5 Best Scifi Books for People New to Scifi

Are you looking for a book to introduce yourself or someone you know to Sci-Fi?  I have been asked to recommend books to first time Sci-Fi readers many times.  Maybe the person already reads fantasy or is kind of into the YA dystopian scene.  Maybe the person has never even considered scifi.  Here is a list of books and the types of people you should introduce them to. 

1.  Ender's Game-  This is great for kids and adults.  It is an amazing and brutal work.  The downside of this recommendation is that some people are Orson Scott Cardaphobic.  They refuse to recognize him as a person because of his beliefs.  Don't recommend this book to those people. 

2.  The Martian-  Engineers will absolutely love it and so will most other people.  This book is great for people that have never considered Sci-Fi before.  The reason is that it is set in a plausible future with hard science throughout.  You might have to tell them it was Sci-Fi after the fact. 

3.   The Handmaid's Tale-  We all know people that think they are too smart for Sci-Fi.  This book is smart and bleak.  Intellectuals will love it for those reasons.  The Road can also be substituted here.  Neither of these authors will even admit that the books are Sci-Fi so your too smart for Sci-Fi friends can feel safe in the knowledge that they have been reading speculative fiction. 

4.  I, Robot-  This book is great for people with short attention spans or who don't necessarily want to read an entire book.  Each story is independent but pulls you in more and more.  I think this was my first introduction to literary Sci-Fi.  My mom told me to read it. 

5.  The Rookie-  Know any sports fans?  Just start talking to them about football and the future of the sport.  Then you can tell them about a football book that takes place in the future with different alien races playing positions suited to their abilities.  I bet they will find it interesting to hear about alien wide receivers that can leap 20 feet into the air to make the catch. 

Got any other ideas about great introductions into Sci-Fi, let me know in the comments below!

Cloud Atlas- Book Review

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Very frustrating. Some good concepts and interesting formatting, but, ultimately, not well executed. I an sure it had a theme, but I am not sure that I could be troubled to puzzle it out.

The story- There are like six stories of varying genres so chances are you are going to like one of them.  I really liked the Son-Mi story, but the ending of it was very unsatisfactory to me.  I think my comment on finishing that part was that I wanted to throw the kindle out the window.  The stories are all split in two and the first half of each starts in the past and move forward chronologically.  The most future story is told in its entirety and then the second half of each story is told in reverse chronological order.  Interesting formatting.

Overall- it was a slow book that is very long.  I can't really recommend it, though.  3 stars is me being generous, it is actually about a 2.5 but I really liked the Son Mi story (until the end).  I am not sure why it got all the praise it did and don't look forward to seeing the movie as it reads as a pretty unfilmable movie. 

Did you read it or see the movie?  Let me know what you thought. 
View all my reviews

Nineties BlogFest

Dave over at "Dave Wrote This" is hosting the 90s Blogfest today and we are participating.  So here are my entries for favorites of the the years 90-99.  I will list a book, movie, and maybe a bonus category. 

1990-Arnold rocked the theater in Total Recall.  A film that taught us that three is better than two and how to file for divorce.  I have been meaning to read Dan Simmons novel Hyperion for years.  I really need to and that makes my choice for the year.  Bonus goes to Back to the Future III for finishing the series strong

1991-  Orson Scott Card continues the Ender series with Xenocide.  Arnold promised us he would be back and he was with a vengence in Terminator 2.  I loved TV in 1991 and a gem that gets overlooked is the fox show Herman's Head. 

1992-  Vernor Vinge is now a household name (wait, he isn't, but in my house...Oh, I have a bunch of geeks in my house) anyway, this is the year that Vinge published Fire Upon the Deep.  In movies we suffered through Alien 3 and Lawnmower man, but get Universal Soldier as payment.  Huge X-men crossover with executionor's song where we find out cable has been cloned.  This was in order to double the number of pouches and therefore double Rob Leifeild's income.
 
1993-Sure Jurassic Park overshadowed them but, Army of Darkness and Batman: Mask of the Phantasm came out this year.  Kim Stanley Robinson was rocking the world with his mars series.  On TV we see the Saved by the Bell Graduation and The premier of Beavis and Butthead.

1994-  So, Street Fighter wasn't exactly what we were expecting.  But generations were gapped in the first next generation move Generations.  Generations.  Generetions.  No books really tickled my fancy this year, but maybe I am missing a good one let me know.  On TV, Babylon 5.  I didn't catch it until many years later, but wow, just wow.
 

1995-  AOA, that is right Age of Apocalypse.  Most crossovers suck, but Marvel showed us how to do it right as Bishop, a man displaced in time, explores a world where Charles Xavier is killed before he can form the X-Men.  Not to overshadow this at all, but Neal Stephenson had been working on his own masterpiece, Diamond Age.  Oh yeah and you might have heard of a little movie from Japan called Ghost in the Shell. 

1996- You may have missed my favorite movies this year because you were watching Vampirella and Leprachaun 4, but I liked Black Mask and Mars Attacks much better.  It isn't a book published in 1996 but I read The Hobbit, LOTR, and Watership Down for second times this year.  X-Files and Sliders were happening over on Fox. 

1997-Welcome to the world Buffy, I enjoy your show and your scooby gang.  Before it was a hit HBO show, George R. R. Martin was publishing a book with the title Game of Thrones.  In the movies, take your choice of Event Horizon, Fifth Element, and Gattaca, not to mention Starship Troopers. 

1998-Two sleeper hits from this year were Dark City and Soldier.  In books we get new Vinge and new Martin, unfortunately Martin did not keep this pace for future books.  Pokemon invaded America. 

1999- Yeah Galaxy Quest and Matrix, but I want to talk about Iron Giant, Existenz, and the 13th Floor.  What, you haven't seen any of these movies.  Do yourself a favor and have a way awesome party like it is 1999 movie party.  Check out Cryptomonomicon by Neal Stephenson while you are partying.  DS9 goes off the air but I wasn't watching because Farscape was rocking my world. 

This list makes me feel old.  Did I miss your faves or do you agree with mine?  Let me know in the comments. Be sure to sign up for my Scare Me! Blogfest happening on Halloween.  

Super Shorts: 20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill

I admit that I had a certain amount of skepticism about Joe Hill as a writer. Being the son of Stephen King, I couldn’t help but think that just maybe he hadn’t quite earned his entrance into the world of publishing the way that other writers had.

I felt a little vindicated with this feeling when I read his novel Heart Shaped Box, because I liked the book well enough, but I didn’t feel it was really ground-breaking or noteworthy in particular.

So, it was with a bit of a raised eyebrow that I noticed his short story collection 20^thCentury Ghosts had won the Stoker Award for Best Collection in 2005. Based on that award, I decided to give Hill another shot.

And I’m glad I did. 20^th Century Ghosts is stellar collection of short stories. As you might expect, there’s a good portion of horror, other “supernatural” type stories, and even a couple that are surprisingly sweet natured.

20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill

There are two trends in the stories throughout this collection that set it apart from other “good” horror collections. The first is the sheer imaginativeness behind so many of the ideas. For example, Pop Art was based on perhaps the most absurd-sounding premise I’ve heard in a long time, but in the end was probably one the best and most emotional stories in the book. My Father’s Mask was disturbing in that it portrayed a don’t-look-too-closely world that seemed like ours, but had some damn unsettling things going on behind the scenes.

The second thing that Hill excelled at in these stories is breaking the expected “horror story” formats and cadences. Hill even pokes fun at this in the first story, Best New Horror, which is about a horror magazine editor who has seen it all and read it all a thousand times. Like that jaded and cynical editor, I found something new, interesting, and occasionally truly horrific in Hill’s stories. They are constantly taking unexpected turns leaving the reader (or in my case, the listener) off balance. They also tend to end at unexpected times, almost in mid-story sometimes (or at least that’s the way it felt), leaving the reader to stop, put away their expectations, and consider that ending — and the entire story in a new light.

Just a superb collection. I will definitely re-visit these stories again and again.

Five stars.

Book Review: Graveminder, by Melissa Marr

A couple of months ago, I was casting about for a new audiobook to listen to and it happened to be right as Goodreads was releasing its Readers Choice Awards for 2011. Melissa Marr’s novel Graveminder won Best Horror, so I decided to give it a shot.

In the story, a young woman, Rebekkah Barrow (also, 2011 Egregious Name-Spelling Award Winner), is called back to her hometown of Claysville (vaguely Ozark-y/Appalachia-y) after her grandmother is mysteriously murdered. Rebekkah has fond memories of her grandmother, following her through graveyards as she tended the graves of the dead (I mean, who doesn’t?). Because apparently, the dead in Claysville don’t always stay dead…

What transpires is a tale the restless dead, family secrets, star-crossed love, trips to the Underworld, and deals with the devil, or sort of devil, or something, I’m not really sure, because it’s never made very clear, but it’s very clear that he’s The Bad Guy.

One thing that is very clear, however, is that Graveminder is a patchwork of supernatural cliches that never rises above formula and seems to be trying very very hard to capture the same audience as Charlaine Harris and Sookie Stackhouse. Sadly, this book sinks below what I would expect for even something mediocre — mostly because I feel that Marr was lazy.

At the beginning of the story, Rebekkah contemplates her youth back in Claysville from her apartment in the Gaslight district of San Diego. That’s a hard task, because there ISno Gaslight district in San Diego. It’s Gaslamp. Do you know how long it took me to find the correct use of Gaslamp versus Gaslight? About 40 seconds on Wikipedia. To me, that’s a lazy author (and editor). Now that may seem picky, but horror authors require readers’ suspension of disbelief to be effective, so being credible in other parts of the story is critically important. So she began to lose me almost from the outset. Still, I had hope.

Later, we learn that the “normal” citizens of Claysville get headaches and forgetful when confronted with anything supernatural. Seriously? That’s the way you’re going to handle the fact that someone sees a kid that died last week walking down the street? They just get a headache and forget it? How convenient. Then, when someone manages to man-up and ask a question, you get statements like, “Things are just different here” and “That’s the way things are here.” Oy. Again, I can’t suspend that much disbelief and for a storyteller, that’s just lazy.

Later, we find out that there’s a secret contract between the powers that be in the town and the Bad Guy. Rebekkah’s love interest goes to the Underworld and signs it (for a new generation) in blood without reading it. Without. Reading. It. I’m just going to stop here.

Clearly, by winning the Goodreads Readers Choice Award, there are a lot of people that liked Graveminder. Obviously, I’m not one of them.

One star out of five

Book Review: The City & The City, by China Mieville

One of my favorite books from a couple of years ago was Kraken by China Mieville. I enjoyed that audiobook so much that there was a part of me that had some trepidation about reading more of Mieville’s books because I worried that maybe they wouldn’t be as good as that first one, right? Please tell me that I’m not the only person that feels this way when they first discover a new writer or band.

Anyway, I overcame my perhaps unwarranted hesitancy and read Mieville’s novel previous to Kraken: The City and The City. At its core, it’s a detective novel. The setting is the rival Eastern European-ish cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma. A woman from one city is found dead in the other and haggard Beszel detective Tyador Borlu must work through the barriers in his own corrupt department as well as navigate the other city-state’s unfamiliar customs and inherent distrust to solve the crime.

Now, this might sound all pretty straightforward, but Mieville’s innovation is the locale. Beszel and Ul Qoma aren’t neighboring cities like East and West Berlin, or Buda and Pest. Their streets and buildings literally co-occupy the same space. This creates an environment in which citizens of one city are required to “unsee” and “unhear” the citizens of the other, even though they might be walking down the same street or sitting on the same park bench. Monitoring everyone from both cities is the (almost) all-seeing secret police, Breach, which ruthlessly “disappears” offenders that break the rules of separation.

Of course, Mieville is too subtle a writer to spell things out with exposition. He just dunks you right in and makes you figure the nuances of this world out for yourself. For me, this caused the first several chapters to be downright disorienting. And I found that slightly off-balance feeling staying with me during the entire book – which I’m pretty sure was the intention all along.

The overlapping cities and the beaten down, paranoid police-state culture that comes with it are the real stars of the book and create a palpable noir feel. Of course, the construct invites clear parallels to our own society, whether it’s “unseeing” the homeless person you walk past everyday, or “unhearing” facts that disagree with your own political worldview, or having a population that’s willfully ignorant. These contemplations lingered with me long after I put the book down.

The City and The City is solid detective mystery set in one of the most original backgrounds I’ve come across in a long time that can even induce a little self-reflection. See? Nothing to worry about.

Four solid stars.

Book Review: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

At the end of 2011, I was surprised to see Stephen King’s latest book 11/22/63 on a number of “Best of the Year” lists. And not just best “Horror” or best “genre” type of lists – but honest-to-goodness “Best of the Year” for literary fiction lists.

That sort of praise has been hard to come by for King, who despite his enormous popularity is often dismissed as not a “real” writer because he produces a lot of horror books. Coupled with that. I know that a lot of readers out there don’t like horror and might normally ignore King’s offerings. Hopefully, this book’s positive reception will help some readers look past their preconceptions.

Because 11/22/63 is a damn fine book.

From the title, it’s not hard to guess that the story revolves around the assassination of President John Kennedy. In it, a school teacher named Jake Epping has the chance to return to the past and is convinced that he could make a better “today” by changing the past – namely, preventing Lee Harvey Oswald from killing the president.

There are, of course, a couple of hurdles. First, Jake needs to be convinced a friend (who’s dying or he would have done it himself) that time travel is possible and that events can be altered for the better. Another is that this particular time-warp-rabbit-hole goes back to a specific day in 1958, more than five years before the assassination.

One standard character in King’s universes is the person with an obsession. And here, King smartly mixes it up by making Jake (and his past-persona George) less certain that the goal can and should be attained. But Jake has five years to figure it out, right some other wrongs, determine if Oswald acted alone, and if so, stop him. And as it turns out that the past might not like being altered…

11/22/63 was meticulously researched and that comes out in all the tiny details within, which gives the past an almost tangible feel. There is a great nostalgia in the writing that reminds you (whether it’s true or not) that the sky was cleaner, the food tasted better and people were more honorable. Actually, that’s not always necessarily true – King makes a point to contrast the sepia-tinted feel with splotches of the very real and ugly racism and sexism of those days.

In the end, like all of us, Jake is forced to make choices. Choices about people and life and love without knowing what effect those choices will have on our – or anyone else’s – futures.

There was a time in my life when I gave up on King. Several of his bloated books of the 1980s really turned me off and I thought the thing he needed most in the world was an editor with some cajones. Then, maybe 10 or 12 years ago, I tried The Green Mile and loved it. Since then, I’ve read most of his recent works (though the thick books still make me wary) and liked them. Of all his stories, this one reminds me most of The Green Mile, and to me, that’s a good thing. I think King aficionados will very much enjoy this book and if you’re one of those who’s stayed away from King and are looking for an introduction, 11/22/63 would be a great place to start.

Four stars out of five.

Book Review: Zone One, by Colson Whitehead

Zombies are in.

From AMC’s smash hit television series The Walking Dead, to the movie Zombieland (and the upcoming film version of Max Brooks’ World War Z), flesheaters are everywhere. In fact, they’re so much everywhere that I have started worrying that zombies were reaching that too-much-of-a-good-thing spot that vampires reached right around the second Twilight book.

So, it was with some curiosity and a fair bit of skepticism that I read Colson Whitehead’s most recent book, Zone One. The story follows three days in the life of Mark Spitz (no, not that Mark Spitz), a survivor of a zombie apocalypse, who is working to help the government re-establish an outpost of civilization in lower Manhattan.

Spitz is employed as a “sweeper”, part of a team whose job it is to clean out straggler zombies from buildings in the Zone. Over the course of the novel, Spitz reflects on how he came to be there, his relationships with his teammates, the fall of modern civilization, and its prospects for rebirth.

There are two types of zombies in Whitehead’s world: the vast majority are the mindless, ravenous hordes that we all know and love and the other are a rare type of “malfunctioning” undead. These poor creatures spend endless days repeating a single task from the fallen world: standing at a copy machine, pushing a broom around a room, holding a skillet in a long-unused kitchen. They don’t attack people and never even seem to notice them. It is these stragglers that Spitz is most interested in and curious about.

Whitehead is no hack “genre” writer either – his literary novels over the past decade have been critically well received and have even been finalists for prestigious awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. And, boy, can the man put a sentence together. (Of the sort that makes me despair as a writer, knowing that I’ll probably never write sentences that good.) Using power metaphors and allusions, Whitehead transforms the day-to-day drudgery of Spitz’s Zone One existence into something beyond a horror story. It is, in a way, horror literature.

In Zone One, Whitehead turns the view of the post-apocalyptic world back onto the trappings of our world and civilization – the technologies we take for granted, our attachment to material goods, and our societal preoccupations – and plays on our own desire to “chuck it all away and start over”. The scenes with the malfunctioning zombies, stuck in the pointless, repetitive lives are particularly well done. And through it, Spitz becomes sort of a 21^st century everyman who sheds the modern world, but doesn’t particularly mourn it.

The book is an engaging societal and human commentary, masterfully written against (and within) a now-familiar zombie apocalypse backdrop that manages something remarkable: a fresh take on a genre that I thought was getting stale.

Four stars out of five.

The Noughties

I would normally link to Dave Wrote This instead of giving the URL of http://davewrotethis.blogspot.com/2011/10/announcing-noughties-blogfest.html, but alas I am updating from work due to lack of proper planning on my part.  The image would also normally by hyperlinked and probably will get that treatment in the near future.  Enough excuses from me; on to the list. 

I will be listing what I believe was the best Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror film or book  for each year. 

2000-  You know Pitch Black came out of nowhere to be way cooler than a really cool, waited for it all my life X-Men movie, Fantasy would be Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and over in Japan a little movie called Ju On was making waves in the horror genre.    Book-I Think A Deepness in the Sky just slips past Cryptonomicon.

2001-  Donnie Darko fits all categories on movie, special mention to Spirited Away.    Book-  I am tempted to give it Martin and his Song of Ice and Fire entry, but Clarke gets an honorary for 2001 here. 

2002-  Equilibrium, is the Sci-Fi film of the year, but look for Imposter as well. Fantasy- LOTR; TTT.  Horror Bubba Hotep.  Book-  I think American Gods does a pretty good job representing this year.

2003-  Not a great year, But X2 tops the list for SciFi.  Fantasy-Big Fish, hands down.  Horror-It wasn’t an awesome year hear and I have not seen Wrong Turn, but that is considered the best on offer.  Books-I say you go with Kiln People by David Brin. 

2004-  Spiderman 2, but I almost went with Eternal Sunshine… or Butterfly Effect.  Fantasy-  House of Flying Daggers.  Horror-  Goes to the Dawn of the Dead Remake and special guest star of Infection a Japanese movie.  Book- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, hands down. 

2005-  Serenity.  Fantasy-Mirror Mask.  Horror- The Descent.  Book-HP Half Blood Prince, but I am reading Never Let Me Go right now, so…

2006-  Children of Men, Fantasy- Pan’s Labyrinth, Horror- The Host (Korean).  Book  Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi

2007-  The Last Mimzy.  Fantasy-300, pure awesome.  Horror-Grindhouse double feature.    Book-World War Z, Max Brooks. 

2008-  It wasn’t Tokyo Gore Police, but might be Iron Man.  Fantasy-The Tale of Despereaux.  Horror-Let the Right One In.  Book-. Anathem, Neal Stephenson

2009- Moon.  Fantasy-The Lovely Bones.  Horror-Drag Me to Hell but also watch The Orphan.  Book- The Wind Up Girl, Bacigalupi, really the best book of the year, in my opinion. 

Hope you enjoyed the list.  I haven’t seen or read everything and welcome your input on glaring omissions. 

The Name of the Wind

A few months back, NPR had their list of top 100 science fiction and fantasy books as voted on by the public. The top 20 was riddled with the usual suspects.  I had read most of the books and at the very least seen the movies to the rest.  Well, except for one;  The Name of the Wind.  I had never heard of the author or the book.  I mean, I go to a book club once a month for science fiction and fantasy and no one there had ever heard of this book.  How the heck did it get on the list.  The only conclusion that I could come to was that everyone that had read the book had voted for it.

This is a recent book and the first in the series.  I believe the series itself is what was nominated.  This adds to the intrigue as the third book has not even been released.  The second book was only recently released.  So I tracked down a copy of the book and gave it a read.

Plot-  It doesn't look like it is a "boy who would become king" story.  In fact, if the series name is an indicator, it is a "boy that would kill the king story."  It follows the story of Kvothe as he is telling it to the chronicler, so the truth behind the stories can be revealed.  There are many fantasy tropes here and they are handled well for the most part.  The story meanders a bit in places and poor Kvothe just can't catch a break.

Characters-There are only two characters that matter in this story; Kvothe and the girl.  The girl is an Enigma and although you get several names for her, the reader is never even given her real name.  Kvothe is almost too perfect though.  He is extremely smart, talented, and witty.  Girls want him and guys want to be him.  If it weren't for bad luck, the character would have no depth at all.  Despite is extreme intelligence, he seems to lack any sense at all.

Overall, it isn't a bad story.  I was upset to find out that the second book just came out and the third (final?) book isn't out.  It only took 4 years between books, so, I am not sure if it is worth reading the first two and having to wait a few years for the final installment.  If it even is the final installment.  While good, I am not sure it warrants a place on the top 20, or at least not on the merits of the first book alone.  If you like fantasy, you should enjoy this book quite a bit.  If you don't like fantasy due to repeating tropes, this has some, but not as many as others.  Safe for everyone.  My 10 year old is reading it.  

Book Review: "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness

One thing I’ve noticed since I’ve begun following book bloggers and keeping up with friends on Goodreads is that the quality of book I’ve been reading has been getting better. Surely, this is because most of the books I start now have been reviewed by someone whose tastes I understand might be similar to mine.

So, it’s a bit of a cautionary tale that I began listening to the audiobook of Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches, which I found by scanning Audible.com’s “Most Popular” list, forgetting perhaps that in a world of chart-busters such as Stephanie Meyer and Dan Brown that “the people” tend to sometimes get into books that aren’t, well, let’s just say, in my sweet spot.

A Discovery of Witches follows the adventures of Diana Bishop, who has eschewed her heritage as a witch in lieu of making it on her own as an academic historian. While on sabbatical at Oxford, she becomes embroiled in subterfuge concerning a mysterious manuscript that just might hold the key to the nature of witches, vampires and daemons. Initially, she wants nothing of it, but becomes intrigued by and then enamored of a vampire, Matthew Clairmont, who for some reason seems to be looking out for her, as well as the book.

When I started all the bones of a great story seemed to be there: witches, vampires, daemons, biology, alchemy, and history. It seemed as though Harkness wanted to upgrade the Twilightian fantasy by taking the particulars out of high school and make them adults (both in age and in outlook).

Sadly, the story just didn’t hold up for me. Matthew, naturally (or perhaps supernaturally) is supposed to come across as incredibly smart, and incredibly brave, and incredibly handsome, and incredibly strong, and incredibly fast, and incredibly learned on all subjects, and incredibly dangerous and don’t forget incredibly sensitive. What happens is that he becomes incredibly annoying, while Diana gets trapped in the unwilling-but-plucky heroine clichés that make their scenes together – especially after falling for one another – downright painful.


There were two parts during my listening that really shaped my view. One came about two-thirds of the way through during probably the best and most tense scenes in the book. I’d been sort of slogging along and was hoping for something to shake things up and it began to seem like it might be coming together. As I was listening to the climax, I realized that one of two outcomes was most likely: a cliché’ one that you could see coming from a mile away or a courageous one that could really have set the novel in a new and interesting direction. Guess which one Harkness chose? Yeah.

The other moment was as the book was winding down – about 13 hours into the 14 hour total – that my stomach sank as I realized that THIS BOOK IS NOT A STAND-ALONE STORY!

I should have known. Isn’t anything that can possibly be labeled as “paranormal” – especially “paranormal romance” – required to come in multiple parts? Of course it is. Naive Stevil.

Anyway, in the end, I think Harkness has tried to write a romantic, paranormal, action adventure – and it was certainly a book I wanted to like more than I did. Oddly enough, in some ways it’s a cross between Twilight and The DaVinci Code. So, if you’re into either one or both of those, give A Discovery of Witches a try.

If not, listen to your friend and give this one a pass.

Two stars out of five

Lord of the Flies- A to Z

Last night I gave my ten year old a copy of  The Lord of the Flies.  I have been trying to give her books that would challenge her reading ability.  Most books, not unlike most newspapers, are written on about a 6th grade reading level.  This is especially true for YA novels as that is their target audience.  Most books that can be classified as Literature are written at a much higher level.  There doesn't seem to be much to bridge that chasm.  Lord of the Flies, in my opinion, can do that. 

Lord of the Flies can be read on two levels.  On one level, the level my daughter will immediately understand is that of a survival story and bullies.  On a much higher and complex level, the story is about human nature in lines with the like of Heart of Darkness.  The great thing is that Golding writes flies in such a way as the connection can easily be made and, hopefully, once pointed out to a 4th grader, she will be able run with it. 

I read this book as an adult, so I lost some of that memory of how mean kids can be to each other and just how quickly societal norms can fade.  Golding captures this perfectly.  It are the kids the devolve completely that are most equiped for survival.  Piggy is the least equipped as he holds tight to societal norms.  Ralph splits the difference, but all the other characters are drawn to devolving out of fear.  Published in 1954, as the cold war and nuclear annialation are justifiably large fears, the story is a perfect allegory for nuclear armement.  No one wants to follow Jack Merridew into the wild, but they have to out of fear.

Oh crap I was writing an essay, sorry. 

Book Review: "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson

When you’re on Amazon, or Goodreads, or iTunes do you tend to explore the “if you liked x, you might like y” suggestions? It was because of this feature that I came across the audiobook of Shirley Jackson’s horror story The Haunting of Hill House. Of course, I’d heard of it before and it had always been one of those classic stories that I’d been meaning to get around to. Well, okay iTunes – thanks for the prompt. I’ll try it.

The Haunting of Hill House is widely considered one of the great horror novels of the 20^th century. In it, lonely single Eleanor Vance is recruited by a parapsychologist to join a few others in investigating the goings-on at a fabled haunted mansion, Hill House. The team – the invesitigator Doctor Montague, another “sensitive” Theodora, and a member of the house’s owning family agree to stay in the house and make observations in the hopes of documenting paranormal activity.

As horror stories go, the events that take place in Hill House are more about psychological terror than what I think most people would consider horror – and by today’s standards, it’d downright tame. But that’s not really where Jackson’s novel comes up short for me.

The Haunting of Hill House

Now, some books are classics because they’re excellent and some books are classic because they break new ground – and just maybe, they don’t hold up too well over time. To me, Hill House is that latter sort of classic. The story is mostly related through Eleanor’s eyes and she is hardly the picture of a modern (the story was published in 1959) female protagonist. Eleanor is a timid mouse of a women – who doesn’t need a haunted house to be a nervous Nellie – she’s practically afraid of her own shadow. Theodora is supposed to be the more “modern” woman, but her brazenness is a show and she’s really just a tender flower, too. The male characters were fairly two dimensional.

In the end, this is a pretty decent ghost story that gets kudos for breaking some ground back in the day. I really wanted to like it, because I love haunted house stories. Sadly, it just couldn’t get past the handicap of its stilted dialog and characters.

2 stars out of 5

No Dancing, By George

There must be pigs flying over a frosty ground in Hades today, because George RR Martinannounced that his long-awaited book A Dance With Dragons will be published in July of this year, though “long-awaited” may be too kind of an understatement, I suppose. For the uninitiated, Martin is the author of one of the more popular fantasy series of recent years A Song of Ice and Fire. This forthcoming book is the fifth in the series and has been six years in the writing.

With many updates from the author claiming that he was “almost done” and that it was “coming together” and hopeful predicted publication dates of 2008, 2009 and 2010 that all had less substance than any spectre that might haunt one of his characters, it’s a little hard to get too excited. Even though the announcement is “official” now, I’m still skeptical.

I guess I’ll believe it when I see it. But then again, when I see it, I won’t buy it.

A Dance With Dragons

Now don’t get me wrong – the series has been great and the first book Game of Thrones is maybe the best fantasy book I’ve read. Period. But let’s look at the series’ publication record. The first book came out in 1996, the second in 1998, and the third in 2000. Pretty good , right? Two years a pop. Well, the fourth installment came out in 2005 after what seemed an interminable wait. Forward to now and that means that for fans of the series there’s been ONLY ONE BOOK IN MORE THAN A DECADE! Part of me recommends this series more than anything I’ve read in a long time and the another part of me is thinking, “Enter at your own risk!” Arrrrgh!

I don’t think I’m the only one to feel a little jilted by Martin. If you go to his Amazon author page, one of the top threads is “Screw You GRR Martin!” Readers and fans are dismayed because Martin seems to have ample time to travel the world attending convention after convention, collaborate with HBO to make a television series out of the material, as well as produce other works – seemingly do everything except the one thing that created his fanbase in the first place. I will be very curious to see how it sells or whether people have cooled to it. I certainly have – though I have to admit I’m really excited to see the HBO version of A Game of Thrones – so how’s that for double-standarding?

A Game of Thrones

Martin has been stung by opinions like mine (which I’m sure he been barraged by) because he claims as a writer he wants to pursue his passion and produce the best material he can and asserts that can’t be expected to be done on a timetable. I get that – I really do. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it (or maybe more importantly, buy into it). It’s a funny thing, the relationship between an author and their fans, isn’t it? I wonder if people were like this with Stephen King and the 6 year hiatuses between books in the middle ofThe Dark Tower series. I’m sure they were. I just came to the series after it was completed so I didn’t care.

And in a way that’s what I plan to do with A Song of Ice and Fire. After enduring two 5+ year waits, I think I’m going to keep my personal curiosity bottled up until the end of the series (which should be book 7 or 8) is in sight. Because let’s face it, to really enjoy it I’m going to have to start over and I’m only going to do that sort of reboot once.

Keep ‘em coming, George.

Boneshaker-Spoiler Free Book Review

Cover of Boneshaker (Sci Fi Essential Books)

Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest, is a steampunk novel.  Full disclosure:  This is only my second purely steampunk novel and while I love the steampunk cosplayers, I am not to hot on the literary sub genre. 

Boneshaker was a Hugo nominee.  My thought after learning that was "why?"  I mean, don't get me wrong, it was entertaining enough, but I don't think it is the best representative of great science fiction writing and may not be the best example in the steampunk sub genre. 

Plot-  It is steampunk so there has to be air ships and it has to take place in the 17 or 1800's.  Check on both accounts.   Seatle is a walled city.  A digging apperatus, the titles namesake, has burrowed beneath the city and released a poison gas.  For whatever reason a 200ft wall is built around the perimeter of the city to keep the gas in.  16 years later the wife of the man that releases that gas must return to the city in order to rescue her son that went in looking for answers. 

Characters-  The mother character is Briar- She is the most fleshed out character and the most likeable as well.  Her son, Zeke, isn't really likeable at all.  Sometimes I wondered why Brior is saving him at all.  I think Priest meant to write an unlikable character here though as it would give him room to grow (this happens a little, but. . .)  Most of the secondary characters don't get much more than a cursory backgroung, which is a shame, as I would love to know why they want to live inside the walled city. 

Overall it is an entertaining book with plot holes that you could drive cars through.  It comes across more as a book written to capatalize on current trends than as a book by someone with a passion for those trends.  Read this book for its strong female characters as it does have those.  I would recommend this book to they YA crowd as it strikes me in that vein.  History buffs need to stay away from all things steampunk as they do a lot of playing with history.  Science people will need to suspend disbelief on a pretty regular basis as well.  It was a light read.

Book Review: "Full Dark, No Stars" by Stephen King

Good things, when short, are twice as good. ~Baltasar Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Sometimes when I’m perusing the books at Costco, I see the hardback copy of Stephen King’s mammoth novel Under The Dome and I think to myself, “Maybe… maybe…” And then I pick it up.

I’m sorry, 1000+ pages is just too many and unfortunately reminds me of the giant tomes from the 1980s (The Tommyknockers, IT, and their ilk) that turned me off to King for at least a decade. Recently though, when I was considering what was going to be my next audiobook, I opted for his most recent novella collection Full Dark, No Stars and am glad that I did.


After listening to these stories – each one of them gripping and creepy– I want to ask King why he doesn’t explore the novella form more often, because clearly he’s great at it (think of The Body, Shawshank Redemption, Secret Window Secret Garden, Apt Pupil).

The four stories in this collection focus on revenge and retribution and represent a very human (rather than supernatural) exploration of the impulses and consequences around these driving forces. I won’t give away any spoilers or go into the details other than that each story had its gut-dropping moments – some that you can see coming and others that come as an (un)pleasant surprise.

Highly recommended 4 stars out of 5