Category: Science Fiction
Wither by Lauren DeStefano
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males born with a lifespan of 25 years, and females a lifespan of 20 years–leaving the world in a state of panic. Geneticists seek a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.
When Rhine is sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Yet her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement; her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next; and Rhine has no way to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive.
Together with one of Linden’s servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?
(Summary courtesy of Amazon.)
A friend of mine was absolutely gushing over this novel, so she and I did a book exchange. I lent her my copy of Timeless by Alexandra Monir and she lent me her copy of Wither by Lauren DeStefano. As it turned out, it was a pretty good book exchange in which both of us got excellent new reading material.
The premise of the novel sounded quite promising to me: because of genetic modification, kids are now perfect, but have decreased life expectancies. Severely decreased, as in 25 for men and 20 for women. So, in an attempt to both live life to the fullest and carry on the very existence of the human race, wealthy men are now polygamous. Which, of course sets up the plot of Wither: Rhine, a sixteen-year-old girl is taken from her only family, her twin brother Rowan, to become one of the new wives to Linden Ashby, a twenty-one-year-old man whose first wife is dying. Rhine is chosen because of her heterochromia, her two different coloured eyes that her parents who were geneticists gave her and because she looks like Rose, Linden’s dying wife.
I bet you think you can predict the ending. But with that said, I bet you’re wrong, at least partially. I know I was.
Of course Wither includes what seems to be a staple of YA novels nowadays: a love triangle. It certainly seems like it’s your stereotypical love triangle at first, but it is Rhine’s choices throughout the novel that keep it from being predictable. Instead of accepting her fate as one of three wives and falling in love with her husband, she resolves to escape and to stay true to herself and Gabriel, the boy she really loves. Rhine Ellery certainly deserves to be called a memorable character.
My only real complaint is that for science fiction, there is a definite lack of science. We know that each person has a genetic time bomb because of scientists messing around with everyone’s genes, but it doesn’t get much more in depth than that. Then again, most YA science fiction would be classified as ‘soft science’ anyway. Still, I’d like to know a lot more about the science behind this mysterious genetic time bomb.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
The Giver by Lois Lowry
(Cover picture courtesy of Whatcha Readin’, Books?)
Jonas’s world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community.
When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now it’s time for Jonas to receive the truth.
Okay, start writing your hate mail. I’m about to criticize what many laud as a literary masterpiece above questioning.
Here we have yet another popular novel that we have to ask ourselves about: Is it really worth all of the hype? In a word, no, but it’s not as simple as that. One of the main things that’s made this book popular is the fact that it’s studied by middle school students. In fact, I studied this book in grade 9 and having read it in grade 6, was incredibly bored. I remember telling my teacher that this wasn’t really a grade-appropriate novel, but it’s actually in the grade 9 curriculum in Saskatchewan, if you can believe it. Reading it years later, I thought I might get something new out of it, but I think I got the message the first time around.
My overall impression of The Giver is that it’s good, but it’s not the greatest thing since paper that educators seem to praise it as. It does have meaning and wonderful messages that make readers debate comfort versus freedom, but it feels as if Lois Lowry was trying too hard to make sure readers got this message. The phrase beat-you-over-the-head-with-a-stick-obvious comes to mind, which was even my impression when I first read the novel. The Giver was somewhat unique in its own time, but now with the explosion of YA dystopia, it is one novel among many that does not even stand out particularly well.
The main character Jonas is good, but he is not memorable. He rebels against the society and sees what’s wrong with it, but only after The Giver shows him quite a few memories of the freedom of the past. Before then, he’s hasn’t really questioned the society, which makes the novel start off fairly slow, but as Jonas acquires more memories, he does change for the better. He becomes angry and frustrated with his society, pining for freedoms he never knew he wanted. While Jonas has a lot of depth, but since emphasis is placed on controlling emotion, we don’t feel his emotions as well as we should.
The world of The Giver is well built, but it is nothing exceptional. What is interesting is the sheer amount of control the leaders have over the Community, which hammers home the “complete comfort at the price of freedom” message. One of the things that bugged me the most was that although this is classified as science fiction, we never really learn about how The Giver passes the memories of the past on to Jonas. There is no technology involved and it is only hinted at that The Giver and Jonas are special because they can See or Hear Beyond.
So in conclusion, The Giver actually is a good novel and a decent read, but it really felt like Lois Lowry was trying too hard to hammer the message home. Generations of kids have grown to dislike this book because teachers try to over-analyze the novel as well and I honestly can’t blame them.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
The Fourth Wall by Walter Jon Williams
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Sean is a washed-up child actor reduced to the lowest dregs of reality television to keep himself afloat.
His life was a downward spiral of alcoholism, regret, and failure…until he met Dagmar Shaw.
The world of Dagmar Shaw, however, is rarely straightforward. People tend to die around her, and now she wants Sean for something. A movie, she says, but who’s to say what her real game is?
I was introduced to The Fourth Wall by reading Walter Jon Williams’ Big Idea essay over at Whatever. Intrigued by the idea behind the novel, I bought it on pure speculation, as I seem to do quite a bit when I read The Big Idea articles. After all, it’s how I found out about Feed, to name one of the best examples. And much like Feed, The Fourth Wall has a killer opening, which is not entirely appropriate for all readers.
“When you spot someone sitting at the beach wearing a headset for Augmented Reality, or wearing AR specs on the bus, or smiling quietly in the back pew of the church with his video glasses on, what do you think?
I’ll tell you what you think. You think he’s watching porn.“
This sets the tone for pretty much the whole novel: cynical, witty and a bit dark. It’s also hard to classify this novel because just when you think you know what’s going to happen, the plot takes a sharp turn and you’re left mystified once more. You really won’t be able to predict the ending either, which stays true to the dark, cynical atmosphere that Williams maintains throughout the novel.
Sean Makin is a washed-up child actor and even though The Fourth Wall is set in the future, he offers a lot of insight into the cutthroat world of Hollywood. You see both the glamorous side and the incredibly dark side that no one wants to talk about. Sean is the perfect character to tell a story like this because of his dark past and his highly cynical attitude towards life and acting. He has a very sad past that adds a lot of layers to his character, making him a wonderfully three dimensional character. There is no doubt in my mind he is a memorable character.
After enjoying The Fourth Wall so much, I have a feeling I’ll be reading and reviewing a lot more Walter Jon Williams novels in the future.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
(Cover picture courtesy of Paperback Fool.)
Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence—a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.
As the treatment takes effect, Charlie’s intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. will the same happen to Charlie?
“That’s the mark of a good book: you laugh, you cry, you have a good time.” —My mother
If my mother is right (and I’m pretty sure she is), then Flowers for Algernon is one of the best books I’ve ever read. True, I may be a bit biased because the topic hits really close to home, but Daniel Keyes’ novel is brilliant.
Charlie Gordon is anything but a cardboard cutout because he changes so much throughout the novel. Since it is told in journal form, we see him at the beginning with his poor spelling and grammar, then watch as his writing style gets much better as the surgery works. We really feel his triumphs, his struggles, his frustration and his loneliness, especially when his intelligence is at its peak. As the saying goes, it’s lonely at the top and Daniel Keyes has perfectly explained how lonely truly intelligent people are.
This is not a book that’s meant to be read because of the fast-paced plot, so don’t read this and expect to read a thriller. Flowers for Algernon is a book you read for the meaning, and to be quite honest, it can mean many different things to many different people. For me, the message is that higher intelligence comes with a price—the ability to relate to your peers. For others, it could be a cautionary tale about what happens when man interferes with God’s work through science. It could also be seen as a commentary on intelligence-based discrimination, both for people of high and low IQ. Each time I read Flowers for Algernon, I find new things that I never noticed before. Now that is the mark of a good book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer
(Cover picture courtesy of Tighe Chemidlin.)
In the future, in a place called Satellite City, Cosmo Hill enters the world, unwanted by his parents. He’s sent to the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys. Freight class.
Here, the boys are put to work by the state, testing highly dangerous products. Cosmo realizes that he must get away, and escapes with the help of the Supernaturalists, a group of kids who have the same special abilities as Cosmo—they can see the supernatural Parasites, creatures that feed on the life force of humans. The Supernaturalists patrols the city at night, hunting the Parasites in hopes of saving what is left of humanity in Satellite City. But soon they find themselves caught in a web far more complicated than they’d imagined, and they discover a horrifying secret that will force them to question everything they believe in.
As a book reviewer, I hate to use clichés, but there really is only one word to describe The Supernaturalist: unique. Eoin Colfer’s more famous Artemis Fowl series and even his stand-alone novel, The Wish List have overshadowed his brilliant science fiction novel. Written with the humour and imagination I have come to expect from him, The Supernaturalist is absolutely brilliant.
Cosmo is pretty much your stereotypical protagonist in the beginning, but as the story progresses, he develops at a very natural pace. And as he slowly finds out the truth about the Parasites, we really do see an interesting side of him: the brave, more daring side. His struggle to fit in with the Supernaturalists, who have a group dynamic similar to that of The Thief Lord, also makes him identifiable with pretty much every adolescent in the world.
Eoin Colfer inserts so many plot twists and turns in The Supernaturalist that I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t be able to guess the ending, which is a huge surprise. The surprise ending is a whopper, but it’s also incredibly satisfying and brings some closure to this novel. For once, I have nothing to criticize about a book’s ending because Eoin Colfer was able to finish it in a pinch.
I give this book 5/5 stars.