Quick Guide to (Mostly) Recent Science Fiction

It's been an age since I posted anything on this platform, but maybe the pandemic is the time to bring blogs back along with things like baking bread at home. 

I made this graphic for a recent genre discussion hosted by the Massachusetts Library Association's Readers' Advisory section. If you're new to the genre of Science Fiction but want to get started on some recent titles, this might provide a starting point. As I said in my talk, many of the books below could be placed in a variety of the subgenres I've arbitrarily listed, this is not a comprehensive list, it's purely subjective, etc. Link to the graphic here.

Titles and authors:

Space Opera

Behind the Throne, K.B. Wagers

Unconquerable Sun, Kate Elliott

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers

Chilling Effect, Valerie Valdes

A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine

Military

Vorkosigan series, Lois McMaster Bujold

Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee

Fortune's Pawn, Rachel Bach

Dystopia/Post-Apocalyptic

Moon of the Crusted Snow, Waubgeshig Rice

The Record Keeper, Agnes Gomillion

American War, Omar El Akkad

Afro/Africanfuturism

Broken Earth series, N.K. Jemisin

Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor

An Unkindness of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon

Artificial Intelligence

All Systems Red, Martha Wells

Robopocalypse, Daniel H. Wilson

Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

Aliens

The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu

Rosewater, Tade Thompson

Lilith's Brood, Octavia Butler

Annihilation, Jeff Vandermeer

Time Travel/Alt-History

Here and Now and Then, Mike Chen

To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Romance

The Agent Gambit, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Ice Planet Barbarians,  Ruby Dixon

Rulebreaker, Cathy Pegau

Polaris Rising, Jessie Mihalik

Climate Fiction

New York 2140, Kim Stanley Robinson

Gold Fame Citrus, Claire Vaye Watkins

Humorous

Redshirts, John Scalzi

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Space Western

Serenity: Those Left Behind, Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, Will Conrad

Dark Tower series, Stephen King

Superhero

The Mighty Thor v. 5, Jason Aaron, Walt Simonson, Russell Dauterman, James Harren

Heroine Complex, Sarah Kuhn

Graphic/Manga

Saga series, Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples

Pluto series, Naoki Urasawa

Steampunk/Cyberpunk

Parasol Protectorate series, Gail Carriger

The Black God's Drums, P. Djèlí Clark

Young Adult Science Fiction with Adult Appeal

Illuminae series, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Not Your Sidekick, C.B. Lee

The Marrow Thieves, Cherie Dimaline

Warcross, Marie Lu

Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi

Proxy, Alex London

Reading Roulette: Eighth Pick

I read a bunch of books last month that were connected to this project when I was working my way through National Book Reading Month. The way things are going, though, this may be the last pick of the year!

The Laughter of Dead Kings, Elizabeth Peters (2008)

Who stole the mummy of King Tut? The brazen crime bears the earmarks of one Sir John Smythe, the international art thief. In fact, John Tregarth is the longtime significant other of Vicky Bliss. Innocent, he vows to clear his name by hunting down the true criminal.

Vicky loses faith. But her boss, Munich Museum director Anton Z. Schmidt, "the finest swordsman in Europe," pays their luxurious way from London to Munich then Cairo, also to defend his own reputation. Once Schmidt deflects his new paramour Suzi, who only wants his body to spy on John, the entourage swells with the Egyptian officials responsible, cousins - wealthy Ashraf and poorer Feisel - plus mummy-expert mistress Saida.

The Arab security guard, then a female middleman, both turn up dead. Dead hands, from her and from Tut, separately accompany notes, his is a ransom demand for millions. Kidnappers, murderers, and danger dog their way.

This is the sixth (and final, presumably) book in the Vicky Bliss series, which was one that my mother and I read with the same enthusiasm. When this book came out a few years after my mom's death, I immediately purchased it, thinking of her. Since then I've found myself unable to sit down and read it, knowing that I can't really share it with her. But I think that maybe it's been long enough. Maybe I can read it for both of us. RIP Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Mertz.


The Last Policeman, Benjamin Winters (2012)

What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway? Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.

The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.

The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?

I'm pretty sure I came across this as part of my collection development work, and added it to my list. That happens quite a lot.


Old Man's War, John Scalzi (2005)

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-- and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.

Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You'll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets. John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine--and what he will become is far stranger.

I've seen Scalzi speak at two conferences now, and follow his Twitter feed and blog, but haven't managed to read any of his books yet. That changes now!

Why am I doing this?

Reading Roulette: Seventh Pick

I feel like I am making some progress! It's probably an illusion, I realize.

The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch (2006)

The Thorn of Camorr is said to be an unbeatable swordsman, a master thief, a ghost that walks through walls. Half the city believes him to be a legendary champion of the poor. The other half believe him to be a foolish myth. Nobody has it quite right. Slightly built, unlucky in love, and barely competent with a sword, Locke Lamora is, much to his annoyance, the fabled Thorn. He certainly didn't invite the rumors that swirl around his exploits, which are actually confidence games of the most intricate sort. And while Locke does indeed steal from the rich (who else, pray tell, would be worth stealing from?), the poor never see a penny of it. All of Locke's gains are strictly for himself and his tight-knit band of thieves, the Gentlemen Bastards.

Locke and company are con artists in an age where con artistry, as we understand it, is a new and unknown style of crime. The less attention anyone pays to them, the better! But a deadly mystery has begun to haunt the ancient city of Camorr, and a clandestine war is threatening to tear the city's underworld, the only home the Gentlemen Bastards have ever known, to bloody shreds. Caught up in a murderous game, Locke and his friends will find both their loyalty and their ingenuity tested to the breaking point as they struggle to stay alive...

First in a series that has been recommended in several locations. The audiobook is on its way to me right now, thanks to the magic of interlibrary loan.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)

Joe Kavalier, a young Jewish artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just smuggled himself out of Nazi-invaded Prague and landed in New York City. His Brooklyn cousin Sammy Clay is looking for a partner to create heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit America - the comic book. Drawing on their own fears and dreams, Kavalier and Clay create the Escapist, the Monitor, and Luna Moth, inspired by the beautiful Rosa Saks, who will become linked by powerful ties to both men. With exhilarating style and grace, Michael Chabon tells an unforgettable story about American romance and possibility.

Various people have recommended this to me, and now I'll finally get around to reading it.

For Darkness Shows the Stars, Diana Peterfreund (2012) 

It's been several generations since a genetic experiment gone wrong caused the Reduction, decimating humanity and giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology. Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family's estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress, and Elliot's estate is foundering, forcing her to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth--an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliot wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she let him go.

But Elliot soon discovers her old friend carries a secret--one that could change their society . . . or bring it to its knees. And again, she's faced with a choice: cling to what she's been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she's ever loved, even if she's lost him forever. Inspired by Jane Austen's Persuasion, For Darkness Shows the Stars is a breathtaking romance about opening your mind to the future and your heart to the one person you know can break it.

I pre-ordered a copy of this from my local bookstore when it came out, and it's been waiting patiently on my shelf ever since. I may also have to throw in a re-read of Persuasion as well.


Why am I doing this?

Reading Roulette: Sixth Pick

I have been sidetracking myself with this project by reading entire series when one book was recommended (more on that in another post), but that didn't stop me from finishing everything from my last pick and spinning the wheel again!

A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge (1993)

Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence.

Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.

Classic science fiction, here I come!


Hark! A Vagrant, Kate Beaton (2011)

Hark! A Vagrant is an uproarious romp through history and literature seen through the sharp, contemporary lens of New Yorker cartoonist and comics-sensation Kate Beaton. No era or tome emerges unscathed as Beaton rightly skewers the Western world's revolutionaries, leaders, sycophants, and suffragists while equally honing her wit on the hapless heroes, heroines, and villains of the best-loved fiction.

I had gotten this before and somehow never got around to reading it (although I've read individual strips online). I put it on my list to remind me to give myself a treat.


The Cardinal's Blades, Pierre Pevel (2007/2009) 

Welcome to seventeenth-century Paris, where intrigue, duels, and spies are rife and Cardinal Richelieu's agents may be prevailed upon to risk life and limb in the name of France at a moment's notice. And with war on the horizon, the defense of the nation has never been more pressing.

Danger is rising from the south—an insidious plot that could end with a huge dragon-shaped shadow falling over France, a shadow cast by dragons quite unlike the pet dragonets that roam the cities like stray cats, or the tame wyverns men ride like horses, high over the Parisian rooftops. These dragons and their descendants are ancient, terrible, and powerful ... and their plans contain little room for the lives or freedom of puny humans.

Cardinal Richelieu has nowhere else to turn; Captain La Fargue and his elite group of agents, the Cardinal's Blades, must turn the tide. They must hold the deadly Black Claw cult at bay, root out traitors to the crown, rescue prisoners, and fulfill their mission for the Cardinal, for their country, but above all for themselves.

It's death or victory. And the victory has never been less certain. (Translated from French by Tom Clegg.)

This one can be attributed to my childhood obsession with The Three Musketeers.


Why am I doing this?

Book Review: Matched Trilogy

Ally Condie's Matched Trilogy consists of Matched, Crossed, and Reached. It's a dystopian YA series in the vein of The Hunger Games and Uglies. I listened to the majority of the books in the car and on my ipod, but also forged ahead with the books at times when I was too impatient to wait for another car trip.
This series is a textbook case for the pitfalls and frequently shifting landscape in the relationship between ebooks and libraries. I downloaded Matched from OverDrive in Mac-compatible MP3 format on a whim (it was on my list but had not come up on my Roulette list), then went back for Crossed. It was only available as a WMA file. Reached wasn't available at all, so I had to get those books on CD. Why? The series is published by Penguin, which doesn't play with OverDrive anymore. THANKS, PENGUIN!

All right, on to the review. Spoilers ahoy.

In the world of the Society, everything is predetermined: what you eat, where you go and the activities you do, even who you are supposed to love. The Officials who run the Society do their best to assign a probability to every possible event. As Matched begins, we follow seventeen-year old Cassia to her Match Banquet, at which she will be paired with her Society-selected perfect mate. There is a brief mention of people who decide not to participate in this process, but by and large, people in the Society choose to be matched. At the banquet, Cassia is surprised and pleased to find herself matched with her best friend and neighbor, Xander. It isn't until she's alone later that another picture flashes in Xander's place, that of the aloof Ky...is Ky her real match? How could the Society possibly make a mistake?

The first book focuses not only on Cassia's struggle to choose between the clever, patient Xander and the quiet, mysterious Ky (both of whom seem well-matched to her) but also on the details of the restrictive life of the Society. Although the Society has eliminated most diseases and optimized life for all its members, we learn through Cassia's interaction with her grandfather that all citizens are poisoned on their 80th birthday if they do not die of natural causes before then. Citizens do not know how to write, and all cultural artifacts--songs, paintings, poems, stories--have been reduced to a "top 100" of each category. There is a lively black market trade for items from before the Society was in power, known as artifacts. Before his death, Cassia's grandfather gives her two contraband poems (one by Dylan Thomas and one by Tennyson), putting her in the awkward position of having precious but illegal material. Knowledge of these words becomes one of the things that bind Cassia and Ky together, despite her ties with Xander. While there are some signs of societal strain in Matched, it isn't until Crossed that Cassia, Ky, and Xander become fully aware of and involved in any rebellion.

Condie uses first-person narration in each book, adding characters each volume--Matched is told solely from Cassia's point of view, Crossed incorporates Ky's story, and Reached features Xander as well. This slow expansion of the reader's knowledge about the characters mirrors their growth and understanding of the Society and their roles in its potential downfall. The love triangle aspect is essentially decided by the end of Matched, although it pops up from time to time in the subsequent books. I appreciated the fact that Xander was portrayed as a strong and sympathetic character with his own voice, despite being the odd man out. Through crisis, each of the three finds a role that they are suited to play, and the trilogy comes to a satisfactory conclusion--after an interesting veer into thriller territory, as they race against time to develop a successful vaccine. Condie's worldbuilding is excellent, and I would definitely recommend the trilogy to fans of dystopian YA.

However.

I was consistently bothered by the lack of LGBTQ characters in this series. The premise of the first book rests heavily on matching, and there is little to no explanation of what happens when citizens are not heterosexual. Are they the mysterious "singles" that are so briefly alluded to? Are they among the people that the Society has labeled aberrations and anomalies? Has the Society "fixed" the "problem" of homosexuality? How much stronger would the story have been if Condie had incorporated any queer characters, giving the already creepy prospect of matching yet another dimension? If you're writing a story set in a world that is obviously our own, there is absolutely no good reason for leaving out these kinds of characters, or for not addressing of the questions I posed above. As I recently wrote in a post for Gay YA, the ability of LGBTQ teens to find characters like themselves in fiction is incredibly important, and I know this trilogy is popular. It's been optioned by Disney for movie production. It's very disappointing that Condie chose not to tackle this subject when it only could have enriched her work.

Just as I'm totally over reading contemporary YA fiction without gay characters, I am so totally over reading YA in my favorite genres (SF and Fantasy) that doesn't include them.

Grade: B+

For posts on LGBTQ characters in YA dystopia, see Kirkus (Paolo Bacigalupi) and YALSA. The Outer Alliance purportedly has a list of gay YA dystopias, but their site seems to be down at the moment.

Book Review Index

Book Review: Caught in Amber [2013]

I am a big fan of Cathy Pegau’s book Rulebreaker, which came out in 2011. I was very pleased when Cathy asked earlier this year if I would be interested in reading the next two books in the series--thankfully, she didn’t stop at just one! However, for some reason she refuses to send me the ones she hasn’t written yet...



Caught in Amber is the story of Nathan Sterling (the mining authority agent introduced in Rulebreaker) and Sasha James, the woman whose help he needs to rescue his sister from the clutches of a dangerous drug dealer. Sasha has recently been released from prison, where she was serving a sentence and recovering from her addiction to the drug known as amber. Once the lover of Guy Christiansen, the colony’s notorious amber dealer, Sasha is determined to stay clean and finish her parole as far away from him as possible.

Nathan has other ideas, however. His sister Kylie has disappeared into Christiansen’s compound and he fears that her fate will be the same as Sasha’s--or worse. He has reason to suspect that Christiansen still harbors feelings for Sasha, and wants her assistance getting into the dealer’s compound. In exchange, he promises her freedom from the system and the regulatory chip implanted in her neck. Unfortunately, he’s working alone and not authorized to promise Sasha anything, especially when it’s not clear whether either of them will make it out of their encounters with Christiansen alive.

Growing attraction and sympathy between Nathan and Sasha complicate things further as Sasha risks her recovery and her life in order to befriend Kylie and help Nathan under the eyes of Christiansen and the enigmatic Genevieve Caine, his lieutenant. But will she be able to resist the lure of amber when she’s back where it all began?

Grade: A

My favorite part of these books is the carefully constructed world that Cathy has imagined, which includes meticulous details of religion, food, culture, mining(!), and climate. The setting is a consistent background character that is carried through all of what I have read so far. The books have an appealing blend of science fiction, romance, and thriller--with a dash of mystery--and Caught in Amber is no exception. Cathy also gets points from me for naming one of her secondary characters Mickelson, even if she did use an “-on”...

I can feel a little nervous when I am asked to look at the work of someone I know, because although I am an easy grader, I do try to review things honestly. However, I wasn’t worried about reviewing Cathy’s work, and I liked Caught in Amber enough to buy myself a copy, even though I’ve already read the book. I want to be able to re-read the whole (hopefully long) series when the time comes!

ETA: My review of the next book in the series, Deep Deception, is now up at the Lesbrary.

Book Review Index

Book Review: The Doomsday Book [1992]

I'll come right out and say it: Connie Willis is my favorite author and this is not the first time I've read The Doomsday Book (1992). The first time was sometime in the late 90s, after I was introduced to her work by randomly picking up a hardcover edition of To Say Nothing of the Dog in Sam Weller's. I never looked back, devouring everything of hers that I came across (with the exception of Blackout and All Clear, which are waiting patiently for me to get around to them). The Doomsday Book is set among the same time-travelling Oxford-based historians and comes a little bit earlier in the timeline than To Say Nothing of the Dog. It's hard to believe that it's been almost twenty years since it was published!

Kivrin Engle is on the brink of becoming the first historian to be sent back in time to the middle ages, and her mentor James Dunworthy is not remotely happy about it. The acting head of the History department is determined to get her to 1320 before his authority is revoked, and therefore hasn't pursued proper safety precautions. Kivrin, who is eager to experience life in medieval England, blithely departs anyway, at which point everything goes awry. Hours after her departure, those in 2055 Oxford are struck down by a mysterious virus that prevents Dunworthy from finding out where and, more importantly, when Kivrin has landed. The narrative is divided between his "current day" struggles to make sure she's all right and Kivrin's experience in the past.

When she arrives, Kivrin also falls ill and is taken to a nearby manor house to recover. As she becomes familiar with the language and the "contemps" of the village she is taken to, she gradually falls into the pattern of daily life. Although she makes regular "reports" to a recorder implant, she loses her distance from her subject matter, coming to care for the family that nurses her back to health, especially the children. But there are times when she is also forcibly reminded that she doesn't belong:

It's already happened, Kivrin thought wonderingly. The verdict is already in and Lord Guillaume's come home and found out about Gawyn and Eliwys. Rosemund's already been handed over to Sir Bloet. And Agnes has grown up and married and died in childbirth, or of blood poisoning, or cholera, or pneumonia. They've all died, she thought, and couldn't make herself believe it. They've all been dead over seven hundred years. [241]

Meanwhile, Mr. Dunworthy and his assistant Finch try valiantly to find someone to operate "the net" and locate Kivrin in the midst of sickness and quarantine, protesters, a group of American bell-ringers, a boy who snuck in to the quarantine area because he thought it would be interesting, an archaeological dig, bureaucratic red tape, and the Christmas season. The intertwined narrative is beautifully crafted and moving, bringing me to tears every time I read it.


Grade: A

The Doomsday Book isn't easily categorized into one genre. It's got time travel, sure, and I read it as part of the "Women of Science Fiction" book club. But it's also historical fiction and, perhaps unexpectedly, a thriller. The reader is aware from the outset that Kivrin is likely in terrible danger, even as she innocently believes she's been sent to 1320. The revelation that she's been sent (SPOILER ALERT) to 1348 and the horror of the Black Death hangs over the narrative for almost three hundred pages before finally being confirmed. Willis takes the time to build sympathetic characters (in both time periods) that we become attached to, even though we have a nagging suspicion that many of them may end up dead.


The novel also features many classic Connie Willis elements, including a Christmas setting, picketers and ridiculous signs ("Do Not Have A Relapse"), a running screwball comic thread featuring Finch and the bell-ringers that keeps the drama from becoming overwhelming, a text stuffed with historical details, and a large cast of characters, many of them flawed. There are any number of people who can only see the world through their particular obsessions, including Dunworthy.

Willis also explores the greater question of responsibility and blame: who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands during the Black Death? Who is to blame for getting Kivrin lost in the past? Is there a God? If so, how could that god allow so many people to suffer so horribly? Coupled with this is a continuing thread that explores expectations (given as statistics and probabilities by those studying the past) versus the realities of everyday life and human experience.

Random Thoughts:

My second trip through The Doomsday Book was actually via audio cassette, and it's amazing how some passages came back to me in the voice of the narrator, even though it's been years.

Had I but world enough and time, I would read Willis's short story "Fire Watch," the first of the Oxford Time Travel stories, followed by To Say Nothing of the Dog and then Blackout and All Clear to complete the cycle. It's a goal.

Dead Mother: Yes
Book Review Index

Book Review: Dust [2007]

Dust is the first book in Elizabeth Bear's Jacob's Ladder trilogy, and the first of her books that I have read. I joined a "Women and Science Fiction" online book club this year because I've been wanting to read more science fiction in general, and SF written by women in particular. This is the first time since I finished grad school that I've had a deadline imposed on my reading, and I'm pleased to say that I very nearly finished the book on time! (The same statement probably applies to a lot of my grad school reading assignments.)

At some point in the distant past, a spaceship was launched from Earth carrying a wealth of genetic information. An accident stranded the ship in the orbit of a pair of dying suns, and over generations, its still-functioning parts became self-contained and estranged from one another. In the kingdom of Rule, at the end of the suns' life, a serving girl by the name of Rien is assigned to look after a genetically-enhanced angel, Perceval, who has been violently stripped of her wings by Rien's employer. Perceval names herself Rien's sister, and persuades the girl to help her escape Rule. Their goal is to return to Perceval's home in Engine to stave off an imminent war within the ship's ruling Conn family, of which they are scions. Unknown to them, their journey is of avid interest to the fragments of artificial intelligence that control what remains of the ship, including the scheming Jacob Dust. The crumbling ship itself is in direst jeopardy from the impending supernova, and they must find a way to reunite its components and escape before everything is destroyed.

Dust was an up-and-down read for me. I had a great deal of difficulty even writing the description above. I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and some of the concepts, especially the elements of fantasy in the science fiction setting, but the execution wasn't as fluid as I would have liked. I felt like Bear could have taken a longer time to explore some of the characters' motivations. I do realize that this book is the first in a trilogy, and some of the things that are bothering me could be resolved in Chill or even Grail. However, as some readers pointed out on the discussion boards, Dust really feels self-contained.

Grade: B

Random Thoughts:

The concept of the "generation ship" (in which the people on a ship at launch give way to their descendants as they cross distances in space) as a trope was unfamiliar to me, but came up quite frequently in the discussion. That common language is definitely the sort of thing that I'm in this Book Club to discover! It's particularly interesting that I read two books in the space of a few weeks that included the generation ship concept (the other was The Knife of Never Letting Go).

The language of the book is often startlingly beautiful, and seems to be filled with double meanings. Those who are not genetically enhanced are called the Mean--both those who are in service, and those who are average. "Rien" means "nothing," in French, and the family name Conn derives from the naval vocabulary of earlier centuries. A person who "has the conn" has the command of a ship. I am certain there are any number of allusions and references, particularly biblical, that I missed in the maze of Bear's words.


Book Review Index
Dead Mother: No

Book Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go [2008]

I can't pinpoint it exactly, but I'm pretty sure I picked up The Knife of Never Letting Go (on audio) because Jen told me to. I am very suggestible these days, so blog posts that praise things I'm already interested in reading have a tendency to spur me into action. It's a very difficult book to write a quick summary of, and I guess there may be spoilers below, depending on your definition of the term.

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in Prentisstown, which, as far as he knows, is the last outpost of a planetary colony in which all the women and most of the men died from a mysterious disease caused by the world's original residents, the Spackle. The remaining men are afflicted with what's called "Noise," essentially broadcasting their thoughts and feelings for all to see. As Todd approaches manhood under the care of his foster parents Ben and Cillian, he copes as best he can with the rage and despair he sees in the Noise around him. When Todd discovers the unthinkable--a girl--at the outskirts of Prentisstown, his life changes immediately and irrevocably. Ben and Cillian send him off toward another settlement with his talking dog, a map and a long-prepared pack, and a book filled with his mother's words. The town's fearsome preacher, Aaron, launches a maniacal pursuit and nearly kills both Todd and the mysterious girl, Viola, who turns out to be the survivor of a crashed scout ship from another wave of colonizers. Viola and Todd have only each other to rely on as they try to make their way--through wilderness and unexpected settlements, through their vast differences and Todd's ignorance and countless close calls just ahead of Aaron's madness--toward some kind of safe haven.

This is the kind of book where so many bad things happen to the characters that the positive developments seem transparent or coincidental by comparison to the driving, merciless chase. It reminds me of The Hunger Games in the brutal, unapologetic way that good people kill and good people are killed. I say "as far as he knows" about Todd above because almost all of the truths that he takes for granted when the book begins are systematically stripped away as he and Viola flee from Aaron and the rest of the Prentisstown men. Todd  grows enormously as a character during the course of the book, and the growing pains are sometimes quite difficult to experience with him.

Grade: A-

I would recommend this book to fans of dystopian fiction, as well as fans of horror movies (I am looking at you, Amanda!) because of the way that Aaron keeps coming after Todd and Viola like a homicidal maniac, even after sustaining incredible damage. It's also a great study of the relationship between two young people, and how it changes under pressure and over time. I do not recommend it for people who don't like violence, especially against innocents; I was crying in the car on several occasions.

Random Thoughts:

In addition to being horrifically fascinating and an intriguing exercise in worldbuilding, I read the book as a sharp commentary on fundamentalism. The colonist group that included Todd's parents and foster parents were religious settlers, leaving in the face of persecution to find a new home where they could make a different way of life. There are settlements where this translates to a surprisingly female-ascendant system of government, and then there's Prentisstown. Todd's home is a place where learning has gradually been eradicated to the point where he doesn't even know how to read, probably because it makes it easier for Mayor Prentiss to perpetuate his version of history. The prevailing view of women, judging by later events, sees them as objects for raping and killing, and Aaron, the book's scariest character, is the Prentisstown man of God.

The book was written in a grinding first-person present tense that really lends itself both to the audio format and the fast pace of the action. Having picked up the print version, I see that I missed out on a few font tricks having to do with Noise, but it was nothing that wasn't capably translated in the audio, which I highly recommend.

I'm currently taking a break before tackling the second book. I actually have it in the car, ready to go, but the first one was so exhausting to read that I've been listening to other things instead. I'd like to continue the series, because it's highly recommended, but it may take me a while to work up to The Ask and The Answer. I need to take a break from books that I want to use the word "brutal" to describe.

Book Review Index
Dead Mother: Yes, many

Book Reviews: Pretties [2005] and Specials [2006]

While I was finishing up my Leviathan review I remembered once again that I've actually read the rest of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, but never gotten around to reviewing it. I hate leaving things like that unfinished, but bear in mind that it has been a few months and some of the insightful commentary I had planned probably ended up as a throwaway joke on Twitter instead.

When Pretties begins, Tally Youngblood has made the voluntary transformation from rebellious ugly to carefree pretty, theoretically so she could be a test case for the cure to the brain-altering lesions. However, Tally's prettification means that she doesn't really remember much about her love interest David or the Smoke; she's more concerned about going to all the bubbliest parties with her BFF Shay and their new, pretty friends, including the aloof Zane. However, when a face from the past leads Tally and Zane to the cure (which they divide and each take half of, in a completely ill-advised move), it's all they can do to stay bubbly and try to get themselves and the rest of the Crims out of the city and the sinister grip of Special Circumstances. When they get separated, Tally learns that the world beyond her city is even bigger than she had previously imagined.

There's a lot to say about Pretties, mostly because it's jam-packed with action. Westerfeld explores some hefty themes using Tally, Zane, and Shay, including environmentalism, self-injury, resistance to authority, and of course beauty standards and body modification. A few of the things I thought didn't work as well in Pretties were the dream sequences featuring the princess in the tower and the introduction of the "primitive" humans. Although the discovery of this Special Circumstances control group was illuminating, in that the belief that humans are violent as part of their "true nature" provides an important motivating factor that gives some plausibility to Special Circumstances' heretofore seemingly pointless evil, it seemed like a throwaway obstacle between Tally and the New Smoke. Coming as it does almost three-quarters of the way into the book, I feel like I really would have benefited from the opportunity to sit with the ideas a little bit longer. This feeling strengthened for me when I read Specials, where Andrew and the rest of his people are only marginally involved in the action. For example, they are very useful as a group that provides contrast; the fact that the primitives are much more gender-biased than Tally's society makes the reader realize again that there may be advantages to the way the city is organized and run. Tally's home isn't just a black and white place of oppression, despite the way that its citizens are stripped of their free will by the operation. Anyway, it was obviously a thought-provoking read for me.

Grade: B-

Specials picks up after Tally has been caught yet again by Special Circumstances and been surgically transformed into one of the Cutters, a self-injuring clique created by Shay in Pretties to ameliorate the effects of the operation that was later co-opted and special-ized by Dr. Cable. Led by Shay, the Cutters are a wilder band of specials who work to hunt down members of the New Smoke; however, when they come up against a newly militant David and his crew and one of their own is captured, things start to spin of control. Tally enjoys the fantastic powers that come along with her newly special body, but realizes that something isn't quite right as she arranges to get a sick Zane back out of the city in order to convince Dr. Cable that he should be made special as well. However, her plans are swept up in a much larger intrigue as the interplay between Shay, Zane, the New Smoke, Dr. Cable, and the "cured" city of Diego inevitably leads to one of the most frightening Rusty pastimes: war.

Grade: B

Westerfeld did a great job in Specials of expanding the universe he'd created in the first two books. I'm not sure what I expected going in, but it definitely wasn't the introduction of a new city and an inter-city war. It is similar to Uglies and Pretties in that, once again, Tally ends up outside the city, pursuing someone else's agenda, but this time she finally discovers her own agency. Tally has always seemed like a passive character to whom things are done, which makes her rather unlikeable and "why me?" at times, but that changed somewhat by the end of the series. The idea of Tally as a kind of maverick ranger, reminding the newly cured cities not to devour the wilderness as thoughtlessly as the Rusties did, is appealing.

Random Thoughts:

I don't know, am I the only one whose favorite character ended up being Dr. Cable? She was really mean and, I guess, probably evil, but also pretty funny ("Didn't I tell you to lie still? Or must you always destroy everything?") Maybe it was just that, by the end, I wasn't really that invested in Tally or David or Shay. Yeah, I could have done with a whole lot more Dr. Cable. I'm about five steps away from writing "an embittered and friendless Dr. Cable works to unseat the city's new government using only her brilliant, evil mind" fanfic.

Westerfeld has a talent for building slang vocabulary, such as "pretty-making" or "bubbly," and making it stick. I can still hear Carine Montbertrand's voice drawling in my head without too much work, particularly Shay's voice saying "Tally-wa," and I think this was definitely a case where I wouldn't have finished the series if it hadn't been available on audio, or if the narrator had been switched in midstream (which is why I haven't gone any farther than Airborn in Oppel's series, for example). So, kudos to Montbertrand for doing such a great job and making Westerfeld's world come alive for the listener. 


Book Review Index
Dead Mother: No

Book Review: Leviathan [2009]

The Library of Congress subject headings for Scott Westerfeld's alternate history novel Leviathan (first in a trilogy) are: 1. Science fiction. 2. Imaginary creatures--Fiction. 3. Princes--Fiction. 4. War--Fiction. 5. Genetic engineering--Fiction.These descriptors indicate, more than the general heading of "steampunk" that I think the book is labeled with, how focused the worldmaking actually is on genetically engineered living creatures. For example, the hydrogen-filled airship Leviathan itself is a genetically modified whale populated with symbiotic creatures, all coexisting in a delicate balance. The purpose of this geeky librarian subject heading exercise is to illustrate that Leviathan really wasn't what I expected (an airship adventure along the lines of Airborn, I guess), it was OMG ALAN CUMMING!

Ahem. What was I saying?

Leviathan is set in an alternate 1914, where world powers--the western Darwinists, who have discovered how to create living amalgams, including war machines, and the eastern Clankers, who prize strictly machine-based technology--are on the brink of war. As in our time, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand is the crucial event that sparks international conflict, only in this case his death also has enormous repercussions for the Austro-Hungarian succession, in the form of his (secretly legitimized by the Pope) son Alek. There are a lot of people who apparently want to see Alek dead as a result, and his father's trusted retainers abscond with him in the night in a Stormwalker fighting machine. After dodging various forms of death, Alek and his crew intersect unexpectedly with a British airship, the Leviathan, on its way to Constantinople on a secret mission. The Leviathan is home to Deryn Sharp, a Scottish girl whose intense desire to join the British Air Service led her to adopt "Dylan," a brash male persona. When Alek rescues Deryn in the aftermath of a German attack, their fates become inextricably linked with the Leviathan and its mysterious cargo as they travel toward the Ottoman Empire.

Although it's not that clear from my synopsis, Alek and Deryn have alternating viewpoints throughout the book. Both are interesting, flawed characters who experience some growth throughout the course of the novel, although they have many miles to go. It almost doesn't matter, because everything is brilliantly, perfectly narrated by Alan Cumming, who should be a professional actor or something! He is THAT GOOD. It also helps to have the Scottish accents read by someone who is actually Scottish, for once.

Grade: A- (for the audio version with ALAN CUMMING, probably a B otherwise)

Random Thoughts:

I would definitely recommend this book to Airborn fans, as well as to Naomi Novik fans for the alternate history of Europe/warfare angle. I really appreciated that Westerfeld included a section in the back about what was really true in the book, because otherwise I would have headed straight to the internet/Encyclopedia to try to figure it out.

Despite losing the ALAN CUMMING factor, if you are forced to read the book on paper, it does have a ton of lovely illustrations. As usual, I recommend experiencing it both ways, if not at the exact same time.

The back of the book says that "Deryn is a girl disguised as a guy in the British Air Service. She must fight for her cause--and protect her secret--at all costs." Really, jacket copy writers, that's the best you could come up with?

When I was searching for Deryn's last name, I ran across Leviathan fanfic. Quite a bit, actually. At least it was only rated K through Teen.

Book Review Index
Dead Mother: Yes

Book Review: Mockingjay [2010]

The long-anticipated conclusion to the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay was released with much fanfare and twittering and online salivation. Thanks to my friend, I did not have to wait in the holds list forever to receive my copy, but I admit that it still took me quite a while to get in to the book. I have been having the same trouble writing this review; apparently Mockingjay has some kind of dampening effect on my production.

Mockingjay picks up shortly after the conclusion of Catching Fire with Peeta a prisoner and Gale, Katniss, and her family living in the restrictive underground bunkers of District 13 after the fiery destruction of District 12 by the Capitol. After Katniss uses her leverage as the Mockingjay to ensure Peeta's safety, the rebels begin a marketing campaign (for lack of a better word) and military offensive to reclaim each district from the Capitol's hold. As they inexorably move toward a final confrontation with President Snow inside the Capitol itself, Katniss struggles with her love for Gale and Peeta and learns to negotiate live as a living symbol of hope for a cause that might not ultimately be trustworthy.

Grade: B+

I admit that I couldn't put Mockingjay down, once the narrative picked up, but it did take quite a while for that to happen. The action was sporadic through the first two-thirds of the book, with scenes of life in District 13 interspersed with fast-paced and danger-fraught military encounters. Katniss, for all her good qualities, can be a difficult character to empathize with. I experienced a vague sense of disappointment with the ending, but haven't been able to put my finger on exactly why, or what I would have done differently. Perhaps it was even too . . . hopeful?

Random Thoughts:

The touches of Roman influence, especially the gladiator games and the names of the Capitol characters, were intriguing.

I did end up liking the Hunger Games series quite a lot, especially its social commentary, but I didn't love the Katniss-Gale-Peeta dynamic, which at times felt overwrought and unnecessary. The trilogy tells a story where horrible things happen to basically good people, sometimes for no reason, and it kept that atmosphere consistent throughout the books, right to the bitter end. At times it almost seemed that Collins would opt for the nuclear holocaust version of events, given how many times weapons of mass destruction were referenced, but I guess then she would have lost her first-person narrator.

Speaking of the end [SPOILER ALERT], I don't believe that Katniss--under any circumstances--would have been all right with subjecting other people to a new Hunger Games. That just didn't sit right with me, considering all that she had been through as a tribute, even if revenge against the Capitol had been a motive--she knows from the example of her prep team that not all Capitol citizens are evil like President Snow, despite their wasteful ways. I'm also not so sure that she would eventually cave and have children, given her absolute resolve against it in Catching Fire.

My review of Catching Fire here.

An article about the extreme violence in the Hunger Games.

An article about the parallels between the trilogy and reality shows.

Book Review Index
Dead Mother: Yes, but not the main character's, so I guess No (someday I should figure out the rules for this stat)

Book Review: Uglies [2005]

In the world of Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld, people live in an isolated, self-sustaining cities and routinely undergo surgery to become generically "pretty" when they turn sixteen. Kids between the ages of twelve and sixteen are considered "uglies" because of their disgustingly mismatched developing faces, and spend their time playing pranks to pass time before the operation. Tally Youngblood is nearly caught while infiltrating New Pretty Town to see her (recently prettified, and strangely uninterested in her) best friend when she meets the equally daring Shay. Her new friend shares Tally's birthday, and will therefore turn pretty at the same time, but Shay doesn't seem that interested in her upcoming transformation; instead, she'd rather visit the Rusty Ruins (vestiges of our wasteful, oil-based society) and try to connect with the mysterious David. When Shay disappears rather than undergo the surgery, Tally is forced to turn spy for the sinister entity known as Special Circumstances or remain horrifyingly ugly for the rest of her life. But after she finds out the truth about the operation, the Rusties, and the community of uglies so desperately sought by the Specials, she must make decisions that will impact more than just her own life and Shay's.

Grade: B

Random Thoughts:

It has actually taken me years to finish reading Uglies. I started it shortly after it came out, and gave up in the middle due to its unsympathetic characters. I call this the Wuthering Heights Syndrome, because I dislike every character in that book and would rather have miniature gnomes pound on my eardrums with tiny golden mallets than be forced to read it again. And I am (I swear!) a huge Emily Brontë fan.

So I took the tack I have been getting great results from lately, where long-overdue TBR books are concerned, and checked out the audio version. Something about the middle of the book almost made me throw up my hands again, but I persevered, and I'm glad that I finished. Given that dystopian¹ fiction seems to be a growing trend in young adult literature, it's good to finally have Uglies under my belt.²

Uglies is the first book in a series, and my library has, as an indication of its popularity, Bogus to Bubbly: An Insider's Guide to the World of Uglies. It contains background on the origin of the series and details about some of the technology.

Dead Mother: No
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¹On dystopian fiction, particularly from a YA slant, a thought-provoking post by Diana Peterfreund.

²Looking at this list from LibraryThing, I realize that I've read several, including Feed, the Hunger Games trilogy, and Little Brother; interesting that The Phantom Tollboth is on there, obviously I need to re-read it, but nothing is going to induce me to go back to Watership Down.

Book Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [1979]

I'm not sure exactly how I managed to avoid reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams for so long, especially with various friends quite firmly suggesting over the years that I read it. Sheer perversity? At any rate, reading it was remarkably similar to the time I watched The Sound of Music with one of my friends who had never seen it before. She kept saying things like "HOLY SHIT, that's where that song is from?" and expressing other sentiments of shock and familiarity. If nothing else, after having listened to Stephen Fry's excellent audio rendition of the book, I will be able to correctly source a much greater proportion of the quotes I hear and see every day in my online geek-populated world.

When the planet Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspatial express route, Arthur Dent finds himself unexpectedly rescued from obliteration by his friend Ford Prefect--an alien who had spent the past many years stranded on our planet in the course of his research for that legendary tome, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Once in space, Ford and Arthur fall into a series of random(?) adventures that unite them with another Earth survivor, Trillian, and Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox, who seems by turns to be unimaginably clever and stupid. Rounding out their party on the pirated (by Beeblebrox) ship Heart of Gold is an incredibly depressed (and depressing) robot and an incredibly chirpy ship's computer.

I would describe the plot but I don't think that it actually makes that much logical sense or would truly be necessary for the purposes of this review. Arthur and his friends go from point A to point B and encounter a variety of digressions, in which they learn that the planet Earth was custom-ordered and run by mice and that careless talk actually does cost lives. The presentation and dialogue reminded me strongly of Monty Python or similar zany British humor, which I enjoy greatly. A great deal of the mystique that surrounds the book is still opaque to me, but, just doing a quick check of my library's shelves, I found not only the novel but:

Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion
Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams
Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams
The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts
The Science of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Obviously the book in particular and the series in general are a cultural phenomenon which I cannot hope to comprehend unless I KEEP READING. Sign me up!

Grade: B

Random Thoughts:

I enjoyed the underlying satire of human behavior and the science underlying the story's goofy twists and turns. Even though the book was written thirty years ago, nothing feels out-of-date in terms of the technology.

I don't believe I'll watch the movie, as I fail to see how the novel can be properly translated into film. It would be interesting to listen to the radio plays, however.

Dead Mother: Most likely, considering the destruction of Earth.
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Book Review: Shades of Grey [2010]

Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde, is the second novel I have read recently that takes color and makes it a central and essential function of the story (the other was Warbreaker). Maybe this is a new trend to watch? Fforde, well-known for his absurdly clever Thursday Next series, takes a leap in a different direction into post-apocalyptic dystopia, as the world of the novel (Chromatacia) is organized into a strict and self-policing color hierarchy. People are ranked according to the colors they are able to see, with purple being the highest and grey the lowest. Set in the United Kingdom of a far, far distant future--after the "Something That Happened," whatever that might have been--Shades of Grey explores a society entirely bound by the sometimes nonsensical rules attributed to a figure known as Munsell. Rules such as: "Unicycles are not to be ridden backward at excessive speed" and "All residents are required to make sacrifices for the good of the community." In the world of the Collective, free movement and independent thought are frowned upon, advanced technology is being progressively phased out, marriages are arranged to result in the most highly colored offspring, the landscape is plagued by lightning and giant swan attacks, and there is a severe shortage of spoons.

We are introduced to these and other curiosities (some tantalizingly familiar, such as a passing mention of "Chuck Naurice") through the first-person narration of Edward "Eddie" Russet, who has been sent to the Outer Fringes to conduct a chair census as a punishment. His father, who accompanies him on the journey, has been sent to replace the previous Swatchman (essentially a doctor who administers carefully chosen color swatches to heal the sick), who died unexpectedly. When Eddie arrives in East Carmine (place and person names in the book all have some color-based significance), he falls in love with aggressive and chromatic-hating Jane Grey, who threatens to kill him several times and actually attempts it twice. Despite being half-promised to Constance Oxblood back home, Eddie finds himself falling rapidly into life in East Carmine--making friends and enemies, learning the ins and outs of the town and its eccentrics, and becoming increasingly invested in the ongoing mystery of the Swatchman's death. Unfortunately, Eddie's propensity for questions (intelligent or not) and kind heart are not qualities that are likely to lead to a long and healthy life as a productive citizen of the Collective. And neither is his attraction to Jane. Fforde has created a fascinating and somehow believably absurd world which conveys enough glimpses of our own to make you wonder whether anything would ever make the Earth's population trade religious faith for the religion of following the rules.

Grade: A

Random Thoughts:

I also enjoyed the portrayal of librarians a great deal, although it was deeply sad that the constrictive nature of the Collective lead to their guardianship of empty shelves where books used to sit. Ah, bureaucracy.

The idea of "megafauna" quite frankly makes me giggle, as does this Bestiary of some of the creatures mentioned in the book, including bouncing goats. Fforde somehow manages to be completely silly and satirically pointed at the same time. There's also a lovely history of barcodes available.

This is a book that I both listened to in the car, and then read on paper when I didn't want to stop and have to wait to find out what happened next. It had the same narrator as The City & The City, which was a little weird at first (since I had just recently finished that one), but it turns out that John Lee is a pretty kick-ass narrator who can sell whatever material he's given. I enjoyed both versions, and would recommend them both. 

I wonder if this book might find some interest among a YA audience, as the story has some "coming of age" elements, and Eddie is only twenty. Either way, I do look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Dead Mother: Yes
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Book Review: Catching Fire [2009]

My consumption of Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins, has been so long delayed that most of the people who read this review will probably be surprised that I hadn't managed to read it until now. I did, in fact, possess an Advance Reader's Copy of the book before its publication in 2009, but it was sadly lost somewhere in transit between Amherst and Springfield (luckily before that happened I had the chance to share it with others). Somehow this meant that I just . . . didn't get around to reading it, even after it was published, even after everyone raved about it, and even after the name and cover of the third volume in the trilogy was released. [cue dramatic music] Until now.

As the middle volume of the series, Catching Fire nevertheless manages to hold its own against the high standard set by The Hunger Games. The story picks just before Katniss and Peeta depart on their Victory Tour as winners of the last Hunger Games. A threatening visit from President Snow leaves Katniss with the firm belief that she must make her "relationship" with Peeta as real as possible for the cameras, or her entire family (and love interest, Gale) will be at risk. As they make their way through the districts and try to resume quiet lives at home, signs of political unrest continue to appear, often associated with the symbol of the mockingjay that Katniss wore during the Hunger Games. As President Snow reveals a brutal twist to this year's games, Katniss and Peeta find themselves embroiled once again in a fight for their lives, this time against The Capitol itself. Collins revisits a lot of favorite characters and also introduces a bevy of new ones for us to root for as she moves Katniss inevitably closer to open rebellion.

Grade: A-

The book is a little slow in the beginning, setting up the fast-paced cliffhanger conclusion and, presumably, the gripping series finale. I listened to it on audio CD, and the narrator was above average, although it was difficult at first to reconcile an older woman's voice with my mental image of the character. I am not sure which side of the love triangle I prefer, but I definitely appreciate that, unlike in the Twilight series, there is still some mystery as to which one Katniss will end up with (assuming they aren't all dead by the end of the third book). Another thing I appreciate about Collins' writing is the fact that some or all of the major characters could feasibly die in Mockingjay, given the sheer volume of character death and/or dismemberment in the first two books.

Book Review Index
Dead Mother: [Spoiler alert?] No

Book Review: The City and the City [2009]

China Miéville's The City and the City came recommended by various trusted sources, not least of which was @jmgold, but it took me a wickedly long time to get around to it. It was ultimately worth the wait, even though I know I will struggle here to describe the setting, in particular. So please bear with me.

I've never read anything by Miéville before, so I'm not sure if everything he writes is this . . . way. The City and the City is a "what if" novel, in which a concept is taken to its extreme and then just a little further. I suppose you could call it science fiction, but the book could have a sort of uneasy home in several genres. In many ways it reads as a simple hard-boiled detective story, in which seasoned policeman Tyador Borlú tries to solve the mystery of who killed a young foreign woman. What makes it unique is its setting, the dual cities/countries of Besźel and Ul Qoma, which are distinct, yet occupy the same physical space. Residents of the two cities carefully "un-see" each other and adopt mannerisms, styles of dress, and language that make it easier to distinguish which city a person is "in" at a given moment. To violate this careful separation is to be subjected to the frightening and sometimes violent intervention of a force known as Breach.

As the novel begins, the Besź police are attempting to discover the killer of an unidentified female who turns out to have been an archaeology student in the neighboring city of Ul Qoma. In the course of his investigation, Borlú finds that the girl was a well-known believer in the legend of Orciny, the "Third City" that supposedly exists between the cities. Having angered both nationalists (those who believe that there should be only one city, theirs) and unificationists (those who believe that there is only one city) alike, she had her enemies, but it nevertheless remains unclear why she was killed until Borlú makes a cross-border expedition to Ul Qoma. The details of the crime unfold against the two intertwined cities, with the possibility of Orciny and the reality of Breach both lurking menacingly.

The intricate negotiation between the cities, the mystery of Orciny, and the exploration of the concepts of "foreignness" and "other," make a fascinating background/foreground to the solidly familiar crime-solving aspects (including the foul-mouthed partner, sifting through evidence, questioning people [sometimes with more force than necessary], chasing people through the streets, etc.). The City and the City repeatedly provokes thought as Miéville creates an unforgettable and fully-realized urban landscape (or two).

Grade: A-

I totally figured out the mystery, yay me! This was another book I listened to on CD, because I knew I would never get around to it otherwise, but I'm not sure I would recommend that as the best way to consume it. On the one hand, the narrator's dreamy accent made it easy to fall into the book's European setting. On the other . . . there are a lot of things that have interesting spellings in the book, and I wouldn't have known how to type them here if I didn't also have a hard copy. So, once again, I must recommend having both on hand.


Michael Moorcock's review for The Guardian. He says it all much better than I have.

Book Review Index
Dead Mother: Not that I know of?

Book Review: Feed [2002]

The best science fiction, in my opinion, is the kind that takes familiar material and extrapolates it in intriguing and even disturbing ways. You get to the end and have the uncomfortable realization that what you just read could actually happen. Feed was written before the advent of Web 2.0, before Twitter and Facebook, and just as MySpace, Friendster, and LinkedIn were getting off the ground. Despite this, it manages to remain amazingly current. The book, a young adult novel, is author M.T. Anderson's vision of Web 12.0, in which about 73% of Americans have "feeds" implanted in their brains that keep them virtually connected to the internet all the time and, coincidentally, also control the way the body functions, the emotions, and memory. Previously barely-sentient Titus finds this out the hard way when his girlfriend, Violet [SPOILER ALERT!] is diagnosed with a malfunctioning feed that leads her to question everything. Of course, Violet is already predisposed to question as the home-schooled daughter of a professor of dead languages (FORTRAN, BASIC, etc.), whereas Titus has trouble even getting through School(tm), in which he is taught how to be a better shopper, and other useful skills.

But the braggest thing about the feed, the thing that made it really big, is that it knows everything you want and hope for, sometimes before you even know what those things are.

Titus and his group of friends are more concerned with following the latest trends and trying to find an activity that doesn't "suck" than with the increasingly hostile world political climate, the fact that trees are being cut down to build air factories, and the mysterious lesions that everyone seems to be getting. Feed is many things: a love story, a coming of age story, a biting satire of America's consumerist culture, and an intriguing "what-if" that takes today's hyperconnectivity to its logical conclusion. At times, Anderson's soapboxing comes on a little too strong, and sometimes one wishes it were possible (technologically speaking) to smack Titus, but in general Feed is well worth a read.

Grade: B+

Random Thoughts: What's most disturbing is that the future Anderson has created is not that far-fetched. When I was watching the Daily Show the other night, two things struck me as frighteningly relevant: the recent Supreme Court decision that allows corporate spending on political campaign advertisements, and Bill Gates, who was discussing his foundation's support of educational initiatives. Anderson's world, or at least his America, is controlled primarily by corporations, who have at some point on the past (thoughtfully) stepped in to fund the failing school system.

. . . it's good because that way we know that the big corps are made up of real human beings, and not just jerks out for money, because taking care of children, they care about America's future. It's an investment in tomorrow.

This is the subject of another post entirely, but I am an advocate of the public school system, and believe that the road to corporate sponsorship--even as well-intentioned as the Gates Foundation appears to be--is paved with pitfalls.

I listened to Feed on audiobook rather than reading it in a conventional manner, which I have to say (having reviewed the text for quotations used above) was probably the best way to go for this book. The first-person narrative of Feed is filled with interruptions from the actual feed in Titus's head (sales from Weatherbee & Crotch, "banners" from nearby businesses, etc.), and the cast of announcers was pitch-perfect for the flood of smarmy advertisement, complete with requisite techno beats and saccharine children's-show theme music. These interruptions are represented by italics in the written version, and don't have quite the same satiric zing.

Dead Mother: N

Book Review: The Price of the Stars [1992]

I decided to put a hold on The Price of the Stars, written by Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald, after reading this article on swashbuckling science fiction heroes from the past 100 years. I mean, just look at that cover! She is wearing a red eye-patch! Anyway, reading this book was definitely one of the better decisions (reading-related or otherwise) I've made recently; it was the perfect combination of action, adventure, romance, humor, magic, and techno-geekery to help me celebrate the turning of the year.

Beka Rosselin-Metadi is the youngest child of a powerful politician and the head of the galaxy's military forces, both of whom were responsible for essentially saving the universe at some point predating The Price of the Stars. Given the weight of all that prestige, and the fact that she is slated to inherit her mother's title as ruler of a now-dead planet, it's little surprise that Beka left town as soon as possible to become a freewheeling starship pilot. However, after her mother is assassinated on the Senate floor, her father tracks her down and offers her a bargain: his prized ship Warhammer for the names of those responsible. With the assistance of a mysterious stranger, she assumes the alternate personality of a ruthless (male) gunslinger with a reputation for violence and begins her hunt, uncovering in the process the shape of a much larger conspiracy that may stretch into the sinister Mageworlds themselves.

Doyle and MacDonald present the story from five primary points of view: Beka, her equally talented brother Ari, the urbane medic Jessan (himself secret royalty), the Adept Llannat, and the much put-upon Commander Gil, aide to General Metadi himself. The characters are engaging, and the plot--well, here is the best recommendation I can give it (and I am aware that this will immediately date me): The Price of the Stars reminded me of the original Star Wars, except the female characters were infinitely more kick-ass, the dialogue was better, and the worldbuilding felt like it had the weight of serious thought behind it. And I am a big Star Wars fan. Also, the fight scenes were awesome.

A delicious romp through space! Bring on the next book in the series.

Grade: A

ETA: I'm sure this book has its share of flaws, but I was too busy being entertained to notice them.

Dead Mother: Y

Book Review: The Gate of Ivory [1989]

The Gate of Ivory, by Doris Egan, is a charming sci-fi novel (first in a series) that was recently recommended as a book with a strong female protagonist. Published in 1989, The Gate of Ivory is the first-person narrative of practical scholar Theodora of Pyrene, stranded on the universe's only magical planet after a sight-seeing trip goes awry. Theo spends the majority of the book trying to get off the world of Ivory, but events, in the form of sorcerer Ran Cormallon, keep interfering. The book isn't quite a romance, or an adventure, or even a straightforward world discovery story. Instead, it's a layered exploration of several characters, especially Theo, who comes to realize that she can make herself a place in the world rather than letting events dictate her situation.

Grade: A