The Leviathan Trilogy: Leviathan, Behemoth, Goliath

In Scott Westerfeld's best work, the Leviathan Trilogy featuring Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath,we meet some great characters and go on an exciting adventure through alterna-history's WWI with both an Allied and an Axis perspective. The trilogy has elements of both steampunk and fantasy as well as threading in truths and actual people from history (Westerfeld includes an afterward correcting some of his alterna-history).  It was a lively exciting read that I highly recommend to any reader. I give it five stars. Westerfeld, you hit your mark with these works. Read on, my friends.

The Blind Assassin

"A fist is worth more than the sum of its fingers"

Set in present day Canada, we read the story of sisters Iris and Laura in flashbacks working their way to the present. It definitely resounds as a Margaret Atwood novel, but it mostly reminded my of The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox.  It's a story within a story, not only of the present and finding the secrets of the past, but another story, of science fiction that resembles reality. There is, as always, a gradual revelation to the truth. 

I found The Blind Assassin to be rather captivating, and while I could put it down, it took some persuasion. It's a puzzle of a novel, and I highly recommend it!

The Year of the Flood

 "So, if you were making the world, you'd make it better?" I said. Better than God, was 

what I meant.  All of a sudden I was feeling pious, like Bernice.  Like a Gardener.  

"Yes," he said. "As a matter of fact, I would."

The Year of the Flood is slated as a sequel to Oryx and Crake; it's really more of a companion novel in my mind. It follows the forward-backward/past&present structure, as well as time frame, of Oryx and Crake with different characters. The Year of the Flood wraps up the cliffhanger of Oryx and Crake, which was very good. It's interesting, however, that when I read Oryx and Crake I wanted it to end one way, but with The Year of the Flood I wanted a different ending, luckily the one Margaret gave me!  

The characters of The Year of the Flood belong to a religious group, almost a cult, called "God's Gardeners." The story is told from multiple points of view of women from the gardeners. I found these characters much more relateable than Jimmy and Crake. Possibly because of their gender. Possibly because of the way it was written. Possibly because they are more relateable. However, the storyline was not as exciting as Oryx and Crake, (because I already knew what was coming?)  but I really like and recommend this novel!

Read on!

Oryx and Crake

In The Handmaid's Tale, society chose to embrace religion. In Oryx and Crake, science, technology, and evolution are the focus of society. Oryx and Crake begins with Snowman as the narrator and continues to unfold with Snowman in the present and flashbacks to Jimmy and Crake as they grow from young boys into men while science continues to take leaps and bounds developmentally. New animals are created. Society promotes extreme commercialization & sex and pornography are an easily accessible commodity. (reader beware!) 


Crake is perfect for this society. He's practically a scientific prodigy. Jimmy, on the other hand, is not. He is much better at art, and there's a little bit of the Science v Art conflict present in the novel. Crake is a manipulative, cunning, and calculating man with pure intentions. Jimmy is his loving, innocent minion.  


I really enjoyed reading Oryx and Crake. It's a definite page turner, waiting to see how the two stories meet. It's great! Read on!

The Feed

The year Cass and I first met, the topic for his English class was Utopia/Dystopia, in which he read this book, and has spawned the reading of many other books that he and I both enjoy. We first read Feed that year, and I recently decided it merited a re-read. 

Feed, a cyberpunk, dystopian satire, is about a teenage boy, Titus, who lives in a world

 driven by technology and the consumer lifestyle. The internet has evolved into "The Feed"- a network directly connecting brains via an implanted computer chip at birth. Yup, the internet is right in your head, as well as interrupting commercials and ads. School is done through the feed, and almost everything in their world is manufactured and commercialized.

But this world and this life has a price; nature is paying. Clouds are manufactured. The oceans are so polluted that whales have to wear a protective sheath. Sexual production is no longer possible and all children are custom made to their parents specifications and inserted through IVF.  Yet noone seems to care. They're only aware of themselves and the feed.

 For Titus and his friends, it feels like everyone has the feed. But then they meet Violet. Titus is quite taken by Violet, but his friends don't really like her, and she doesn't like them either. So Titus and Violet start to isolate themselves. They start having a different kind of fun as Violet begins to resist the feed and they try to confuse the personalized ads. Until it's revealed that Violet is in serious trouble. 

Now, first things first. When you hear the title, it reminds you of facebook, no? And reading the book, it does feel like facebook gone too far, but Anderson published Feed in 2002! He is very tuned in to the technology of the world today and where it is leading us. I find this novel still relevant today, even after ten years and all of our newest technological advances. Some of the conditions of his world are a bit far off and belong in the realm of science fiction, but others are not too many steps away from where we are now: personalized ads are all over the place. Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu. They all know what you like and suggest new things. Hulu will even let you customize your commercials. That world may be closer than we think.

To be honest, the characters were kind of difficult to relate to, as were some of the topics in the novel, but I think that's kind of the point: as we let technology rule our lives, we lose part of who we are.  Because of that, I find Feed to be an important dystopian read and a warning against what our society may become. 

Uglies, Pretties, Specials, Extras

I have something terrible to admit.

I judge books by their covers.

I apologize.

So when these books came out and everyone was just reading them up, I was like, "Whatever. I don't want to read some stupid clique book." Even when they were recommend to me.

I finally learned otherwise. These books are exactly up my alley. Or, at least, they started that way. I really enjoyed Uglies, and even Pretties. Specials and Extras, though, I found to be overkill. And I thought Extras was pretty lame. Plus, I'm not all that into series/sequel books where it's the same society but not the same characters. [I appreciate Lois Lowry calling Gathering Blue and The Messenger companion books.] 

Here's what happens: They live in a society where you get surgery at 16 to become pretty. But it turns out, there are people outside of the city, people who don't get the surgery. And sometimes, people from the city actually leave, they choose to not have the surgery. Tally Youngblood's friend, Shay, is one of them. And if Tally doesn't find Shay and bring her back, she'll never become pretty. Anything she chooses from this point out will drastically change her life, maybe even her world. 

So, yeah. I liked it a lot. I love this futuristic, post-apocalyptic (insofar as the Rusties, aka us, had our apocalypse and their society grew out of it), utopia/dystopia theme. I'm not sure I would recommend Extras, at least without qualifying it as my least favorite. 

But I had a few questions about their society, mostly brought about by Specials, which felt a little bit like plot holes to me, but maybe I'm the only one. 

• It surprises me that they still have their own birthdays. . . Okay, that wasn't a question. It just seems odd to me, in a society where the stress is on sameness without actually ever saying so. So why  do they let them have their own? Also, I guess this one isn't really a plot hole. But it's still my question! 
• Do they, the government, still let people give birth? Doesn't that seem contrary to being pretty? Do they have to have another surgery after giving birth? After every birth?
• Do littlies live with their parents? And why/how does the government trust middle pretties/crumblies to raise their children to twelve? 
• What are crumblies? But wikipedia answered this for me: crumblies are generally parents, any middle or late pretties can be referred to as crumblies.
• What's up with the Tally-wa and Shay-la thing? I get that they're nicknames, but I just kept wondering if they had significance, and it seems like they gave the -la to everyone, so what's the point if everyone has one? And why is on Tally a -wa? 
• I guess the only really plot-holey one is society as a whole, how it runs. Is their still a family unit? Why does the government even allow there to be all the people they need to take care of? Like, what is the point? And if the government is in control . . .    I just don't get it. And where does the money come from? How does everything run and maintain? I just feel like I wasn't given enough information about how the society works as a whole, outside of what it's like to be a teenager ugly or new pretty. Wikipedia explains this, sort of, but it's not the same as if it's in the book. It's not as prove-able.
• I also wanted to know the deal with David and Tally, in the end, you know?  

So, read the books. Answer my questions. And keep reading! 

Turnabout

My Margaret Peterson Haddix addiction must soon come to end, I fear, for there are only so many novels left! But Turnabout was definitely an enjoyable read with a nice sci-fi angle. Scientists approach the nearly-dead at a nursing home and ask them if they'd like to live forever, without quite expressing all the nitty-gritty details. Yet they take these elderly folks, fake their deaths, and give them an injection to reverse their aging. There is supposed to be a second injection, a "cure", to be injected when they want to stop un-aging. But everyone who takes it dies. 

I enjoyed this book as well. I stayed up one night reading it while Cass played a game on my iPod. We're super cool like that. But it's great! Read on!

Torn

In the last Missing book, Katherine and Jonah are sent to 1611, alone. Time is unraveling. And it's up to them to save everything.

This book was my least favorite of the series. I did enjoy it, but it got a little too time travel-trouble-y for me. It was exciting but it got a little confusing at the end.

Sabotaged

In the third Missing book, Jonah and Katherine are sent back in time with a new girl. Andrea is the first European child born in the Americas, Virginia Dare. Only this time there are complications. And time is in danger!! [I'm so vague today!]

Sent

The second book in the missing series, Sent is very much my favorite. It mixes science fiction, historical fiction, and time travel! Plus they travel to just about my favorite time in English history!!

At the end of Found, Jonah and his sister Katherine grab on to their friend Chip and are hurtled back in time to the 1400s. Chip and Alex, who was sent before Chip, are the missing Princes in the Tower. And it's up to these kids to fix time and save the day.

Found

As ya'll know, I love Margaret Peterson Haddix, so when I saw the kids at school reading a new series by her, I clearly had to give it a go. Found is the first book in the Missing Series. It's crazy exciting and I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just say that I highly recommend it. Especially so you can read the next book: Sent.