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Chessville
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Nick Herbert, Ph.D., who has written Quantum Reality and Elemental Mind (has Sam Sloan linked to this guy’s home page?), sees an “exciting white-knuckle metaphysical adventure story.” Both are trumped by Rev. Marie D. Jones, author of PSIence: How New Discoveries in Quantum Physics and New Science May Explain the Existence of Paranormal Phenomena, (‘nuff said; ask me about 2012), who attests that the author:
Now you’re probably already thinking “Hey – Rick! What’s all this got to do about chess, huh?” Take it easy, okay? I’m getting there. I mean, American Grandmaster Reuben Fine was a psychoanalyst, like Dr. Satinover, for crying out loud. And the Royal Game has a long history of substance abuse, from Mikhail Tal’s hard-living to Frank Marshall’s cigars to Joseph Henry Blackburne’s whiskey -- and way, way beyond. I mean, hasn’t the International Chess Federation banned coffee at tournaments? Oh, and I’m going to be 60 in 2012. Discipline author Paco Ahlgren has worked as a financial analyst for 16 years. He must be successful in his work, as his MySpace entry lists him as living in Durango, Colorado and Austin, Texas. Actually, I’m going to assume for the sake of this review that this is not an example of quantum physics’ pet quarrel, “Shrödinger's Cat” – otherwise, until we check, Ahlgren could be simultaneously living in both locations. But I digress. He has also (from the back cover):
Discipline concerns Douglas Cole, a young man who, as the book opens, is living in Austin, Texas. He is clearly both on his way up - and on his way down. His work side is in finance, trading futures, which is a bit of an ironically-titled vocation, given that his play side is a live-action depiction of the ravages of hard core drug abuse. At one point he works on a software program to help him more effectively analyze financial data and improve his money-making actions. Predictably, he fares like Chess Challenger 7 in a match against Kramnik. Cole gains and loses the love of the excellent Elizabeth, showing once again that the most precarious role in fiction remains that of the primary protagonist’s main squeeze. (They meet again near the end of the book: Harry Chapin got it right with “Taxi”.) Cole likes to stop in at the Cardinal Yorkshire coffee shop, quaff some brews, and play some games of chess. Like with every casual chess gathering, there are a varied handful of players, including the seemingly requisite homeless crazy and the ill-tempered Eastern European bully/sore loser. In the course of moving from cover to cover, Cole spends time with Jack Alexander, who is a friend of his dad, and Jefferson Stone, the classic charismatic, enigmatic stranger. With these three, as you might expect, there’s more than meets the eye. (No, they’re not Transformers.) But, since they play chess, we can be pretty sure they’re smart, creative, persistent and resourceful; as well as eloquent in the modern vernacular – their four-letter vocabulary extends well beyond “King,” “Rook,” “Pawn,” “rank” and “file.” In its unfolding Discipline investigates the concept of time (and time travel) – “With the concept of time we have manufactured a monster” – any chess player who has experienced zeitnot knows this woe intimately. What would it take to go forward or backwards in time? How do you prepare for the future when it’s already past? (Or as the old t-shirt puts it: Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.) Connected to this is the notion of the “multiverse,” that for every choice a person makes, there is an alternate universe where the person makes another choice. (Imagine a universe where Bobby didn’t play 29…Bxh2 in his first World Championship game with Spassky.) In that scenario we quickly run up a whole lot of universes. Kind of like a trans-galactic Encyclopedia of Chess Openings: sure, I played Nf3 here, but what if I had played g3 instead? Or a very large ChessBase database – where jumping from game to game, or moving forward or backward in the same one has cosmic significance. Pursuing Cole is a hideous spectre who wants to kill him. This evil character finds Cole several times, but seems to be waiting for just the right time, place, and situation. As if that were not enough, it seems that he fate of humanity rests upon Cole’s uncertain shoulders… Chess aside – and, despite my focus in this review, chess in Discipline is mostly an aside – Ahlgren writes a story that is at times taut, engaging and driven. It is easy to react emotionally to his main characters. The action can grip. There are parts of the book, however, that drag. (Remember: it’s over 400 pages.) Perhaps I just didn’t get it – remember, it’s a book about, among other things, time, so there could be some meta- writer’s something that just went over my head – but there were times when Cole and Jack were waiting, and waiting, and waiting; and I, as the reader, was waiting, and waiting, and waiting along with them; and growing just impatient as Cole was. Too, it seems that at times the guys would sit around in Jefferson’s house and do little other than constantly kvetch at each other, so much so that I would finally yell “get a room!” which I know is off message and totally inappropriate for a Chessville reviewer. Perhaps this is merely a reflection of my unfortunate Western tendency to be judgmental. Ok, so Discipline isn’t Vladimir Nabakov’s The Defence, Paolo Maurensig’s The Luneburg Variation, or even Walter Tevis’ The Queen’s Gambit. It isn’t supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a thoughtful and adventurous read that has some chess sprinkled in. (You ever wonder what might happen if the world currencies failed? Ahlgren has some interesting ideas here, too.) If my review gets you to raise an eyebrow or two, or mutter a few Hmmmms as you grasp your chin, take a few minutes to visit the author’s website, where there are excepts to read. He even has a Discipline trailer, folks. Kudos for that site, as well as the books’ very professional design, layout and readability – tops for a small run publisher. If there were any typos, they went over my head, too. Discipline can be purchased online at amazon.com, or be found “at your local bookstore.”
(The author’s
appreciation of Austin, Texas, by the way, is duly noted. The city is
my favorite, after Klums, Ahia, of course. Perhaps one of these days
Douglas Cole might bump into Perry the PawnPusher while he’s catching the
Austin Lounge Lizards at The Plucky Duck… You never know.)
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