{"id":7964,"date":"2020-10-08T11:45:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T15:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=7964"},"modified":"2020-10-08T11:45:52","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T15:45:52","slug":"book-review-temporary-planets-for-transitory-days-poems-of-mykol-ranglen-by-albert-wendland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-temporary-planets-for-transitory-days-poems-of-mykol-ranglen-by-albert-wendland\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Temporary Planets for Transitory Days: Poems of Mykol Ranglen by Albert Wendland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cover<\/a><\/p>\n

(\u00a0\u00a0Bookshop.org<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a>\u00a0 )<\/p>\n

Temporary Planets for Transitory Days: Poems of Mykol Ranglen <\/em>by Albert Wendland<\/p>\n

Dog Star Books, 2020<\/p>\n

ISBN: 978-1-947879-18-8<\/p>\n

Available: Paperback, Kindle<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mykol Ranglen, adventurer, talented finder of rare Clips left behind by the Airafanes, keeper of secrets, and central character of Albert Wendland\u2019s science fiction books The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes (<\/em>2014) <\/em>and In a Suspect Universe (<\/em>2018) <\/em>has always been a poet. In the first book, he describes one alien landscape as \u201cdazzle\u201d running through \u201cthe dew-laced savanna\u201d with \u201cscents of basil and almond\u201d as the grass makes \u201csoft cracking sounds like static electricity.\u201d In the second book, apocalyptic visions from his poems become real and threaten the safety of the woman he loves. So, it is no surprise that Wendland was inspired to write a third book, a collection of speculative poetry, supposedly written by this enigmatic character.<\/p>\n

Temporary Planets for Transitory Days <\/em>is a more concise version of ideas introduced in the novels. In all three books, Wendland looks at what might happen in futuristic human\/alien worlds that continue to be influenced by past civilizations and mythologies. He imagines these worlds as places which have devolved. They are inadequate for living and never change because they are controlled by technology and lacking in what we might recognize as a humanizing touch. Creatives like Ranglen and his lover Mileen, a painter, are living in worlds that the reader can still recognize as having links to our times with \u201caircars\u201d for speedy transportation, competitive people using \u201ccard-links\u201d to make business contacts, and gangsters who traffic \u201cthe deprived and homeless.\u201d At the same time, these new worlds are nightmarish developments of what might have once seemed like exciting possibilities such as teleportation (but with time glitches, so at what point is Ranglen in his relationship with Mileen in a certain place?) or the projection of the imagination into harmful and even deadly objects or scenarios that cannot be controlled (was someone killed by a unique type of aircar that only existed in a poem Ranglen wrote?).<\/p>\n

The poems are divided into groups and include some that directly reference characters and events in the books, some that might be about the author\u2019s actual life, and others that seem inspired by Wendland\u2019s own reading and teaching as a professor of literature. There are even poems involving superheroes, Native American mythology, and vampires. Overall, Wendland and Ranglen seem to be attracted to writing about their eclectic, science-fiction infused personal interests as well as sudden, intense encounters and events that are best captured as poetic memories. In addition, the poems even predict Ranglen\u2019s future because Wendland notes that these poems will lead to two more Ranglen novels \u201cyet to be written.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the poem \u201cNotes Toward a Supreme Science Fiction,\u201d we learn what Wendland values most in writing science fiction: \u201cThe obsessed, the pursued, \/ And the space \/ In between.\u201d He sees, as he says in \u201cNegotiating a Dream\u201d an opportunity when we might be able to \u201cMaybe even appropriate\/ Some other era\u2019s \/ Lost stellar dreams.\u201d In contrast, the love poems in the Planetary Love section of the book are more immediate, focusing on what loving someone means and how that love is an action and unifying force rather than being an exploration of complicated emotions. Ranglen talks about that \u201csingular moment\u201d when the \u201cworld of another person is open\u201d (\u201cIn a Moment\u201d) and about loving in a \u201clanguage\u201d \u201cthat came before words\u201d (\u201cThe Touch\u201d). The poem that defines Ranglen best has the same title as the first novel and appears toward the end of the collection. However, there is also an excellent introduction to the poetry that helps the reader for whom Ranglen is a stranger to understand, in broad strokes, the context of the poems as a whole.<\/p>\n

If you want to experience a pleasant feeling of recognition, like a memory, read the novels first. If you decide to read the poems first, it would be worthwhile to avoid dipping into the book randomly so that the poems will unfold in a logical way, thus providing enjoyment and understanding through a narrative approach as spare and direct as the prose of the novels.\u00a0 Recommended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Nova Hadley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(\u00a0\u00a0Bookshop.org\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Amazon.com\u00a0 ) Temporary Planets for Transitory Days: Poems of Mykol Ranglen by Albert Wendland Dog Star Books, 2020 ISBN: 978-1-947879-18-8 Available: Paperback, Kindle   Mykol Ranglen, adventurer, talented finder of rare Clips left behind by the Airafanes, keeper of secrets, and central character of Albert Wendland\u2019s science fiction books The Man Who Loved Alien<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[199,4584,1224,226],"class_list":["post-7964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-literary-fiction","tag-metafiction","tag-poetry","tag-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7966,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7964\/revisions\/7966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}