Posts filed under 'Science Fiction'
How far away is our society from televising survival games that culminate in the last man standing? Watch a little cable TV, and you’ll quickly realize that depravity and debauchery abounds and that sanctioned killing (voluntary of course, just sign here on the dotted line) can’t be far off. Suzanne Collins’ new novel The Hunger Games takes this premise and cuts a little deeper.
To celebrate reaping day, the twelve districts that comprise what was formerly North America must each submit a boy and girl tribute to participate in the Hunger Games, a televised survival game in which children fight to the death. Kat’s little sister’s name is drawn in the lottery and Kat volunteers to take her place in the games. At sixteen, she has been caring for her family for years, hunting game, gathering food and developing some pretty savvy survival girl skills in the forbidden woods outside the Seam, the mining district where she lives.
Kat can hold her own, but what about the boy tribute from her district? Peeta is the son of the baker and completely and secretly in love with Kat. Will this help him or hurt him? Does he have any useful skills? And what does it mean for Kat?
All I can say is, “wow.” This book is beyond beyond. The Hunger Games are outrageous. Parades, interviews, professional stylists and sponsors are involved. The contestants range from trained child soldiers to starving children from the poorest districts. Add to that multiple love stories woven into a setting where children fight to the death? You will not be able to put this book down. Absolutely, this was my favorite book of 2008. How about you?
January 6th, 2009
Molly - Central
Samantha Hunt’s first novel, The Seas, is one of my all-time favorite books, and her second novel, The Invention of Everything Else, is almost as good. It’s a fictionalized account of the later life of inventor Nikola Tesla, someone I knew very little about before reading this book. Actually, most of my information came from the movie The Prestige. I probably should read a biography of Tesla to get my facts straight, but I think the most important thing to know about Tesla is that he basically invented alternating current electric power. This is what powers nearly all electrical devices today, but at the time he invented it, there was some controversy over whether his method or Thomas Edison’s direct current was most effective. Though Tesla’s system ultimately won, he didn’t fare well during the media circus of the “war of the currents”, and spent the latter part of his life living in a hotel in New York as a mad scientist, nearly penniless.
It’s a pretty depressing story, and Hunt’s version is fittingly bleak, but she invigorates the truth with a story about Louisa, a maid who becomes an unlikely friend to Tesla; her boyfriend Arthur, who may or may not be from the future; and a time machine. It sounds a little out there, but it works. Hunt vividly captures New York in the 1940s, and the characters she creates are fascinating. The entire novel is elegantly stylized (much like the gorgeous cover), creating a surreal, engrossing atmosphere. Even if you’re not a fan of science fiction, or even books about scientists, the way Hunt transforms science into magic is simply beautiful, and not to be missed.
September 9th, 2008
Kylee
“These are strange times to be a Jew.” That’s a common refrain in the Federal Districk of Sitka, Alaska. After losing the war to the Palestinians, European Jews settled on the frigid coast of Alaska, left to fend for themselves for 60 years. But the district is about to revert to Alaskan jurisdiction, and three milion Jews have started the long, uncertain journey in search of a new homeland.
Detective (noz) Meyer Landsman should be one of them, but a dead baby and a painful divorce has left him washed up and apathetic in the seediest of Sitka hotels. When a dead man with a false name turns up murdered in his building, Landsman is intrigued, especially by the battered chess set he discovers near the body. Something about the chess problem triggers memories long buried–and points to a distinct mob culture at the heart of Sitka. With his half-Tlingit partner, Berko Semets, Landsman starts digging into a culture of rabbi gangsters, sketchy chess players (patzers) and a few slick Americans ready to pick over Sitka’s bones before Reversion is complete. But in a city with no hope for the future, Landsman learns that the only people interested in the murder of an anonymous chess player are those willing to go to any lengths to keep the truth buried.
It’s tough to catagorize Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union as literary fiction, mystery or science fiction. Defying the boundaries of all three genres, Chabon creates a rich work that recalls the noir Los Angeles of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. But where Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler gave their disillusioned detectives a brittle slang, Chabon gives Landsman and Berko Yiddish slang that has its own particular rhythm. When Chabon writes descriptions comparing laughter to the sound of someone jumping up and down on a leather valise, the image is unexpected, a little nonsensical and totally apt. Landsman is a dogged character whose problems only make him more endearing as the book moves along. My favorite character, however, was Bina Gelbfish, police commisioner, Landsman’s boss and ex-wife, whose unwillingness to suffer fools makes for delicious complications.
With his rich descriptions, Chabon’s writing is slower reading than the Spade/Marlowe mysteries to which he pays homage, but I found that the evocative, inventive language made up for deficiencies in pacing. Having won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Chabon received science fiction’s Nebula Award with Yiddish. A movie, written and directed by the Coen brothers, is also in the works.
August 20th, 2008
Katie H.
Way of the Wolf by E.E. Knight is the first book in his Vampire Earth series.
First off don’t let the vampire in the vampire earth series put you off, this is not another book about blood sucking count dracula types. The vampires refer to the Kurians, an ancient alien race that has come to earth to feed on the vital aura of human beings. To do this they first had to soften the earth up by sending disease & assorted nasty creatures, reducing civilization to a primitive state. The earth is now divided into free areas that fight the Kurians and those who collaborate with them.
E.E. Knight was born in Wisconsin, and it shows. There is a good chunk of the book where the hero, David Valentine, is running through Wisconsin, and his descriptions of the area add a nice local touch.
It’s a great rip roaring trip, with elements of science fiction, horror, and military fiction. A great summer read.
July 26th, 2008
Gregg - Sequoya
I get excited about circus books. Trapeze artists, tightrope walkers… I’m fascinated by all the color and sparkle, but I prefer it without the crowds and animals of the real circus. Last summer I was really excited to read The Girls by Lori Lansens, which I thought would be a fun tale of the life of two conjoined twins - not circus performers, but still interesting. Maybe my expectations were narrow-minded, but I was sadly disappointed. The book was a very sweet story about the sisters’ relationships with each other and with their family and friends, and they never once performed any sort of act. It was nice, but really not what I was hoping for.
I found the excitement I wanted this summer in Half Life, by
Shelley Jackson. Like The Girls, the conjoined twins in the novel are far from the circus, but they live in a world that’s a bit different than ours, which creates its own sort of sparkle. Due to radioactive fallout, birth defects - particularly conjoined twins that share one body but have their own heads - are becoming increasingly common, to the point where “twofer” rights have become a major political issue. While most twofers accept their lot and learn to share their body, Nora Olney longs to be a single person. Her twin, Blanche, has been asleep since a childhood trauma, and Nora is sick of the literal extra weight on her shoulders. She begins to research the services provided by the mysterious Unity Foundation, which promises to solve her problem with a simple but illegal surgery. However, as she gets closer to making a decision about Blanche, it begins to seem that Blanche may not be sleeping soundly after all.
Jackson does a terrific job creating an alternate America; her attention to detail makes her country a believable place where twofers have become a real subculture, complete with its own logos, slang, artists - even bookstores. This setting is delightful in itself, and when Nora’s story begins to intensify as the Unity Foundation leads her to its secret headquarters, it has all the excitement of a murder mystery. This is Jackson’s first traditonal novel, but she’s something of an expert in abstract storytelling. Her previous work includes a hypertext novel and a story told through words tattooed on the skin of over 2,000 volunteers. She’s clearly no stranger to the unconventional, and her approach to conventional storytelling shows her unique perspective brilliantly.
July 7th, 2008
Kylee
I’ll admit, I’m not much of an incredible hulk fan. Though it’s been several years since I first read Mary Shelley’s classic monster novel, I’ve always had a soft spot for the big green guy she created in Frankenstein.
Inspired by a viewing of another classic, the hilarious Young
Frankenstein, I decided to read further. I started with Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer by Alasdair Gray. In Gray’s story, the monster is not a large, brooding man, but a sweet young woman in 19th century Scotland. Archibald McCandless tells the story of his life and his relationship with his wife, who he discovers is actually a creation made by Dr. Godwin Baxter. Baxter, Gray’s “modern Prometheus”, decides to give an anonymous pregnant drowned woman a second chance at life by transplanting her child’s live brain into her own head. He names this woman Bella and raises her himself, as her brain quickly develops to match her body.
As in Shelley’s original story, chaos ensues, but instead of becoming a murderous, vengeful creature, Bella causes trouble with her innocence - ignorant of societal norms and gender roles, she creates havoc amongst the people she meets. Her story is told through McCandless’s memoir, with bits of letters and other documents scattered throughout. It’s a fantastic story, filled with some of the wittiest writing I’ve ever come across. I feel a little guilty saying this, but I think I liked it even better than the real Frankenstein. I also enjoyed the cover art, designed by the author.
After Poor Things, I read Mary Modern by Camille DeAngelis, another take on the familiar tale. In this case, the doctor is genetics researcher Lucy Morrigan, and her creature is created with more sophisticated technology. When Lucy finds that she can’t conceive a child, she decides to take matters into her own hands. In her basement, she finds a number of strange machines that her late father, also a scientist, had been experimenting wth. Using her father’s notes and some very old DNA, she manages to implant an embryo in her womb that she believes will genetically recreate her dead grandmother. However, what Lucy fails to understand from her father’s research is that her grandmother’s memories are encoded within her DNA, so instead of creating a child, she has essentially cloned her grandmother. When her baby begins growing much faster than it should, she discovers her mistake, and decides to meet the relative she lost as a child. While this novel doesn’t compare to Gray’s cleverly quirky story, it still was a good read. The cloning slant is an interesting twist, and DeAngelis adds enough gothic atmosphere to make what is essentially science fiction seem less like science and more like a creepy modern ghost story.
With two good books on the list, I’m tempted to find some more Frankenstein-esque tales. I think I might check out Valerie Martin’s Mary Reilly next, which is the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as told by an observant housemaid. There’s no green monster, but I bet there’ll be enough crazy to keep me reading.
June 12th, 2008
Kylee
If you’ve read my reviews you know I’m a fan of urban fantasy/paranormal novels. Vampires and werewolves? Bring ‘em on. Given that fact, I surprise myself (and a few of my co-workers) by the fact that I haven’t yet read Stephenie Meyer’s vampire series. So when I was sent an advance reading copy of her new non-vampire, adult novel, The Host to review for a journal, I wasn’t sure what I’d think. Would I like it and be sucked into Meyer fandom or would I think all the Edward/Bella adoration was just so much hype?
Short answer: I loved it!
Longer answer: Earth has been invaded by an alien species who take over human bodies and use them as a host. That’s the human version of events. The aliens, called “souls”, would argue that theirs is a benign invasion. They’re taking better care of the planet then humans ever did and they’ve made it a peaceful, beautiful place to be. Peaceful except for the few human holdouts that is.
Wanderer is a soul who is a legend amongst her own kind. She has inhabited a wider variety of host species then any other and is therefore considered the perfect candidate to take over the body of one of the human rebels, Melanie Stryder. The problem is, Melanie isn’t ready to vacate the premises. She’s not only making Wanderer’s transition painful and difficult, she’s forcing Wanderer to rethink what it means to be a soul.
Though this is called science fiction in some reviews (and I’ve had people say they won’t read it because of that fact) The Host could better be described as an exploration of human nature and what it means to love someone. The 3-sided (sometimes 4-sided) relationship that exists for Melanie and Wanderer and the man/men in their lives is intriguing and well-done. And if the novel could have been shortened a little bit, that’s a minor quibble.
Guess that leaves only one question. Can I get Meyer’s Edward and Bella books read before the new one comes out in August!
May 16th, 2008
Jane J. - Central Library
Linnea Sinclair is an author who’s been around for a while, though you may not have heard of her. She started her publishing career writing romance/science fiction hybrids for a very small publisher (under the pen name Megan Sybil Baker) - so small that most of their books were print-on-demand - and because of her fun, engaging style has since been picked up by a bigger publishing house and has gotten wider distribution.
Her latest book is The Down Home Zombie Blues and while the SF aspects are more Star Trek then Heinlein she still manages that tricky feat - balancing romance with a plot that involves alien races and zombies and the possible end of the world as we know it.
Commander Jorie Mikkalah is a member of the Guardian Force sent to destroy the zombies who’ve infested an area of the planet Earth called Bahia Vista, FL. These zombies aren’t the living dead but are biomechanical creatures who’ve slipped their leash. Once in Bahia Vista Jorrie finds that containing the situation isn’t going to be as easy as she thought. Which means she’ll have to accept the help of police detective Theo Petrakos and as you probably guessed, her feelings for the detective soon make the job even harder.
If zombie zapping and romance are your cup of Andonian tea, then this is the book for you.
January 4th, 2008
Jane J. - Central Library
Kurt Vonnegut, author of the iconic novel Slaughterhouse-Five, has died.
Vonnegut began his career as a publicist for General Electric in Schenectady, New York, and would eventually make a living writing novels that were classified as science fiction, as well as short stories. Eventually he would go on to write one of the greatest cult classics of twentieth-century literature, Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children’s Crusade, based at least partly on his experience as a prisoner of war in Germany and his experiencing of the firebombing of Dresden.
He would go on to write many popular and critically lauded novels, including Breakfast of Champions and Jailbird (as well as books written before S-5, including Player Piano and Cat’s Cradle); he would also eventually write memoirs (Palm Sunday, Fates Worse than Death, and the recent bestseller A Man without a Country).
He was widely known as a craftsman and an “author’s author.” And, even if you don’t have the time to read him, you might want to consider listening to him; over the years he has granted many interviews at NPR and other sites.
April 13th, 2007
Sarah - Alicia Ashman
Any revolution can be viewed from many viewpoints: a struggle against oppression; a desire to adapt a new set of rules; a terrorist action. Settled as a penal colony for Earth, Moon colony initiates its rebellion for self government in Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. The moon is needed by Earth for its raw materials but once those are exhausted then it would be left a barren desert. And its inhabitants would be unable to return to Earth due to physical changes from living at reduced gravity. Aided by the sentient computer that runs all the systems on the moon, the revolution succeeds but at what cost?
Heinlein’s classic tale was written in 1966 but certainly a lot of what he was writing about is still with us today, as seen in Iraq and the attempt to impose a system of government from the outside. Winner of the Hugo Award, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress exemplifies what is best about science fiction: that it be thought provoking as well as entertaining.
April 10th, 2007
Liz C. - Alicia Ashman
Previous Posts
