Friday, April 26, 2013

Unwind

Neal Shusterman

This story takes place sometime in the future after the second Civil War. The war split primarily along pro-life/pro-choice boundaries and after too much fighting and killing, the two sides signed an armistice. It was a crazy, far out idea that neither wanted, but both could live with. Abortion became illegal. However, between the ages of 13 and 17, parents could have their kids unwound. That is, every single body part of the person would be utilized in transplant. This way, the unwanted child would not be killed, just redistributed. The story here follows a couple of Unwinds who escape and enter the underground system, just trying to survive until they are 18, when they will be legal again. Risa was an orphan, a ward of the state. She was sent to be unwound to make space for the new orphans coming in. Connor was sent to be unwound by his parents because he was just a troublemaker. And Lev was a tithe. His religious parents conceived him explicitly for the purpose of giving back.

The idea is really prepostorous, so we don't have to take it seriously. However, it is the extreme extension of some of the arguments that people make about embryonic stem cell research and abortion today. Shursterman is also quite clear in his purpose to make the reader think about the value of life as well as the definition of human. In a couple of striking sub-plots, we are confronted with the idea of identity and soul. What is it? Where is it? Who has it?

Well done.
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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Aurora

Julie Bertagna

Final Book in Bertagna's climate change trilogy. In Exodus, Mara takes her island community to sea and finds New Mungo, only to realize they are not welcome in this modern city built above the ocean. In Zenith, Mara takes her new community of unwanteds north to Greenland, and sets up to live peacefully in the interior of the island. Throughout both, Mara's long distance relationship with Fox back in New Mungo is a way to keep tabs on his effort to revolt and change the culture of the isolated sky cities. In this third installment, Mara and Fox's daughter Lily leaves home for her own adventure. She meets back up with pirate boy Tuck, discovers long lost friends and realizes that she has been the catalyst to change the world.

Overall, Bertagna provides a captivating plot and enough change of scenery in each volume to keep interest and travel in new directions. Her politics is right out front and she is not apologetic about it, but in the end, this is an adventure tale. I do like the fact that she pushes scientists to utilize nature as a model for good science. Her scientists are ones who learn from nature instead of dominate it. And she is able to even raise (albiet briefly) some discussion of GMO morality. Easy read, but make sure you are willing to read the entire series, or you will be left feeling flat.

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Friday, April 19, 2013

Zenith

Julie Bertagna

Book Two in a climate change trilogy started in Exodus. After stealing supply ships and loading them with the boat people and sea urchins surviving on the outskirts of New Mundo, Mara now leads her ship at least (the others can't be seen) to a supposed new life in the highlands of the north (aka Greenland). This is not the class struggle of Exodus, highlighting the plight of the poor. Instead, it is a pilgrimage  and a good old fashioned wagon train on the high seas. Mara struggles to lead her band of misfits as they (and she) continually doubt her leadership. A chance collision with a band of pirates introduces new characters to the drama, and when they reach the new world, survival is not as easy as it seems it should be. This book is not explicitly about climate change. But with a destroyed earth at the basis for the entire plot, Bertagna continues to weave a thread of hope. I suppose in many ways, this is a classic western plot. A good continuation of the plot and a good middle book.

Read (only if you plan to read Book 3 too).

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Exodus

Julie Bertagna

It appears that I am following a biblical theme as of late (The Parable of the Sower). In Exodus, we are set in the year 2100 and the earth has survived the post-climate change 100 years of storms. Most land is covered in water. This fact alone is key for the premise of the book, but unfortunately not even remotely realistic. Worst case sea level rises are less than 10 meters and this story suggests 100 meter or more. But this story requires most land to have disappeared for two reasons: 1) our protagonist Mara must have a reason to abandon her North Atlantic island home and 2) civilization must have a reason for abandoning land by building giant isolated cities anchored to the sea floor and soaring above into the atmosphere. These two conditions place Mara in a position to be a refugee at one such city, find a disturbing classless society in the trash-heap of that city, expose the dirty secret of slavery imposed by the city rulers and initiate a mass escape (hence Exodus). The story is engaging and the read is easy. If one does not only read for entertainment but use the ideas presented by Bertagna as a reason to think, we are led to question our own role in global climate change as well as our proclivity in the West to think that even if it is a worst case scenario, we will survive. Bertagna pushes us to consider the blinders that we wear as individuals and as a culture to the often nameless/invisible impoverished underclass that exists. And I find it amazing that while the year 2100 is a long way away, people born now will be the Caledon, Tain and Lily of the story. In this case, Bertagna intentionally places the story within a current lifetime, but it is strange to think that to be truly futuristic science fiction, authors are going to have to start to setting their timeframe beyond 2100.

As a first book, this is engaging. Will let you know if the series holds up.
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Sunday, April 7, 2013

The Parable of the Sower

Octavia E. Butler

Futuristic novels set in 2025 used to be futuristic. But now that we are only about a decade away, 2025 is now. Perhaps this is what  makes this novel so frightening as it is set in 2025 and the future described is actually a possibility within the next 10 years. We are set in Los Angeles in what I would describe as the leading edge of a post-civilized world. Most people in the city are homeless scavengers and a few gated communities are able to hold the hordes at bay. The police are ineffective and it has not rained in 6 years. At the same time, money still has some value and the state and federal governments do exist. In this setting, a young woman is chased out of her community when it is destroyed by vandals and makes her way north, collecting companions along the way. As she travels, she is developing and testing her new religion, Earthseed, as a source of purpose and hope in this crazy world. Butler does an excellent job of revealing the strengths and weaknesses of characters in her portrayal of the emotional drama of survival. At the same time, she develops a world which that is completely new and scary, but completely familiar  Not the Hollywood grand finale of most dystopian future novels that are popular, but better off because of her resistance to that trap.

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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle

Haruki Murakami

Again strange. I don't quite know how else to explain this. Murakami is a well known, well regarded Japanese author and most of his novels have been translated to english. I enjoyed this novel as it gives a little bit of insight into Japanese culture, much like Ogawa's The Housekeeper and the Professor did for me. I feel like (and this is speaking from ignorance) Japanese culture has a certain respect for spirituality and belief in the supernatural. Along with this is a pretty matter of fact acceptance. There is not a lot of drama about the super in supernatural. Here Murakami presents Mr. Okada, a recently unemployed law clerk who has chosen to enjoy his unemployment while his wife Kumiko supported them. When their cat disappears, Okada and Kumiko consult with a local "shaman" to help them find the cat. Eventually, the missing cat turns into a missing wife and in the search, Okada becomes central in a "spirit world" (for lack of a better descriptor) struggle between Kumiko's family and his own interest in having his wife back. The language is not dramatic, but often plodding and methodical. There is a real sense of "this is the way life goes", bordering on (but not really) existentialism. I know individual people that have this life outlook, but when a culture embraces it, it feels foreign. This book is definitely worth the time.

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