Adulthood Rights

Octavia E. Butler
Book 2 of the Xenogenesis Trilogy

Many years after the close of Dawn, Lilith has joined humans back on Earth and are well into resettlement. There are scores of settlements in the area, although all are remote. The Oankali situation is one where genetic engineering proceeds with the goal of producing both human born and Oankali born offspring (instead of genetically manufactured). This is an important step toward self sufficiency. The human situation is one where humans have been rendered sterile, unless they are willing to participate in the hybrid offspring program. So for humanity as a sustainable species, the outlook is grim. Our protagonist in this volume is Akin, a human looking hybrid child, who is kidnapped by human resisters and left to live with the humans as a way to learn about them and their values.

I continue to enjoy the exploration of human uniqueness, the exploration of human exceptionalism and the way Butler puts traditional colonialist values into the Oankali culture in such a matter-of-fact illumination of human contradictions.

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The Last Season

Eric Blehm

This is the true story of the disappearance of Randy Morgenson. Morgenson was a super experienced, seasonal employee of the National Park Service who worked every summer as a back country ranger in the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Forest. These national forests contain the most rugged terrain of any land in the country, with only 1% of the area actually accessible to the public by trail. As a back country ranger, Morgenson was responsible to patrol, both the 1% and the 99%. But in the summer of 1996, he disappeared leaving only a "Ranger on patrol for 3-4 days" note. This book tells the story of Morgenson, before and after the disappearance, giving the reader a pretty good understanding of the person, and of the type of person who is a back country ranger. It also tells the story of Kings Canyon and Sequoia, fully characters in their own right, which would have been exactly what Morgenson would have insisted on. A fascinating read, made more so if you have been to any part of the national forest in California and have an image of the landscape to follow you around the telling.

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Night School

A Jack Reacher Novel
Lee Child

Set back in time when Reacher is still an MP, he is reassigned to attend a night school class, along with an FBI agent and CIA analyst. Which means a highly sensitive, highly secretive, joint agency operation. This time the task is to track down a terrorist cell that is buying something for $100 million. To much for regular munitions, too little for WMD's. No worries, Reacher is on the case. He works with his assigned partners... sort of. Mostly he goes off on his own and solves the thing on his own, taking out some alt-right Euro's along the way. Classic Reacher.

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Generation One

Pittacus Lore

Starting a new series in the Lorien Legacies world. We are post war with the Mogadorians and the Garde have won, with the help of the new human garde of course. With Loric energy infusing a new generation, we of course need to start a Professor Xavier like school in order to train the newly powerful humans how to be safe... and to control and use these powers. So we go to school, meet a few of the new human garde, not all of whom are excited to be chosen. They get restless, get into trouble, uncover a vast conspiracy, and learn a lot about themselves in the process of fighting crime and corruption. This is as entertaining as the X-files, and about as deep. In fact, I am increasingly aware of the fact that this could easily have been written by an AI trained in formulaic YA sci-fi.

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Dawn

Octavia E. Butler
Book 1 of the Xenogenesis Trilogy

I found this at the library and thought that I have discovered a new Octavia Butler series. And then I remembered that she had passed more than a decade ago. And then a perusal of the publication date places this trilogy in the late 80's. How did I miss it? Another reminder of how vast the literary library is, and how little I have actually read.

This book opens with Lilith coming awake and finding herself in an alien ship. Humanity is post global destruction war and was "rescued" by an alien race from a now toxic earth. Lilith is woken to begin the process of reintroducing humans to earth... and participating in "trade" with this alien species. The Oankali see themselves as a benevolent species, saving humans from extinction at the cost of genetic mixing to create a new species that will better populate a revived earth. Lilith (like all humans in this story) finds this forced genetic mixing repulsive. Fascinatingly analogous to a captive breeding program for nearly extinct species, coupled with genetic engineering of the species to promote sustainability. But we never ask the condor, or the white rhino, etc. whether it is willing to undergo genetic modification to "save itself". Now humans are the rhinos...

Lilith is conflicted, the Oankali are oblivious to their genetic colonialism, and the reader is 50-50 on whether they recognize the irony of thinking of certain colonialism as OK and other as repulsive. Fabulous.

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The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three

Stephen King

Book 2 of The Dark Tower Series

First of all, I find it interesting that only a month after finishing the first in the series, I open the second and barely remember anything described in the "review" prologue. This is one of two things: the reason I found the first insubstantial is that I was paying attention to the wrong things, or upon writing the second King finally realizes the direction he wants to go and highlights (in hindsight) the pieces that take there. I have not had such a strong "literary amnesia" in such a short time before. That said, this second volume does set the hook for the story, bringing in additional "modern time" characters that have developed character as well as spending enough time with the gunslinger making decisions to start to understand his character. So I have now been pulled in to this long saga, albeit not deep enough to rush out and buy every volume. I will wait until my library is willing to share each in turn...

Upgraded to Read (perhaps prematurely?)

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

A friend of mine claims this is the best sci-fi/fantasy series in existence. So I'll try it. First installment follows the gunslinger across the desert, in pursuit of the man in black. That's it. All of it. Yes, we get hints at the kind of world this is, and how magic is somewhere in this world. We get a brief flashback into the gunslingers origin/training as a gunslinger. And we meet the kid Jake. But really, this is a prologue. I will reserve any judgement until I get somewhere in this eight volume saga.

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Ancillary Mercy

Ann Leckie
Book 3 of the Imperial Radch Trilogy

The final installment of this trilogy and I am not disappointed. Having read 1 & 2 out of order, I am finding that it was actually quite a good accident. The 2nd (Justice) was the best in terms of hook and action and setting the stage. The 1st (Sword) then gave lots of backstory and fixed a few misconceptions I had. But in all, I was allowed to imagine the world without having it fed to me directly first. Finally, the 3rd (Mercy) completes the action. I also felt like the style Leckie uses here started off very much as reporting, filling in some backstory from the point of view of Breq -- which evolved over the course of the book into personal narrative. This was, I am sure, intentional as it mirrors the identity journey of Breq and it was highly effective.

The story picks up with the Mercy of Kalr (Breq's ship) managing security in the system and navigating the civilian adminsitration as well. The appearance of a Presger translator, an unattached ancillary and another instance of Anaandar Mianaai makes the political intrigue of who supports whom quite thick. In many ways, a classic space opera. But when we start getting to ideas of identity and Significance with respect to the AI's, I am again reminded of the current (real-world) fear of AI taking over the world and pushing humans to extinction. Fear that any true AI would become all powerful and couldn't possibly have a need for humans. And the suggestion (I wish I could remember where I first saw this idea) that this concept of AI is based on the perception of an AI being male. In Leckie's trilogy, gender pronouns are irrelevant in the Radchaai language and nearly everyone is referred to as she. In addition, the AI personality is largely stereotypically female (nurturing, self sacrificing for those whom they are responsible, etc.). Why are we not seriously working at this? While current tech companies continue to develop AI, they are not seriously working to fix gender inequity amongst their developers, directly pushing the fear of dominant/out-of-control AI being born closer to reality.


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Ancillary Justice

Ann Leckie
Book 1 of the Imperial Radch Trilogy

I had already read the 2nd book (Ancillary Sword) so this was good backstory. We get the history of how Breq (the One Esk 19 ancillary of the Justice of Toren warship) became separated from her ship and became an individual. We also get the development of the bifurcation of Anaandar Mianaai, Lord of the Radch. There is good thinking (as any good sci-fi should inspire) about the nature of good and evil, the difficulty of the gray area in morality, and the effectiveness of the individual against a culture of domination. Now just have to wait for my library to get me the conclusion.

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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.

Legend

Marie Lu

Straight up YA dystopian future that follows the formula of Divergent or Matched. We are set in a North America post massive sea-level rise, and the east and west coasts of the U.S. have split. The Colonies (the east) are at war with The Republic (the west). Told chapter by chapter from the alternate perspectives of Day (Republic street kid doing what he can to be a one person rebellion) and June (Republic military prodigy). Of course, they meet and not everything is as it seems. I am sure that 5 years ago this would have been astounding. Now it seems wrote.

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The Intuitionist

Colson Whitehead

Subtlely set in Manhattan, as the city that is the place to be if you are interested in vertical transport, and utilizing tensions within the Elevator Inspectors Guild to tell the story. Lila Mae Watson is the first female, black inspector in the history of the guild. She is also an intuitionist, which puts her already at odds with the empiricists who currently dominate the guild. There is an accident with an elevator that she inspected and she is pulled into the machinations of the guild politics. However, she does not see what is happening as politics. She sees an existential question, exploring her own identity as an inspector, a woman and black. And while she is clearly intuitionist in the world of verticality, Whitehead really tells Lila Mae's story using empirical observations of the events surrounding her. This is billed as a racial allegory, but it seems to me that it is really an exploration of identity, with the protagonist being on the outside of dominant culture on three counts (intuitionist, woman, black). Interesting at the least, but I suspect I will be thinking about this for awhile.

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On the Steel Breeze

Alastair Reynolds

Fantastic. Science fiction should push the boundaries of science and use the resulting world to make you think about strange connections or possibilities in our current non-fiction world. Reynolds does that. Our protagonist, Chiku Yellow, lives on earth in "the surveilled world". The Mechanism is an AI (or machine-substrate consciousness as it prefers to be called) that manages everything from giant construction/recycle machines called Providers to the aug, which is implanted in every living thing and assists with translation, health, etc. Truly the surveilled world. This civilization has sent out colonizers to a planet 28 light years away on holoships (effectively giant, hollowed out, asteroids) and we also find Chiku Green as a leader on one of these ships. One of the core tensions throughout this plot is that the people on the holoships are counting on the development of an engine that depends on physics not yet discovered in order to be able to slow down an actually stop at their new planet.

What I particularly like about this book is how it doesn't just wave over the years worth of communication lag between the holoships and earth. We don't have a magical faster than light communication scheme, but we do have connected stories going on in two vastly separated parts of the galaxy. This is creative storytelling at its best. I also like how we are asked to think about AI, how it might evolve, the pros and cons of "the surveilled world" and even about human identity and our place in nature.

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Dry Bones in the Valley

Tom Bouman

Murder/mystery set in central Pennsylvania, where the culture is agriculture and northern appalacian, and new tensions have set in as big oil has begun to offer big money for fracking rights. In this setting, local township cop Henry Farrell is handed a murder when a body is found on the property of a local recluse. Which eventually leads to another body... and another murder... and... In most ways, this is a typical small town police procedural, and where these kinds of stories make their marks is not in the clever plot, but in the storytelling about the small town. Here Bouman delves into the life of fiercely independent individuals who each have their own ideas about how to move into the 21st century. He reveals a part of the country that is new to me, and I found it engaging.

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Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia

Mike Resnick

The story of an African tribe moving to a new place (that happens to be a space station in the year 2130, but that is totally irrelevant) to create a utopia based on that tribe's founding values, shunning all things European and all results of colonization. It is told from the first person perspective of the mundumugo (the witch doctor or tribal elder or respected shaman), whose original vision it was to set up this utopia. The story takes place over the course of a decade or so, and each chapter is basically a stand-alone story that addresses a particular difficulty or challenge to the utopia. In each case, the mundumugo uses story and fable to guide the children and the elders how to think in order to maintain and enhance the cultural integrity of this utopia. And in each case, it turns out that only the mundumugo sees the bigger picture. This is a great story of power, colonization, utopia, wisdom, perspective, change, community, democracy, culture, tradition, story-telling and thinking.
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Ancillary Sword

Ann Leckie
Bood 2 of the Imperial Radch trilogy

Good ol' fashioned sci-fi, space thriller. Many systems, with "gate travel" allowing the traversal of vast distances relatively quickly. The galaxy is in political turmoil. The individuals in the story are trying to do right, and be on the right side for humanity. Love it. What makes this particularly interesting is the use of AI. The main character, Fleet Captain Breq, is actually an AI. And even better is the logical extension of how an AI development would happen. Breq used to be a ship (in the first book Ancillary Justice). The ship had part of its intelligence in ancillary humans (bodies with implants) and Breq is the last remaining portion of this ship. In the same way, the supreme ruler of this area of space is the Lord of the Radch, and this Lord is an AI who has also extended her intelligence into many thousands of ancillaries. The current "trouble" is that the Lord of the Radch was spread too thin and bifurcated... meaning she battles against herself. Fabulous. So many fun things to consider, and don't even get me started on the fact that the entire character set is female. Need to go back and read the first book now.
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Killshot

Elmore Leonard

This crime thriller follows Blackbird, a first nations man residing in Toronto, through a few weeks of his life as an assassin for the Canadian mob. We start with a "standard hit" and then Bird gets connected by chance with a punk named Richie Nix, after which Bird's standard way of looking at, and interacting with, the world change. Regular folk Wayne and Carmen Colson out of Detroit get drawn into this story as well. The explicit plot tension is between the Colsons and the Nix/Bird duo. The more interesting tension is between the Colsons, and also between Nix & Bird. That said, I was only marginally engaged throughout. The story was good, and I enjoyed reading it. But it did not pull me in and demand that I read it. One of those books that lays around on your table for a month, half read.
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The Lord of Opium

Nancy Farmer

A sequel to The House of the Scorpion, we pick up immediately. Mateo is now the sole heir to El Patrón, who committed suicide and murdered his entire retinue with a massive dose of the proverbial kool-aid. And the border is locked down, so no supplied in, and no drugs out. The remainder of the story does a few of things: 1) documents the growing into power and solidifying of power by Mateo, 2) explores trust and friendship amidst explicit and massive power differentials, 3) explores human rights and 'the greater good', and 4) imagines a world of environmental care (be it accidental) and paints a picture of environmental value. In all, a fabulous book in its own right. I would say tells a better story and forces the reader into a more essential thinking process than the first. Highly recommend this series.

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A World Without You

Beth Revis

This is actually pretty amazing. Some weird cross in tone between Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children (of which I only saw the film) and The Fault in Our Stars. The story is a deep look into normalcy and mental illness from the perspective of both the afflicted and the family around them. Maybe because I loved her Across the Universe trilogy, I stepped into this expecting full Revis Sci-fi. And as the story developed, it unfolded for me in a way that seemed consistent with the unfolding for Bo, the protagonist. Excellent writing.

The story follows Bo, a student at Berkshire School for Students with Exceptional Needs. We are introduced to him and the fellow students in his unit immediately after a tragedy has struck the school. Bo spends most of the book exploring this tragedy, investigating it, and developing his powers to be able to remedy it. At the same time, we jump to the perspective of his sister Phoebe, who is attending local public school, is 'normal' and nearly invisible to her parents.

I take this as a particularly poignant view of families and relationships who are dealing with any variety of 'exceptional needs'. Not a happy book, per se, but hopeful in many ways. Definitely worth reading.

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Underground Airlines

Ben H. Winters

Set in current time, but as an alternate history. President Lincoln was assassinated before the emancipation, and the civil war resulted in a compromise. This compromise allowed slavery to be a state decision and permanently disallowed federal oversight. In the current year, only 4 states remain as slave states, but as a result, the U.S. is on the outs with the global community, effectively under economic sanctions. Some of the subtle beauty of this novel is in how this reality filters through to language. For example, a passing vehicle is a SA truck - referencing its manufacturing origin of South Africa. Or a Pakistani Wagon. Just dropped clues about the impact of remaining a slave state. The protagonist is Victor, a 'semi-free' black man working for the U.S. Marshalls, charged with tracking down runaway slaves and returning them to their owners. On this particular case, he is working to infiltrate the 'airline' to track a particular man and there are a few things that strike him as odd. While he continues his tracking, he also encounters increasing memories and emotional resistance. Not only is this a fascinating take on an alternate history, it is also a well told story of the internal struggles that one develops when pursuing a profession that is inconsistent with your values.

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Shades of Earth

Beth Revis
Book 3 in Across the Universe trilogy

Final installment and we are not disappointed. Elder, Amy, and about 1500 of the Godspeed inhabitants have decided to travel to the surface of Centauri-Earth, in spite of the promised monsters and dire warnings of both Eldest and Orion. When they arrive, they also thaw out the 100 earthborn military and science officers who are earthborn and who are charged with the next phase of the mission. It turns out that Amy's father is the ranking military officer and her mother is the chief biological scientist. And of course there is conflict between the military and Elder of the shipborn. There is racism, there are control issues, there are secrets, and yes, there are monsters. Amy and Elder continue their sleuthing, trying to solve the final of Orion's clues, keep everyone (shipborn and earthborn and alien) safe, and make a home while they are at it. Again, Revis has created a book that is interesting in its own right, fits in with the universe she created, and continues to develop this world into an increasingly deep and rich place.

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Scythe

Neal Shusterman

Another home run. Very much in the same vein as the Unwind series, Shusterman creates a crazy world that forces us to explicitly engage with what it means to be human. With Unwind, he deconstructs the physical body, asking the reader to consider where exactly a person exists. In Scythe, we investigating the cultural and individual decisions that provide meaning. The context here is a world that is referred to as post-mortal. Science has developed the technology to heal everything. So we are post-disease and any ill that could possible befall a person can be healed. In addition, what we currently refer to as the cloud has evolved into Thunderhead, a benevolent AI to whom humanity has given responsibility for managing all the technical details of life. Governments are no longer needed. In this world, where there is no death, the system has been developed where Scythes are charged with gleaning the human population as a method of population control. This story follows two young teens who are brought into the Scythe apprenticeship program, where they encounter everything you might expect. In many ways, this is a modern The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. I love the politics, the teen struggles with violence, the need for purpose in life, how easy it is to slip into a group, etc. All of these struggles are real struggles that seem obvious in an extreme world, but are also real struggles for anyone living in the world today who is concerned with justice and living a life of integrity. A quick read, and great discussions.

As an aside, this is perhaps the first book that has a benevolent AI overlord. No one is trying to overthrow the AI, and the AI has improved life for everyone. I read recently a critique of our fear of AI by Michael Shermer and how many prominent scientists think an out of control AI is the most certain path to human extinction in our future. One interesting point Shermer posits is the difference between a male AI and a female AI. While many AI dystopian futures are predicated on a warrior AI, intent on domination and control (stereotypical male intent), he suggests that it is equally likely that an AI would develop with stereotypical female intent: nurture, collaboration and sustainability. Fascinating. I would say "equally likely" is only true if we get more women involved in AI development (Computer Science and technical fields). The odds of developing a female AI without female coding is nearly nil.

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She Is Not Invisible

Marcus Sedgwick

A short fiction telling the story of a young blind teen and her 7 year old brother who travel on their own from London to New York in an effort to find their missing father. Told from the perspective of the girl, this is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, she has a pretty rational/independent/pragmatic approach to navigating the world and second, the missing father is an author who has been obsessed with coincidence over the past couple of years. So we get a nice little mystery to solve as well as a dabbling of metaphysics around coincidence and synchronicity. A very quick/fun read.

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Acceptance

Jeff Vandermeer

Book 3 of the Southern Reach Trilogy

I have accepted the fact that this is a bad trilogy. Book 3, I was hoping, would provide some resolution, both in terms of the mystery of what exactly Area X is, and in terms of why we care. I must say that we only find out a bit more about Area X. So the series ends with only vague understandings of what it might be. And I clearly don't care. The motivations are not developed to the point where a reader is truly invested in the characters. I was curious, but not invested. Which leads me to think about why this trilogy showed up on so many 'best book of the year' lists. It was supposed to be a character driven mystery/sci-fi novel. Was it supposed to be commentary on something? Environmentalism? Government control? In-office working relationships? Self-discovery? Or is it supposed to be a character driven, fantasy-mystery? Maybe the fact that I don't know, or couldn't tell, means that I am not the target audience for this trilogy.

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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.

Wait