The Civility Code by Michael W. Anderson Review

I won this near future, dystopian fiction through First Reads on Goodreads, as I do so many of the books I review here. The Civility Code by Michael W. Anderson is the first book of a trilogy.

The premise of the series is that offensive language has become a criminal offense, they added an amendment to the Constitution to this affect (Basically you are legally bound to be politically correct). To enforce this new law, a Civility Commission has been created. The commission investigates incidents of offensive language, prosecutes violators civilly and criminally, and determines what words are to be added to the prohibited word list each year. In the 20 years, since the law was enacted, 14,014 words have be added to the prohibited list. The list includes such words and phrases as: drunk driver, he, she, Mr., Miss, Mrs., clueless, fat, go on a diet, and not right.

The story follows the struggle between a group of hacktivists known as X and the Civility Commission over the law and the prohibited words. The hacktivists have been offered a window to take amnesty for their past crimes in order to escape prosecution, while the commissioner actively and passionately hunts them down.

The premise behind the book is what drew me to enter to win it, I think that the political correct/trigger warning movement has gotten out of control already and interferes with real discussions on serious issues. When I started the book, I had a hard time getting into it. The first chapter are so were difficult, I'm not sure if it was because of the new pronouns, the net shorthand used at the beginning, that I wasn't sure I was in the mood for the story, or the writing itself. After a couple of chapters, the story started to flow more smoothly for me. It seems the writing flowed better after that.

Anderson gives you insight into the personal lives and motivations of not only the hackers, but the commissioner of the Civility Commission. I look forward to to next volume to see how the stories and the characters progress.

Happy reading!

Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman

Austin Grossman tells a tale about people with superpowers, it is full of action and humor. The story is told from two perspectives. One is our anti-hero and main character, Dr. Impossible. He is a veteran super-villain and evil genius. The other a fledgling super-hero, Fatale. She is a cyborg looking to earn her reputation and adapting to working as part of a world famous super-hero team.

You can see Grossman's love of the super-hero genre from the first page. And like many of the fans of the genre, he seems to have a soft spot for the horribly misunderstood super-villain. The signs of sympathy for the bad guy don't just come from the segments narrated by Dr. Impossible, Fatale's questioning of how the hero's do things and her reflections on Lily (Dr. Impossible's ex-girlfriend turned hero) show a tendency to see areas of grey rather than strict black and white.

Soon I Will Be Invincible offers a funny and very entertaining look at a world with super-powered people. I think that those that try to read it without being fans of superhero comics, movies, or novels may miss out on some of the humor and twists to the rules of those mostly black and white worlds. I enjoyed the world that Grossman created and was reluctant to leave it.

This book is great for vacation reading, whether you are on a beach or cuddled under some blankets at home.

Happy reading!

The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman

I had been looking at this book for a long time before I got a chance to read it. I admit that the simplicity of the cover grabbed my attention, as well as the story description. The feel and pace of the story reminded me very much of the campaigns we had when playing Deadlands, the role-playing game. Gilman does an excellent job of bringing his world to life for the reader.

The Half-Made World is the story of an alternate American Wild West. Our protagonist is Liv Alverhuysen, a female psychologist who decides to respond to a job offer sent to her late husband to work in a hospital in the unmade west. The hospital serves both sides of a conflict for control of the West, the Guns and the Line. The hospital maintains its neutrality because it is protected by a spirit that will allow no violence to be done within its realm.

The Gun recruits dangerous men and women of ill-repute and character using fear to maintain control, while the Line overcomes towns and incorporates all into their fold and making them slaves. Both sides are seeking a General who fell in battle to one of the Line's noisemaker bombs. They both hope to gain the secret of a weapon that he holds in his head, one that could destroy their enemy or themselves. The Guns and the Engines of the Line are possessed by some strange demons. The Line moves towards the hospital, while the Gun sends John Creedmoor to infiltrate the facility.

Once all the main actors in the tale reach the hospital, the action steamrolls (forgive the pun) forward extremely rapidly. Characters must wrestle with internal conflicts as well as external ones. I look forward to the sequel when it comes out in November.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

This is my first time reading a Margaret Atwood novel, it was a gift to my husband and he insisted I read it after he was done. I hadn't read her before because the majority of her titles and book covers looked like romance novels. (I know, I know, don't judge a book by its cover.) Once again I listened to the audio book while on my commute. The reader did an excellent job.

The story opens with Snowman, a.k.a. Jimmy, awaking on the beach. It is revealed that the world has gone wrong as we watch Snowman go through his morning routine of checking his stash of supplies, draping his bed sheet around his body properly, and scratching around the bug bits to avoid a chance of infection.

We are then introduced to the Children of Crake. They are very different than Snowman. They are thick skinned and do not have to worry about ultra-violet rays. They have startling green eyes and skins of all colors. They only eat grass and vegetables. They come to Snowman to learn about the things they find washed up on the shore.

Atwood does a masterful job of telling the reader how the world got to this point through a series of flashbacks into Snowman's past. They are random and out of sequence, just as these things tend to be for us all. They offer titillating glimpses into past events and Snowman's life.

I have to admit I was actually a little angry when the story ended, I wanted it to keep going. Luckily for me there is a sequel. Unluckily, I don't have a copy.

Amped by Daniel H. Wilson

Amped is another book that I won from Goodreads. It is a near future science fiction story. It is a world in which some people have brain implants. Many of these implants are used to fix epilepsy, ADD, or other disabilities. They are even given to poor and disadvantaged students by the government through grants to level the playing field in the school systems.

Owen is a school teacher who has an implant to help with his epilepsy.  His father installed the implant after he suffered a horrible accident due to a seizure. Things begin to go wrong for Owen when the Supreme Court disenfranchises people with implants, also called "Amps". This action was pushed through by a political group called Pure Pride. In the course of a day he loses his job and is thrown out of his apartment with no warning. They can no longer makes contracts with "regular" people as they have an unfair advantage, hence Owen losing his job and home.

The situation escalates. Owen discovers he is wanted for questioning, and that his amp is more than he realized. There are also some violent incidents between amps and regular people. The amps are moved into clusters for their own protection. Owen flees to a cluster called "Eden" to meet with a friend of his dad's named John.

There is action, political intrigue, and social discrimination. Wilson uses his robotic expertise to help explain how the amps work and what they do to the brain. I really enjoyed the descriptions and the characters. It was a very fast paced and easy read, perfect for a summer day.

The Descent by Jeff Long

The story begins with a new-age expedition into the mountains of Nepal.

The explorers become trapped in a mountain cave during a freak snowstorm. Within the cave, they discover a mutilated and mummified corpse. They soon discover that they are not alone in the warren of caves that wind through the mountain. The opening is quite scary and horrific, it's easy to feel that this segment inspired the British horror movie of the same name.

After the opening section, there is an abrupt shift in the tone and feel of the story. It becomes a tale of adventure, colonization, and conquest. This was a bit jarring at first, but soon I was swept up in the journey. There are two major factions intent on the underground world: Helios (a mega-corporation, with much of the evil that tends to imply in fiction) and the Beowulf group (a group of scholars seeking the physical source for the legend of Satan).

Helios has sent down an invading force to claim all the profitable resources below the earth's surface. It is largely militaristic and focused on wiping out the native populace, called "Hadals" or "Haddies". The Hadals defend their territory, but are largely outnumbered. Suddenly their attacks on the invaders stop and they seem to have disappeared. Some flee deeper into the earth, others begin surfacing in our world.

The Beowulf group manages to infiltrate the Helios expedition in the form of a young nun named, Ali van Schade. None of the groups are physically healthy enough to make the journey themselves. Ali's specialty is linguistics and she has been trying to find the first language. They discover a remarkable number of similarities between the hadals and humans as well as the obvious differences. 

There is much complexity in the story's plot and the mythos provided. The exploration of the consequences of finding the "literal Hell" are interesting as well. Long manages to surprise the reader with several plot twists. His descriptions of the world underneath the world are frequently breathtakingly beautiful. I look forward to reading the sequel.

Happy reading!

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I learned of this through the Geek Girls Book Club on Twitter (and the founder's blog) and Facebook. I joined in December, this is the book for January. Be forewarned, if you are not a nerd or geek, or a child of the 80's, much of this book's charms will likely be lost on you. I enjoyed it immensely, but some of the inside jokes about video games were lost on me. I actually learned a few things about computer and video game history while reading it.

Ready Player One takes places in 2044, it is a world that might actually come to pass if the economy and environmental issues that we face today aren't dealt with. We have depleted the fossil fuels and most of the world's population is living in refugee camps in major cities. There are no jobs to be had, so most live off government rations. The only escape from the harsh reality of life is OASIS, a free immersive online experience. Kids can attend school for free within the virtual universe. OASIS has replaced what we know as the internet today, Second Life is similar in concept, though not in scope. The creators of this world are James Halliday and Ogden Morrow. Halliday dies and has a very unique and interesting will. He will leave control of OASIS, his company, and his entire fortune to the OASIS player that can find an Easter egg he has hidden in the game. (For those that don't play video games, an Easter egg is an item or scene that is hidden in the programming for a player to find as a bonus.) It is like a giant internet scavenger hunt, geo-caching on an infinite scale. The player must solve a series of riddles to access three keys and gain access to the egg. At the opening of the tale, it has been five years since Halliday's death and there has been one progress.

The story is told from the perspective of Wade (aka Parzival), the main character, and the eventual winner of the prize. No spoiler here, we are told this in the first few pages. Even knowing the eventual outcome, I got wrapped up in the tale and the character's adventures. I admit that hearing many of my favorite shows, movies, and video games mentioned didn't hurt my enjoyment. There were some games that I never played as a kid, that I now want to find a copy so that I may enjoy them now.

The people that are hunting the Easter egg become known as gunters. In addition to individuals, you have clans of gunters that pool their resources and information. The biggest antagonist is the mega-corporation IOI, there entire mission is to win the egg and take control of OASIS. They plan on charging a monthly fee and adding all sorts of building restrictions. Needless to say, the majority of OASIS users are against this. Many of them basically grew up in this virtual world, this is where they hang out with friends, attend school, even have jobs. IOI gaining control would mean OASIS becoming a place only the wealthy could afford.

Mostly this book is a straight-forward science fiction adventure, though Cline briefly touches on the issues of the economy and environment. Another issue that comes up is the pervasive presence of technology in our lives, how much is too much? Social networks and smart phones have already altered the way people interact, and many are concerned about the changes. Cline mentions both sides of the argument in passing when it's relevant to the story, but draws no conclusion.

I confess that much of my enjoyment of this book came from the feelings of nostalgia it brought forth. At one point, laserdisc players are mentioned, this excited me because my husband and I were the only people I ever knew that actually owned one. Cline's descriptions of the various virtual worlds and actual video games were quite detailed. I'm sure that if I opened up one of the old games described, it would look just like he detailed it in the book. The characters do not feel flat and you can care about them by the end. I actually look forward to the day when the internet is an immersive experience and we have moved past the flat web pages of the present.

Happy nerdy reading all!

Virals by Kathy Reichs

Virals is the first is a YA series by Kathy Reichs, who came to popular culture through her books about Temperance Brennan and their t.v. show adaptation, Bones. The main character, and our narrator, is Tory Brennan (Temperance's niece). I have only read the first Bones book, though I've watched the t.v. show regularly, so I can't say whether this series is a true spin off or not. I plan on reading more of both the Temperance and Tory Brennan series.

I ear-read rather than eye-read this books. The young lady, Cristin Milioti, that did the voice work did a fabulous job. This book even had a few sound effects related to certain occurrences. This surprised me at first, most audiobooks I've read don't include sound effects but rely solely on the actor's voice. Maybe this one was different because it was a YA book, it was well done and didn't distract from the story.

Tory has just moved from Pennsylvania to South Carolina. The reason for her move? Her mother has died in a car accident and she has moved in with her father, Kit. Neither of them has known of the others existence for the 14 years of her life. Considering the circumstances, Tory is exceedingly well adjusted. She is a genuinely good kid, if her actions aren't always careful or legal. Like her famous aunt, she is very intelligent and loves science. Her father's house is on a small island owned by the University, only other university employees live on it. As a result, Tory becomes with the three teen boys that also live on the island. They also love science, though different aspects. The kids go to a fancy prep school on the mainland, this is one of the perks offered by the college to attract researchers to take the job on the remote research island.

The kid's love to go the research island by boat and observe the wolf-dogs and the wild monkeys (yes, you read that correctly). This habit annoys their parents' supervisor, and he is always trying to prove that they have broken a rule so that he can ban them forever. They have noticed that one of the wolf-dog pups is missing and that the pack is acting strangely (its because the missing pup is locked up in one of the labs), while trying to discover the cause of the strange behavior Tory discovers a pair of old dog tags. Being an ever curious teen, and solver of puzzles, Tory insists they find out who the dog tags belonged to and how they got on the island.

This discovery in turn leads to the discovery of a dead body. Shortly, after discovering the body they all become very ill. It turns out that they caught an unknown disease when they rescued the wolf-pup, dubbed Cooper. Once they are over the sick symptoms, they begin to notice heightened senses and unusually high levels of strength. But these powers are interment. In the course of their investigation into the dog tags and dead body, they have angered a mysterious person that is trying to stop their investigation by any means possible.

The story is fast paced, entertaining, with moments of true and deep emotions (some sweet, others sad). It is a YA book, but due to some of the language it contains I would say it's best for upper middle school or high school. I really enjoyed it.

Infected Review

As mentioned in my previous review, I've found a new appreciation for audiobooks since my return trip from Minnesota. In my family's search for listening materials we found podiobooks. Podiobooks are podcasts of books, many are offered for free from the Podiobooks website. I think this is a great way to advertise books, they even have a few classics. The search feature was not as user friendly as I would have liked, but it's a relatively new site. If you are looking for a legally free book, check them out.

Now, onto the book I read through this service (I downloaded it from them through iTunes, you can also stream them directly from the net.). As you may have guess from the title of this blog article, the book is called Infected. It was written and performed by the author, Scott Sigler.

In the beginning, we learn that there is a mysterious disease causing regular people to go crazy and slaughter their families, friends, and themselves. There is no pattern to the outbreaks and no known means of transmission. A low level CDC agent, Margaret Montoya, notices the incidents and contacts the CIA to help her look into it. They determine that this has to be kept quiet to avoid creating a national panic. From her viewpoint, we see the fear and actions of those trying to stop the disease from spreading.

The other main perspective in the story belongs to Perry Dawsey, a former football player with anger management issues. He is one of the infected, we witness his descent into madness. His history with anger management issues, actually assists him in staving off the affects of the disease. We also get insight into what the disease is, and how it is spread.

Sigler did a lot of research into disease transmission, progression, and parasitic organisms which gives the story a stronger feeling of credibility. His explanations of the scientific reasoning used by Margaret and her partner, and Perry, is well done with out being over technical. He even introduces the disease by going through the process of it gaining hold in a human host.

The story is very intense emotionally and physically. The descriptions give you a very clear mental pictures of the events taking place, sometimes you wish they weren't quite so good. Sigler employs a lot of gore and violence in this tale, so if this isn't your cup of tea I warn you to avoid reading this book. However, if you enjoy intense scifi/horror novels than this book is definitely for you. It is the first in a series, and gives you a classic cliffhanger ending. I look forward to reading the next book.

I wasn't sure if I would be able to get into the story, the first few chapters. It wasn't because of the plot, but because Mr. Sigler's reading was a bit rushed. His reading improved as the novel progressed, as parents and teachers know, reading aloud well is an acquired skill and requires practice. If audiobooks or podiobooks aren't your thing, you can get the book in printed format as well. If you choose the audiobook, please remember it is not child appropriate.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

I heard about The Passage on Twitter, it seemed to be a story that is right up my alley. A post-apocalyptic tale of a military science experiment gone horribly wrong that decimates the population of the United States, maybe even the world. It is the first part of a planned trilogy, so we may discover whether the disaster spread world wide. The experiment to create a super soldier results in vampire-like creatures, these creatures then escape (wouldn't be an apocalypse without that part).

When reading a new author for the first time, I am often concerned that though the story concept is excellent the execution will be poorly done or the writing style isn't a good match for the genre. That concern was completely unfounded with Mr. Cronin. I've heard some people say the novel is slow to start, though it takes longer to get to the disaster than expected, I didn't find it so.

The novel is divided into several books. The first book begins with the story of a young mother. The writing is very hectic, and though I don't think I could have read a whole book like that, it fits with the mother's love for her daughter and her desperate desire to care for her child. I found this section very emotional, maybe because I am a mother myself. The mother decides that it is best if she leaves her daughter at a convent, as she does not believe that she can care for her anymore. Once the young girl, Amy, is at the convent we meet Agent Wolgast. His job is to acquire volunteers for the military experiment. The "volunteers" are death row inmates, Wolgast does not even know what will happen to them in the experiments.

Wolgast and his partner have few qualms with their recruitment efforts, as the men they are recruiting are scheduled to die, until they are ordered to go get Amy and bring her to the laboratory. Wolgast has more of an issue with this assignment than his partner, this may be due to the loss of his own daughter due to illness. Sadly, Wolgast is unable to avoid taking Amy to the lab; however, they are able to escape when the experiments break out. We spend some time with Wolgast and Amy while they hide and survive in this new world, during this part of the narrative we only know what they know, and are in the dark about what is happening elsewhere.

We then skip forward in time, about 100 years, where we meet a colony of survivors. They have managed to survive using lights that run on batteries. There are conflicts between community members and a horrible secret, the batteries will not last much longer. Without the lights at night, the "virals" (the vampire-like creatures) will swarm the colony. There is conflict among the few who know about how to handle this situation.

This book's plot takes many new angles. I don't want to go further into the story, I'm afraid I might spoil some of the twists. I found the characters believable, and the protagonists were flawed (as we all are) but sympathetic. There are many suspenseful moments, and emotional ones. They are not overplayed nor do they feel forced, and you are carried along with the characters. As expected with the first novel in a trilogy, there is a cliffhanger ending. I really hope that the rest of Cronin's works get published, I would like to continue my journey with these characters.

Boneskaker Review

I had tried reading several books, but couldn't find one I was in the mood for. With all my work and studying, my mind needs some distracting but is having a hard time focusing. I'm a fan of zombie novels and steampunk, so Boneshaker by Cherie Priest seemed a logical choice.

This novel is set during the Civil War in California, in this timeline the Civil War has gone on much longer than the history that we know. The main character is Blair Wilkes, a single mother, and the widow of a scientist that caused a horrible disaster. He created a machine to drill for gold, when testing it out he dug too deeply into the earth and released a terrible gas that causes things to rot and sickens people, killing them or turning them into "rotters".

The other central character is her son, Zeke. They are both outcasts because they are related to Leviticus Blue, the scientist responsible. Blair has not told her son about his father, and he becomes curious. Added to the shame of being related to the man that release the gas, many people believe that Zeke's grandfather, Blair's father, took a bribe from prisoners he held to release them before the gas hit the prison they were in. Mr. Wilkes releasing the prisoners added to their outcast status with the "respectable people", but earned them protection and respect among those that work in the underbelly of the city. He knows the only place he can find answers about his father, and grandfather, is in the walled off section of the city, so he enters this very dangerous place. Blair feels compelled to go after him.

The book starts a bit slow for me, but once they enter the walled city the pace really picks up. There are several moments when Blair and the other characters are being chased by zombies that are quite intense. The villain is a ego-maniacal, mad scientist which is always a fun addition. It was enjoyable, but it will never be one of my favorites. Though it was not marketed as a young adult book, it felt like one. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it would be a well written YA book. If you are looking for an easy, but enjoyable zombie/steampunk book give this a try.

The Eyre Affair Review

I read this book years ago and enjoyed it, so I thought I'd read it again with my Second Life book club. I had forgotten much about the book since I last read it.

Jasper Fforde weaves a tale about a police detective, Thursday Next, who specializes in literary crime. Most of the time it is a very dull job, at least for most of the LiteraTecs. Thursday seems to attract adventure. Before becoming a police officer, she fought in the Crimean War. In this war, she lost her brother, and the love of her life. One to death, the other to the trauma of war.

The world of Thursday Next is a world of time travel, cloned extinct pets, and characters being kidnapped out of famous books. England and Russia have been fighting a war off and on for over a century. Her father is a time traveling fugitive that is trying to fix the past, so she rarely sees him.

Thursday's nemesis in this book is Acheron Hades. He is probably my second favorite character of the whole book. Thursday is drawn into this adventure because Hades was her professor in college, so she can identify him. He has the strange ability to locate people when they speak his name, seems to be invulnerable to any physical harm, and apparently has the ability to teleport and cause others to hallucinate. He commits evil acts for the pure pleasure and feels that to robbery for the sake of financial gain is low, common, and in poor taste.

Fforde combines adventure and comedy together very well. As an American, I know there are some references to part of London and England that I missed completely. There are many puns, some good, some come with a groan factor. I really enjoy the book, it was a fun read. I'm actually in the mood to read the rest of the series.

Software Review

This was my first novel by Rudy Rucker. Though I wasn't sure what to expect, I knew that this book would take a different approach to cyberpunk than I have encountered before.

Our main character is Cobb Anderson, he is an elderly scientist that is living in disgrace. The cause of his disgrace is the robot revolution that was brought about by him developing a way for robots to evolve and have real brains, not in the physical sense but in the independent thought sense. He has lost is his money and career, left his wife, and is suicidal while being terrified of death. Another consequence of the robot rebellion is that all the "boppers", or thinking robots, have been exiled to the moon. One of the boppers sneaks down to Earth and offers Cobb immortality, money for a ticket to the moon, and a new passport as Cobb's travel is restricted to due his part in the robot rebellion (albeit unintentional).

Cobb has a nemesis, a police officer named Mooney. Mooney is holding a grudge about Cobb's part in the robot rebellion. Ironically, the person that the boppers plan to have help Cobb is Mooney's son, Sta-Hi. I don't want to go into the plot any further, so that I avoid spoilers.

Rucker's writing flowed smoothly, and I even laughed in a few spots. The book was enjoyable, but not riveting. I think that part of the reason I wasn't riveted is because I found some of the events a bit predictible, that might not be the case for you. I wouldn't place it among my all-time favorites; however, I found the question that Rucker posed about the soul very interesting. There was a lack of intensity that I have come to expect from cyberpunk. As the novel is the first in a trilogy, much of the story was exposition. I don't feel that I can reach a definitive conclusion on how I feel about it as a work, because it is not a complete work in and of itself. If you like science fiction and questions of an existential nature, then this would be a good choice for you.

She Murdered Me with Science Review

She Murdered Me with Science is David Boop's first novel. It combines historical fiction, sci-fi, and detective noir. Boop often plays for humor, and I think he does it well. I love the liberal sprinkling of period slang, though I admit my knowledge and taste of it come from "Casablanca", bits of "The Maltese Falcon", and Shirley Temple movies like "The Bachelor and the Bobbysocker".

As is a staple in the detective noir genre, when we meet our hero, he is "down on his luck". Noel Glass was a teenage science protege. He was recruited in his childhood by NMIT and graduated at the tender age of 16. He left NMIT in disgrace when an experiment went horribly wrong and killed six people, including his lover, Tangie. To make ends meet he becomes a private eye and forensic detective. He has been struggling to invent something to reestablish himself as a scientist.

Just as he completes his new invention he is approached by a mysterious man that not only wants to buy his invention, but tells him that the accident was really a frame job. The people that framed Glass for the deaths are trying to kill his benefactor. Glass then uses his detective skills to figure out why this mystery man is helping him and who framed him.

He is helped in his quest by Mr Lee, who had previously rescued him from depression and self-pity, and Vincent, the mystery man's body guard. At times the interaction between the three makes me think of a buddy flick. Boop also pulls in the sultry songbird, though this one is far from helpless.

I was a bit disappointed in the twist ending, as I predicted it much earlier. Now whether this was accidental, or done on purpose to play up the archetypes of the genre, I can not be sure. Over all, this was a fun read. Perfect for a vacation or to read on a beach.

Hardwired Review

Welcome to Hardwired, Walter Jon Williams' world of super corporations, hard-wired skills, and smugglers. This is an extremely fast-paced, classic cyberpunk novel.

The opening of the book gets your heart racing. We meet Cowboy, our protagonist, as he is driving his car to his mountain hideaway. It does great job of introducing the feel, the hero, and the technology of the story. Cowboy is a panzerboy, THE panzerboy actually. A panzerboy is a smuggler, a bootlegger, and a line-runner. He smuggles to maintain his freedom from the control of the Orbitals, corporations that run the world and maintain their head quarters in orbit around Earth. His approach reminds me very much of what in America was referred to as the "frontier spirit".

Our other main character is Sarah, Sarah is a person for hire. She has a modification called a Weasel, it is very dangerous to those she uses it on and herself. Sarah's goal is to buy tickets for herself and her brother to live in Orbit. She has held some very borderline jobs in order to achieve this. In fact, when we first meet her, she is on a job to assassinate one of the Orbital employees and steal some information from their database. This results in her home being blown up and her brother being seriously injured.

Her fixer, or agent, for the lack of a better word is put in danger as well. Cowboy and Sarah meet on the job related to finding out who is trying to kill her. Both Cowboy and Sarah have strong senses of integrity, despite the fact that they hold what is in our world criminal jobs. They discover that the black market is not all that it seems.

This story contains much complexity in the plot and character development. The details come together wonderfully, though occasionally there is a slight feeling of deus ex machina. I would say that for most people this is an excellent introductory novel to the cyberpunk sub-genre. It is much more accessible than Neuromancer by Gibson for those brand new to the genre. It contains less "techno-babble" at any rate.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Wow, all I can say is WOW! I actually finished this book over a week ago, but I had to take a step back from it. This was one of the most raw and intense stories I have ever read. It's the story of a father and son after a horrible world-wide disaster. We never learn exactly what it was, but the description of the day suggests a nuclear event. We travel with this family, who we only ever know as "the man" and "the boy". We witness their day-to-day struggle just to continue to exist. The man has set a goal of going south, to the sea. The weather is getting colder and colder, and they will not be able to survive another winter in the north.

The book is written in the third person, but I couldn't help to feel like the man was speaking to us directly in the story. The center focus of the book is the relationship between the father and son, when we do run into other people they pose a danger to the main characters. There is a starkness about the descriptions and even the conversations between the two. McCarthy chooses to not use punctuation most of the time. I think that this really emphasizes the lack of society, and contributes to the harried feeling of the story. McCarthy's writing in this story invokes lots of emotion from the readers, but also requires the readers to draw their own conclusions.

There are so many scenes in this book that struck me, and that I'd like to share. However, I feel that doing so out of context would steal something from your experience of the book. There are parts of it that were so overwhelming, that I still tear up or feel jittery thinking about them.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

This is my second read through of Snow Crash, this year. This time I chose to listen to the audio book, due to my very busy schedule. It was read by Jonathan Davis, who did an excellent job. Expressive tones, unique voices for all the characters (even Y.T.), etc. I originally read this on a recommendation of a friend, and shortly after I began playing around on Second Life, which I discovered was inspired by the novel. In fact, I read it a second time so soon, because of my book talk group on Second Life. I admit it, I love the idea that the entire internet could be an entirely visual world.

The main character in our tale is Hero Protagonist(I've always been curious about this choice of name, but feel it's a bit too obvious to get analytical about.). He is a computer hacker/pizza delivery boy. Freelance hacking is an unstable income, and he got into debt with the mob, so now he delivers pizzas for them(all pizza places are owned by the mob). He meets our other main character, Y.T. is a courier. She delivers packages, messages, etc. on her skate board. All deliveries are made this way, the poon (harpoon) cars to help them get the delivery made faster. In fact, this is how Hero and Y.T. meet, she poons his pizza delivery car, and then delivers the pizza on time after he crashes the car into a pool.

We also meet Mr. Enzo, the head of the Mafia, and Mr. Lee, the head of the Chinese nation. Nations are more like corporations than the nations we are familiar with these days, they recruit people from all backgrounds and are not in a centralized location. David is also introduced to us, one of the lead hackers, an inventor of the Metaverse, and a good friend of Hero's. Juanita is another of our group of heroes, she is a hacker as well and programmed all the facial expressions in the Metaverse (which are now considered crucial to any business dealing there).

This is a story about a computer virus/drug that is called Snow Crash. Hero is offered a hypercard, a representation of a file in the Metaverse, with Snow Crash on it. He turns it down, as he does not know the person offering it and accepting it would be opening his computer to possible viral infection. David, on the other hand, takes the card. He opens it with Hero there, at first nothing happens, then his system crashes. Hero doesn't really think anything of it, other than that David should have known better. Turns out that it not only crashed David's computer, but his brain too. He is in the hospital, thanks to Juanita's actions, but unresponsive, only occasionally talking in tongues. The plot continues to gain complexity as the various threads tie together. It this intrigues you, I encourage you to read the novel for yourself.

Snow Crash touches on such themes as linguistics, religion, programming, psychology, and viral information. Stephenson shows a fairly good grasp of religious history, though he embellishes as well. The characters are engaging, the story is fast paced. Stephenson even gives you a few laughs along the way without disrupting the intense feeling of the book, a very difficult thing to do. This book is an excellent example of well written science fiction and cyberpunk.

Neuromancer Review

Neuromancer was written in 1984 by William Gibson, his first novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy. His prior projects were short stories, including one co-authored with Bruce Sterling. It is known as the most famous early cyberpunk novel and for winning the three top sci-fi awards.

The hero of the piece is Henry Case, a hustler who was once a hacker of some skill. He has been on a suicide mission since his ability to run in cyberspace was burned out of his head after his bosses discovered he had been skimming funds. He is approached by Molly, a Razor Girl (a.k.a. a bodyguard), on behalf of a man named Armitage. They offer to reverse the damage done to his neural pathways and pay him to hack into a system for them. They fix his neural pathway damage, but plant an enzyme that will restore the damage unless they are satisfied with his work. Molly and Case become close and start investigating Armitage. The group later acquires Peter Riveria, an artist/con-man, to also assist in their heist. Riveria is also a sociopath, who they find while he is in the middle of a gruesome act. They are dealing with an AI, artificial intelligence. This is very dangerous for hackers. They tend to end up brain dead, sometimes briefly, most often permanently.

Gibson starts out very strong with this novel, it has an intense feeling. It heralds back to the days of pulp fiction in pacing and mood. However, in the third quarter of the book, though it was still enjoyable, it seemed to lose some of its momentum. This is probably not unusual in a first novel when the author has previously written short stories. The ending also felt a little forced, and yet at the same time hollow. I’m sure this has to do with the fact that it is the beginning of a trilogy. I found the characters compelling and fairly complex, including the AI. Gibson employs many allusions in his work, and has an expansive imagination. I’d like to read more of his work and see how he grows as he becomes more comfortable with the novel format and length.

A Review I Couldn't Resist

I wasn't going to write a review for Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, because of how busy life has been due to the start of the school year, and reading the next book for our book talk group. In the end, I couldn't resist.

This book is wonderful. It falls into the science fiction genre, under the sub-genre of steampunk. For those not familiar with the term, steampunk is mostly defined by a feel of the Victorian era and a mix of advanced technology with backwards technology or advanced technology run by steam power.

Set in New Crobuzon, this book is about a fringe scientist, Isaac Dan De Grimubulin, who is approached by a client, Yag, to restore his ability of flight after he has his wings removed as punishment for a "choice crime". We also get a view into his relationship with Lin, a kheperi. Lin is a sculpture artist, who acquires a mysterious client of her own. The story develops slowly and evolves into a complex web of events.

The most overwhelming (in a good way) aspect of this book is the masterful use of language employed by Mieville. His vocabulary is extremely rich and varied, even reading it for the second time I had to occasionally reach for a dictionary. The language lends an incredible texture to the tale. New Crobuzon is described in a way that makes you feel as if you could go there and touch the walls of Lin's apartment or the University buildings. It has the feel of an old English town, including horse-drawn (and other creature)taxis. Mieville uses words as a painters use hues and colors on a canvas, giving the reader layers and subtle details. You can tell by reading his works that he has a love of words. Even if science fiction isn't your usual genre, give this book a read, the sophistication of the writing makes it literature without question. If you are a writer, you will envy his vocabulary and weaving of words.

Review of Jumper by Steve Gould

This is not a review of the novelization of the movie, but of the original book the movie is loosely based on. My husband had read the books and watched the movie, he enjoyed both and encouraged me to read the books and watch the film. We watched the movie together, and then I read the first book. It's interesting to watch a movie with someone that has read the book it's based on, and he wanted an opinion on the movie without the knowledge of the book. The movie is interesting and exciting, but I think the original novel is better. (Aren't they always?)

There are many things the same in the book and the film. The main character is Davy, a boy with an abusive, alcoholic father. Davy discovers his ability to jump when his dad is beating him very badly. His mother left in the book as well, though not for the same reasons. (I'm avoiding two different spoilers here.) We follow Davy on a journey of learning about the outside world and his gift of teleporting or jumping as he calls it. He meets a girl named Millie and falls in love. He struggles with whether to tell her about his gift, afraid it will scare her off.

There are also many differences. He is not being chased by an organization out to kill jumpers. The book is more of a drama and character study. Don't get me wrong, it has lots of action too. We see our protagonist struggle with choices, such is life I suppose. One of the big things Davy struggles with is his anger, which is very common among abuse victims. While the movie makers made Davy less appealling, though not unappealling, they made his Dad more so.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was entertaining and well paced. I will probably read the sequel. I'd say this is a good summer read, a great way to relax for a weekend.