UBIK

Philip K Dick

Sometimes sci-fi writing provides insight to a particular social issue or gives a futurist glimpse into how our world could possibly develop. Other times it takes a scientific phenomena and just writes a story, without agenda. This book is the latter. We start out learning about a world where some people have special talents (seeing the future, changing probabilities, etc.) and others have the ability to interrupt these talents. So of course, we are introduced to two different talent agencies, one offering these talents for hire, and the other offering 'talent shielding'. In typical PKD fashion, things aren't always what they seem and trying to figure out what really is going on is half the fun. And we are treated to a little bit of a vision of this future world where everything in monetized, including your front door and morning coffee machine (no cash, your door won't open to let you out). I am a bit surprised that this hasn't been made into a film, as it seems like it could be lots of fun.
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Getting To Know You

David Marusek

This guy is a genius. Loved his Counting Heads novel and this current selection of short stories includes several that were the basis for that novel. So we are seeing integrated nano-tech, corporate clones and ubiquitous surveillance. We also get a couple of soft scifi stories, of which my favorite is Yurek Rutz. In particular, I appreciated in the authors introduction the acknowledgement that it is difficult to both write short form as well as to read it (you must get the entire world defined within a couple pages) and his brief background about when and why he wrote each story.
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J

Howard Jacobson

I usually enjoy novels that have won a prize. This was a Man Booker finalist, so I had hopes. While the details are never spelled out, it is essentially the story of life in a rural European town some years after World War II. The result of the war is unclear, but the effect is the suppression of Jews and Jewishness along with the Balkanization of all ethnic groups. So every little small town is an isolationist, homogenous group. Add to this mix a Jewish protagonist, and a mysterious Jewish underground working to insure the continuation of the Jewish line without upsetting the repressive/precarious balance of the status quo.  I can see how this is potentially interesting, but I was not engaged by the writing. The story was too cliche and did not provide any new insight to a post war mentality in Europe. I expect that by creating this alternate history fictional word, Jacobson will be presenting me with an intellectually stimulating point of view or new way of thinking about the specific Jewish trauma in the post war environment or the general cultural/sociological trends that lead to isolation and eventually genocide for any minority. I got neither.
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