Posts Tagged ‘books’
SHIFT, Book Two of the SILO series, A No-Spoiler Review
SHIFT is book two in a trilogy, so beware of spoilers as you read this in regard to book one or in regard to the first season of the tv series. I may mention details that will spoil book one/season 1, so stop reading now and click on WOOL to read my review of book one of the SILO series. This novel, like the first is rated PG/PG-13.
SILO is currently showing on Apple tv+. You can view the first and second season now. I recommend the first season for sure, but am still wading through the second…it’s excellent so far, but I’ve only watched the first couple of episodes.
I’m guessing this series would make a great audiobook. It’s not so complex as a story, follows few characters and takes place primarily in the silo, a setting that becomes very familiar by the middle of book 1.
The Short Review: 4 Reasons I Recommend SHIFT
- If you liked WOOL and are curious about how the world fell apart and the silos were conceived of and created, you’ll want to read this novel. It contains a lot of backstory.
- While some questions are answered, there are many unknowns and therefore more page-turning tension
- This story follows two characters, two different narrative voices who so far have not met/do not interact. One of the characters was a peripheral character in WOOL and one is new (almost) to the reader.
- All the characters are flawed in different ways, but relatable and trying against many odds to do good…or at least to make things right
Note: If you loved Juliette as a character, know you’ll see very little of her in this novel, but based on how this book ends, I have the feeling she will take center stage again in book 3. It’s a guess, but an educated one.
The Longer Review:
The SILO series so far has been a fast read, despite the number of words. Don’t let size fool you. If you’re like me, you’ll be turning pages quickly and staying awake too late at night so you can figure out what is happening. Also, I skimmed less of the text in this novel, but still read it quickly.
Regarding the order in which you do this…reading first or viewing first, one thought: I watched the first season of SILO without knowing about the books. Once I posted my review, I did receive notes from some of you encouraging me to read the books. Just know, that the series follows the books very closely, so some of the tension and mystery (either when you read or when you watch) may be diminished because you will know in advance what takes place. It changes the experience a little, though I am determined to do both and realizing the tension will come one way or the other, either on the page or on the screen. I do like the combo though. I like seeing what the screenwriter chooses to put into the script, what to leave out, or what to change. So far the series SILO, has few deviations from the novels, but there is one BIG ONE. At the end of season 1 of the SILO series, Juliette has been sent out to clean and the audience does not know what will happen as she refuses to clean, then walks over a hill and disappears from sight.
It’s a perfect season-ending cliffhanger that the screenwriter exploits, so I don’t blame him for constructing the story in this way. However, in the novel, Juliette’s next hours and days are right there in the last chapters of WOOL. So…it could be strategic to watch season 1 and 2 on Apple+ before even reading the first book, WOOL. The mystery might be more satisfying that way.
Whatever, the case, the series is fun and I’m enjoying reading it. The writing is not perfect, but it’s perfect enough to engage me (and I’m really picky) and fan the flames of my imagination. I can’t comment on the overall themes and human story yet because I’m still figuring out what Hugh Howey is saying about humanity. Maybe the third novel will give me a window into his worldview.
SILO, A Review of Novel #1
SILO is an Apple+ series that is about to release a second season. Recently, I began reading the novels. The first installment is called WOOL, and follows pretty closely the first season of the Apple+ version. This novel is rated PG-13 for adult themes. There is little or no explicit violence and no explicit sex scenes.
Hugh Howey first wrote this novel as a series of short stories/novellas. He put those stories together and indie published WOOL as a novel around 2012.
First, The Short No-Spoiler Review
Three reasons I recommend this novel, and one reservation:
- WOOL puts forward an interesting concept of post apocalyptic human existence that feels unique within the dystopian genre
- well-drawn characters overall
- enough mystery to keep the reader turning pages
My one reservation, some parts of this novel are too long and boring.
The Longer Review:
A potential issue with self-published novels is that the editing process is not well done. The author cannot afford to hire a top-notch editor and the consequence is either lots of typos or poor writing.
Overall, Howey did an amazing job self-publishing…could not find any typos, but he overwrote parts of the novel. As a reader, I sense this when I start skimming text. There is too much nitty gritty detail about everything that is transpiring. These are details the writer might need to know, but the reader does not. All that detail slows down the action, the excitement. In the worst case scenario, the reader stops reading. I did not stop reading because I actually cared about the characters and wanted to know the outcome of the story because Howey did not give me the answer to my questions until the end. So I needed to skim a few parts, but I did read until the final page.
Toward the end of the novel, when there are a couple of events that involve long scenes where I actually knew what the outcome would be, I skimmed the equivalent of about 50 pages of text.
I think most readers will know when they hit those sections. There is just too much detail and when the reader in essence already knows what is going to take place, we want to get to the next part of the action ASAP, so we skim. I have skimmed text while reading indie published novels, but I have also skimmed tradtionally published novels a few times. In theory, the great editor will catch these slow spots and help the writer edit them out. In practice, this is not always the case.
Regarding WOOL, the core of the story is good enough that most readers will overlook the overwritten parts. And the Apple+ TV people are certainly tightening everything up in a ways that is not boring. Season 2 just began (Jan of 2025)…and looks promising.
Wicked, A No-Spoiler Review of the Novel (Not the Musical)
WICKED, a huge Broadway hit from the last couple of decades, is coming to film. I recently learned that WICKED (the musical, on which the film is based) debuted at the Curan Theater on May 28 of 2003. The Curan Theater lives at 445 Geary Street in San Francisco. Berkeley is my old home, stomping grounds for 27 years. The Curan Theater was a 20 minute walk, plus a 20 minute BART ride away from my doorstep. I saw Les Miserables at the Curan, and the Phantom of the Opera, and probably a couple of other shows before my life of parenting got very busy in the East Bay.
WICKED, the musical became a huge hit, took Broadway by storm and delighted the musical theater world with its interesting take on Oz, as well as the compelling music based on the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West. This all emerged from Gregory Maguire’s novel.
I recently read the novel for the first time. Here is my short review:
5 Reasons I Recommend the Novel, WICKED (With Reservations)
- The musical does not follow the story of the novel closely, so if you’ve already seen the musical, expect to be surprised/disappointed by the novel.
- The novel is an entertaining story, but beware educators, this book is rated “R” in terms of sexual content. Gregory Maguire wrote female characters with active sex lives and he is explicit in describing their sex lives
- I appreciated the take on an alternative narrative regarding the famous villain of The Wizard of Oz. The world is other. Today, we might call Maguire’s novel fan fiction. It’s also interesting to remember that all villains in any fairytale are more complex people when their surface is scratched.
- While the world is other, the characters are relatable, which is why I think Maguire’s novel took flight
- Maguire took the world inhabited by Dorothy and Toto and broadened it. That brings pleasure to many fans of The Wizard of Oz
The Long Review: (tiny spoiler in below content)
I don’t have too much to add here…only that a good friend told me that as a child, she was a huge fan of the musical and listened to the songs all the time. Her grandmother heard this and bought her the novel. My friend, a pre-teen child at the time, started reading the novel and was somewhat traumatized by the sex in the book. She set the novel aside for another time.
To be honest, because I am a writer, I ponder this middle-aged male author writing about women and their relational lives (not simply their sex lives, but more broadly…their relational lives). His characters often felt more male to me than female. Their sexual habits was one area where I began to wonder, but also Ephalba (the Wicked Witch of the West) struck me as disturbingly non-maternal. She is cruel in her neglect of the child of her lover. She hardly claims him. She feels empathy for some others, and in a broad sense seems to care for weak folks in her society, but she feels almost zero maternal compassion for her son. That struck me as odd and made her less relatable. Could a woman have written this character? I’m not sure, and maybe Maguire was working out his angst regarding horrible mothers. 
In short, this book was an entertaining read, but don’t feel like you have to read it to enjoy the musical. In fact, you may enjoy the musical (and now the musical film) more without knowledge of the book.
This audiobook is a fun one, so if you love listening to quick-paced novels, and don’t mind the sexual content, WICKED would probably entertain.
The Progression of a Brilliant Story:
It all starts with L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz, which inspires Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer Wizard of Oz, a musical. In the 70s, Charlie Smalls and William F. Brown created The Wiz. That played on Broadway, then was eventually turned into a musical film starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. Then, Gregory Maguire writes WICKED. Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman love the story and create Wicked, the musical. Now, Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox write, and John Chu directs Wicked, the musical film, with Schwartz’ music from the stage, of course!
That’s great story after great story emerging out of one novel. So, I can’t say I loved WICKED as a novel, but in the spirit of The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz, it certainly inspired amazing music!
ALIEN CHILD, A No Spoiler Review of the YA Novel
Pamela Sargent, prolific middle grade scifi writer, wrote ALIEN CHILD in the 80s. I recommend this book as a thought-provoking vision of a possible dystopian future.
The Short, No-Spoiler Review: 4 Reasons to Read this Book with your Middleschooler/Young Adult
- ALIEN CHILD delivers a story that unfolds like a mystery, rated PG
- the characters are young, the aliens are unique
- the world is both bleak and surprising
- the questions that arise around “species extinction” are worth pondering, even for a young person
Novels like ALIEN CHILD give a parent or educator a reason to read with a teen. This is an entertaining book that has the potential to give rise to great discussion. I highly recommend this story for parent or educator/child consumption.
I also recommend the audio version.
CONSIDER PHLEBAS, A No-Spoiler Review
I highly recommend CONSIDER PHLEBAS, an epic space opera written by the great Iain M. Banks. See below for the details, but suffice it to say: You MUST read Banks (especially books in the Culture Series) before you die…and don’t wait too long. You’ll need the brain-power to absorb the complexities of his broad, beautiful and sometimes terrifying future.
Iain Banks wrote literary fiction and science fiction. His literary fiction was written under the name: Iain Banks. CONSIDER PHLEBAS, and all his subsequent science fiction novels were written under the name Iain M. Banks. Banks, a Scottish writer, was born in 1954 and died at age 59 in 2013. I rate this novel PG-13. A sensitive person might not appreciate the violence (this is a space opera, with battles and alien species and robots/drones. Think, Star Wars.) A bit of sex, but no explicit sex scenes.
First, The Short Review
Four reasons I recommend this novel:
- Banks is a talented and careful writer, so the world building is new, weird, but not overwrought
- Compelling characters, unique in that they inhabit a future unknown to us, but relatable in their “humanity”
- Broad/epic adventure story, but a focused and well-crafted arc that follows one character
- The philosophical underpinnings of this first in the Culture Series is a must read for anyone who considers him/herself a scifi aficionado.
The Longer Review
CONSIDER PHLEBAS is not only the first of Banks’ scifi novels, it is the first of several in the acclaimed Culture Series. I’ve referred to this article in my review of FEERSUM ENDJINN, but to understand Banks and his philosophy around the future, tech, especially AI, and the massive impacts of “culture” on the future, this article by Professor Joseph Heath is a must read.
I also recommend 5 blogposts by the folks at: The Quill to Live. This is the most thorough review of each book in the series I have ever encountered, all on one easy to navigate and well-written site.
Here is an excerpt from the first post called: Why You Should Read the Culture: Part 1 — The Hub
“The two pieces of worldbuilding that really drive home how different The Culture is from your typical fare are how Banks approaches humanity and AI. When I first started the series I was so surprised to find that the humans aren’t Terran (from Earth). That is to say, this isn’t a story about our humanity or even our Earth, and there is absolutely none of the baggage that would come with a narrative built in our history. At first, it feels weird. I thought Banks was just trying to make his world ‘special’ or ‘original’ by calling the Terrans something else. But I quickly realized that really isn’t what’s happening. Banks removed the “humanity” element because he wanted to build something new. A tabula rasa. A fresh canvas on which to showcase ideas. It means that the reader has a lot more leg work than your average science fiction story, but that you will get to see the birth of something completely new.”
There are reasons to read books in a series, especially when it comes to genres like science fiction and fantasy. Most of you who read these genres know what I’m going to say…you read in a series because it’s so pleasurable. Once you fall in love with a place, you want to dwell there for a time.
Often a narrow piece of the world is captured in the first book, so that the many books or films that follow can hone in on or add new details that if included in the first novel would have bogged it down. Think about Herbert’s Dune and the incredibly complex societies that exist within that first universe. Then, read Dune Messiah and Children of Dune and one begins to see how narrow the scope of the original story was. An author often holds these details and nuances in her/his head but resists (in part because it is impossible to do so) revealing everything there is to know about the world in the first story. It’s the way we operate as humans as well…we take in information, absorb our environment and over time our picture of a place changes over time. Similarly, a reader can have a relationship with a fictional place. Many Millenials (and others) in our society have had that experience with the world of Harry Potter. Reading the Potter Series is in part travel adventure. We crave the familiar locales at Hogwarts, like the dining hall, or the cozy Gryffindor common room. In the novels, the first kiss takes place between Ron and Hermione in this lovely space.
“The common room was a circular room where Gryffindor students could relax after a long day of studying. It was full of squashy armchairs, tables, and a bulletin board where school notices, ads, lost posters, etc. could be posted.”
But we delight in discovering new places in and around Hogwarts, like The Room of Requirement, which comes about in book 5 of the series thanks to Dobby, the elf.
So, I am making the case that the series is probably worth reading, though I haven’t read it myself. I’ll have to figure out if I want to read it now and at once. My “to-read” book pile is large and includes Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, which I want to read soon.
However, even if you don’t want to read the entire Culture Series, dipping into it by reading CONSIDER PHLEBAS is a worthy pursuit. The novel stands alone and is entertaining in its own right. Then, make sure you pay attention to Professor Heath’s article that I linked to above. That much analysis will get you close to being able to have an intelligent conversation with most of Banks’ most devout fans.
FEERSUM ENDJINN, A No-Spoiler Review
Iain M. Banks is a Scottish writer who produced literary and science fiction. He is a must read for all scifi fanatics. I only say this to the purists because if you are not a scifi purist, you might find Banks challenging. This is a review of FEERSUM ENDJINN, one of his scifi books. I have no idea if his lit fiction is easier to consume. That is not my genre. He wrote his literary fiction under the name: Iain Banks…without the “M” middle initial.
The Short Review
I recommend FEERSUM ENDJINN with reservations. Yes read for these reasons:
- If you want to gather the fathers and mothers of scifi into your knowledge base, you need to read Banks. Some would say, start with Consider Phlebas (the first novel of his Culture series). I will read that one next. Review will follow.
- Banks writes honestly in that he is someone who sees technology in his story as a power that infects every aspect of culture (will explain more in the longer review)
- You find a story thread in this novel that creates tension. The mystery is embedded in the story and characters and even the style of writing, but the reader has to work to figure out the narrative.
My reservations:
- Very little of the arc is made plain to the average reader, the story is a nut to crack. Not everyone wants to work that hard.
- 4 points of view give the narrative its shape, not all of those POVs are created equal
- One POV is told from the perspective of a creature, probably a bird of some type. It does not know traditional spelling so the reader will have to endure paragraphs that are confusing…reading sentences like this: That woz how we used 2 reech our hoam, 1 ov thi birdz tells me. The narration written in this form is about 1/6 of the book and it was very unpleasant for me to read…even though I knew Banks was doing something experimental and interesting. I wanted to like it, but didn’t.
The Longer Review:
FEERSUM ENDJINN is a story, rated PG or PG-13…Regarding the PG-13 rating, there is a reference to a character in bed with two women…and a couple of other random references to sexual desire that might deem the book PG-13…however, those references reveal character and were not given much airtime overall. For the most part, the characters are not interested in, or engaging with sex. Violence is also not prominent in this story.
The mystery lies in how a future earth exists and in what form it is inhabited. Four characters give the sense of what this reality might be. Seemingly, Earth is really messed up. People are living underground and there is a battle between AI and a computer program that gives human beings their existence. I didn’t fully understand this dynamic from the text, but read a few articles to help me grasp the full meaning. The story was imaginative and made me wonder about the world, but overall…I found it difficult to connect with any of the characters. Maybe Gadfium (one of the POV characters), but even he/she only sometimes evoked my empathy. I call Gadfium he/she because of the story world that brings characters back from death, but sometimes in male or female or even animal form.
A book that requires this much work to understand is not a joy for everyone. However, if you want to read the really nerdy people on Banks like Professor Joseph Heath you might begin to understand how groundbreaking was Banks’ vision of the future.
When I read Consider Phlebas later this year, I’ll comment on this more, I hope. For now…you have to read one Banks novel if you’re a fanatic and this one could be the one for you.
HOOD, by Stephen Lawhead, A No-Spoiler Review
Last fall, I needed to restock my Little Free Library, so headed to the local Goodwill to see what sci-fi, fantasy or dystopian fiction they had on hand. (My LFLibrary is filled with these genres only). I did find some great treasures, including this Stephen Lawhead book that I had never heard of. I began reading it sometime in the winter and got hooked. I knew of Lawhead because of reading the Pendragon Cycle sometime in my 20s. HOOD is book one in
HOOD is the first book in the King Raven Trilogy, a story that follows a character based on the Robin Hood myth/legend.
Short Review of HOOD
I highly recommend this novel. Here’s why:
- Stephen Lawhead (author of The Pendragon Cycle…a version of the Arthurian Legend) is an accomplished writer who knows how to capture the voice of medieval and pre-medieval Brits.
- His world-building feels rooted in history, authentic
- The language engages…everything from the quirky colloquialisms, to the names of characters
- The characters are well developed, even the evil ones, and draw you into their world of struggle and heroism
- Woven into the story are Christian themes and prayers, which some won’t like, but I absorbed as authentic
- Rated PG (for medieval violence, think swords and bow and arrow…but no graphic sex or sexual violence)
The Longer Review:
If you’re reading this novel, I recommend flipping to the back of the book and reading his essay: Robin Hood in Wales? It’s past the epilogue (don’t read the epilogue or you will spoil the story).
In this essay, Lawhead discusses why he sets HOOD in Wales, playing with the idea that the legend of Robin Hood had been around and circulating through the British Isles for a very long time before the general population associated him with Sherwood Forest. Here is a bit of that essay:
It will seem strange to many readers, and perhaps even perverse, to take Robin Hood out of Sherwood Forest and relocate him in Wales; worse still to remove all trace of Englishness, set his story in the eleventh century, and recast the honourable outlaw as an early British freedom fighter. My contention is that although in Nottingham, the Robin Hood legends found good soil in which to grow, they must surely have originated elsewhere.
The character we now know as Robin Hood can be traced as far back as the early 1260s. By 1350, the Robin Hood legends were well-known, if somewhat various, consisting of a loose aggregation of poems and songs plied by the troubadours and minstrels of the day. These poems and songs bore little relation to one another. The first written references to and carried titles such as “Robin Hood and the Potter,” “Robin Hood’s Chase,” “Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford,” “the Jolly Pinder of Wakefield,” The “Noble Fisherman,” “Robins Whood Turned Hermit”…
So, Lawhead poses the possibility that Robin Hood (or Rhi Bran Hud, as he is called by his Norman enemies) is a deposed Prince/King who is rallying his people to push back against the Norman Invasion? He fights a guerilla war with long bows and hides in the wild forests of the March, attacking and tormenting the French who cannot defeat this clever and courageous rival.
A comment about the Christian themes in this novel. The church and state are intermingled throughout Europe during this time in history. The Norman Kings are closely aligned with church. In 800 CE, Charlamagne is crowned by the pope as the Holy Roman Emperor. Kings are seen and dubbed as God’s holy vessels to lead the people. The church holds much power in this system and therefore becomes the vehicle for distributing blessing but also horrible injustice. Lawhead has been careful to look at source material as he weaves church and state together in his books. He also doesn’t sugarcoat the evil that was perpetrated by the church.
If you can enter into the world Lawhead has created and withhold judgment, realizing how different most of Europe was from the Post-Modern West, you can begin to understand something of the mindset of those who lived in this time period. Why did kings, for example, pay the church from their own treasury to atone for their sin of killing enemy soldiers and potentially damning them to hell? Why did priests go out with fighters to give them last rites before a battle? Reading Lawhead will put some of these questions into context. The link between the church and the king cannot be understated in a book that is attempting to portray authentic medieval culture.
Therefore, when I read HOOD I felt like I was reading historical fiction. It’s a kind of escape into fantasy, but not quite. Lawhead is so fluent in the language and history of this time period in Britain, that he transported me back a thousand years. This is an aspect of world-building that felt extremely enjoyable to me, which is why I recommend this book to readers of all ages.
THE CHILDREN OF MEN, A No-Spoiler Review of the novel by PD James
If you’re a person born before 1990, you’ve probably seen the film Children of Men, based on the novel by PD James. I recommend this scifi novel without reservations. This book is rated PG and appropriate for young adults. The rating is due to adult themes and some violence. I’m guessing it would make a great audiobook…especially if you enjoy listening to British voice actors.
The Short Review. Why read when you can watch the film instead?
- I recommend you do both! I loved the film which adopted the premise of the book, but the novel is unique and interesting in a different way
- Beautifully written
- Decent tension and a mystery to solve
- Subtle ideas about Christianity (Anglicanism in particular) that only partially made it into the film
The Longer Review
Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness of Holland Park, was a much beloved writer of primarily detective novels. Her first was published in 1962. It was later in her career, in 1992, that she wrote THE CHILDREN OF MEN. While this book is not exactly a detective novel, James unrolls the story with a similar template. She tells the story from the perspective of one man, Theodore Faron. Theo, as he is mostly called in the novel, is a fifty-year old professor of History at Oxford University. More importantly, the backdrop or the world in which he is living is aging and sterile. In the story (all set in England), no one has had a child for over twenty-five years.
The story opens with Theo’s journal entry about the violent death of the “last born” child on earth.
Early this morning, 1 January 2021, three minutes after midnight, the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl in a suberb of Buenos Aires, aged twenty-five years, two months and twelve days. If the first reports are to be believed, Joseph Ricardo died as he had lived. The distinction, if one can call it that, of being the last human whose birth was officially recorded, unrelated as it was to any person virtue or talent, had always been difficult for him to handle. And now he is dead.
This book was an interesting read for me as a writer for a couple of reasons, one of which is the wobbly point of view part-way into the novel. First person journal entries in chapter 1-5. At the beginning of chapter 6, Theo grapples with his journal writing as a task in his overly-organized life that gave him no pleasure. So, in this chapter, Theo is still the primary “voice” of the story, but now telling the tale in 3rd person. In chapter 7, he’s back to a journal entry, therefore first person, and in chapter 8 and from here on out, the tale is a close 3rd POV, all from Theo’s perspective. I don’t think the average reader is disrupted by these slight shifts because Theo is still the storyteller. I noticed mainly because novice writers will sometimes shift like this accidentally and most editors would discourage these shifts. James pulls it off because of the “journaling” aspect of the beginning. I think she is using this to show Theo’s passivity. He observes and writes, but does not act. By chapter 8, he has fully made the decision to be a part of the story, not just an observer. He acts as a character in the unrolling narrative and will continue to do so until the end.
Another aspect of James’ writing that I enjoyed were her vibrant descriptions of faces and clothing. Long descriptions seem to be Theo’s favorite way (James’ favorite way) to judge/describe character. Of course, given the descriptions are coming from Theo, they also tell the reader about him. Regardless, I found myself enthralled by some of the descriptions, their length and detail…like this description of Jasper, a minor character and one of Theo’s older colleagues.
He was the caricature of the popular idea of an Oxford don: high forehead, receding hairline, thin, slightly hooked nose, tight-lipped. He walked with his chin jutting forward as if confronting a strong gale, shoulders hunched, his faded gown billowing. One expected to see him pictured, high-collared as a Vanity Fair creation, holding one of his own books with slender-tipped fingers.
Here is Miriam, a midwife and one the primary characters in the second half of the novel.
The woman was the only one to come forward and grasp Theo’s hand. She was black, probably Jamaican, and the oldest of the group, older than himself, Theo guessed, perhaps in her mid- or late fifties. Her high bush of short, tightly curled hair was dusted with white. The contrast between the black and white was so stark that the head looked powdered, giving her a look both hieratic and decorative. She was tall and gracefully built with a long, fine-featured face, the coffee-coloured face hardly lined, denying the whiteness of the hair. She was wearing trousers tucked into boots, a high-necked brown jersey and sheepskin jerkin, an elegant, almost exotic contrast to the rough serviceable country clothes of the three men. She greeted Theo with a firm handshake and a speculative, half-humorous colluding glance, as if they were already conspirators.
Science fiction is not always well-written in the literary sense, so it’s a pleasure to read a book like THE CHILDREN OF MEN, with literary flair on top of a good story.
Regarding the Anglican tidbits. I am a practicing Anglican as of 2018, so I was keying into the references. Theodore (whose name means God-lover) has a distant relationship with the faith of his people, but the reader encounters him coming more alive to this faith even as he moves toward more actions. In the world in which he is living, taking risks and acting, symbolize hope. Hope for a future is what the whole world has given up on. No science and knowledge has been able to solve the problem of humankind’s infertility. The idea of extinction and of God’s abandonment of his creation are stark in Theo’s understanding of the world. There is a beautiful moment, later in the story where a prayer is given from the Anglican book of common prayer over a dead friend.
Theo does the reading.
At first, his voice sounded strange to his own ears, but by the time he got to the psalm the words had taken over and he spoke quietly, with confidence, seeming to know them by heart. “Lord, thou hast been our refuge: from one generation to another. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made: thou art God from everlasting, and world without end. Thou turnest man to destruction: again thou sayest, Come again, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday: seeing that is past as a watch in the night.”
Theo has awakened to the religion of his youth. It will play a large role in how he manages the final chapters of this gripping story.
THE FERRYMAN, A No-Spoiler Review of the Novel
Published in 2023 and still in hardback only, THE FERRYMAN, a novel by Justin Cronin, was a surprise find. My friend tipped me off. She is a serial reader, but normally reads lit fiction. She knows I read science fiction and speculative stuff. This book is science fiction and I’m not spoiling here. The first hint of a future/science fiction reality comes in the prologue. For the beginning half of the of the novel I was captured by the beauty of the writing. However, it’s always difficult to write a great ending, and THE FERRYMAN’s story/plot is complicated, very complicated and I’m not sure Cronin pulled it off.
First the Short Review: I Recommend THE FERRYMAN with Reservations
- Overall, lovely writing
- Suberb mystery and tension
- Interesting world-building
My Reservations:
- This is a long book, many words. Did it need to be this long?
- The last 1/3 of the book is a lot of explaining…the mysteries are not easily unwound and I’m still not sure I really get the ending
But still…it was a fun read. Here is one example of lovely writing in an early chapter:
“It came as a pleasant shock to me, how the man I’d known as a rather dry intellectual transformed himself so completely into a craftsman–a man who actually made things that the world could put to practical use Which only goes to show that people are more complicated than they let on and that even tragedy (sometimes only tragedy) can open the door to who we really are.”
This idea that tragedy opens up doors to identity is a theme that runs through the novel.
The Longer Review:
THE FERRYMAN’s setting is the fodder for much of the good writing. Prospera, a temperate island utopia, is home to a class of people known as Prosperans. Think Brave New World. Its inhabitants not only live and eat like royalty, they never die. In this world a technology exists that transfers the consciousness of an elder individual into a new body. Much of this process is surrounded in mystery because when the transfer takes place, memories are also wiped.
The new consciousness in a new body is in theory “the same person” being reborn, but without the baggage of memory. So is it really the same person? The reader wonders. For example, the main character, Proctor Bennet, dreams, and his dreams indicate a previous life, perhaps? Mysterious, though Prosperans are not supposed to dream. Something is amiss with Proctor Bennet.
Moreover, all is not well in Prospera. This becomes clear early in the story and drives much of the tension. There are other oddities in this world. Children with the re-inserted consciousness come from across the water on ferries at an older age, not as babies. All Prosperans have monitors inserted into their arms that measure their health and well-being. More importantly, an underclass of people perform the menial work on the island. These people have children naturally, live in a slum called the Annex, and do not seem to have access to the life-preserving technologies of the Prosperans. However, they make great art…an interesting discovery along the way, that those living in the Annex (as opposed to the Prosperans) live deeper lives, even though they are the underclass in society.
Proctor Bennet is a ferryman. He assists elders in the society who are ready to “end” their current lives. All this is done calmly, with signed contracts and quiet ceremony. When his own father is ready to board the ferry, Proctor is called and escorts his father to the ferry until his father unravels. A “scene” at the ferry is exactly what the Properans hate. Proctor’s experience around his father’s ugly departure across the sea thrusts him on a fact-finding mission. Clues emerge all around him. It’s around this section of the novel that I got the feeling there was glitch in the Matrix.
Except, the Matrix did the explaining soooo well. Maybe, this was because the Matrix was a film and not a novel. The backstory that unfolds in THE FERRYMAN is convoluted and complicated. The layers upon layers eventually are revealed, but the revelation felt forced to me, and so much less interesting than the setup. There was also a degree of cliche that felt disappointing to me. Same old, same old villains. Same old, same old catastrophe that set the thing in motion. All this is revealed by lots of explaining and lots of people having conversations with one another. Certainly, there needed to be some of this, but I felt there was too much. The style reminded me of Asimov, who loves to put two “smart” people (usually dominant white males) in a room together talking about and therefore telling the audience what’s going on. I’m not a fan of the style. So…those are my hangups. I think many will love this book. I know folks who adore Asimov for his ideas (if not his writing), but if I were you, I would maybe wait for the paperback, or pick up the audiobook…THE FERRYMAN could be fun to enjoy on a very very long road trip.
HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND AND THE END OF THE WORLD. A No-Spoiler Review
Murakami. Ah Murakami.
I took up this science fiction novel because having read so much mainstream scifi in the last few years, I found myself pining for beautiful prose. Haruki Murakami did not disappoint and HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND AND THE END OF THE WORLD is not only an imaginative story that passes the muster of science fiction, but had me laughing out loud at various points.
This story is rated R for sexual content.
First, the short review.
6 Reasons I recommend HARD-BOILED
- Masterful storytelling, including a full-blown mystery embedded in the structure of the novel
- Beautifully drawn characters who not only feel true, but are likeable in their quirkiness
- An imaginative world where scifi touches magical realism
- Humor
- Gorgeous prose and great writing in general
- Unicorns
2 Reasons to Avoid HARD-BOILED
- If you only read sciency science fiction and could care less about prose…this book might not be for you
- If you need a straight-forward ending, this story does not have that
The Longer Review
Step into the world of Murakami, his imagination and his Japanese way of looking at life. In this novel, he alternates point of view chapter by chapter. He does not explain how the two POV’s are connected until close to the end. Both storylines are told in first person. Both protagonists are male in midlife. His easy prose and everyman protagonist give the fictional world not just shape and beauty, but allow for emotional access. This hero is not someone extraordinary and with super powers. He is any one of us caught in a dilemma. The story meanders through a Tokyo imagined, not exactly futuristic on the surface. People drive cars, listen to Bob Dylan cassette tapes, and drink Miller High Life, but the city is run by two rival factions, the Factory and the System. A third group, the INKlings, folktale creatures that rule an underground society, live beneath the city. One character summarizes this way:
“Is Japan a total monopoly state or what? The System monopolizes everything under the info sun, the Factory monopolizes everything in the shadows. They don’t know the meaning of competition.”
“Inklings? A sharp guy like you don’t know about Inkling? A.k.a. infra-Nocturnal kappa. You thought kappa were folktales? They live underground. They hole up in the subways and sewers, eat the city’s garbage, and drink graywater. They don’t bother with human beings. Except for a few subway workmen who disappear, that is, he he.”
As for Murakami’s prose, an excerpt:
Something has summoned me here. Something intractable. And for this, I have forfeited my shadow and my memory. The River murmurs at my feet. There is the sandbar midstream, and on it the willows sway as they trail their long branches in the current. The water is beautifully clear. I can see fish playing among the rocks. Gazing at the River soothes me. Steps lead down from the bridge to the sandbar. A bend waits under the willows, a few beasts lay nearby. Often have I descended to the sandbar and offered crusts of bread to the beasts. At first they hesitated, but now the old and the very young eat from my hand. As the autumn deepens, the fathomless lakes of their eyes assume an ever more sorrowful hue. The leaves turn color, the grasses wither; the beasts sense the advance of a long hungry season and bowing to their vision, I too know a sadness.
Ah, Murakami and the magic of his prose.