A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle ~ read
What’s Auntie Reading Now?: A Wrinkle in Time
Tag Archives: SF/F
New to the Stacks: Sandman Slim, Angel Crawford (Zombie) and, Kara Gillian (Demon)
Review: Ready Player One
Title: Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Published: 2011
ISBN-13: 9780804190138
Publisher: Broadway Books
Twitter: @ErnieCline
Publisher’s Blurb:
In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.
I saw the movie with co-workers who are gamers and were so excited I could hardly stand it. My opinion of the whole deal was, at best, neutral. My knowledge of Ready Player One was only this was a really popular book, and at least one friend loathed it.
What a perfect escapist film. Bright, fast, flashy, filled with 1980s pop culture references that had my co-workers talking excitedly for days. I was bemused. Then one of them loaned her copy of the book to me. She was so excited to share it with me.
Perfect escapist fare again. Ready Player One is wish fulfillment 101. It’s like Cline took every reference from 1980s pop culture and crammed it into a “wouldn’t it be cool if ….” version of “my life sucks and I was really happy back then.” Which is, pointedly, harsh and maybe a bit unfair to Cline. Because we all have wish fulfillment fantasies, mine is comfortable surroundings on a golden beach surrounded by books and all the time to read them.
Pollution, poverty, climate change, unemployment have all reached their logical conclusion in 2045. It’s no wonder people would rather be in OASIS, the virtual world created by James Halliday, than anywhere else. And, like everything else in any world, the rich and powerful want even more.
Wade is the one-dimensional hero. The teenager who’s smarter and cooler than everyone else, saving the day from the big bad corporation who wants to take over OASIS and profit from it. Halliday’s death spurs an all out 3-riddle solving winner takes all contest for ownership. Wade’s team of five against IOI’s massive army of employees whose only job it is to research Halliday’s life and 1980s trivia, or strap up in game harnesses and play until they pass out.
The teenagers win. Wade gets the girl, the fortune and the power to turn OASIS off one day a week so everyone can reconnect to the “real world.” That’s pretty much it. Nothin’ deep or complex. Just a good mind candy afternoon read.
Although I’m sure my co-workers would disagree about the meaning of all those Easter Eggs.
Review: Hogfather
by Terry Pratchett
Title: Hogfather
Author: Terry Pratchett
Published: 2000
ISBN-13: 9780062276285
Publisher: Harper Fiction
As nonsensical as Pratchett’s Discworld books may seem, they often make a great deal of sense. Hogfather pokes fun at old gods, evolving gods, power, and belief systems. There’s even an “oh god,” as in “oh god I’m gonna be sick.”
The Hogfather is Discworld’s version of Santa Claus, and things go very, very far astray forcing Death to step in and try to put things right, while his granddaughter tries to behave like a normal person.
And I always enjoy reading Death trying to understand humans, and trying to behave as though he’s human when needed. Usually with very confusing results for the humans he encounters. Think Nightmare Before Christmas when Jack Skellington tries to introduce Christmas joy to Halloween Town.
Review: The Truth
by Terry Pratchett
Title: The Truth
Author: Terry Pratchett
Published: 2000
ISBN-13: 9780380818198
Publisher: Harper Torch
William deWorde has a newsletter he sends to rich people who pay him to write about the gossip in Ankh-Morpork. The dwarves move in with a mechanical printer and make a deal with deWorde to publish more frequently. Soon, Ankh-Moorpark has two papers, one which publishes the truth as deWorde has been able to ferret out, and the truth people want to believe. DeWorde gets wind of a story which is politically dangerous, and find himself in danger.
It may be heresy to say, but I think Pratchett is funnier than Douglas Adams. And Pratchett’s silliness in my kind of silliness. And while they’re silly, Pratchett’s books are also social commentary. The Truth is about facts, truth, justice and what people want to believe is true. It also features mayhem, but then all of Terry Pratchett’s books feature mayhem of one sort or another.
Review: The Man in the High Castle
by Philip K. Dick
Title: The Man in the High Castle
Author: Philip K. Dick
Published: 1962
ISBN-10: 0141186674
Publisher: Penguin Books
To my wife Anne, without whose silence this book would never have been written.
Dedication
Japan and Germany have won World War II and have taken over the world. Hitler is dying from syphilitic incapacitation in an insane asylum, while his henchmen maneuver for power.
The US, as we know it, has been divided into three regions: the Eastern US controlled by the Nazis, Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere (the Pacific states) controlled by Japan, and a buffer zone called the Rocky Mountain States.
This should have been a gripping story, given the premise. But overall, I found the characters bland, and the dependence upon the I Ching an overused plot device.
What’s Auntie Reading Now?: American Gods
American Gods by Neil Gaiman ~Review
Review: Sand
Title: Sand
Author: Hugh Howey
Twitter: HughHowey
Published: 2014
ISBN-13: : 978-1328767547
Publisher: Mariner Books
Publisher’s Blurb:
The old world is buried. A new one has been forged atop the shifting dunes. Here in this land of howling wind and infernal sand, four siblings find themselves scattered and lost. Their father was a sand diver, one of the elite few who could travel deep beneath the desert floor and bring up the relics and scraps that keep their people alive. But their father is gone. And the world he left behind might be next.
“It was strange how tense one could become while surrounded by the banal. It was the waiting, waiting.” (p. 78)
Hugh Howey shot to the top of my favorite authors’ list with his Wool trilogy. His dystopian world-building is solid, as are his characters and their relationships to each other, and their harsh living conditions.
In Sand, Colorado has been covered by … sand. Familiar city names have become bastardized versions of themselves. The biggest lost city was once Denver but is now Danver. Danver is El Dorado. Everyone’s heard the myth that lost treasure can be found in Danver; enough wealth to make life worthwhile, if not pleasant. Pirates and sand divers from all over have searched for Danver to no avail. Until one day …
The main protagonist, Palmer, is a highly skilled sand diver. Able to go deeper than most others, his talents are well known. He and a friend are hired by a group of brigands to dive and bring back proof that this location is the mythical Danver.
It is indeed. And then everything goes wrong. Because, the brigands don’t want the buried treasure, they want something more valuable and dangerous. Power.
And thus we have another dystopian political thriller. A good one, albeit a little light on the details of how Colorado became the sand covered danger that it has become.
Sand’s main protagonist is brother to three siblings, abandoned by their father who left for another not-so-mythical destination, No Man’s Land. It’s supposed to be a better place where the rebels are gathering to join forces and devise a way to take Colorado back from the greedy forces in power.
And while that’s a common theme in political thrillers, Howey manages to give it a twist, and make it much more interesting. I like his world-building a lot, and the quirks he gives his characters are really entertaining.
Sand is about more than survival, though. It’s about community, family, and trust. It’s about figuring out who we are and what matters. And that’s what resonated for me.
New to the Stacks: Diana Rowland and Richard Kadrey
The Perdition Score by Richard Kadrey
Vengeance of the Demon by Diana Rowland ~ read (No Review)
What’s Auntie Reading Now?: White Trash Zombie Apocalypse
White Trash Zombie Apocalypse by Diana Rowland ~ Review
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