Review of Mariah's Dream by Grace Bridges

Cover of "Mariah's Dream" (The Vortex of Éire, 1) by Grace Bridges

Mariah's Dream (The Vortex of Éire, 1) by Grace Bridges  (Author)

Paperback: 290 pages

Publisher: Splashdown Books (July 15, 2015)

Paperback 13.98; ebook 2.99

http://www.amazon.com/Mariahs-Dream-Vortex-%C3%89ire-Book-ebook/dp/B00ZM0HX6W/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

I became familiar with Kiwi author and publisher (Splashdown Press), Grace Bridges, almost a decade ago when I was invited to join the online authors group, Lost Genre Guild. I read extracts of Aqua-Synthesis (a series of interconnected SF stories) all written by LGG members including Grace.

She began writing a near-future SF novel titled Cyber-Dublin in about 2009-10. I read the manuscript before its publication and enjoyed it--chiefly because of her characters and one particularly cool setting near the ocean. I bought the paperback and I’m very glad that I did since it appears to be out of print. (Maybe there will be a revised edition?)

Grace sent me the antepenultimate (next to next to last   ;-D) pdf version of "Mariah’s Dream" well over a month ago. As much as I wanted to begin reading as soon as I opened the file, "life" intervened.

I began reading "Mariah's Dream" in the worst possible way--snatching five or ten minutes and spending half that time looking for where I'd left off. I have a Kindle and I read news and nonfiction online sometimes for hours but I'm old-fashioned when it comes to reading fiction. Quality fiction is best read offline in the comfy chair next to a reading lamp. And coffee. And chocolate. Or outside amidst the rustling shade of trees.

Was the paperback edition of "Mariah's Dream" out yet?

What happened next would Grace’s fault. This claim may be difficult to describe much less defend.

Five years ago I began reading "Cyber-Dublin". After reading just a few pages of it, I knew I could relax and let Grace's characters draw me along into their lives and even their thoughts. With Grace, I’m no longer part reader and part manuscript editor—a frame of mind authors have to battle whenever we read for pleasure. I can trust this author to tell an interesting story--free of plot gaps and sloppy characterization. 

I stopped reading (again) and opened Amazon-US. Mariah's Dream was out in paperback. For some reason, only one copy was available. I ordered it at once lest it escape me. When my c/o/p/y storyteller arrived I offered her the other comfy chair and settled in for what I already knew would be an absorbing character-driven story.

~~~~~

GENRE. SETTING.

I read more fantasy than I do SF so when reading the latter I prefer stories set in the near-future like Mariah’s Dream. However, I tend to dislike dystopia. I get depressed enough without reading entire books where every scene is set against a dystopic background. Either the characters need to escape from their nightmare life or I need to escape from the book.

Mariah’s Dream appeals to me in spite of the dystopic environment thanks in part to several characters I’ll describe later. And thanks to a variety of settings featuring the Irish countryside, its ancient paths and stone works, quaint villages and, above all, scenes in which water is more than a stage setting. Grace “does” water very well probably because she’s enamored of it.  

To be clear, not every setting in Mariah's Dream made me wish I had a bayside cottage in Balmar. I blame the World Parliament for that not Grace. Well, mostly not Grace. 

This near-future version of Earth is about as dystopian as they get. Horrifying human-created settings lurk along Belfast/Bangor waterfronts, have taken up habitation in the suburbs, and poisoned the surrounding countryside of Ireland. The first few “Mariah” chapters each begin in places populated by people in the grip of terror, despair or rage--whether near city hall, downtown workplaces, or in outlying prison-farms. Haunting fear and hopelessness have invisible roles in nearly every scene.

WARNING: 

I TRIED TO LIMIT READER SPOILERAGE IN THE REMAINING SECTIONS BUT THE ONLY WAY TO GUARANTEE A SPOILER-FREE FICTION REVIEW IS NOT WRITE IT.

~~~~~

THE BACK STORY

How did everything get this way? In the recent past and for reasons unknown, members of the “World Parliament” sowed the soil of Ireland with the “termination gene".  The Irish and the peoples of other lands were not told the WP’s objective. The gene killed every plant and effectively prevented the germination of any remaining seeds. Sterile soil and mud replaced expanses of thriving green plants not just in Ireland but throughout Europe and beyond.

Forgive the understatement but whatever those in power expected, this wasn’t it.

“Mariah’s Dream” begins some time after this disastrous decision. Scientists may be working to develop terminator-resistant fertilizers. Agricultural workers held captive on experimental farms may be using these compounds and other methods to restore vital food crops. It’s not going well, as evidenced by strict food rationing.

Once this eco-disaster have been established as universally endemic, the author adds a new level of horror in the form of a plague which kills most of the surviving population and eventually adapts to natural forms of resistance in the survivors.  

~~~~~

THE "ICK" FACTOR

I feel the graphic details of each plague death parallel previous and subsequent deaths too closely. I learned soon enough and more than enough about how this disease progresses so I began to skim paragraphs when I saw what might be a death scene developing. 
To be blunt, I wanted more about the human reactions and less about how much vomit or blood was on the ground.

And to be fair, we see the horrified reactions of new victims, the selfless efforts of others trying to ease their suffering, and cruelly drawn-out grief of friends from the first signs of infection until the last breath. 

Even when death is not an immediate concern to the characters, empty houses, abandoned cars and starving farm animals remind them, and the reader of the devastation since the sowing of the termination gene.

The one "good thing" you can say about a plague during a famine is, once it roars in, the spectre of famine seems less terrifying.

I've thought a lot about this plague--from back when I read scenes describing the first deaths to this moment. All I'll say for now is, read the book and see what you think. Maybe later we can discuss our theories in the Comments section or elsewhere. You were going to read "Mariah's Dream"anyway, right?

~~~~~

CHARACTERS

Two Irish women take turns as point-of-view characters and the chapter titles reflect this. For example Chapter 1 is, “Mariah, June 2079”. The next chapter features “Faith”. The name “Mariah” appears in the book title and in the title of the first chapter. That was enough to establish Mariah as a major character, perhaps the central character. Likewise her dream must be important to her--and to the reader.

Mariah’s chapters tend to be longer than Faith’s so we see more scenes through her adult eyes than we do from teenaged Faith’s point-of-view. Mariah also serves as narrator or journal keeper. I engaged with Mariah more than any other character, except one. Maybe this is an age thing--I’m older than most of the characters.

I had other reasons for not wanting to identify with Faith. She is the victim of bullying  many times in her life. Some scenes can be painful to read. For the most part, she gives into the wishes of the other person. 

At least until she doesn’t.

Finally, Faith's story takes place half a decade before Mariah’s initial chapter begins. Could any event from that long ago in Faith's life be essential to the plot? Even the “terminator disaster” occurred more recently than the events in Faith's story. When I began reading, I worried that Faith would turn up in the last chapter as a character even older than I am. Spoiler alert: she doesn't.

Sometimes I would forget this discrepancy in years between chapters, in spite of every chapter title reminding us of the year. This was confusing. Don't do this.

My attention perked up once Faith was a bit older and able to put all those negative experiences behind her. It was like the “Kick Me” sign had fallen off her back. She proved to be remarkably resilient. I became a fan.

Perhaps halfway through the book I began to feel that something odd was going on. “Something odd.” Oh, that helps. I told myself I was either imagining this something or I should have identified what it was by now. At least I had the sense to let it go and get back to the story.

As I wrote to a friend and fellow author, Mike Dunne,

“…as to what I'm going to say review-wise... I know some of it. Wow! This is good writing! So good that I'm managing to enjoy a dystopian near-future scenario!  The characters are richly developed and mostly very likeable--except the ones that aren't supposed to be. You already know how important good characterization is to me.

"But there's something else going on under the surface which I'd like to figure out real soon now. I mean before Grace provides the answer. I just hope it's not something devastating but then that's not Grace. (I hope.)”

"When you read Mariah’s Dream, take care that no one spoils the plot for you. I think, I hope, that you will enjoy being puzzled as much as I was."

Where was I? Oh, characters. My other human favorites were Darian and Peter—both because of their romantic attachments. You may enjoy getting to know Peter particularly in the way the author introduces him. Unlike Faith, I took an interest in Darian as soon as his character was introduced because of the cruelties he experienced.

I didn’t know what to make of Lzu until I realized that her emotional outbursts were just those of a young teen saying what she felt. I admired Naomi for her idealism and because she is so at one with her little bit of the world—almost to the point of being its mother. But Naomi is no barely human “nature goddess” incapable of making bad choices. When she makes a mistake, we can count on it to have repercussions.

My favorite character is Rufus, a stray dog, perhaps the last dog living anywhere in Ireland. Rufus is a sympathetic character from his first scene to his last. I wonder if Grace gave Rufus more scenes than she originally intended to. In the beginning, she uses him as an independent observer to actions that no human character witnesses--a plot device more than a character, introduced to aid readers.

Because of his unique role, Grace gives Rufus human skills like seeming to understand human speech. Even dog-lovers might be reluctant to claim that skill for their furry friends. In time, Rufus breaks out of this restrictive role. He finds a home with some characters in service to the plot, but Rufus develops into a (full) character in his own right. 

No question. Rufus is my favorite character. I was more invested in his welfare than anyone else.

The sheer number of characters in Mariah’s Dream would challenge the casts of some Russian novels. As the vendors say at sporting events, “Programs! Can’t tell the players without a program!” As soon as I finished reading the story, I went through Grace’s novel a second time, intending to gather up and write down every name I saw together with a couple of key words to remind me who they were. I was less than halfway through the book when I gave up on my cast of thousands list and switched to rereading the rest. I'm so glad I did this! I caught on to things the second time though that I hadn't noticed the first time. 

What's better than a good book? A good book that invites a second reading.

~~~~~

A PLOT POSTSCRIPT

In lieu of discussing the plot.

I’m always fascinated by the fiddly details in survival stories which involve people grappling to gather the basic essentials of food and shelter. I cheer with them each time they make a discovery and hurt with them when a promising find turns out to be useless. Once the survivors secure the essentials needed to live, Grace refocuses the action on the slow acquisition of "creature comforts" sometimes discovered by accident, other times searching a likely place looking for a particular thing.

In the world of “Mariah's Dream” these moments are no Saturday afternoon treasure hunt meant for the amusement of neighborhood children. Most characters are still in potential deadly danger. Established characters do die, sometimes without much warning to friends or the reader.

Some of these searches subtly drive the plot in ways you may not expect.

~~~~~ 

I recommend Grace Bridge's "Mariah's Dream" (The Vortex of Eire, 1) to readers who enjoy near-future dystopia SF ; to those who are interested in Ireland's geography, history and customs; to those concerned about sustainable agriculture, world hunger, conservation and ecology. Recommended for adults and very mature young adults: violence, graphic images of deaths mostly from disease, gruesome imagery. Language and sexual situations sometimes drift into the US film industry's PG-13 range.

Mariah's Dream (The Vortex of Éire, 1) by Grace Bridges  (Author)

Paperback: 290 pages

Publisher: Splashdown Books (July 15, 2015) 

http://www.amazon.com/Mariahs-Dream-Vortex-%C3%89ire-Book-ebook/dp/B00ZM0HX6W/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

Mariah's Prologues 1-4: The Dog with No Name, Mothers of Belfast, Rue the Night, Strawberry Dreaming (The Vortex...Jul 16, 2015

by Grace Bridges

http://www.amazon.com/Mariahs-Prologues-1-4-Strawberry-Dreaming/dp/151508583X/ref=sr_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438886380&sr=1-14&keywords=grace+bridges

Visit Grace Bridges' Splashdown Books

Undoing Winter, by Shannon Connor Winward

I was about to write my review of Ms Winward's chapbook of poetry, "Undoing Winter".  Then I looked at the time. 2:45AM. Not at all late for me; however, I'll be on a deadline tomorrow. The only way to get through everything which needs doing is to get up what I consider early--9AM. Ghastly thought!
I'm going to bed like now. Or maybe in a few minutes if Khiva & Vartha double-team me for a patting session.

UPDATE I've spent the last two days choosing between me options in discussing "Undoing Winter" I should review the cycle of poems according to literary rules vs. my idiosyncratic reactions to Ms Wynward's poetic offerings. Or my non-reactions to a given poem.

Analyzing the architecture of lines or the core of a poet's purpose revealed by word choice--whatever it is that scholars to poetry actually do--is far beyond me. Yes, between 1965 and 1968, I chose to add unofficial minors in both English Literature and Psychology to my undergraduate studies. Technical poetic theory  trickled out my ears not long after entering them. 

To create "Undoing Winter" Ms Wynward draws from many life experiences, from interactions with therapists and from her solid academic studies in mythology and in psychiatric theory. 

To interpret "Undoing Winter" I relied on fragments of a radically different life than Ms. Wynward's, on 40+ years of psychotherapy guided by therapists each with their own understanding of the human psyche, on four years of histody including a variety of ancient myths, and on psychological theory gleaned via my undergrad psych minor and my year of psychology grad school. 

Our disparate life experiences limited what I felt I could comment on.  Fulfilled romantic love, a husband, pregnancy and children are all alien to me. So while I read all of Beansidhe, Space, On Raising Boys, Intentions, I Visit Your Heart, Weaver and Warren as many times as I did Session, Gravity, Moon Song, and Undoing Winter, I decided it best not to comment on the poems in the first group. Why share opinions about the bulk of Wynward's poetry if it would be idiosyncratic?

As for the remaining four poems I hope I'm not too wide of the mark where my experiences distort her message.

I recommended Ms Wynward's chapbook to someone who writes poetry and who has a poetry mentor. This person told me they were open to reading, "Undoing Winter" and perhaps commenting on the poems that I'm not equipped to review. I'll add any observations they offer.

So then, 

Session
Ms Wynward captures the patient's inevitable sense of frustration while working with even the best psychotherapists. She comes seeking help but she must suggest where to dig into her past. To then have her thoughts ignored.

How many selves do we each have if each of our pasts last a millisecond? The dig is infinitely large. Those working at the site of her endless pasts don't know which bit is relevant. Therapists miss fragments of remembered experiences even as their patient points to them. In the meantime their patient most likely suffers gaps in their memories making her a fallible guide.

They sift 
"dirt through a screen 
trying to make tableaus..."
which are complete. 
But no tableau of relationships will ever be complete. Memory gaps already exist--no patient can remember every second of their past. Sometimes we resist remembering, for fear of coming face to face with long-suppressed disillusionment or self-reproach.

Shards of memories may work backward and forward in time, altering and transforming themselves the better to hide within a congenial memory-home where the patient's original pain or bewilderment is softened.

How can archaeologists of human psyche tease out all these details and much less restore the whole pattern?  "[So] ...there [are] never enough pieces."


Each therapist wants to,
"... bring them [all] up... to catalog them"
To ask, "what I think it means
as if it were only
a metaphor."

How apt is Ms Wynward's metaphor about metaphors!
Can the clinical psychologist see no more than a clinical description in a book?
Not even Ms Wynward sitting right there across them? 

She asks them to,
"look more closely.
Sometimes a cigar is also
a cigar."*

To see the person--all the people--she once was.
"Peel back, gently,
the layers of my resting-place
I will not fight you.
...I am in situ..."

* My favorite line. Ms Wynward playfully alters Freud's words in the service of asking her therapist to focus. "Sometimes a cigar is also a cigar." Every patient is also a patient not just a diagnosis.


Gravity 
Ms Wynward describes the burden of unsaid words,
"What I do not tell you
...transcends words."

Not unlike the situation described in "Session", mere words may describe in a way that is,
"...all perfectly
scientific."
 But words alone are never enough to convey every aspect of reality.

" ...there [are] never enough pieces."
Hidden emotions. Purposing one thing. Doing the reverse.
Where are the words for these?



Moon Song 
I merged all of "Moon Song" with Elizabeth Maines' cover design below because Ms Wynward's words described my own experiences so accurately.

Or not.

As someone said once, "words are clumsy". Even half-remembered experiences rising like ghosts from our youth are better defined in our thoughts than by any words we might use to convey those thoughts to someone else.

If I say that one minute I was content to sing--not even thinking of the meaning of the lyrics--and the next minute half-forgotten memories choke my voice does this mean anythimng to some one else? Is Ms Wynward describing a similar experience here? I don't know. I can't know because I can't see through the churned up memories.

Ocean and ocean.

In Gravity, Ms Wynward wrote,
"...gravity is why the
water always comes back
to the shore...
I wonder if the ocean beats herself up
for feeling this way.

In Moon Song, we read,
"I just know that the song rises
like the ocean reaching for the sky

Is her singing a celebration of breaking free from gravity? Of defying the urge to keep returning to the shore?

The trapped ocean--who beat herself up for remaining trapped--has a taste of freedom in Moon Song. Then the ghosts (memories?) invade.  Are certain memories a kind of gravity that keep happiness out of reach?

Or am I psychoanalyzing myself rather than analyzing Wynward's Moon Song?

Undoing Winter
Some 20 years ago a therapist suggested I read the myth of Inanna about her brutal trip through the underworld. Possibly she did it to win back a lost lover but no one seems to know for sure. It's been a long time--I guess any witnesses are dead.

I think my therapist suggested the exercise as a way to remind me that I wouldn't be depressed forever as long as I kept stuggling to be free of my depression.
Yes.
Well, it didn't work.

Too bad Ms Wynward had yet to write Undoing Winter. Her depiction of Demeter hustling her daughter Persephone out of Hades might have had a salutory effect on me. 

"You are just an idol of fungus here,
Sovereign queen of basements..."

"I went to all this trouble.
Now I'm standing before you and my feet are cold
in fact I'm fucking freezing.
So get your coat..."

"You can write sonnets, if you like
in praise of the Lord of Shadows.
Paint some stormy watercolors.
Invent a flower.
I don't really care
so long as you get started
undoing this winter you created."


Now that's the way to deal with mental illness! Is that what my therapist expected of me way back when? (If only it had been that simple.) 

I hope that Ms Wynward wrote Undoing Winter as part of a successful bid to shake depression, or that she wrote it later in celebration of her success. That would be cool. Anyway, this poem is exhilarating!

Thank you for your collection!


And to everyone else. Are you buying this thing or what? You'll find the information you need below the cover illustration.

Regarding the image above, I layered a semi-transparent graphic of "Moon Song" over the cover so that you could see both.
If you would like to see both more clearly and read the rest of Ms. Winward's "Undoing Winter" collection, the details are below.

Undoing Winter is now on Goodreads!

PURCHASE
For those interested in purchasing a copy, Undoing Winter is available through 
Finishing Line Press. The cost is $14 plus shipping
— OR, come find me in person and buy a signed copy direct from the source! 
See my CALENDAR OF EVENTS for a list of upcoming appearances.

Shannon Connor Winward--poet, novelist, and friend.

FROM GOODREADS  About this author

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Shannon Connor Winward is an American author of literary and speculative fiction and poetry. Her work has appeared widely in such venues as Pedestal Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, Strange Horizons, Illumen, Ideomancer, Silver Blade Magazine, NewMyths.com, Star*Line, Hip Mama and PANK, as well as in genre anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic. Shannon recently earned Honorable Mention as an emerging artist by the Delaware Division of the Arts. Shannon is a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the Science Fiction Poetry Association, and a Rhysling Award nominee. She lives and writes in Newark, Delaware. For a full list of publications, or to read her accounts of writing, witchery, mommyhood and general sassiness, visit her website: www.ShannonConnorWinward.com