Obsidian Mirror

Catherine Fisher

Time travel, mystery, fantasy creatures. All the things I like. Jack Wilde is at a posh private school, but is angry and the world since his dad disappeared last year. He will do anything to find him. Oberon Venn lost his wife several years ago and it was his fault. The man with a scarred face had his Obsidian Mirror stolen, and in the process was sent into an exile of sorts. Piers is a man who wants his freedom, Summer a Shee who wants her lover, and Sarah a girl who simply wants the world not to end. Lots of characters, each with their own motivations, some clearly written by Fisher, others intentionally withheld, revealed or guessed at as we traverse this first book in a trilogy. Tying the entire plot together is the mirror, which is not completely understood (hence Jack's dads disappearance), that allows time travel. One thing I love about this is the idea of the replicant. Most time travel storylines avoid at all costs the mixing of timelines. If you "see yourself" the timeline implodes. Here, Fisher has created a scene where traveling back to a time before you left just creates a copy of yourself, a replicant. It raises the question of identity and soul, but she doesn't let that stop her from making replicant creation become somehow central to at least one of her storylines. This is very clearly a trilogy, so the entire world must be worthwhile before getting a recommendation. After only one installment, we have to wait.

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Champion

Marie Lu

Book 3 of the Legend Trilogy.

Final installment, and we pick up 5 months later. June is in training for the Senate leadership in the Republic, Day is hanging out with his brother Eden, both getting treatment. A cease fire has been negotiated with the Colonies and work is proceeding on an actual peace treaty. And then there is another plague outbreak, blame abounds, peace is off the table and the war is full bore again. June is obviously part of the mix as part of her senate work, and Day is pulled back in. Battle, Tension, Clever Solution, Resolution.

What I probably find most interesting about this trilogy is the presentation of 3 distinct societies that have developed in this dystopian future. There are the Colonies "A Free State is a Corporate State" where people are "free" to choose which corporation to work for. Every part of life is commercialized. For example, call the police whenever you want and they will, as a fee for service, investigate your crime or protect your victimization. Can't afford the fee, the police don't exist. Same with food, education, housing, etc. So clearly an "other" class will exist. There is the Republic, that began under martial law to quell riots, and maintained the authoritarian ruling structure. Here the military and the wealthy have power, and the "others" live in squalor, or don't live at all. The power structure institutes mandatory trials at age 13 to sort the populace into privileged, poor, and expendable. Finally there is the society portrayed from Antarctica, technologically and militarily superior. Obviously a cultural melting pot with no native populations, this society is built on the gamification of cultural norms. Every citizen gains points for doing things beneficial to society (going to school, picking up litter, being respectful, etc.) and has points deducted for poor behavior (cheating on a test). The computer keeps track and peoples rank in society (including wealth and standard of living and political power) is based on the accumulation of these good points. In addition, your point total and every increase/decrease based on your actions is publicly visible at all times. We did not spend enough time in Antarctica to see the "other" class, but I was thinking about the difference between people who had to get all their points 1 at a time by watering plants, compared to those who could gather 100's by completing school, or some other task that was not commonly available.

I guess I like thinking about societies and culture. While this little bit of thinking does not make the entire series a must read, it was engaging and largely satisfying. But I don't think it really holds up (still feels like something that was popular 5 years ago). So unless this is what you love, Wait.

Prodigy

Marie Lu

Book 2 of the Legend Trilogy.

OK, so this is better than Matched based solely on the fact that the second book is not awful. In this installment, June and Day are working with the Patriots to overthrow the Republic government and move to all out anarchy. The romantic tension between June/Day, June/Ander, Day/Tess all heighten the difficult decisions that need to be made and of course, nobody can actually say what they mean in a way that communicates their true feelings (but since the readers also get the perspective of their thinking, we are in the know). And the political tension between government, rebellion and individuals, while predictable, is actually able to drive the story along and the book holds contains an actual story arc (with tension and resolution). By the end, the Republic and the Patriots are in a very different situation than at the beginning of the story, and new tough decisions will need to be made about how to proceed in the next installment.

I am going to stick with my Wait rating until the series wraps.

Authority

Jeff Vandermeer

Book 2 of the Southern Reach Trilogy

So in book 2, we see the story from the perspective of the Southern Reach, which is a scientific research facility tasked with exploring (and containing) Area X. We are introduced to Control (aka John Rodriguez) who is the newly assigned director of the Southern Reach. Control is basically tasked with solving a mystery, or a series of mysteries. What is going on inside Area X, what is Area X, what happened to the prior director (the psychologist of Book 1), how did the biologist get out of Area X, what happened to her while she was in, etc. I still have a pretty mixed reaction here. Still lots of mystery (which I am not opposed to), but now we are 2/3 of the way through the trilogy and I am not seeing a lot of progress on solving those mysteries. This is beginning to feel like one of those novels/films where, in the last two minutes, everything is resolved with fortuitous facts revealed in the last three minutes. On the other hand, I am at least marginally interested enough to probably read the third installment. Still hesitant.

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Annihilation

Jeff Vandermeer

Book 1 of the Southern Reach Trilogy

A biologist, anthropologist, psychologist and surveyor are the members of the 12th expedition into Area X. That is about all the clarity you will have by time you finish this novel. Area X is said to be a region recovering from an environmental disaster, and the expedition has data acquisition goals to evaluate the changes since the last expedition. But this isn't exactly true. The members don't know how they got to Area X (there were put under hypnosis to "ease the transition"), or even what their goals really are, or what they are even looking for. In fact, this entire novel reads like the introductory first chapter of a potentially good book. I am only sticking with it since the trilogy showed up on a "Best of" list for 2016. But I must say, this first book is basically just a big intro with a question mark.

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Codex

Lev Grossman

Loved The Magician series by Grossman. This was OK. Maybe I was expecting magic. Instead, this is a pretty good mystery. Investment banker Edward is on a two week vacation before his promotion/transfer to London kicks in. He uses the time to get entangled in a wealthy clients search for a ancient text. Turns out, things just get weird. The book is somehow related to a super-realistic computer game he has just began playing. And a stuffy, Columbia grad student, expert in medieval literature becomes his unlikely partner in the search. Moving along at a quick pace to make sure we are never bored, but not enthralling like I want a mystery to be. Maybe if I hadn't been expecting magic...
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My Korean Deli: Risking It All for a Convenience Store

Ben Ryder Howe

A memoir-style telling of the relationship between Ben, a white, pure-bred New Englander, and his wife Gabbie, a first generation Korean American. The story explores the cultural divide between the two as Ben (an editor for the Paris Review) and Gabbie (a corporate lawyer) both change their lifestyle in order to purchase a NY deli as some sort of compensation for Gabbie's mother Kay. The two end up living in Kay's basement in Staten Island (along with several other extended family members) as a way to save money and keep the money pit of a deli alive. It really is a fascinating look at small business, immigrant mentality, asian family systems, upper-crust publishing and multi-cultural relationships. There are so many compare/contrast scenarios that it is a stark reminder that the cultural divide is not just asian/american. It is also wealthy/middle class, white collar/blue collar, commuter/local. Unfortunately, the book either goes on too long, or loses its Mojo because after about 2/3 of the way through, I lost interest. So fun, engaging, too long...

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Every Day

David Levithan

'A' (our protagonist) is a teenager who wakes up in a different body each day. He "borrows" that body, pushing the host consciousness aside while he is there, able to access memories as needed to interact as the host would. He only needs to know enough to survive, and not screw up the host life, until midnight, when he jumps to a new body. He has never known anything different, and has resigned himself to be as unobtrusive as possible in each host. Until he meets the girl. And falls in love. And then what? This is the ultimate in forbidden love stories. I enjoyed Levithan's initial exploration of identity with 'A', making me think about how you know who you are (see Middlesex). But it was left short, and I was largely unfulfilled in being led down this path of identity exploration. As readers we were not pushed into depth or provided a compass for inquiry. I am tempted to say you can only do so much with the YA genre, but that is a cop out. Some of the best social commentary/criticism in the past decade has come out of YA for those willing to listen (see Divergent and Unwind series). The only alternative is to say this is highly creative, yet ultimately mediocre as an instigator of thought.

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Stranger in a Strange Land

Robert A Heinlein

Heinlein sets the story with the first expedition to Mars. An expedition baby is born and raised by Martians. When the second expedition returns, it returns with The Man from Mars. Lots of political intrigue (citizenship, rights of ownership, wealth inheritance, etc.) swirl thorough the story and lots of scientific intrigue (The Man from Mars knows a much more advanced science than earth humans). But this is really a story about community and belief. Heinlein paints a picture of the future that is fascinating and has enough logic built in that the reader believes that it could be true. And apparently Heinlein's biggest concern is with religious fundamentalism. Unfortunately, while this may have been ground breaking in its time (1961), it does not hold up. The portrayals of the church are too predictable and stale, too evangelical/christian centric to be realistic as future church. I much prefer the cyberpunk approach of Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash for how to envision a future thinking of faith. But who knows, 50 years from know, someone will be saying it doesn't hold up either.
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

The first half of this book is good. Huck Finn is a poor kid living on the Mississippi. His dad is a drunk and always gone. Finn lives with the old church ladies who teach him reading and writing. When dad comes back, things are so bad that Finn decides to fake his death and run away. What I like is the fact that Finn is pragmatic. What is the problem, how do I solve it. Didn't work? Roll with the punches as we develop a new plan. Finn ends up traveling down the Mississippi with runaway slave Jim and the two encounter all kinds of adventure. The second part of the book is just boring. At this point, Tom Sawyer enters the picture (whom Huck adores). Tom has a family and comes across as a bored rich, white kid. Tom also likes adventures, but his are all extravagant and over the top, created adventures not based in reality. Huck goes along, but since the adventure is created, it has no urgency and ends up not being very interesting. Unless your intent is to compare the two adventure styles, stick with the first half.
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note: this book is part of a Reading Lolita in Tehran project, which you can read more about here.

Reached

Ally Condie
Book 3 in Matched series
 Matched - Book 1
 Crossed - Book 2

We pick up the storyline with Cassie as a government sorter (i.e. data analyst) extraordinaire, Ky a resistance pilot and Xander an Official Medic in a small border town. A plague hits the population and the resistance is able to manufacture and distribute a cure. This is the start of overthrowing the system and all three are working to help and find their own way (and find each other). There is not a lot of certainty (remember these are teenagers) and some half-hearted attempt to push thinking about the role of society and government. Condie is trying to make this relevant, to push the reader into making connections with current society and government. But everything is either too obvious or not interesting. It is an OK story, and taking the trilogy as a whole, everything is put together in a nice, tidy package. But aside from the basic premise of government controlled, computer matched marriages, in six months this will be entirely forgotten. 

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The Wreck of The River of Stars

Michael Flynn

The River of Stars is (was) a luxury liner, best in its class. Similar to the Titanic of Queen Mary in their time, The River of Stars was the biggest and most decadent of all space travel vehicles. It was also the last of the big magnetic sailing ships. Shortly after its launch, the fusion propulsion systems became the cheaper, more reliable, more modern method of outfitting ships. We pick up the story with The River of Stars classified as a hybrid (retrofitted with fusion engines) and operating with a minimal crew as a tramp ship with a cargo load headed for Jupiter. The crew is a collection of misfits and rejects personally collected by the Captain... who happens to die in the first chapter. So the misfit crew, no longer held together by their captain, struggles through a series of mishaps along their voyage. Flynn's excelling here is in using this plot to explore who these misfits are. Told in third person, and successively focusing on each crew member individually, as a reader we are privy to background and thinking from each individual point of view, knowing things that even the individuals are often not aware of about themselves. Flynn, after telling what a particular character concluded, would often follow it with the parenthetical (although they don't know it yet, they might be wrong about that conclusion). So we have a great story, good technical sci-fi, and interesting/novel characters. What I am not sure about is if the novel was satisfying. What do I require for an enjoyable, or thought provoking novel? My current thinking is that is was trying to be more thought provoking that it actually was, ultimately wasting the great story, good technical sci-fi and interesting/novel characters.

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Eifelheim

Michael Flynn

In the movies, first contact with an alien species always takes place in modern times, or in the future. There is no reason why it couldn't have happened in the past. In this case, in the middle ages during the Black Plague epidemic in Europe. This setting provides the canvas for Flynn to write what is largely a historical fiction novel about life in the middle ages. Yes, there are aliens. But the book is less about the aliens than about how the middle age world view informs thinking about everything. Specifically, we look at how literal the christianity of the time is, and strangely enough contrast this with a hyper-literal translation of the worldview into something the aliens can understand. It is almost comical that the locals don't see that talk about "a God in heaven, who will return to earth to save us" is interpreted as a being that also understands space travel and will be arriving shortly to help with ship repairs. Flynn then intersperses the story with a modern day couple doing research in cosmology and historical mathematics, unknowingly pursuing the first contact event from 700 years earlier. So while this has the makings of a great sci-fi/historical fiction mashup, I found myself bored. Maybe some editing to take it from 400 to 300 pages would have sped things up just enough to maintain my interest. I pushed through and read the entire thing simply because of my own personality defect of needing to know the end of the story (I hate loose ends).  Otherwise, the descriptions of middle ages life were interesting in the beginning and then not interesting enough to keep me engaged.

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Submergence

J.M. Ledgard

The plot (such as it is) involves James and Danielle. It is really three memoirs, James, Danielle, and the one Christmas that they met and hit it off. Each individual story is the "submergence" of the title, with the joint memory interspersed for breathing room. James story is one of capture by Somali terrorists. Danielle is one of scientific inquiry into the depths of the ocean. This is really a 'state of mind' novel, giving the reader a picture of what happens in an isolated mind, whether by choice or by force. The prose is very matter of fact and at times, although I was reading from paper, had the distinct impression that I was listening to a monotonous voice giving me documentary style backstory. I must say that I didn't really understand this, thinking that this is a book to be read by a few and then discussed over coffee.

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Pnin

Vladimir Nabokov

In my recent reading, I have been contrasting Character and Narrative. Is the authors goal to have you know a person, or is the goal to tell a story? Nabokov writes a book about Timofey Pnin. This is a character book, in the extreme. Pnin is a professor of Russian at a small school in the east. He is an immigrant and has never really caught on to life in the United States. More accurately, he has a personality that does not recognize the need to "catch on" to life in the United States. As such, many (most) of his interactions are misinterpreted by either him or the other party. The entire novel is a series of interactions which push the reader deeper into understanding who Pnin is. And the descriptive prose by Nabokov is extensive. That is, paragraph length sentences with multiple parenthetical, relative and independent clauses. I would often have to reread a paragraph to find the subject/verb amidst the massive description just to track the intent of the sentence. Which may very well mean that I have missed the intent altogether. It is likely that the joy in reading a book like this is in savoring the descriptive, the clever turn of a phrase, the rabbit hole of prose. I feel like Nabokov accomplished his purpose with me, I know Pnin. But I did not savor. I will, however, reserve judgement since for me, it takes time to know whether this Pnin will stick with me, or will fall to some poorly used neural pathway, akin to the names of the barn cats that meandered through my life as a child.

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note: this book is part of a Reading Lolita in Tehran project, which you can read more about here.

The Blind Assassin

Margaret Atwood

Iris Chase narrates her life story in three views: the present (as an 80 something woman), the past (what an 80 something year old woman remembers of her youth), and from within a secretive love affair. The love affair is also part of the past, but written as 1st person present. The setting is 1930's central Canada (Toronto and environs) and follows the political landscape of WWI, Depression, and the Red Scare from the Canadian perspective. It turns out, however, that this book is not really about story or plot. It is about Iris and her sister Laura. It is about who two sisters are, not about what they do or how they live. It is about relationship, love, endurance, guilt, duty, and place.

I must admit that I didn't love this book. It didn't do enough. Probably the only reason I stayed with it was because the three view mechanism that Atwood used to tell the story changed views often enough to allow me to push through. But in the end, not enough happened. I am thinking that in order for character to mean something, the characters must engage with the world. They must do something in order for character to be revealed or formed. I feel the same displeasure with TV like "Downton Abbey". The characters sit around being (outraged, pleased, confused, put out, etc.) and we don't get to see often enough where these values come from or how the affect you in the world. And we don't want the other extreme, where there is all action, and no character (a la Clive Cussler). Many, I am sure, would argue that sci-fi often goes to this extreme of plot without character, but I would argue that good sci-fi at least tackles big ideas, which can become character-like in how you think about a story. Maybe I need to try a couple of "pure character" books of the highest quality to see how they sit with my theory.

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note: this book is part of a Reading Lolita in Tehran project, which you can read more about here.

Unsouled

Neal Shusterman

The third in the trilogy (Unwind, Unwholly), Unsouled picks up with the AWOL unwinds scattered around after their hideout is discovered and destroyed by the Juvenile Authority. Shusterman proceeds to spend the entire novel connecting the pieces of all the major characters. Unfortunately, he also decides to reconnect story-lines with minor characters. The storyline feels like he is trying to weave together an extremely complex plot into a clever and deep conclusion. In fact, a complex plot is not necessary (and comes out as manufactured complexity). Instead, since he has such great material in the unwind and rewind ideas, we should be watching the characters grow into their understanding of the implications of these ideas and alternatives. We get glimpses of the question of whether the Composite has a soul. But Shusterman never lets the characters explore this (and by extension, we don't get to explore it). In the end, I will recommend this only as a means to complete the series. It doesn't really provide the metaphysical substance that was promised in the first two volumes and it leaves too many loose ends (even though it seems his goal is to wrap all loose ends).

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The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

Leisel Meminger is a young girl being raised in a Munich suburb by her foster parents in the early 1940's. As she grows up, she learns about Germany through her new family, friends, and life in the town. The fact that she steals books seems like a plot device that was invented (somehow not integral to the identity of the characters). What is particularly interesting is that this book has not antagonist. All the characters are protagonists. It is one big happy support group... with the exception of the Fuhrer of course. So with just the idea of Hitler as an ever-present, domineering character, Zusak can completely avoid writing in specific characters to dislike. All conflict and tension comes directly from a character that is not really even in the book. I suppose this is a modern Anne Frank, which is strange to say since the timing of the books is identical. But this book feels more modern somehow. Perhaps is it the "Grimm Reaper as blogger" feel that the narrator uses (which turned me off initially nearly terminated my interest). I would say this is an average book, but you can read it quickly and I think it does give a glimpse of life in "normal Germany" where the average people lived during the war.
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The Knife of Never Letting Go

Patrick Ness
Chaos Walking Trilogy (Book 1)

The setting for this story is a "New World" planet that is being settled by those seeking religious freedom. We are about 20 years in to the settlement process and pick up with our protagonist (Todd) about a month away from reaching his 13th birthday and initiation into manhood. We learn that on this planet, the men are afflicted with Noise. That is, their thoughts (all of them) are made available for everyone to see/hear/feel. Of course, not all is at it seems to Todd initially and his discoveries and travels over the two week timeframe of this novel are all about setting the stage and developing the world. The series has possibilities for looking at privacy, power, gender roles, religious freedom and religious coercion. But as of yet, it is only setting the stage. On its own, it is interesting, but not strong. So stay tuned for the remainder of the series to see if this is worthwhile.
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The Declaration

Gemma Malley

Apparently (and there is not a bit of surprise in my tone here), young adult fiction is all about reproduction. Odds are that a dystopian future is going to be based on how reproductive rights are withheld, suppressed, or just plain bad. Ally Condie's Matched and Lauren Oliver's Delirium trilogies are great examples of this, and now with the Declaration, we get another version. In Malley's version, big-pharma has finally developed the "live forever" pill and society has accepted it as a natural good. What society then comes to realize is that if you actually live forever, you don't need kids and in fact, they become a burden to the global resource problem. So anyone who does not opt out of eternal life must sign the declaration, stating that that will not have kids. Of course there is an underground and of course, the protagonist is one of these kids that is born, considered "surplus" and sent away to an orphanage of sorts to be trained in the arts of service (because if they are surplus, they may as well be maids or gardeners, right?). Surplus Anna meets a new kid in the orphanage, begins to have her eyes opened and struggles to understand the world in a whole new way.

Probably the most interesting idea here is to really think about societal willingness to enforce limits on families as people do actually begin to live longer. Do these limits mean pressure to limit births, or reconsidering the value of living longer. "Who is really the burden?", asks Malley. Is it the aging parent who continues to consume resources, or the kid who is consuming additional resources? So while this is a second tier dystopian future novel, I continue to like the themes that the authors are raising as they look into our not-so-distant future and take a stab at the kinds of societal issues that we will necessarily be addressing.

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