on 159 ratings and 25 reviews

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Craic (n.) : enjoyable social activity; a good time (a Northern Irishism).

Others: Kerb Crawlers (n., pl.); Borstal (n.); Gobshite (n., vulgar); Bogtrotters (n., pl., offensive); Trainers (a type of shoe); Hob (n.); Travellers (proper noun meaning “Irish gypsies”).

 

Excerpts...

    The naked man, known in his former life as Mike, regarded the wormlike monstrosity before him without interest.  The swollen, slimy, needle-toothed demon wrapped itself around his torso and its head hovered in front of his face.  Its segmented, grey body pulsed and heaved against his bare skin as it squeezed at his ribs with boa constrictor strength.  Its breath smelled of rotted fish and coffee-scented piss.

    “Hi, Roomy,” Mike said.

    “Tremble in fear,” the demon said.

    “Um, no, I don’t think I will.”  (The opening scene of the book)

 

    “What will I tell them?”

    “The same as I told you guys.  New religion, lots of benefits, blah, blah, blah.  Oh, and tell them that there will be a black mass in an undisclosed location tomorrow night.”

    “If it’s undisclosed, how will they find it?”

    Mike rubbed his forehead and reminded himself that his right-hand man was a little sleep-deprived at the minute.  He kept his voice friendly.

    “Get a few phone numbers, Tony.  Tell them you’ll call them a couple of hours before the mass and let them know where to find us.  They’ll find the mystery intriguing.”  (loc. 1064)

 

Kindle Details…

    Fireproof is no longer available as an e-book at Amazon, which is the format I utilized.  Only the paperback version is offered, but it goes for $3.98, which IMO is a great price.  Gerard Brennan has several other novels and novellas for you, in the $0.99-$6.84 price range as e-books, and $6.44-$19.99 as paperbacks.  He also has contributed short stories to several crime-fiction anthologies.

 

“I believe you have upset your designated demon,” the Devil said.  “Was that really necessary?”  (loc. 102)

    There are a couple of nits to pick about Fireproof, but no showstoppers.  The storyline features Goths, Punks, Yuppies, Tattooists, and Satanists, so a fair amount of cussing was to be expected.  I counted 43 cases in the first 20% of the book, with the f-bomb being far and away the favorite.  There are also lots of sexual and genitalia references, at least three rolls-in-the-hay, and drug and alcohol usage.

 

    For the most part, I could figure out what the Northern-Irish-Britishisms meant, and I always like it when the phrase “and Bob’s your uncle” gets used.  But even with googling, I never did grasp the connotation of the slang term “bunking”.  Still, it’s always fun to learn new words in a foreign language, even if that foreign tongue is something called English.

 

    Finally, it should be said that if your preferred deity falls anywhere in the range between Satan and Jehovah, and you resent anyone who mocks Him/Her, you should probably avoid Fireproof.

 

    But everyone else will probably enjoy this tale.  There aren’t any slow spots, and it boils over with humor, action, romance, and perhaps a wee bit of preaching about how to deal with punks, goths, and other pariahs of society.

 

    7 Stars.  One reviewer described the ending as “a bit of a fizzle”.  To each his own, but I thought it was clever and appropriate, given that, despite its gruesome moments, the toen of Fireproof was particularly “dark” book.  After all, what do you expect from a book where the protagonist gets to pal around with the ruler of Hades?

Red Branch - Morgan Llywelyn

   1989; 491 pages.  New Author? : No, but it’s been 9 years since I last read one of her novels.  Genre : Ancient Historical Fiction; Fantasy; Irish Legends.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    Over the course of his life, he was known by several names.  As a boy growing up, he was called Setanta.  When he learning the skills of a warrior in the “Boy’s Troop” though, they started calling him Cuchulain.  When he became champion of the kingdom, even his foes called him the Hound of Ulster.

 

    His eyes were silver-colored, far different from the eyes of his father, Sualtim.  There were whispers that he was actually sired by someone else, perhaps even a god.  The only one who knows for sure is his mother, Dectara, and she refuses to talk about it.

 

    The druids have lots to say about him, though.  They have prophesied that he will quickly amass a legendary amount of fame and glory, both in battles on behalf of the kingdom of Ulster and in personal duels.  But it will come at a terrible cost – he is fated to die young.

 

    It says something about Cuchulain that he doesn’t see any downside to that prophecy.

 

What’s To Like...

    Morgan Llywelyn drew upon several ancient Irish legends to write Red Branch, in particular The Ulster Cycle and The Cattle Raid on Cooley.  You can read about both of these in Wikipedia; I was impressed by how closely this book stays true to those tales.  The title refers to the king of Ulster’s “personal band of warriors”, and they play a prominent part in the storyline.  But really this is the story of Cuchulain.

 

    The book is divided into two sections, which I’m pretty sure corresponds to the two legends.  Part 1 (pgs. 1-272), details Cuchulain’s early life, rise to fame and the shattering of the Red Branch.  Part 2 (pgs. 273-491) focuses on the rival kingdom of Connaught’s attempt to subjugate Ulster, using the pretext of stealing a prize bull currently residing in Ulster territory.

 

    I liked the balance of “natural vs. supernatural” in the story.  There’s a talking “battle raven” (aka “the Morrigan”) who at times both helps and hinders Cuchulain.  Curses can be cast that last for lifetimes, and magical weapons can be forged, such as the “Gae Bulga”, a spear that our hero acquires that will always hit its intended target.  The mythic “Tuatha de Danann” get blamed for various things here, although they don't actually show up in the storyline; and Cuchulain learns how to do the “Incredible Hulk” routine, which is aptly dubbed “The Rage”.  Still, this is the Age of Humans, the gods can influence but they will never again be numerous enough to outright rule mankind.

 

    There's a lot of neat interplay of mindsets between some of the male and female characters.  Ailell may be king of Connaught, but Maeve is the brains behind its strategic aims.  Cuchulain may be the hero of the book, but his wife usually has the keener insight about current events.  Deirdre may be Naisi’s significant other, but if he had listened to her regarding where to put down roots, he would’ve lived a lot longer.

 

    The ending is bittersweet with a neat little twist to the key prophecy.  It felt somewhat “telegraphed” to me, but I suspect it is constrained by having to conform to the original legend.  The last five pages are an Afterword, where Morgan Llywelyn discusses the “facts versus fiction” aspects of the story; I always like when authors do that.  Red Branch is a standalone story, and although not part of a formal series, it's one of several books by Morgan Llywelyn where she fictionalizes ancient Irish myths and lore.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.4/5 based on 76 ratings and 38 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.21/5 based on 1,804 ratings and 75 reviews.

Kewlest New Word ...

Beeves (n., plural) : cows, bulls, or oxen fattened for their meat. (Singular = “beef”)

 

Excerpts...

    “Let me tell you something, my Hound from Ulster.  I am wise in ways beyond your princely education.  From my own experience during a long lifetime.  I have learned that the world you see with your eyes is only the thinnest of skins.  Beyond it lies the Otherworld.  This is a place of fixed forms., that one is a kingdom of fluid fire.  Creatures dwell there who are more aware of us than we are of them, for their vision is different.”  (pg. 152)

 

    “Now who will challenge Cuchulain and kill him for me?” she inquired.

    A man called Fraech mac Fidaig winked at Finavir and stepped forward.  “The champion of Ulster is as good as dead!” he promised.

    Leaving the group behind, he went out alone with all the weapons he could carry and began shouting at the distant hills.  “I challenge the champion to single combat!”

    Maeve collected nine additional warriors and told them to go after him in case he should need assistance; she wanted to be certain Cuchulain was slain.

    Ailell was appalled.  “That’s not the way it’s done, woman!  You dishonor us.  You don’t understand warfare.”

    Her face was set in hard lines.  “I understand winning.”  (loc. 350)

 

Coincidence is the tool the gods use to keep their workings anonymous.  (pg. 336)

    The quibbles are minor.  There is a “Phonetic Glossary” at the beginning, which tells the reader how to pronounce the names of the major characters correctly, but there’s a slew of people (plus a couple of gods) to keep track of, and it would’ve been nice to have a comprehensive Cast of Characters to supplement this.

 

    I don’t recall any cusswords in the text, but there were several fairly explicit rolls-in-the-hay, as well as references to parts of the male genitalia and things that can be done with them.

 

    Finally, and sadly, the dog dies.  Then the pig dies.  Then another dog dies, this time at the hands of our hero.  Then the horse dies.  Lassie and Timmy would be crying.

 

    But I pick at nits.  For me, Red Branch was yet another enlightening and enjoyable story by Morgan Llywelyn; this is my fourth book by her, and I’ve yet to be disappointed in anything she’s written.  Now I need to hit the used-book stores and see if I can find another one of her highly-regarded novels, Grania.

 

    8½ Stars.  One last thing.  The game of chess crops up several times in the story, and Cuchulain is said to be quite good at it.  I’m a lifelong chess player, so this resonated with me, but I have to wonder how accurate it is to have it being played in, say, the first century AD in isolated Ireland.  Chess is generally believed to have originated in Asia, and not reaching western Europe until the 9^th century AD or so.  Just saying.

North To Paradise - Ousman Umar

    2019 (first published), 2022 (translated); 143 pages.  Original Title: Viaje al Pais de los Blancos.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Autobiography; Travel Memoir; Non-Fiction; Africa.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    We call them many things.  Immigrants, foreigners, undocumented aliens.  Some come from Central and South America northward.  Others travel from Eastern Europe westward. 

 

    For what?  What motivates these folks to leave their families, possessions, and homeland behind, and embrace an uncertain future?  How dangerous is their long trek?  What percentage of them reach their destination?  What kind of predators lurk along the way?

 

    If only one of them would write a memoir, telling how harrowing (or not so harrowing) such a migration is.  But that’s unlikely, because even if they are successful in their journey, they rarely sit down to write their story and get somebody to publish it.

 

    But Ousman Umar did, after leaving his small village in tropical Ghana on foot, and with a goal to somehow reach Spain.

 

North to Paradise.

 

What’s To Like...

    It’s not a spoiler to reveal that Ousman Umar did reach his destination, although it took him five years to do so.  There were languages to learn along the way, including both Catalan and Spanish once he arrived.  North to Paradise was originally written in Spanish, and recently translated into English by Kevin Gerry Dunn.

 

    Traversing the Sahara Desert with only what one can carry is daunting enough, to do it on your own, as a youth, verges on suicidal.  Worse yet, the need for water and avoiding the authorities meant a straight-line journey was impossible.  There’s a map at the beginning of the book showing the route he took; he was forced to meander all over northern Africa.

 

    The first chapter describes Ousman’s life as a child in Ghana, and gives the reader a great “feel” for what that’s like.  In some ways, life was very modern – in school they had computer classes, including how to use MS-Excel.  But other aspects were sadly outdated – there were no actual computers in the computer classes (the teachers drew pictures of the screen shots for Excel on the blackboard), and Ousman has a traumatic first meeting with an escalator, something he likens to an “enormous python”.

 

    After leaving Ghana, Ousman’s trek takes him through another ten countries, the last being the Canary Islands region of Spain.  It takes him five years to get there, four of which were spent in Libya, trying to eke out a living and save enough money to be smuggled into Spain. 

 

    Being a memoir, the book is written in the first-person POV.  The writing style is straightforward: “I did this, then that happened”, but in amongst all the events he sprinkles some remarkably adult-like insight about life.

    Don’t stop reading when you reach the end of the tale; there are a number of “extras” tacked on, including some great Photographs of the author and his families (89%-92% Kindle).  Then there are Afterword, Author’s Note, and Acknowledgements sections that tell you what Ousman has been up to since gaining citizenship in Spain.  It'll leave a lump in your throat.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 7,938 ratings and 572 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.27/5 based on 7,706 ratings and 534 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Trotro (n.) : in Ghana, a minibus.  Google-image it.

 

Excerpts...

    The first stage of my journey wasn’t too rough.  My concept of time was entirely different: if you had asked me what I would be doing five years in the future, I wouldn’t have known.  Long-term planning wasn’t a priority; my concern was what I would eat that day and whether I’d have anything to eat the next.  In Ghana, buses depart only when they are full; there’s no hurry, and people wait patiently until all the seats are taken.  You can’t make many plans.  (loc. 305)

 

    Another aspect of life here that I could never wrap my head around was this idea of “vacation.”  I took time off work only when I had exams.  Once, I went on holiday with a girlfriend, and it was really hard because I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with myself.  Why were we wasting time like that?  I need food, I need clothes, but I don’t need vacation.  I didn’t understand that I had the right to take time off work, and to be honest, I still don’t totally get the point of doing nothing on purpose.  (loc. 1421)

 

Kindle Details…

    Right now, North to Paradise sells for $4.99, although ISTR I got this as a freebie on Amazon’s “World Literature Day” or whatever they called it.  At present, it is Ousman Umar’s only published book, although you can get the Spanish and Catalan versions for $6.99-$7.99.

 

Given all the hardship I’ve experienced, it would be easy to think that the world is full of bad people, but I prefer to think that most people are good.  It’s just that the good people make less noise.  (loc. 1442)

    I don’t really have any quibbles about North to Paradise, but there are a couple things to be aware of.  First and foremost, at 143 pages, it’s a very short book.  The writing may be straightforward, but it’s also powerful, and I would’ve loved for it to be twice as long, particularly since some of the countries Ousman Umar passes through, such as Togo, Burkina Faso, and Tunisia, are barely mentioned.

 

    I don’t recall any cusswords, but as a small, male youth, the author twice has to find off attempted rapes.  Acronyms are sometimes introduced without what they stand for, such as “NGO”, but hey, that's what we have Google for.  Also, there are some brutal scenes – Ousman comes across withered corpses in the Sahara; some of his traveling companions die along the way: of the 46 that start out, only 6 survived the trek across the Sahara; and the plight of the “sinkers”, migrants who are stuck in some woeful place with no means to go forward to their destination or back to their homeland, is utterly heart-wrenching.

 

    Finally, at one point in his Spanish residency, the author mentions that his grades at the university weren’t good enough to get into the school's Pharmacy program, so he had to "settle for" the Chemistry program instead.  As a degreed chemist, I’m just a little miffed.  😊

 

    Despite its brevity, I found North To Paradise to be a fantastic book, providing a rare look at life in the African equatorial subcontinent, as well as stark insight into the challenges faced by undocumented migrants anywhere in the world when they travel through dangerous and foreign lands.  Those who undertake such a venture are not suicidal, just desperate.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing.  I was impressed by Ousman Umar’s balanced views on humanity.  Yes, as a black migrant he is introduced to racism, but some of the best and kindest people he meets are also white.  Yes, there are some nasty people in Ghana, North Africa, and Europe, but all those places have lots of kind and helpful souls as well.  Some reviewers gave up on North To Paradise as soon as the subject of racism cropped up.  You stopped reading too soon, folks.