The Books We Read » Science Fiction

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Cindi — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 09:42:28 +0000

I was dissapointed by this book. With so many references in pop culture and so many fans I think I expected more. Brave New World is set in a future utopia, where everyone is happy and provided for. This utopia is built on eugenics, mental conditioning, and the feel good drug soma if you ever have a bad feeling you would like to go away. There is no art, emotional attachments, unsanctioned music, or religion.

I thought the premise of the book was good and easily became hooked. Then the book really started to tank. A great idea does not a book make. The book felt like it had been witten with the message first and the plot only there to shove the message in your face. I thought a glaring hole existed when the only characters introduced in the book were alphas and the savage. A society so heavily based on eugenics and caste, and we don’t get to meet any of the lower members? Odd. Also, with such large issues to deal with, the author seemed to disproportionatly focus on femle promiscuity in this horrible new world. Really? That’s the biggest problem? And why are there so many shakespear quotes? I mean, the novel isn’t that thick to begin with. I suppose the constant quotes were included to beef up the page count.

So now that I’ve ripped this book a new one, I will say everyone should probably read it. It is one of those modern classics that pops up from time to time. The premise is interesting, the gently fascist consumerist government model is interesting, and it might be worth it just for the fordisms.

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley. Harper Perennial Modern Classics 2006, Paperback, 288 pages, $7.97

Uglies a novel by Scott Westerfeld

Clarissa — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 06:12:44 +0000

Uglies is set in the far dystopic future where the cities of the current world have been abandoned. In the new world, children live with their parent’s until they’re twelve, then they leave home and live in dorms. The dorms are in ugly town. Once they turn 16, they get an operation that turns them pretty. At the start of the story, Tally Youngblood is weeks away from turning 16. She is sick of seeing her “ugly” face with it’s lack of perfect symmetry, her nose that’s too long or her squinty, watery, eyes. Her best-friend-for-life, Peris (a boy) turned 16 four months before she did, so that left her alone. Feeling friendless, she finds Shay (a girl) and they become friends. Shay tells her about people that don’t want the operation. Tally can hardly believe anyone would actually want to stay ugly for life. Blah blah blah

So basically, the story had bad pacing, underwhelming world building, unbelievable characters, boring and unbelievable conversations, and plenty of hitting over the head preaching, which frankly, marred the book’s goodness for me, not to mention the head ache it gave. I fought through the first half of the book (since I keep hearing about this series), but thankfully, it picked up in the second half. Overall though, the book was a waste of my time. I like knowing how a story ends and this one is part of series, so I couldn’t resist reading the plot summaries of the other books on wikipedia. I’m glad I won’t have to waste more time reading the other books to know how unresolved it ends.

Uglies (Uglies Trilogy, Book 1)

Rodrigo Corral (Designer). Simon Pulse 2005, Paperback, 448 pages, $4.68

Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Cindi — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:14:14 +0000

Second Foundation begins with the Mule and his quest to control the universe. He has conquered all that he can with amazing mind control powers and an army to back him. He has thrown a wrench into Hari Seldon’s plan and conquered the First Foundation, but his paranoia feels the mysterious Second Foundation which may be myth or legend still poses a threat.

I enjoyed this book and the continuing saga of the foundation; until I realized I had missed an entire book in the series and didn’t even notice. So I ordered this book from the library, and not really paying attention just assumed the book titled Second Foundation was the second book in the series. Oops. This is book three and I missed book two, Foundation and Empire. I didn’t notice until today, when I went to look up this book and saw the books in order. One of my complaints in the first novel was the continual jumps through time that pushed the plot forward by hundreds of years and made it hard to connect with the characters. When I picked up this book and started reading I didn’t even find it odd that it was hundreds of years in the future and I didn’t know any of the characters. I’m trying very hard not to let my glaring mistake cloud my judgement of the book.

This book only has one major jump forward, so you have some time to connect with each set of characters. The characters this time through were also far better written, more developed, and the second half even has a strong female lead. However, the paradoxical thinking concerning predestination and mind control just seemed redundant and pointless after a while. If everything is predestined, then every choice you will ever make isn’t really a choice. If everything isn’t predestined, than your individual choices and actions matter. Either way though, you won’t ever know the answer. Should I do A or should I do B? What if my mind has been tampered with and I should do the opposite of what I think I should do? Or maybe I should do what I think I should do because if they had controlled my mind they would expect me to wonder if it had been tampered with and do the opposite of what I think I should do. Wow. Those kind of conundrums repeatedly get old fast. I read the synopsis of the second book in the series and it sounded like it had more action and some attempted plot twists. I am debating now whether to go back and read it too.

Second Foundation (Foundation Novels)

Isaac Asimov. Spectra 2008, Paperback, 272 pages, $6.80

Dune by Frank Herbert

Cindi — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:10:21 +0000

Dune sets the stage for an science fiction masterpiece of epic proportions. You have a large, dare I say ‘galactic’ feudal empire ripe with vendettas, politics, religion, destiny, and of course, planetary ecology. You have a child destined for greatness at the center of a massive web of personal agendas and empire wide plotting. When the House of Atreides is ‘given’ the planet of Dune and must prepare to defend themselves from the House of Harkonnen and the Emperor himself, a battle many years in the making unfolds. All this action is beautifully set on a backdrop of a harsh dessert planet rich in the only source of spice for the whole empire, and home to the fierce native Fremen of the planet who have a secret of their own.

All slight sarcasm aside I actually liked this book. It was well written, well paced, and draws an interesting and complex new world. I felt the author did a great job of thinking the plot through and eliminating any large plot holes. (A pet peeve of mine with some science fiction.) I enjoyed the character portrayals, most of them torn between love and duty, and driven by love, fear, loyalty, and hate. I found it interesting the powerful women characters in the book were not wives and liked the way that was portrayed. Some of the most interesting plot lines in the book revolved around the planet itself. On a planet with such small amounts of available water it was very interesting to imagine the incredible importance of it and the ways in which your life would revolve around acquiring, retaining and reusing that precious resource. I have been trying to branch out and get my feet wet in science fiction and only wish I had read Dune at the beginning of my foray, and not towards the end as I’m starting to burn out. Did I love it? Not really, but it is the best science fiction book I’ve read in the last five years (I think) and I will get the next one in the series. I said before I read it I would be done science fiction after Dune, but now I guess I have to find out what happens next. Good heavens, what have I done, I think there are about a million and one books in this series. Ahkk, maybe i’m becoming a fan, ha ha. I’m also a little apprehensive to watch the 1984 film by David Lynch (but how can I not?).

As a side note, I noticed on Wikipedia that (unnamed) ‘scholars’ have compared Dune to Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Ummmmm, Wikipedia said the same thing about Foundation by Isaac Asimov. So I’m beginning to think I just need to read Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and imagine it in space.

Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)

Frank Herbert. Ace Trade 2005, Paperback, 544 pages, $7.30

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Cindi — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:40:28 +0000

Ender’s game is set in a future world where humanity is in a war with an alien race of giant bugs. Genius children have been bread and molded to become the greatest military leaders and win the war. This is my first Orson Scott Card book and I liked it. He writes children well, (not jut making them miniature adults) and I think this book might have a strong draw for young adult readers. It was very easy to identify with Ender since I’m sure most people, adult and children alike, feel they are special, don’t quite fit in, and have larger trials than everyone else. (Talk about a universal truth, ha ha.) It was sort of fun reading about Ender, since I have a seven year old boy and imagining him in this role was an interesting exercise. I found some parts a little repetitive, but it kept a good pace and wasn’t boring. I liked the characters of his brother and sister, and felt they could have had a much better, or at least more relevant plot line. The relationships in Ender’s family were approaching complex and were well done. I felt they had interesting personalities and adequate development, they just could have had a little more depth and better drawn motivations. The last chapters in the book are quite removed from the rest of the book, and I felt a little cheated that so much time is covered. There were a couple of loose ends, but I am probably going to check out the next book in the series and see if they get tied up in that one. I wouldn’t say it was great, but I would say it was very entertaining and anyone even marginally interested in science fiction would probably enjoy it.

Ender’s Game (Ender, Book 1)

Orson Scott Card. Tor Science Fiction 1994, Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages, $3.50

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Cindi — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:28:56 +0000

Foundation is the first novel in the foundation series. The Galactic Empire is about to fail and Hari Seldon and the new science of psychohistory are attempting to save all human knowledge and bring humanity through the resulting dark ages. I am split on my feelings about this book. I have just as many things that I like as that I don’t like.
For the likes, this book combines all of my favorite things about science fiction. Foundation creates a future world in which to explore questions of humanity, science, and the future. I also loved the premise of psychohistory. There is political intrigue, lots of action, and philosophical discussions of religion, economics and mathematics. It is intelligently and well written. Lots of fun.
For the dislikes, this book jumps through it’s time line from one story to the other with little connection between them. Just when you are getting into a story it ends and you are thrust ahead another couple hundred years. This makes for poor character development and a hard time emotionally attaching to the story. This novel was first published in 1951 and feels slightly dated. There are no women characters to speak of. Also, as soon as I started reading about Hari Seldon’s group the foundation which were building a compendium of all human knowledge I thought, Wikipedia, ha ha.
That being said, I did like it and will be reading more books in the series. I’ve also seen references that the foundation series is loosely based on Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. To me that actually makes it more interesting.

Foundation (Foundation Novels)

Isaac Asimov. Spectra 2008, Paperback, 272 pages, $7.90

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Clarissa — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:51:58 +0000

This is the second installment of the Hunger Games trilogy. It continues the story of Katniss Everdeen after she wins the Hunger Games (sorry if that’s too much information for those who wanted to read the Hunger Games). This fast paced novel is full of twists and turns. I couldn’t put it down. And now I have to wait for the third one to come out to find out what happens. This will be a problem for me. Wikipedia says the next unnamed book won’t be released until August of 2010! I can handle eight months of waiting right? This is why I start trilogies after all the books are out.

The one problem I have with this novel and the first is the voice used. It’s told in the first person but more like she’s telling a story. We don’t have access to all of her thoughts. She uses phrases like “and then I’m going after him..” but why Katniss? Why are you going after him? It wasn’t easy for me to lose myself reading it. But after I got used to that, I really enjoyed the story.

Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games)

Suzanne Collins. Scholastic Press 2009, Hardcover, 400 pages, $9.50

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Cindi — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 06:41:34 +0000

I enjoyed this book. The Hunger Games is a very quick read and a real page turner. Set in a near future dystopia after the fall of the United States of America, a young girl and boy from the 12th district in the nation of Panem must compete in a death match type game where the last one standing wins.

Is the concept original? Um, no. Was the romance good? Yes, in a young adult sort of way. The writing is great, the characters are fine, and the pacing is crisp. There is plenty of action and enough soul searching and moral dilemmas to keep it interesting past the surface. My main problem with the book is the author’s view of the future, especially surrounding the politics and government in the book’s post apocalyptic time and place. I know it is a work of imaginative science fiction, I just felt it lacked substance and credibility. (As a pet peeve there was one part right near the beginning where Katniss puts on her boots, and then pulls on her pants. ??? How often do you put your shoes on before getting dressed? Sorry to point this out; I don’t know why I noticed this.) Also, you don’t have to give everyone funky names because your book is set in the future. Most names in circulation today predate the bible. Now that I’m done complaining, feel free to check it out. I found it very entertaining and the end will leave you wanting more.

The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins. Scholastic Press 2008, Hardcover, 384 pages, $9.47

The Host a novel by Stephanie Meyer

Clarissa — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:43:48 +0000

Although I usually don’t read science fiction I am a sucker for a Stephanie Meyer novel. This one had me at hello. I found that this novel had more depth than the Twilight novels. The themes were more adult and complex. I understand that Science Fiction novels require a lot of set up but I did find it hard to focus on those first 300 pages. Once I got past the mid point of the novel the story flew by. The pacing was great. I did have a couple of annoyances about this story. Similiar to the ones I had about Twilight. Funny thing, the main character reminded me of Bella Swan. She had the same self-sacrificing, I’d let myself get killed if only it would let you live thing going on. A little tired maybe. You know about as tired as “You had me at hello”. But all in all, a good read with some mature themes and it even left me something to think about (besides all the syrupy sweet goodness).