Ender's Game

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A few weeks ago, JP and I were out to dinner with a good friend who is very into science fiction; we spent a good 20 minutes of the meal discussing our favorite characters in Battlestar Galactica.  Please keep the judgment to a minimum. 

He couldn't believe that I'd read Philip K. Dick, watched BSG, seen Star Wars, but hadn't read Ender's Game.  JP just finished it in record time, and the two of them bullied me into reading Orson Scott Card's YA novel, originally published in 1985.

Ender is the youngest of three children, growing up in a home with a sadistic older brother and middle sister who protects Ender from his attacks.  When he's 6 years old, a general from the military plucks him from his home, and brings him to a battle school to prepare for a war against a race of hostile aliens.  During his years in the battle school, where he is pitted against other young soldiers in the training 'battle room,' Ender is physically and psychologically tested.  Can we entrust the fate of humanity to an 11-year old boy?  And can he handle the pressure?

Ok, ok, JP's magic words for getting me to read this book were, "It's kind of like The Hunger Games."  Yes, there are children fighting against each other, and somehow an awful lot of expectation being put upon people who are pre-teenaged.  This doesn't have the same inter-personal relationships I've come to expect from young adult works; Ender is in his own head a lot, and has interactions with non-military members only occasionally.  It's difficult, then, to connect with any of the characters outside of Ender, although I'm sure some readers will disagree with that opinion.  This is definitely a novel I would recommend to budding sci-fi fans, as well as teen guys. 

Zone One

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Another day, another post-apocalyptic novel.  This one has the distinction of being more nihilistic that the two previously mentioned.  I'm sure you're wondering how books dealing with the end of mankind can be anything but nihilistic, but allow me to demonstrate.  World War Z is about the very beginnings through the end of a disease that causes people to turn into zombies.  Not to spoil the end, but the fact that someone can actually write about the history of a devastation like that kind of means that some people make it out in one, sane piece.  The Passage details the story of a group's struggle to protect a young girl who may be able to save the human race.  There's some hope in that.
Colson Whitehead's Zone One has none of that.  Mark Spitz (not his real name) is part of a three-man sweeper crew that is tasked with clearing out 2-block radii of NYC with 'stragglers.'  The military has already gone through the city and taken care of the large groups of the living dead, but a few, mostly undangerous, remain.  Over three days, Mark's days go from relatively calm and routine to anything but...
With a plot description like that, you can really only assume the worst.  Whitehead has written a cerebral zombie novel, with a character suffering from a new form of PTSD, and without any emotional attachments to a living person.  When most of the people left on the earth, though, are the living dead, the distinction becomes blurry.  It is a dense book, though, with incredibly dark humor laced throughout bleak write-ups of life after the 'Last Night,' as Mark calls it. 

Read with caution.  And in broad daylight.

Battlestar Galactica. Or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Bill Adama.

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Last weekend, I did it.  I finished watching Battlestar Galactica, the rebooted series based on the 1980s miniseries.  It took a lot of time and got really dark, but I'm so, so glad I watched it.  I think it was the best wedding gift I could have given JP, as he's described the show as the "greatest fictional plot arc in the history of the world."  With build-up like that, you better believe I had high expectations and it didn't let me down.
As I mentioned in a previous post, BSG is about the survival of humans as they eke out a living in the most hostile of environments: space.  In this reality, humans created cylons, robots that eventually rised up against humans and started the human-cylon war.  Cylons are banished from the human planet, but return after a few decades to decimate the human population.  Less than 50,000 people are left after cylons annihilate the planet, and left to try to survive in space on the ships used for luxury living, waste compacting, mining, and military protection.  The Battlestar Galactica is one of the oldest ships in the "fleet," having been used during the human-cylon war, and was scheduled to be retired on the day of the cylon attack.  The battlestar is used as the new military base, and most of the main plot points happen on this ship.
The show is four seasons long, and it's a brilliantly thought-out plot.  Yes, it's a sci-fi show, but everything is grounded in reality; no aliens or space beings pop up.  Cylons are made by humans, so it makes sense that their stories are intertwined.  There are surprises throughout the series starting with the second episode, so I won't go into too much detail into the actual plots of the show. 

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I can tell you a bit about some of the main characters, though, who became huge topics of conversation for JP and I around the dinner table.  William Adama, captain of the Galactica, is a man who stands by his convictions; seriously, I would follow him anywhere.  Lee Adama, his strongheaded son, has followed in his father's miliary footsteps, though the two butts head frequently and he has a shaky relationship with Starbuck/Kara Thrace, another military member who is also connected to both Adamas.  The former Secretary of Education, Laura Roslin, takes over the presidency in the wake of the attack, and is battling breast cancer as well.  Then there's Gaius Baltar, a genius scientist who always puts himself first and contributed to the attack in the first place.  Along with these core human characters, there's a host of others intricate to the storyline: Saul Tighe (the Executive Officer of the Galactica), Tyrol (officer on Galactica), Six (a cylon)... the list goes on.
Obviously, the biggest plotline of the show is whether humans can/will survive in space.  Throughout the seasons, bigger social issues arise: what rights, if any, do non-humans have in society?  What makes a person/thing human?  Should abortions be allowed if the very survival of humanity at stake?  Can democracy thrive in such a concentrated space?  You'll watch some episodes and just be itching for discussion afterward.  In addition, there's the whole personal relationship aspect of the show; when there are less than 50k people left in your civilization, it's difficult to maintain the same relationship with mankind.  I read articles about this show being excellent for couples to watch together, as there's a lot of political and military intrigue, along with soap opera plots with married couples and families. 

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For anyone still thinking this sounds like a huge waste of time unless you're a sci-fi nerd, I'll point out that the United flippin' Nations hosted a retrospective panel on the show upon its conclusion that discussed terrorism, human rights, and armed conflict.  This show tackles the heavy stuff in a poignant, realistic way that world leaders have respect for.  That's insane!  Consider my mind blown.
Let me just close with this: I don't regret any of the 40+ hours spent in front of the TV finishing this epic story.
So say we all.

Ready Player One

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This book was so much fun to read!  Cline has taken 80s nostalgia, a dystopian future, MMORPGs, adventure, friendship and romance into one awesome story.  

The year is 2044, and Wade Watts is trying to win the world's biggest online gaming competition.  James Halliday created the OASIS, an online program everyone in the world logs on to.  You see, the environment and economy has gotten so bad that public schools are overcrowded, trailers are stacked on top of each other in ghettos, etc.  OASIS allows people to use technology to log into another world and bypass the ugliness of the earth.  James Halliday died five years ago, and left the world a puzzle to solve: find the three "eggs" in OASIS to win his vast fortune.  Wade Watts is an gunter (egg hunter) who has studied everything 80s in order to come out on top.  Halliday was notoriously obsessed with the decade in which he was born, and every gunter has done research on all of John Hughes' films, RUSH albums, War Games, and anything else 80s you can think of to win the money.  Watts is up against time, other gunters, and corporations interested in taking over OASIS in order to win; can he make it happen?

Okay, does that synopsis make sense?  There's a lot going on, but Cline folds everything together in an interesting and fun twist.  I had a great time reading it, and it's a perfect segue into fall.  Well done, Ernest Cline!

A Journey of the Center of the Earth

John Paul and I drove a lot of hours during the holidays, and I chose this audiobook to listen to.  I figured a classic science fiction book would be interesting, and John Paul agreed.  Mia didn't get a say, but I'm sure she had high hopes for this novel.  Plus, it's only 7 discs (10 hours) long.
You know the story: a geologist finds an old note detailing the way for someone to get to the center of the earth, he enlists the help of his nephew and an Icelandic guide, and they, well, journey down below.  On the way down they encounter dinosaurs, prehistoric sea creatures, get lost in a crazy storm, discover cavemen, and shoot their way back up to land inside a volcano.  It's all very exciting!
But wait, first you have to suffer through five discs of the narrator discussing the earth's layers, how much he misses his girlfriend, how ill-prepared they were for the trip, how thirsty the three of them were.  Honestly, I slept through most of the first 5 discs.  Once they discovered 40-foot tall mushrooms, Vernes grabbed my interest.  Up until then, I was seriously doubting my judgment to pick a decent book for car rides.
Did you know this book was published in 1864?  Jules Vernes would have been astonished to see that almost everything presented in his book, including the theory that volcanoes erupt due to water beneath the earth's crust and that there could be a sea under there, has been overturned.  If you can sit through some mind-numbingly boring, outdated science-speak, you might enjoy this.  Otherwise, watch one of the movies.  You won't be missing much.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

 John Paul are in the midst of a book exchange: I read one of his favorite books, and he reads one of mine.  He's nearly done with Slaughterhouse Five, and I've just completed Hitchhiker's.  Yes, I'm behind the trend with reading this book, but I've seen the movie!  Surely that counts for something?
For those of you who haven't caught the plot of this enormously entertaining novel, Arthur Dent is rescued from Earth's demise by Ford Prefect, his alien neighbor.  Ford has been posing as an out-of-work actor for fifteen years while researching Earth for the new edition of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the most popular book in the galaxy.  They first face down the dreaded Vogons and their universally hated poetry, then are picked up by a passing stolen, state-of-the-art spaceship containing a depressed robot, the president of the galaxy, and the woman Arthur failed to pick up at a recent party.  Then they find themselves in the orbit of the legendary planet of Magrathea, which is known for making planets for the universe's most wealthy.  Will Arthur ever drink tea again?  How exactly does an Improbability Drive work?  And where are our lost ballpoints escaping to?
I found this book completely absurd and goofy, in a wonderful way.  It's clear that Douglas Adams has a very dry, quirky sense of humor, and you do have to let go of any seriousness while reading through these pages.  While the book is quite funny, I would prefer to listen to the following four novels; some of the humor seems to beg for a narrator's intonations and expert pauses to really hit the mark.  It's a quick read, less than 220 pages in paperback, and a great way to pass a couple of afternoons or lunch breaks.  Pick it up!  Can't we all use something light?

The Passage

 I should start by apologizing.  If I've talked to you in the last couple of weeks, chances are high that you've already heard me extolling the virtues of Justin Cronin's new novel The Passage.  It's not my fault that this book is unputdownable, that the story spans decades, that I was held captive by the plot twists and character development.  The only downside is that the book is over 750 pages; this could be construed as a positive, as the length allows you to get incredibly involved in the story and build up the anticipation.  But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.
The story begins 10-15 years in the future, close enough to make the events vaguely plausible and even spookier.  A military experiment to create a super-soldier, one who can heal after devastating wounds or even deflect ammo, has taken a turn for the scary; the twelve death-row inmates who are being used for testing have turned into "virals."  These creatures are bloodthirsty vampires, who are able to get into the minds of people, and quickly escape their military confinement and destroy humanity as we know it in a matter of a few years.  The thirteenth patient, a young girl, was infected by the same virus, but holds the key to the survival of humankind.
Cut to 92 years into the future, and a small settlement of people have eked out a living in northern California.  The lights that surround their village are failing, though, and a group of desperate humans have set out into a world unpopulated for decades to explore the vast unknown.  They, along with the mysterious girl who has entered their lives, must trek through this brutal landscape to find the key to their own survival.
Cronin has done a masterful job of blending the literary aspects of the story with the supernatural.  I have no problem admitting that there were one or two restless nights during the reading of this novel; the writing is so descriptive and set in our world that it's difficult to not get wrapped up in the goings-on.  This isn't like the recent wave of vampire fiction- there is no hope for romance between humans and "virals."  Instead, this is a mesmerizing struggle for survival in the face of unprecedented catastrophe.  I really can't say enough great things about The Passage.  If you can squeeze a nearly 800-page tome into your schedule, I highly recommend choosing this one.

Feed

Young adult books are are great for several reasons: they tend to cut straight to the point, the plot is well-paced, and there are not a lot of taboos. This book has all of that, in addition to a terrifying portrait of a future where consumerism is all people know.
Titus lives in a world where people are outfitted with a feed at a young age; the feeds are chips that are Internet/television blends that inform the owner of sales going on, how much houses cost, and the most popular shows. During spring break, Titus and his friends travel to the moon, and meet Violet, who is home-schooled. She tells them that everything broadcast on the feed is actually making them easier to sell to, and actually destroying their brains. Feeds promote lesions on the skin, which marketers instantly dub "the latest trend," scramble news messages so the owners are unaware of the global effects taking place in a world where people literally live in their own bubbles, and can actually be hacked into like any computer.
Anderson has done a masterful job of creating a futuristic world where teenagers only speak in monosyllabic words (the TV show everyone watches is called "Oh? Wow! Thing!"), and parents are as empty-headed and consumer-driven as their children. Titus is such an intriguing character, with just barely enough sense to know that something is not right in his world, but too self-conscious to rock the boat. Although the book is written in Titus' hugely limited vocabulary, one of the strengths is that, after a few paragraphs, I found myself thinking in exactly the same few words he did and still understanding the book. In Feed, corporations have taken over school, trademarked it, and students take classes to learn what kind of products they should purchase. In our own world, soda companies have installed vending machines in school hallways; Anderson's imagined world just doesn't seem too far out of the realm of possibility. Parts of it gave me chills, and the other parts made me feel very aware of the amount of stuff I buy unnecessarily. This would make a great book club book, with lots of discussion points and connections to our own reality.