Margeret Atwood "The Handmaid's Tale"

Not the title I was recommended, but one I found nevertheless. This work of science fiction is a really classic example of the genre. Along the lines of create a different world, in this case the USA of the future ruled by some kind of male dominated theocracy similar to, but worse, than present day Iran, and explore what it means.  In a society like ours, where the last hundred years have seen a massive step forward in terms of rights for women, racial minorities, homosexuals and just about everyone except for perhaps body odor challenged polygamists, it takes an extreme example to get your attention, and that is what Atwood manages to do with this novel.

The book postulates an extreme society in which the presence of disease and infertility has led to the worse kinds of behavior by the men of the ruling classes.  Fertile women are enslaved and forced to provide children for the elite childless males.  The justification for the seizure of power, the denial of rights and the oppression of pretty much everyone is religion.

What makes the book interesting is the depth of the character development.  You learn a lot about the unnamed woman who is the handmaid of the title, and a lot about the depths that people will go to when it comes to justifying the hunger for power.  In some ways it was maybe a bit wordy when compared to other writers in the genre.  Atwood has essentially taken a common approach of literature that is rarely used in science fiction and applied it to a science fiction theme, so it is a bit different.  You could compare it directly to another novel along similar lines by Heinlein, "Revolt in 2100".  Heinlein has a similar theocracy ruled America, but packs in a lot more action. The difference in styles is remarkable, but both are well worth a read.

I enjoyed my first foray into this talented Canadians work and look forward to reading more of her works.

I look forward to reading more by Margaret Atwood!

"The Hunger Games" Suzanne Collins

J.K.Rowling's recent success has seen an absolute torrent of material in the fantasy genre for teens or young adults, but not so much in the way of science fiction.  Suzanne Collins is filling that void very nicely with the first in a trilogy that came a as a recommendation to me recently, and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

Suzanne Collins has imagined a future that seems much smaller than our, a sparsely populated post apocalypse north america where the majority of people are downtrodden and controlled.  One of the vehicles for that control involves a yearly draw which all the citizens in the districts, the areas that supply the capitol with goods and the stuff of life, must enter from the age of 12 for 7 years.  The draw decides who fights in the hunger games, a many day filmed combat to the death with a boy and  a girl picked from each of the 12 districts. The story follows a young girl, who steps forward to take the place of her 12 year old sister (yes they do make 12 year olds fight to the death) and becomes a tribute.

This first part of the trilogy is a story of good versus evil, but never falls into the trap of becoming trite.  It seems to me that it is the beginning of some kind of revolt against the Capitol, though it is nicely understated.  It also explores themes of love and growth. It manages to achieve what Heinlein achieved with his teen fiction, a strong empathy for the emerging adults as they shoulder an adults burden.  I particularly like the distance that is kept from the real villains of the piece, the rulers of Capitol that push children together to fight to the death.  This is an excellent book and I look forward to reading the following parts of the trilogy.

Joe Haldeman "The Forever War"

This is yet another attempt by me to plumb the depths of the writing out there by looking for previous award winners I never read.  Joe Haldeman won a Hugo and a Nebula for this masterpiece and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  This writer actually reminds me of Heinlein at his best, which is no faint praise considering I host the Robert Anson Heinlein Memorial Library in my very own house.  The book is classic science fiction that is not at all dated and still totally enjoyable to read, and it has a point.  It is of course about war.  I think judging by the dates of publication it was strongly influenced by thinking on the Vietnam war, but it still makes you think even now.
The novel traces the path of a soldier, Private Mandella, through the course of a war with aliens, which he is fortunate enough to survive.  The war is fought in space and is at the whim of the realities of the faster than light travel and propulsion systems, such that a whole lot of time passes during a decade of subjective living by the protagonist.  It ties together a changing society and a changing war in an interweaving tapestry of prose that is difficult to put down.  I will definitely keep an eye out for more of his works, this was fantastic and gets a recommendation.
Interesting to some perhaps is the way in which our society is different to the imagined one of Haldeman's universe.  I do not think any sci fi writer predicted the effect of easy information exchange on such large things as war.  It may be hard for some to appreciate, but it is actually pretty amazing that government and military institutions find it so hard nowadays to hide the nasty parts of war, like Abu Graib in Iraq.  Back in the day, WWII, governments fought wars with misinformation that would be next to impossible to do today, it's impossible to stop connected people talking, and stupid people always slip up.  (By the way, stupid people are actually everywhere, so it is an axiom that that means they will screw up, just wait.)
I digress shamefully, thank you Joe for a fine read that is equally thought provoking due to what it hit and what it missed.

Connie Willis, "Domesday Book"

This work is on a classic SF theme, time travel.  A theme that has been done and redone so many times, but how does Connie Willis make it work?  The answer is that it is all in the character development and the storytelling.  There is also a tension that runs through the book that keeps you wondering and makes the ending meaningful.  It all hangs together very nicely.

The story is about a history PhD student at Oxford university in the near future.  In this future they have access to time travel when it does not affect the present, so it is only useful for students of history.  That does not make it safe however, as Kivrin discovers when she goes back to 1320 to study a mediaeval village.  Unknown to anyone Kivrin was sick with a new flu bug, think H1N1 with steroids, and the Oxford of the present ends up in quarantine as she falls sick in the past, to be succored by some visiting nobility.

What I really liked about this story, without giving away any details, is the way that the characters are torn with indecision, uncertainty and realism.  In particular I like the way that the decisions of the Kivrin's supervisor change and evolve.  The description of the past, especially the more harrowing parts which you will know when you get to them are particularly well written and I think it is likely that the writer has probably taken advantage of her own time machine to make this book realistic.

It is a bit different, it is already slightly dated, but it is a clear voice. I will definitely read more Connie Willis when I get the chance.

Peter V. Brett "The Warded Man"

I just finished reading this and enjoyed it immensely.  Peter V. Brett has written something which is simple, yet totally riveting. I could not put this book down and read avidly from start to finish.  This book is one of action, from the front cover to the back.  There is not a lot of emphasis on the description of the scenes or on feelings.  The action though unfolds in such a way as to give insight into the main characters and into the land in which the tale unfolds.  The author does not try to do too much and succeeds quite well at what he does attempt, an unfortunately rare trait.

In brief we have a humanity threatened by demons, or what they call demons.  The history is simple.  Long ago man fought against demons until it developed magic.  The magic worked against demons.  When the demons were on the edge of being totally defeated they vanished.  Man then forgot its magic, which after all was only to do with demons, developed science and spread to cover the world.  Unfortunately the demons were not finished.  When the demons rose again, without magic man kind was near crushed until they remembered some few wards to use as protections.  That is the situation now, people huddle in fear behind arcane barricades at night while the demons delight in torment.

The hero, or one of the main heroes, fights his fears of the demons and through the course of the book discovers ways to fight back.

The only problem with the book is one a good editor would have spotted.  There was a perfect ending point to this first book in a series, but he continues and creates another.  He probably felt it necessary to bring the main characters together though, so he can be forgiven.  He could maybe have met them before discovering the spear?  Who knows.

I will read more Brett and would recommend this book to any fantasy readers who like a good heroic adventure romp.  Not surprisingly the author is a fan of D&D.

Alice Borchardt, "The Dragon Queen"

 

I found this novel in a second hand book store.  No recommendation from a friend, no previous knowledge, complete shot in the dark.  Arthurian tales have always been a weakness of mine.  There is so much there in a simple framework to work with for a writer, and so many different tales have been told based on it.  At first glance this work struck me as being a new angle on the story, exploring the legend from Guinevere's point of view, and hopefully with a strong female character.  I was pretty excited to read it actually.

Alice Borchardt has good prose, some excellent descriptions of places and some good characters. Unfortunately I think that Alice Borchardt tried to do to much and a lot of it either does not have enough back story or is over the top, which has the effect of not really tying the individual pieces together.  For example, when she introduces Guinvere's potential father, who turns out to be a fairy who gives her magical armor embedded in her skin it was done abruptly, with no background on the fair folk, no background on who her father might have been.  It did not do this to evoke mystery, it just happens like that. 

Other things happen too abruptly.  A prime example would be when she meets Arthur.  Their meeting is far too devoid of content for the level of commitment that results from it.  It just does not really follow.  I thin that the real problem to me as a reader with this story is that it is far too obvious that the events that take place, and the decisions that are made, are the work of the author.  At no point does it become real.  At no point does it evoke a lost past, or another world that I fall into.  Which is one of my goals in reading fantasy.  Being a lover of fantasy literature is not being a lover necessarily of the cleverest writing or the wittiest dialogue, it is rather the desire for losing yourself, briefly, into something other.

Daniel Suarez, "Daemon"

Daemon hovers on the edge of being science fiction, as it is so contemporary.  This is a problem to the narrative in my opinion because it makes it harder to suspend your disbelief.
First the good parts.  Daemon is a bit of a page turner.  I had not a speck trouble getting through it at all and enjoyed the read.  Suarez writes very well, and the techno geekery of the novel appealed to me.  What is wrong with the book is more difficult to explain, as I think it really comes down to what is wrong with the book in a technical sense, rather than in literary sense.  This is precisely why it being contemporary and not more SF in feel is what stops it from working for me.
Basically he posits the ability to leave programs waiting on machines to carry out instructions when they get triggered.  All to the good.  That is the daemon and it gets its name from processes that run continuously in the background on computers monitoring for events before doing something.  In the case of the Daemon of Suarez's book it is murder, at least initially.  This part is fun, and in fact plausible.  The problem with the idea is that it keeps going on and acting and disobeys one of the laws of the universe.  Which is that if you engineer something to do something, even something simple, it probably will not work.  In reality, you have to test things, tinker with things, change things to get them to work.  It requires intelligence.  Suarez has a computer program without intelligence doing things without being tested.  It just simply defies belief.

In that way this book is a thriller, even though at first glance it looks more like near future sci fi.  Thrillers always it seems have to take a step beyond plausible into the realms of the ridiculous.  And unlike SF they cannot posit something new to explain it and allow the reader to suspend their disbelief.  I would reccomend it to people who love thrillers though!

(Suggested reading by my friend Dale, who I have not seen in years, thanks Dale.)