Book Review: Grey by Jon Armstrong (Audiobook narrated by Macleod Andrews)

Summary:
In the near future capitalism has entirely taken over, and the world is ruled by a few families….and their corporations.  People from all walks of life are also completely obsessed with fashion.  Michael Rivers is the heir to the River Corporation and is being sent on worldwide-aired dates with Nora, the heir to another company.  Just when they are about to announce their engagement, however, a freeboot shoots at Michael leaving the families blaming each other for the incident.  Michael refuses to accept his father’s demands that he marry a different woman, however, and his quest to figure out a way to Nora leads to some deep dark scandals hid on all levels of the company.

Review:
I have to say that this is the first time I was sorely disappointed by a read I originally discovered via Little Red Reviewer’s blog.  I was intrigued by the idea of fashionpunk, which is what this book is supposed to be.  Fashionpunk is a new genre.  Think scifi with a heavy focus on fashion.  It’s unfortunate that the fashion aka world setting was the best part of the book.

Armstrong richly presents the near future he has imagined.  People’s tendencies to reflect their world views via their fashion choices is completely exploded in this world.  Michael identifies as a Grey.  He wears only shades of grey and chooses everything from what bands he likes to what restaurants to eat in based on the grey fashion’s magazine.  Every other type of fashion is similar.  Even the Rivers security team are referred to by the type of clothing they wear–the Satins.  I know!  This sounds awesome and delicious to be in, and it was. But…..the story, you guys. The story.

This book’s plot is like the Kardashian show if it was written down and entirely sympathetic to Kim Kardashian. I know, right? Even reading that sentence is painful.  It’s not that I’m saying someone wealthy can’t be a main character, but it helps if some aspect of them is sympathetic, and Michael is just not.  He’s whiny and wimpy and sooooo obsessed with inane things and his “love” of Nora completely squicks me out.  It reads more like an unhealthy obsession than star-crossed lovers.  And he never really changes!  No matter what he learns or what happens he’s still the same Michael by the end as he is at the beginning.  There’s just….no character development.  No underdog to root for. No nothing.  I liked seeing Michael’s world, but I really would have preferred to wander off and follow the life of the director or a chauffeur or even the inane girl he goes on a date with who has pink fur growing out of her skin.  See what I’m saying?  Someone with a more interesting perspective.  The problem with Michael is that grey truly is the best way to describe him.  He’s dull and annoying.  Like a grey, rainy day.

So why did I continue listening to it and finish it so quickly?  The audiobook narrator, Macleod Andrews, is completely brilliant.  It was like listening to a one-man show.  He somehow managed to breathe some life into the dull plot.  For that I thank him, and I also will be checking out what else he’s narrated on Audible.

Overall, the concept of fashionpunk that Armstrong has worked out is intriguing and makes for a visually and culturally rich world.  Unfortunately, I found his plot completely unappealing.  Perhaps people who enjoy the lives of the rich and famous would feel differently, however.

3 out of 5 stars

Source: Audible

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Book Review: Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic edited by Eduardo Jimenez Mayo and Chris N. Brown

Summary:
This collection gathers 34 contemporary Mexican short stories featuring fantasy, scifi, and literary, clearly a wide range.

Review:
For me this collection was very hit and miss, and alas even the hits weren’t that wonderful.  Part of the issue is there seems to be no rhyme or reason behind the order in which the tales are presented.  It feels as if 34 completely random stories were selected with the only thing they have in common being Mexican authors.  I generally prefer a short story collection to have a more universal theme or play upon similar tropes, but there is none of that here.  The stories range from young boys hunting iguanas to figuring out how to dispose of a body to a trophy wife on vacation in Las Vegas to a pact with the devil.  It was a bit of an exhausting collection to read.  That said, I’d like to highlight a couple of my favorites that kept the read from being an entirely troublesome experience.

“Hunting Iguanas” by Hernan Lara Zavala both gives a glimpse into country Mexican life, which isn’t something we get to encounter very much, and provides commentary on colonization.

“Lions” by Bernardo Fernandez was particularly delightful for an animal rights activist to read.  In a time of budget cuts the less attractive animals of the zoo are let loose in the city park and gradually take over.  Delightfully tongue-in-cheek.

“The Nahual Offering” by Carmen Rioja features a disturbingly prophetic dream by a tribal woman.  It is a great example of the beautifully grotesque.

You can see, though, that I was only able to pick out three short stories from a collection of 34 to highlight as particularly enjoyable to me.  The collection simply lacks a universality of theme or talent.

Overall this collection is an interesting peek into contemporary Mexican writing, although it does seem the editors could have done a better job in selecting what to include.  Recommended to those with a marked interest in modern Mexican writing.

3 out of 5 stars

Source: LibraryThing EarlyReviewers

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Friday Fun! (Cool People I Follow!)

Hello my lovely readers!  I don’t have too terribly much to update you on today since I managed to get bronchitis “with a touch of strep” and have been down for the count all week.  I am on antibiotics now.  They are a beautiful beautiful thing.  Anyway, so since my life this week has mostly consisted of laying around with a fever watching Big Bang Theory and Battlestar Galactica on repeat, I thought I’d do something different today and let you guys know about a few unique folks I follow in my GoogleReader that you might want to check out.

ANZ LitLovers LitBlog is a book blog I just recently discovered that focuses in on the literature of Australia and New Zealand.  The instant I saw the title of the blog I went, “Wow, duh, what a gap in my reading!”  She has a great page featuring a listing of must read ANZ lit titles.

Joe’s Blog is one of the few author blogs I follow (as opposed to authors who happen to have book blogs.  I follow a few of those).  Joseph Robert Lewis is an indie author whose books are available as ebooks, and he is a smart dude.  Not only does he write scifi/fantasy/steampunk with a feminist slant out of a desire to write the types of books he wants to be available for his daughters to read, he’s also a really giving guy.  He has a great section of advice for fellow writers looking to self-publish and maintains a great relationship with his readers (um, including me).  His blog itself is an awesome mix of posts on what inspires his scifi/fantasy/steampunk worlds, his own life, and musings on writing.  Oh, also, he came up with this awesome idea for a series co-written by a bunch of authors who have never met before all set in the same universe, and he’s actually pulling it off.  The dude is creative and productive.  Check him out, even if his books aren’t your genre.

Native Appropriations is run by fellow Boston gal, Adrienne, who is a member of the Cherokee tribe and currently studying for her PhD.  Her posts discuss representation and appropriation of Native American culture in American pop culture and media.  Her posts are thought-provoking and eloquent.  Seriously, get rid of your People Magazine and Cosmo subscriptions and read what this smart lady has to say instead.

No Meat Athlete is run by a male vegan who also is, you guessed it, an athlete.  He primarily runs marathons, but his posts feature great information for any type of athlete or fitness fan who is plant-based.  I particularly found his post 7 Secrets of Post Work-out Recovery super useful for this plant-based weight-lifting lady.  He’s also going to be doing the Boston Marathon. Yeahhhhh!

Finally, for everything vegan from vegans in the news to animal rights to product reviews, definitely follow Vegansaurus.  They are my go-to site for sane animal rights coverage (unlike PETA *cough*).  They also feature real life help this one situation here this one time if you can shout-outs that help me feel connected to the animal rights community.  (Like one time we all got together to help a gal get her pup needed surgery, because, you know, who actually has insurance for their pets?)  Between that, the cookbook reviews, the recipes, the products, and the news bits, it’s one of my favorite news sources.

I hope you all found some new reading material.  Happy weekends!

Book Review: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (Series, #1) (Bottom of TBR Pile Challenge)

Summary:
It is the year 2060, and the Jesuit priest Emilio Endoz has been found on the planet Rakhat by the second Earth ship to travel there.  Found in a whorehouse and killing a native inhabitant in front the UN members’ eyes, they nonetheless strap him into his original spaceship and send him back to the Jesuits.  There he is treated for his horrifying wounds and through a series of flashbacks and current conversations with the various Jesuit committee members assigned to his case, we slowly see how everything that started out so right went so horribly wrong on Rakhat.

Review:
It may have been a while since it made it onto my tbr shelf, but I still have a crystal clear memory of why I acquired this book.  I entirely blame Little Red Reviewer, who just so happens to be the only other female scifi fan who book blogs that I’m aware of.  (Feel free to enlighten me to more in the comments).  Her review that religion is there but in a questioning way that honors the tradition of scifi made me give this book with a Jesuit priest and mission at its core a chance.  I’m glad I did.

This is a first contact story that takes the all-too-infrequent route of Earth finding the inhabited planet first and sending a mission to them.  There’s so much more than that that makes this book unique, though.  The future Earth just barely has the technology to make it to Alpha Centauri, and only the most tech-savvy are aware of it.  Thus, we’re not an incredibly advanced civilization making first contact, just one slightly more so than Rakhat.  I’d say a fair comparison might be late 19th to early 20th century earth to early to late 21st century Earth.  It’s a short span of difference.  Additionally, Russell made the intriguing choice of the first contact being run by missionaries, instead of a political unit.  When you think about it, it makes perfect sense.  Who tended to be first to the New World? Religious groups.  Who can organize themselves quickly and have vast finances? Religious groups.  Having first contact be missionaries makes so much sense that I’m shocked I didn’t think of it first.

That said, thankfully this book is not a love letter to organized religion or mission work.  It is instead a complex, scientific, and anthropological study of the human condition, the difficulties of vastly different cultures meeting, linguistics, and much more.  At its core it is all about why does god (if there is a god) let evil happen, especially to good people who are serving him?  These issues are more easily addressed and made further complex by having agnostics, non-practicing Catholics, and a Jewish woman members of the mission team.  The non-believers are about at even numbers with the priests.  In fact, the deeper into the book I got, the more it tore at my heart-strings.  Varying types of questioners are represented, and of course it’s possible to identify with many of them, particularly for a reader who once was religious but is not anymore.  There’s the priest who is secretly gay, the Jewish woman who was wounded terribly by war but comes to learn to love again, the Father Superior who thinks he may be seeing the formation of a real live saint, the priest questioning the very existence of god, and the agnostic who wants to have the beautiful aspect of faith that she sees in those around her.

This book reads, it sounds a bit odd to say, almost like an agnostic’s prayer.  Of course agnostics don’t pray, but if they did pray, the pain and wondering and intelligence found in this book would all be there.

We are, after all, only very clever tailless primates, doing the best we can, but limited. Perhaps we must all own up to being agnostic, unable to know the unknowable. (page 201)

The problem with atheism, I find, under these circumstances…is that I have no one to despise but myself. If, however, I choose to believe that God is vicious, then at least I have the solace of hating God.  (page 394)

People more into science than the questioning human spirit will find plenty for themselves as well.  The science of linguistics is astoundingly well presented.  The way the two “sentient” species on Rakhat have evolved is also incredibly well thought-out and realistically drawn.  The problems of poverty and war on earth are briefly explored too.

All of these things said, I do feel it took a bit too long to get things set up and moving.  Granted, I tend to be a bit of an action-focused reader, so others may not have a problem with that.  It was still a draw-back of the book for me though.

I sort of feel like I’m not doing the experience of reading this book justice.  Suffice to say if you’ve ever questioned whether or not to have faith and love your big questions to be wrapped in well-thought-out scifi, this is the book for you.

4 out of 5 stars

Source: Better World Books

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Book Review: Nova by Samuel R. Delany (Bottom of the TBR Pile Challenge)

Summary:
Lorq von Ray is the head of one of the biggest corporations in the galaxy that for years has worked hand-in-hand with the Red corporation, currently headed by incestuous brother/sister partners Prince and Ruby.  But now internal fighting between the two has made von Ray determined to find his corporation’s own supply of Illyrion, normally supplied by the Reds.  He’s heard rumors you can fly through the center of a nova (an imploding star) and survive and that Illyrion is inside.  He gathers an unlikely crew in a race against the clock to gather the fuel.

Review:
I really wish I could remember what made me acquire this book.  The cover was nothing special, and the summary on the back said approximately diddly-squat about the actual plot (unlike my own).  Supposedly this book took years and tons of research into the Tarot and the Holy Grail, yadda yadda.  Fine.  All I know is that it was boring as fuck with a plot like it was written by a fifth grader.

One of my updates on GoodReads said, “Reading this book is like going to the dentist,” and I still think that’s the most apt review of it.  The plot drags, which is shocking for such a short novel.  We learn an astonishing amount of backstory about the Mouse, who is a minor character, but not a ton about Prince and Ruby Red, who are far more essential to the plot.  We don’t learn the backstory for the plugs everyone wears until the book is almost over, when plugs are key to the story.  A set of black twins work on the ship with one mysteriously albino for no apparent plot reason, and they operate as one person finishing each other’s sentences.  Their whole characterization really bumped my racism button.  Yes, I know this is an old book, but still.  We also have the annoying novelist member of the crew, who is such an obvious Mary Sue it’s painful.  And I don’t throw around the term Mary Sue willy-nilly.  Come on.  The guy is a novelist trying to write a Holy Grail book. *blinks*

The amateurish exposition consists mainly of long speeches by various characters.  The plot saving device of a miracle machine that can fix almost all wounds appears part-way through the story.  The whole thing would get maybe a C from me in a creative writing class. Maybe.

The only thing that keeps this book from one star is that it does, in fact, have a plot and is readable.  Of course, I can’t for the life of me figure out anyone who would want to read this if they knew what they were getting themselves into.

2 out of 5 stars

Source: PaperBackSwap

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Book Review: Dark Life by Kat Falls (Series, #1) (Bottom of TBR Pile Challenge)

Summary:
Ty was the first person born subsea.  His family are settlers on the bottom of the ocean, a new venture after global warming caused the Rising of the seas.  Ty loves his life subsea and hates Topside.  One day while adventuring around in the dark level of subsea, he stumbles upon a submarine and a Topside girl looking for her long-lost older brother.  Helping her challenges everything Ty believes in.

Review:
This is one of those rare YA books that gives me renewed hope for the genre.  There are no stupid love triangles. The adults are intelligent and good parents.  There are bigger worries than who you’re taking to prom.  There’s adventure but no gratuitous violence.  Romance but in a healthy way.  Basically, it’s everything you’d hope for in a YA book.  I’d gladly hand this to any teen or preteen looking for a good read and feel happy in doing so too.

The post-apocalyptic setting is unique, intelligent, well thought-out, and supported by science.  Creating a new American frontier under the ocean is delightful, and Falls draws on the American pioneer experience in cute, tongue-in-cheek ways.  For instance, the settler kids call their parents “Ma” and “Pa.”  They earn their acres by successfully farming them for 5 years (a common time-frame in the old west).  Plus, the world is different beyond subsea as well, reflecting drastic changes that would occur with such a huge change in the world.  There are people called “floaters” who live in houseboats.  Those who still live on land live in huge skyscrapers, and everyone sends their kids to boarding schools.  Perhaps most interestingly is the fact that ever since the falling of the land into the ocean the US has been under “emergency law.”  A harrowing possibility to any astute YA reader today.

Ty and Gemma are adventurous and intelligent yet still flawed in their own ways.  Gemma can be too impulsive, Ty too cautious.  This is naturally part of what makes them a good potential couple.  They balance each other.  Similarly, Ty’s parents are smart and caring, yet still capable of being wrong sometimes, even though well-intentioned.  They’re an example of the type of parent we hope most kids will have.  In contrast, Gemma is an orphan with an evil boarding school mistress to provide an adult for kid to hate.

The plot is deliciously complex and for once I actually did not guess the ending.  It left me surprised and happy simultaneously.  Falls does not take the easy way, but she also doesn’t use any lame deus ex machinas.

I feel my review is not doing this book justice.  Suffice to say it is a richly complex world she has created, filled with characters that are worthy of being looked up to but with interesting scifi elements to keep the interest level high.  I found myself never wanting to leave the subsea world and sort of wishing living subsea was an option in real life.

Overall, I recommend this to fans of YA scifi, but also to anyone with a curiosity about what it might be like to live on the bottom of the ocean as a new pioneer.

5 out of 5 stars

Source: PaperBackSwap

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Book Review: Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien (Bottom of TBR Pile Challenge)

Summary:
Sixteen-year-old Anne Burden has been living alone in her family’s farming valley ever since nuclear war left everything around the edges dead.  She’s created a quiet, calm life for herself and the animals left alive until one day she sees smoke on the horizon.  A man enters the valley in a radiation-proof suit.  At first Anne is cautious but then happy to no longer be alone.  Soon, however, the man’s sinister side starts to show.

Review:
This is a complex, thought-provoking with a surprise ending that is a bit….off-putting.

Anne Burden is a surprisingly pulled together gal for someone who just lost everyone and everything she knew to nuclear holocaust.  She has a surprising amount of faith and is accepting of her fate.  Her buddhist-like nature is admirable, but does seem a touch unrealistic.

There are many complexities in the plot that have no easy answers and keep the reader thinking.  Is the man a bad guy or has the radiation poisoning simply addled his brains?  Is it best to stay put where you are temporarily safe or take a risk and seek out other survivors?  What things are ok to do to survive and what things are not?  These deep questions, questions that have nothing to do with the school dance or which boy to choose are refreshing to see in YA.  Putting the main character into extreme situations allows O’Brien to bring up more serious life questions.  Although I don’t always agree with Anne’s decisions, I do respect her thought process.

The ending came kind of out of left field for me, and I am still dissatisfied with it.  Anne’s decision to run instead of to stay and fight is an odd choice for a YA book.  In fact the book reads very pacifistic, almost dangerously so.  Running is not always an option.  Sometimes you have to stand and fight.  Hold your ground.  Similarly, I do not believe the man would have given Anne any genuine tips on which direction to go out of sudden remorse.  It seems out of character and done simply to give a more eloquent couple of closing paragraphs.

Thus, the book is a fast-paced read with important life questions.  The main character makes some questionable decisions, though, and I am not entirely comfortable with the ultimate message it contains.  I recommend it to fans of YA or post-apocalyptic fiction capable of taking the message with a grain of salt.

4 out of 5 stars

Source: PaperBackSwap

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Book Review: The Cause by Clint Stoker

Summary:
In an overpopulated future, a city stands where there are not familial or close relationships, but everyone celebrates every night.  Air was recently relocated to a new position as a purger, and he slowly discovers the sinister side of the city.

Review:
This is an interesting concept that is poorly executed, badly edited, and takes a turn for the worse at the end.

Anyone who follows this blog knows that I love an overpopulation scifi story.  Stoker has an interesting take on it–the world is overpopulated so constantly at war.  A city arises where the residents can stay young forever but must follow a series of articles that removes the true joy of living from them.  The problem is that I just stated that more succinctly than Stoker does at any point in the novel.

What we have here is the classic example of a good idea poorly executed.  The basic concept is great.  But the main character’s flashbacks and current thoughts are difficult to read.  I found myself constantly skimming the flashbacks, because they were so confusing to read and lent so little to the story.

More upsetting though were the constant errors that had less to do with typos or difficult grammar and more to do with poor understanding of the English language.  Examples:

A golden metal sat at the top of his desk. (location 2879)

Won’t even know your there (location 3148)

I thought we we’re in this together (location 4225)

He put Air to sleep so he could remain innocent in the cities eyes (location 4509)

A transport past by (location 4588)

You can’t bring people back once their dead. (location 5050)

I am ti sro and you are the villain. (location 5083)

Anybody, understandably, would be frustrated with this amount of errors.

Perhaps more distressing is the “surprise” ending, which to me was just confusing.  Essentially, five infants are killed every 50 years to keep the city of 30 million people alive, yet the science of that is never explained.  The key to scifi is plausible science, yet Stoker ignores that entirely.  It’s a good idea, but without plausible explanations and good writing, it falls flat.  I’d recommend he gets a solid editor before his next attempt.

2 out of 5 stars

Source: Kindle copy from the author in exchange for my honest review

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Book Review: The Prometheus Project: Captured by Douglas E. Richards (series, #2)

Summary:
Brother/sister duo Ryan and Regan are back only this time they’re officially part of the team of scientists working in the top-secret alien city discovered deep underground in Pennsylvania.  They rush off every day after school to work in the city of Prometheus.  One weekend they convince their parents to let them sleep over in the city, only to wake up to discover all of the adults captured by a ruthless alien escaped convict whose mind control abilities mysteriously fail to work on the kids.  It’s up to them to save not just the adults, but the earth itself from alien rule.

Review:
This follow-up to The Prometheus Project: Trapped (review) brings even more action and science than the first time around.  It’s also a longer length that is more suitable for the older middle grade crowd.

Ryan and Regan’s relationship with each other has progressed from sibling tolerance to a level of respect for each other clearly due to working together in the city.  It’s nice to see a healthy sibling relationship modeled in a middle grade book.

Again the plot fooled me with a twist ending I didn’t see coming, but that made perfect sense when it was revealed.  This is the sort of thing I’d have loved as a middle grade reader.  A mystery that manages to out-wit me without playing any tricks.

The villain is threatening without being too frightening.  Although the kids’ parents are held captive, no undue violence is shown.  Predominantly the scientists are held with plastic ties on their wrists and a simple verbal threat of “do this or else….”  It seems an appropriate level of suspense for the age-range.  The enemy is formidable, but it is possible to out-wit him.

Although the science, plot, and characters are strong, something just couldn’t let me jump from liking it a lot to loving it.  Perhaps this is because I am out of the age-range intended, but it does seem to me as though sometimes the story expects a bit too little of the young reader enjoying it.  I hope in future books that Richards challenges young readers a bit more with the writing in addition to the science.

Overall, this is another strong entry in this middle grade series.  I firmly believe the series will keep young readers with an interest in scifi and secret government operations happily engaged while parents and guardians can have peace of mind about what they are reading.

4 out of 5 stars

Source:  Won copy in exchange for my honest review from the author via LibraryThing

Previous Books in Series:
The Prometheus Project: Trapped, review

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Book Review: The Prometheus Project: Trapped by Douglas E. Richards (series, #1)

Summary:
Ryan and Regan can’t believe their scientist parents made them move from San Diego to the total snoozefest of Pennsylvania practically overnight just so they can work at a boring science corporation, Proact.  But when they accidentally overhear their parents talking, they realize there may be more to Proact than meets the eye, and they’re determined to find out!

Review:
I don’t think I realized when I entered the giveaway for this (a really long time ago, sorry about that, Richards!) that it’s a middle grade/children’s series.  I don’t usually read below the YA level anymore unless I’m reading to my four year old nephew, but I am a librarian, so I put my librarian cap on for this book.  I also tried to hearken back to what I would have enjoyed at the age of eight or nine.

Ryan and Regan are a cute brother/sister pair.  Ryan is older and thus underestimates his sister sometimes.  They tease each other, but never cruelly, and it is evident that they truly love each other.  The sibling dynamic is definitely well-done.  It was refreshing to see the adults depicted as adults and not idiots or mean-spirited.  What Ryan and Regan accomplish is because they’re the smart kids of smart parents, not out of any short-comings of the adults.

The science is really well-done.  Richards’ author bio states that he used to write for National Geographic Kids, and it shows.  He explains things eloquently without talking down to kids.  All of the science found in the book is factual.  I would have loved stumbling upon such learning in fiction as a kid.

The ending has a twist that even I didn’t see coming, and I was sort of expecting to being a grown-up reading it, haha.  It’s not cheesy or over-the-top, and I’m betting kids will love the surprise.

My main criticisms are that sometimes the descriptions of the characters focus too much on their hair and eye color to the exclusion of other things, and the book felt too short.  It just seemed a bit short for the grade level.  Mentally I compared it to Nancy Drew which are generally like 25% longer, and I think that length would be ideal.  The sequel is longer though, so that’s a good thing.

Overall I think if you have middle grade reading level kids who like science, mysteries, or scifi you should feel completely confident in handing them this book.

4 out of 5 stars

Source: Won copy in exchange for my honest review from the author via LibraryThing

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