We learn about ‘the event’ through the eyes of a number of people: some in New York City, some in London, and others in a secret secure facility in RoWe learn about ‘the event’ through the eyes of a number of people: some in New York City, some in London, and others in a secret secure facility in Roswell, New Mexico. In Roswell, the first fully-aware artificial intelligence has been created, called DELIO. It’s creators, and in fact, all of the security at the site have one guiding principle – DELIO must never be allowed to escape. It’s just too dangerous.
The timeline and location jumps around quite a bit, but in fact this turns out to be an effective way of telling how DELIO does escape and how this impacts the world, whilst at the same time describing how this AI monster was created. The characters impacted in New York and London are a mixed bunch who each have something of their own story told. Best is a NYC cop who’s about to kill himself when it all kicks off. The worst are all of the British characters, each being irritating beyond belief and totally over the top.
This is the opening episode of a longer story. In effect it’s a scene setter. I like apocalyptic tales. They give the writer free range to describe situations we’ve never witnessed, to create a world from scratch. Ok, it’s a damaged world, but the rules we are governed by are all ripped up, and a new order needs to be created. Unless it’s complete disorder, of course. It’s too early to know which way this one will go, but by the end of this episode we’ll have already received a big pointer suggesting one likely direction. It does sound interesting.
I listened to an audio version, which probably increased my dislike of the characters from my side of the Atlantic, but which was otherwise excellently performed. I look forward to seeing/hearing what happens next… but with that singular reservation....more
History records that in 1845, Captain Sir John Franklin led a British expedition to find the Northwest Passage through Canada. It turned out to be oneHistory records that in 1845, Captain Sir John Franklin led a British expedition to find the Northwest Passage through Canada. It turned out to be one of the worst disasters in the history of polar exploration. In all, 129 officers and crew members were lost – that is, everyone on board the two ships that sailed. One of the officers was Graham Gore, who in this story has been plucked from the ice (shortly before it’s presumed everyone starved to death) and transported to London. Set in the near future, a UK ministry has discovered a time travel door and has managed to bring a small group of people, from various years, back through it. Each was transferred shortly before the date they were believed to have been due to die, this being an attempt to minimise the likely impact of their removal.
Gore and the others are each supported by a ministry employee known as a Bridge. The job of the Bridge is to live with the time traveller, control and monitor their movements, and generally help them adjust to this new world they find themselves in. We will meet all of these characters, but the main emphasis here is on the relationship between Gore (a man in his mid-thirties) and his young female Bridge. In effect, this is a convoluted love story.
The time travel methodology is never really explored, the focus being on the people and how they adjust to this modern world, and also on the mystery surrounding the ministry itself: both its purpose and it’s rather overbearing senior personnel. In typical time travel novel style, quite a bit of coverage is given to the incongruities of modern life for these people who have all travelled from more primitive times. For me, this repetitive theme quickly became rather trite and uninteresting. Also, aside from the budding romance, very little else was actually happening. Then, it started to get very confusing. The narrative, initially slow and somewhat dull, suddenly becomes fast-moving and jumpy. My mind couldn’t follow the series of seemingly random happenings. It transpires that there is some logic here and even an interesting surprise, but it takes some time for things to become clear.
A time travel story provides an almost unlimited licence to introduce strange and sometimes wonderful twists. But in so doing, there is a need to engage the reader/listener and make them part of the journey. Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveller's Wife is a confusing jumble saved by the most wonderful ending imaginable and Stephen King’s 11/22/63 is an imaginative exploration of a major event in American history – these stories are amongst my most memorable audiobook experiences. But despite being competently narrated, this novel just failed to engage me, nor did it deliver the level of excitement or eye watering surprises I was hoping for. In truth, I found it all a bit of a mess, and in the end, a disappointment.
My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton Audio for providing a copy of this audiobook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review....more
It’s some point in the future, we’re not sure how far. A catastrophe has struck the planet, a man-made catastrophe we’re led to believe. A fog has graIt’s some point in the future, we’re not sure how far. A catastrophe has struck the planet, a man-made catastrophe we’re led to believe. A fog has gradually covered the planet, inhabited by insects that destroyed every living thing in its wake. There was only one place spared, a small Greek island, and ninety years after the devastation, a hundred or more people lived here. The leaders – referred to as the ‘elders’ - are three scientists. There’s also an AI system in play called Abi.
It’s not clear why the fog didn’t reach this island, but it does hover in the distance, a constant threat. The people here are a mild, friendly group, and it seems that there is no violence, no disruption to their tranquil lives. But there are also secrets, and soon there will be a murder – a death that will threaten the future of these people. They will learn that they must identify and execute the perpetrator of this act, or the fog will descend upon them. And they will have very little time in which to do this.
Turton writes carefully constructed, unconventional and complex crime thrillers; The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is, I think, a masterpiece. But what of this one? Well, it’s certainly complex, and its premise does seem to offer plenty of mystery. It took me a while to get my head around the set-up on the island and, unsurprisingly, quite a bit of information is held back and carefully parcelled out as the story unfolds. The world he constructs here is an interesting one, too. Yet I found myself strangely unengaged by the whole scenario.
One issue for me is that I struggle with stories that include the opportunity for scientific and technological developments or inventions that don’t currently exist to suddenly crop up and surprise me. This obviously offers the author the opportunity to introduce all sorts of strange twists that I couldn’t possibly have envisaged. I just find this exasperating; I like to use my wits to try to solve any puzzle I’m faced with and therefore a mystery set in a time when this vehicle exists is always likely to frustrate me.
I enjoyed the story, but I didn’t love it. It is surprising, and it is inventive, and yet I never found myself fully engaged with the fate of these people. That said, the ending is frantic and exciting, and it did keep me urgently turning each page to see how things would finally play out. I’m pretty sure many others will love this one more than I did, but it’s a three star offering for me.
My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing for providing an early copy of this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review....more
I grabbed a copy of this book without reading the blurb, having grown very fond of this authors writing recently. But to my astonishment it wasn’t at I grabbed a copy of this book without reading the blurb, having grown very fond of this authors writing recently. But to my astonishment it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. What I was expecting was a crime thriller akin to the fast talking crime novels I’ve been devouring of late. What I actually got started out very much in this vein but quickly morphed into a tale involving strange events that occurred amid what appeared to be a thunderstorm but turned out to be a hole through which people suddenly travelled either forward or backward in time.
It took me a while to get over the shock, and I confess that I struggled to push on through the book once I realised that I’d unintentionally duped myself. Hang on a minute, I found myself thinking, this isn’t what I signed up for! I even stopped reading it for a few days before, rather reluctantly, picking it up for a second go. And I’m glad I did. Once I got into the flow of a tale told in both a present day Californian desert setting and an accompanying story set in the same area in the late 1800s, I slowly warmed it.
In some ways, it’s odd that I didn’t settle into the story more quickly as I’m a bit of a time travel buff. I think the issue is that I found the time travel activity here somewhat unconvincing, even though the dual stories were interesting enough. The whole thing is a slightly odd mix of a modern day detective seeking to re-boot her career after it was derailed by wayward act and a man setting out to protect a daughter who – in this world he finds himself – has yet to be born. It didn’t quite work for me, and yet I still found myself smiling as I turned the final pages.
My thanks to Severn House for providing an ARC of this book visa NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ...more
Book 1 in this trilogy introduced us to a large group of people surviving some kind of apocalyptic event by sheltering in a large bunker, or silo, burBook 1 in this trilogy introduced us to a large group of people surviving some kind of apocalyptic event by sheltering in a large bunker, or silo, buried deep in the ground. We learned that they were there for the long-term and that our planet may be permanently uninhabitable. It was, in truth, the most compelling and surprising story in this mini-series.
Book 2 took us back to the beginning, to the time before the need for people to hide under the ground. We learned what happened and why. This prequel answered a lot of questions as it filled in the gap and then slightly overlapped events covered in the opening episode. But in my view this was the weakest of the three books.
Book 3 (this book) picks up events from where books 1 & 2 left off. We’re back inside silo territory as the key characters start to increasingly question what life outside really looks like. Is everything really so totally desolate? Once again it’s a pretty lengthy tome - perhaps a little too long for a tale that’s mainly occupied in tying up loose ends - but it does bring a satisfying, if somewhat convoluted, resolution to proceedings.
As a whole, I found it an intriguing and inventive series – one that kept me entertained for many hours as I listened to each episode on audio. I’d heartily recommend it to all lovers of dystopian fiction or just those that love long, complex tales that keep you invested and keep you guessing....more
One of the strangest books I’ve read in quite a while!
Martin Just awakes one morning feeling like he’s been asleep for a hundred years. Wondering nakeOne of the strangest books I’ve read in quite a while!
Martin Just awakes one morning feeling like he’s been asleep for a hundred years. Wondering naked on to his balcony, he quickly finds himself accosted by police. Martin is a black man living in the affluent Hollywood hills of Los Angeles - is he being picked out, victimised? Worse is to come, as he’s thrown into a cell to be joined sometime later by a huge white supremacist intent on doing him serious harm.
What happens next is a little hard to fathom, but Martin is concious that he’s on a mission, that he’s been chosen. He’s not the only one, he's aware that there are others too. This discovery has emerged, he knows, from the long sleep. Now he’s two people, a Jekyll and Hyde, a man who is a stranger to violence and also a man who embraces it. He’s not sure how events will manifest but he understands that if he is ‘life’, then he must face down he who is ‘death’.
At times I found the narrative incomprehensible. It lurches from one strange scene to the next, piling one surreal event on top of another. The action scenes are straight out of a Marvel comic book, but the language and and the writing is that of a serious wordsmith. It’s incongruous. I'm afraid it's just too much for me.
I’ve enjoyed Mosley’s writing in the past, The Awkward Black Man is one of the finest collection of short stories I’ve read, and I’ve always been impressed by the way refuses to be locked into one particular style (compare Cinnamon Kiss to John Woman, for example). With this book he’s moving into John Boyne territory in terms of expanding his range, but I'm afraid it just didn’t work for me. On the plus side, it’s a short piece so I was able to complete it in one sitting.
My thanks to Grove Atlantic for providing an ARC of this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review....more
I found the first book in this trilogy, Wool, surprising and exciting in a way I haven't experienced from a science fiction book in a while. UnfortunaI found the first book in this trilogy, Wool, surprising and exciting in a way I haven't experienced from a science fiction book in a while. Unfortunately I didn't feel the same way about this one.
But perhaps it's because most of the real mysteries were already uncovered in book 1? Well, to an extent that is the case, but there are things hidden in book 1 that are uncovered here. In fact, a good deal of the unknown from Wool is clarified in this book. No, I think it's primarily because this is a prequel, with much (but not all) of the action preceding events in book 1, and life in the world as we know it just didn't hold my interest in the same way. It's also because the characters here just didn't grab me in the same way either.
Don't get me wrong, I still worked through over 18 hours of audio without a thought of giving up on it. It's also set things up nicely for book 3, which I've already started. If you've just finished Wool, then I'm guessing, like me, you'll be desperate to know more. The background stuff is here, though I did feel that this one dragged a bit and maybe because I knew where it was headed some of it did feel a little contrived. Still, bring on book 3, where we're back to where we ended book 1. Now you're talking...
Set in the near future, this novel explores some challenging ideas around what it means to be human. Talisa, an American academic, agrees to be a surrSet in the near future, this novel explores some challenging ideas around what it means to be human. Talisa, an American academic, agrees to be a surrogate mother for an English couple in exchange for funding to continue her career development. But the super-rich owner of the institute that is to carry out the procedure plans to execute an outlandish plan. Experimental and corrupt, it is to have huge consequences for Talisa, the parents and Seth, the child.
It's definitely best not to give too much away here, so suffice to say it explores the genesis of some of the challenges each of us might have to deal with in our lifetime – challenges we’d all rather not have to address. There’s a good deal of very technical talk here, which sounds authentic (though I really have no idea if that’s the case), and in part, it states the case for the ‘experiment’. So it’s part of a story of how things play out, particularly for Talisa and Seth, but it’s also a discussion on the positive and negative aspects of how humans have to this point evolved.
As I’ve previously experienced with this author, the writing is really strong; Faulks certainly knows how to string words together. I was particularly drawn to Seth, a boy and then a young man who is just a bit different from others. The developing relationship between he and Talisa is, though, a bit odd – uncomfortable and somewhat spooky. But it’s certainly an eye-opening piece: a mix of science and history, woven into a story of people living in a world that has moved on from where we are at present. This new world made me smile, too, with its predictions as to what developments we might expect as the 21st century progresses. If the author set out to tease the minds of his readers, to make us ponder on the conundrum of what we are and how we got here, then I do believe he succeeded.
My thanks to Random House UK, Cornerstone for supplying an early reader copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review....more
My son has been watching an adaptation of this dystopian novel, shown on Apple TV. He suggested it might be something I’d be interested in. No alien cMy son has been watching an adaptation of this dystopian novel, shown on Apple TV. He suggested it might be something I’d be interested in. No alien creatures or inter-galactic battles, he promised. Instead, a depiction of a dystopian future for people housed in massive structure, referred to as the silo, that reaches more than a hundred floors down into the earth. I decided to give it a go, going the audiobook route.
There’s quite a few unknowns here, particularly how it came to be that people are forced to confine themselves inside this structure. What is clear, though, is that the toxic environment outside is such that it cannot be survived, even for short periods dressed in a protective suit. In fact, such are the strict rules in this environment that even the suggestion that you’d like to explore the space outside the silo is sure to give you a one way ticket to certain death: you’re immediately forced out into the wasteland, where you’ll perish within minutes.
Gradually, a picture starts to form of the this place, governed by an elected mayor and with it’s own security team led by a sheriff. The holders of these positions are based at the top, near the surface. Further down there are floors set aside for farming, IT, accommodation and, at the bottom, the power unit that keeps everything going. Following a relatively small cast of characters we start to get a sense of how the whole community works, it’s stringent rules and, yes, its harsh punishments for disobedience.
In feel, the closest comparison I can come up with is Andy Weir’s book The Martian. Good character development, a really tangible sense of claustrophobia and a decent dose of persuasive (if hard to decipher) science underpins both stories, making then stand above most science fiction novels in my eyes. I didn’t know where this story was eventually going to take me, but before long I’d become totally invested in a number of the characters and so, as I approached the end of the book I found myself desperately hoping for some kind of positive outcome for them. The ending, when it came, was surprising and satisfying – I’ll say no more than that.
There are already thousands of mostly very positive reviews of this book on Goodreads, so clearly my view is not that of an outlier. I’ve already downloaded and commenced listening to book 2 in this trilogy (a prequel) and have purchased a copy of book 3 too. If these episodes offer anything like the experience I had when listening to book 1, then I know I’m in for a treat. ...more
I'm a big fan of the author's novels and had been searching for the story for some time. I eventually tracked it down as a free read (see link below) I'm a big fan of the author's novels and had been searching for the story for some time. I eventually tracked it down as a free read (see link below) and it took me about as long as my cup of coffee stayed hot to read through it. It's a brief time travel tale that interesting enough, if not entirely compelling or convincing. But I do like time travel stories - they're a brain tease, something I'd love to believe in - and along with the story, the link provided access to a response to the story from a famous physicist, which was as interesting and entertaining as the story itself.
I’m picky when choosing science fiction novels to read, I try to avoid scenarios I can’t simply envisage and for me this includes alien beings, particI’m picky when choosing science fiction novels to read, I try to avoid scenarios I can’t simply envisage and for me this includes alien beings, particularly those with superpowers. So why pick this one, which tells of the invasion of Earth by aliens so powerful that they are able to force humans to scurry away from their homes to the only space they’re allowed to occupy – Antarctica, the most inhospitable place on the planet! Well, my reasons are twofold: firstly, I have previous with Tom Rob Smith, having much admired his novel Child 44; secondly, I have a bit of a thing for apocalyptic novels and this one looked like it would certainly tick that box.
I’m not going to delve into the details of the plot except to say that for me it comprises four elements:
The event: sudden and uncompromising; a statement is made and a timeframe is given.
The People: we’re introduced to a select few whose adventures we’ll follow, notably an American family on holiday in Lisbon, a boy the family meet there and an Israeli soldier (of course we’ll meet others as the story progresses) .
The Journey: chaotic and often heartbreaking.
Arrival and Survival: those who successfully reach their destination have to find a way to live in this virtually uninhabitable place.
I don’t like cold places, so the whole thing gave me the shivers (quite literally at times). But the story is very well told and as a result I quickly became invested in the fate of the key players, though curious as to how this tale would retain my interest for the many pages remaining – I hoped it wasn’t going to become a grim battle of attrition with nothing more interesting to impart. I needn’t have worried, there’s a lot more depth here than the elements I’ve described would suggest. Foremost amongst them is an underlying discourse suggesting that humans might well have been deserving of their fate and, whether this is accepted or not, what could they do to overcome a challenge which presents a real threat to the very future of Homo sapiens on this planet.
It would be easy to pick a few holes in the narrative, but I found that I really enjoyed the story and found some of the science (there’s quite a bit here) and particularly the intrinsic moral debates really interesting and thought provoking. It’s most definitely a piece that I believe will continue to prick my conscience and cause me to re-evaluate how I live my life, the good things and the bad.
My thanks to Simon and Schuster UK for providing an early copy of this book, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review....more
I’ve had mixed experience with this author, I absolutely loved Recursion and Dark Matter but found that I couldn’t get on with his Wayward Pines serieI’ve had mixed experience with this author, I absolutely loved Recursion and Dark Matter but found that I couldn’t get on with his Wayward Pines series. But that’s the way it is with science fiction for me, either the story and the idea underpinning it resonates or it doesn’t – I’m very picky. In this book, his latest, Crouch delves into the mysterious and complex world of genetic engineering. Set in the mid twenty-first century, the first thing to note is that some things have moved on a bundle: public transport now moves at eye watering speeds, buildings can be built to extraordinary heights and thanks to global warming the lower part of Manhattan has flooded and is now a massive homeless encampment.
I won’t go into the detail of the plot, I really don’t want to spoil things for future readers. What I will say is that it’s fast paced, has plenty of action scenes and chock-full of science. Also, the characters are sympathetically drawn and the whole thing has an easy reading quality to it, with a good natural flow. So what’s not to like? Well, lots of readers will probably think the answer to that is simply ‘nothing’. But for me there were a couple of things that threw me off. Firstly, the author drops in an awful lot of chemical, biological and medical terminology and though this did make me feel that Crouch really had a grasp of this element I felt that there was just too much of it here. Secondly, there’s a leap at one point in the story that just failed to take me with it.
Crouch is a very clever man and I do think this tale will attract a lot of fans, its bang on the money in terms of current scientific debates and will certainly get people talking about some of the moral issues he highlights. I enjoyed it but I didn’t love it. However, I expect it to do very well indeed.
My thanks to Pan Macmillan for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review....more
A plot to kill the President of the United States of America involving a time shifting doppelgänger - what’s not to like about that!? It’s pretty fullA plot to kill the President of the United States of America involving a time shifting doppelgänger - what’s not to like about that!? It’s pretty full on from the start and doesn’t let up until the frantic and explosive finish. It’s the first time I’ve listened to a story via an episodic podcast, and this in itself was a very different experience for me. I was sometimes frustrated that I had to wait another week for the next episode and occasionally irritated that my enjoyment was interrupted by sponsor adverts but, in truth, neither was a party spoiler. The production quality is amazing – the best I’ve experienced – and the voice actors were spot on too, particularly Thora Birch in the lead role(s). If you enjoy action packed science fiction then I’d urge you to give this one a go....more
It’s a time travel tale so I’ll avoid delving into the plot – that really would spoil things for prospective readers – instead I’ll just record my thoIt’s a time travel tale so I’ll avoid delving into the plot – that really would spoil things for prospective readers – instead I’ll just record my thoughts on it.
Firstly, it’s complicated. The time travel is undertaken back and forth, into the future and the past, sometimes seemingly randomly. This element reminded me of The Time Travellers Wife in that it confused me whilst promising a revelation that would blow my mind as all became clear. It came – the revelation – but not in a mind blowing way. Instead it all felt too big, too over-engineered. In addition, TTTW had delivered the most emotionally charged ending to a book I’ve ever read, for me it was literally tear inducing. The ending here was good too, just not in quite such an impactful way.
Secondly, I failed to engage fully with the male and female lead characters. To me they felt too shallow, too generic. There was certainly an interesting story here centred around their future and their past, it’s just that I didn’t feel as invested in the eventual outcome for them as I’d like to have been.
Next, there’s really no science here, other than an oblique reference to string theory. I don’t consider a that to be a problem as such, as for me time travel stories are about freeing the mind to explore the opportunities offered up should such a thing be proved to be possible. In fact nearly all of my favourite books in this sub-genre have scrupulously avoided getting into the mechanics (and physics) of how it’s done, for obvious reasons. But here the amount, the accuracy and the variety of travel here does draw attention the unlikeliness of it all.
Finally, it all went on a bit too long. The story grew in scale as I felt it was trying to trump any other time travel tale and in so doing it seemed to lose the essence of itself. There is a good story here, but it’s somewhat drowned out by some rather grandiose and over-cooked plot elements. It’s got good bones but perhaps an enforced diet would have been advisable.
If this all sounds rather critical then to some extent I apologise. I did enjoy this story, just not as much as I hoped I would. There are some great ideas here though and for readers who enjoy time travel tales I do think it’s worth giving this one a try – many have found much more here to love than I did....more
In the author’s last novel The Glass Hotel we were introduced to Vincent and her half-brother Paul and we learned of a link to a Ponzi Scheme which waIn the author’s last novel The Glass Hotel we were introduced to Vincent and her half-brother Paul and we learned of a link to a Ponzi Scheme which was to have tragic consequences. Well, we are to meet them again here. It’s not clear to what extent their back story is a pivotal element but this is one of the quirky and interesting things about Mandel’s books: she sets about things in a slightly different way to other writers I’ve come across, teasing and surprising in equal measure.
In addition to the continuing discoveries regarding Vincent and Paul we are also taken back in time to a Vancouver forest and forward to time to when lunar colonies are in place. Each segment offers up sight of a slightly puzzling event. How are these individual moments in time linked, and is there a broader significance? It’s clear from the far future view that pandemics and global warming have, to some extent, driven development and exploration. There’s a lot at play here and we haven’t even gotten to the time travel element yet.
If the first half of the book is a slow scene setter then the second half offers much more in terms of both pace and discovery. Aficionados of time travel tales will spot some of the usual tropes, but (as a reader of many such tales) I believe there’s definitely something new here, a different puzzle to solve. Mandel eschews the need for detailed breakdowns of how it’s all done, preferring instead to focus on the bigger picture and on the plight of the characters she’s introduced us to. I found this approach refreshing, I must admit. It’s a relatively short book, coming in at under three hundred pages, but there’s a good deal packed in.
If I have a grumble, it’s that I’d have liked some of the characters to have been fleshed out a little more and I thought some of the transitions in the second half of the book felt a little rushed - for instance, at one point a major character takes a controversial and determining action, seemingly without any forethought. But these are minor quibbles as I believe that once again Mandel has produced a thoughtful and compulsively readable story, one that certainly ticked a lot of boxes for me.
As a final thought, if you haven’t read The Glass Hotel don’t worry, this one works just fine as a stand-alone piece.
My thanks to Pan Macmillan, Picador for providing a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review....more
I have mixed history with Scalzi: I loved The Dispatcher but hated Lock In. In fact I’m a bit picky with sci-fi generally, having a penchant for timI have mixed history with Scalzi: I loved The Dispatcher but hated Lock In. In fact I’m a bit picky with sci-fi generally, having a penchant for time travel (I know, some consider this a different genre) and stories I can get my limited imagination around. Generally, monsters and too clever gizmos turn me cold. So perhaps I made a mistake in choosing this one – it’s big on monsters.
I’m not going to delve too deeply into the plot, suffice to say that an unemployed sci-fi ‘expert’ finds himself transported to a parallel Earth in which humongous flying creatures are considered a species heading for extinction and therefore worthy of treatment that in this Earth are afforded to Giant Pandas. There’s a lot of science here, a good deal of humour and a posse of characters with PhDs.
I only made it a third of the way through: the humour didn’t work for me - I prefer my sci-if to be on the serious side - but mainly it was the monsters, I just couldn’t buy into them or, in fact, the overall premise of this tale. I’ve seen some reviews from readers who absolutely love this book and I’m tempted to say that I made an error on picking a book that included elements I was never going to appreciate. My bad, so I’m awarding this one an extra star (I normally award only one star to any book I fail to finish).
My thanks to Pan MacMillan for providing a copy of this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review....more
A collection of short stories, some very short and others novella length, all posing interesting questions. I was attracted by the Goodreads rating – A collection of short stories, some very short and others novella length, all posing interesting questions. I was attracted by the Goodreads rating – anything north of 4 tends to draw my attention – and I enjoy a dip into science fiction every now and then. There’s some sci-fi I can’t read, that’s the stuff with killer monsters and gizmos that can extract characters from an otherwise inescapable death. But if it has a whiff of ‘maybe’ about it then I’m generally in.
Like all collections, some here worked better for me than others, but on the whole I was struck by how intelligent the offerings were. Of the two very short stories I preferred the one about how we might all be turned mad if we discovered there’s no such thing as free will to the proposal that alien life has been with us all along, in the form of parrots. A recurrent theme was that of artificial intelligence and I particularly appreciated a long tale about of a group of people who became obsessed with raising virtual pets, whose intelligence developed to the point that their interactions became close to that of humans communicating with each other. This tale asked a raft of philosophical and ethical questions – many of which I found very hard to answer.
Another story I really enjoyed explored the possibility that at some point you’d be able to record every act in your life and play it back should you so wish. This story prompted a plethora of possible benefits and drawbacks. For instance, would I really want to replay something I remember very fondly - what if I was disappointed to learn that it wasn’t such a profoundly positive experience after all? And how would life be if every time we bickered about who did or who said what someone would call up the actual event or conversation to prove somebody right and the other wrong? What a different world it would be.
The only drawback I found – and this is a very personal thing – is that there is a good deal of technical language used and though it provided a degree of plausibility it also meant that I sometimes got lost in the detail (it also reminded how me how much of a neophyte I am when it comes to this stuff). But overall I found this an accomplished and hugely thought provoking group of stories....more
The publication of Yanagihara’s follow-up to her uncompromising but magnificent tome A Little Life was always going to be a significant event. So impThe publication of Yanagihara’s follow-up to her uncompromising but magnificent tome A Little Life was always going to be a significant event. So impactful was her last novel on me that I consider it one of the finest books I’ve ever read. So, could her new book deliver a similar sized punch?
It’s another monster, at over seven hundred pages, and is broken up into three main sections (well, in reality four as book 2 is really two stories set in the same timeframe). Book 1 takes place in the very late 19th Century and the other sections are each set a century further on in time. I kept looking for linkages between the stories but in truth these seem tenuous: a house in Greenwich Village features in all of them and many of the character names are repeated in each tale, but as we travel through time it seems that this is about as far it goes. We seem destined to move on to a new world with its own distinct history as we progress through this book.
In the first section we are introduced to a rich businessman and his grandson, to whom it is hoped his business empire will in time pass. It’s clear that same sex marriage is commonplace (though discrimination between races does exist) and indeed throughout this whole book most of the characters are married and gay. The grandfather is attempting to broker an arranged marriage for his grandson but in the meantime the younger man begins an affair with a poor music teacher.
The second section follows the fate of a young paralegal working for a large law firm in New York. The Aids pandemic is in full flow and a group of friends are saying goodbye to a member of their group who is dying of ‘boring old’ cancer. And in a separate strand we meet the ailing father of the paralegal who is a descendent of the Hawaiian royal family.
Section three is by far the largest, taking up half of the whole novel. In a dystopian New York, overrun by an ongoing series of ever worsening pandemics, we follow the fate of a number of characters as they battle to survive in what has become a harsh totalitarian state. Anyone familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs will identify with the differing factors motivating the various protagonists, though it seems that all are ultimately headed for the bottom tier.
Where the author truly shines is in her descriptions of the full range of emotions felt by her cast. Their struggles are beautifully captured as each of her lead characters faces up to their respective demons. It can feel grim at times, but such is the power of her writing - her flawlessly constructed sentences, her acute ability to observe just the right details - that I found myself completely absorbed by this book for hours at a time. And on top of this she proves up to the task of weaving these elements into a powerful series of narratives. The only section I found wanting is that featuring the Hawaiian royal descendent, which I confess I had to force myself to battle through – to me this fairly short section just felt disconnected from the rest.
Yanagihara interestingly stands history on its head: we start with a progressive view of sexuality and partnerships and end with a repressive stance on the same. I was also struck by the way that each of her lead characters feels that they don’t quite fit in, that they don’t belong in this place they inhabit. Inadequacy, lack of confidence and loneliness is a package that is much repeated. There is much here to reflect on, snippets that stopped me and made me think. I observed this in her last book too, where I absorbed messages about how we can all wring a little more value out of our interactions with others by soaking up and reflecting on what we see and experience. Her writing prompts me to reflect on my own life and of those close to me.
Though I failed to connect the dots sufficiently to spot any identifiable flow through the whole book, in the main I did enjoy each element as a stand-alone piece. But what conclusions did I draw, particularly given the book’s title? I’ll need to reflect on this further but as a first stab a couple of things stand out for me:
1. As a comment on America – if the author desires it to be such – it seems to suggest a view that the country is in danger of failing to create the utopia the country’s founders set out to achieve, and that a that a mixture of political and social irresponsibility is to blame.
2. For each of us Paradise inevitably looks quite different - we all have our own needs, wants and ambitions – so it follows that our paths will look very different too. But can we each (can any of us) summon the confidence and the desire, and also have the luck, to give us a decent opportunity to reach that place?
This book is a puzzle, one I don’t claim to have in any way resolved. But I think most readers will feel the same after working their way through its many pages. I believe this is a great piece of writing, but maybe it’s a little too long and a just little too perplexing. I look forward to reading the thoughts and theories put forward by others – maybe it’ll help me reach a higher level of understanding, but then again perhaps this is one of those books it’s just going to be impossible to pin down.
My thanks to Pan Macmillan, Picador for supplying a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review....more
Thora and Santi meet in the German city of Cologne, known for its Love Locks Bridge and wonderful cathedral. They are in a bar and their meeting is coThora and Santi meet in the German city of Cologne, known for its Love Locks Bridge and wonderful cathedral. They are in a bar and their meeting is courtesy of a mistake by the barmaid, each being delivered the other’s drink. It’s to be a fateful moment, for though Thora isn’t looking for a man she somehow finds herself taking Santi home with her. So starts this amazing adventure in which the pair are to meet again and again in different lives in what appears to be a never ending cycle.
The future meetings will always be in this same city, but their ages will be different from the first time and the relationships they share will change too. And though at first they have no sense that they’ve previously met, this begins to slowly change as at some point vague memories start to permeate. What's going on, why is this happening?
In a story that reminded me of Audrey Niffenegger’s amazing book The Time Traveller’s Wife, not in construction but in feel, I quickly became totally absorbed by this tale. I really don’t want to go into the plot any more than I have because apart from enjoying the ever evolving relationship between the pair, the mystery that is created by their plight is very much the strength of the book.
Along the way I grew close to Thora and Santi: Thora headstrong and spiky and Santi the pious and placid one. They have some interests in common but are very different people. The story is ever changing, ever evolving, even if the setting is largely the same. There are some recurring characters – a few – though their context is sometimes different too. That might sound confusing, but actually it really didn’t feel that way. I had no idea where this was all taking me and yet I was never less than fully engaged.
Eventually, the bigger picture emerges, questions are answered and loose ends tied off. I found it to be an emotional journey, and a hugely rewarding one at that. In part it’s a love story (more than one, actually) and to a greater extent it’s a mystery that makes no sense… until it does. A fantastic adventure that I’ll be thinking about for ages to come, of that I’m absolutely certain.
I listened to an audio version supplied by HarperCollins UK, expertly narrated by English actress Kristin Atherton. My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for supplying a copy in exchange for an honest review....more
Short story collections can be tricky, it’s rare that all stories are to your liking so judgement on a collection’s merits usually boils down to the bShort story collections can be tricky, it’s rare that all stories are to your liking so judgement on a collection’s merits usually boils down to the balance of those that capture your interest versus those that don’t. Unfortunately, of the fourteen stories here, only two really worked for me.
There is a mix of what I would describe as apocalyptic tales, some that might fit the loose description ascribed to science fiction and others that attempt to be wryly amusing (note: all of the latter missed the mark for me). Each seems to pick on a moral issue, current in American society, and explores it in a novel way. The writing is clever, there’s no doubt about that, and yet most of the stories failed to engage me, and a few had me skipping on to the next tale well before the end. A couple that did initially prick my interest ended suddenly – unresolved, like a joke without its punchline.
It’s a pity, as the topics themselves were often interesting: a society that decides suicide at age seventy is the answer to preserve resources for others; the ability to transition from your own body to an online only presence; a world in which men have largely been eradicated due to their predilection for violence and abuse; universal childcare being introduced to avoid the pitfalls of poor or abusive parenting. But the execution often made me feel depressed or I felt that the story lapsed into something less captivating than the subject matter would suggest.
The two stories I enjoyed most concerned:
1. The ability to ‘wash’ the memory of a convicted criminal for a period decided by the court (e.g. for the past year or the whole of the person’s life). Basic life skills only would be retained in respect of the most severe sentences. 2. The prize for winning a lottery being the opportunity (for a sizable fee) to spend the night with the master of sex, a mysterious woman with untold skills.
In summary, an uneven collection is the norm but not one that provides only fifteen per cent satisfaction. It’s a two star rating from me, I’m afraid....more
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