The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked up The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester and began reading. I only knew that I wanted to read something very different from my previous read, The Evening Chorus. Wow, nailed it. Set in the 24th century, The Demolished Man is the story of a wealthy business owner, Ben Reich, who decides he must kill his competition, literally, and the mind-reading detective who uses his fine-tuned ESP skills to prove the killer's guilt. 

The setting is a strange future world in which there are settlements on other planets and their satellites, there are rental cars called "jumpers" that can fly short distances, and many people can read minds but there are different levels of mind-reading ability and an exclusive group that only the mind readers can belong to. The detective in the story is at the highest skill level of so-called "espers" or "brain peepers". The murder is shown in first person so you know Reich is guilty and get to follow along as finds a surprising way to block the mind readers around him. 

You also get into the POV of the detective, from which you learn his thought process and see what other roadblocks Reich throws up to stop the detective from arresting him and how a computer is used to examine whether or not it will be possible to convict, once he's in their hands. 

Highly recommended - A unique and clever storyline, solid world building, and a fairly twisty, fast-paced plot make The Demolished Man a winner. In fact, it turns out The Demolished Man was the very first Hugo award winner. It starts out a little disorienting as you become accustomed to the futuristic world but once you're used to it, the discomfort fades. Even better, the farther you get into the book, the more exciting the action becomes so I particularly enjoyed the latter half. 

I liked how unusual the setting was and found the book fascinating for how a 1950s-era author visualized a future world. 70 years after its publication we can laugh at the fact that there were still phone booths, operators, and a computer that takes up a lot of space while only doing fairly basic analytical tasks in his imagined 24th century. But, I think a lot of us could not have conceived of the eventuality that we'd carry our phones everywhere and they would be more powerful than the computers of not that long ago. 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber

The Book of Strange New Things is my first book by Michel Faber. In spite of the gushing praise I read about The Crimson Petal and the White, a few years back, I haven't gotten around to reading it, yet. In this case, the book was chosen for me. My eldest son has been talking about The Book of Strange New Things for some time, now, and last year he brought his copy along when he came for a visit. I knew I was going to have to return it to him, soon, so I tacked that and a book my other son wants me to read onto my personal challenges for 2019.

In The Book of Strange New Things, Peter is a preacher who used to be an alcoholic until his wife, Bea, introduced him to Christianity when he was down and out and she was his nurse. When Peter gets the chance to travel to another planet to preach the gospel, he's excited to go and disappointed that Bea can't join him.

On Oasis, Peter's stunned to find a peaceful native population and an oddly lifeless group of humans. He quickly discovers that he's happier living with the natives. But, back on Earth, things are going from bad to worse. A string of natural disasters, shortages, and violence is exhausting Bea. Shocked by Peter's emotional distance, she begins to lose the faith that used to be so strong that she was able to share it with Peter and pull him out of alcoholism. Will Peter "go native" and stay on Oasis or will he realize that Bea needs him and find a way to return to Earth?

Recommended but not a favorite - I never saw any kind of a timeline for this futuristic story but I thought of it as another "near future" story because of the fact that the natural disasters mostly appeared to be the result of climate change and most of what happens is among the kind of events that are expected to occur within a relatively short time period if we don't effing do something to mitigate climate change. But, of course, we don't have the technology to travel to distant planets, so you just have to wild-guess at the time period. At any rate, I was not as enamored of The Book of Strange New Things as my eldest son. I found it a little too slow and lacking in conflict. Most of the conflict that exists is between Peter and Bea or Peter warring with himself. It's mild. There were times I fully expected something major to happen and got a little nervous about what might be coming and then . . . nope. I did like the ending, though, and I don't regret reading the book.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Splinterlands by John Feffer

Splinterlands by John Feffer is set in a dystopian future, where climate change and the splintering of nations has led to a violent, shattered world beset by food shortages and flooded shorelines. A former professor who became famous for his prediction about what would happen narrates. The book is his reflection as he lay dying -- complete with footnotes by an unnamed analyst. He recalls what occurred and how his personal mission to visit his family (using futuristic technology that allows a 3-dimensional avatar to walk around and speak to people as if he's there, while he stays home in bed), also splintered and scattered around the world, unfolds. His prediction, which brought him fame when it largely came true, was written in our time, as Brexit was beginning the downfall of the European Union and inactivity on climate change was causing that change to accelerate.

After he visits each of his family members, something sinister happens. They each disappear. The family has broken up for varying reasons and as he meets up with each member of the family individually, they dredge up the past and resume their arguments. Since they argue all over again, it's possible they simply can't tolerate him and have opted to cut off contact deliberately. But, one of his children lives a shady lifestyle. Could the disappearances have something to do with him?

Recommended but not a favorite - I found this book a bit on the dry side. It's written formally, like an academic paper, because the narrator is a former professor. And, of course, it's interrupted by footnotes clarifying the narration. But, it's worth sticking it out for the ending and I think the author did a great job of imagining a future scenario based on current events. He humorously used a hurricane named Donald that destroys Washington, D. C. as one of his defining events.

I bought my copy of Splinterlands from the publisher, Haymarket Books. They occasionally have fantastic sales online. I recommend following them on Twitter, if you happen to tweet.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein

I'm going to skip today's Monday Malarkey post because I need to finish up my last two review posts and get started on my break. Monday Malarkey will return in September.

The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein is described on the cover as "hard science fiction". I didn't read that description till I was well into the book because I'll often skip reading synopses on book covers or flaps when I'm about to read a book, for fear of spoilers (yes, I have had books ruined by the cover description). So, by the point I read that, I'd already come to that conclusion on my own and was mentally searching for a comparison. The best I can come up with is The Martian. If you had no trouble reading between the lines (or just skimming) during the more technical portions of The Martian, you'll probably be just fine with The Punch Escrow. On to the storyline.

Joel Byram was on his way to Costa Rica in the year 2147. His wife Sylvia had already teleported to their vacation destination and he was following along when something went horribly wrong. Now, there are two Joel Byrams. One is in New York and the other in Costa Rica. The Joel in New York knows that his wife's employer, the owner and developer of teleportation devices all over the world, is trying to kill him because he has learned important information about teleportation that could ruin the business. The second Joel is slowly discovering the truth. When Joel's wife Sylvia is kidnapped, both Joels are determined to find and save her. But, will one Joel have to die to save Sylvia and the other Joel?

That's a serious simplification. A lot happens in The Punch Escrow - it's a wild ride - but the vast majority of the details are, I think, spoilers. So, I'll stick to generalities. The book takes place in the near future but is described in past tense, left as a message for people in Joel's future. At the beginning of the book, you meet the Joel in New York. A woman who works with Sylvia has helped Joel escape but now he's trapped by several people who claim to be travel agents. Clearly, they're not telling the truth, but is Joel in danger or are they trying to help him? What exactly happened that resulted in the creation of a second Joel? And, what has Sylvia been hiding from him?

Two separate groups object to the practice of teleportation in this future world. One is the members of the Levant (the region) and the other is a group called the Gehinnomites. I have to admit that I got those two muddled in my mind, a bit, but basically one objects on religious principles but I can't recall if the other does - they have similar objections. The religious objection is that humans are being literally taken apart at an astronomically small level in order to send them to their destination and then reassembled. Surely, no God meant for his creation to be disassembled and reassembled. The truth of teleportation, it turns out, is worse than that. But, you'll have to read the book to find out. It's really a fascinating concept but I can't bear the thought of ruining it for anyone.

Highly recommended, especially to science fiction lovers - The scientific descriptions are believable if, at times, hard to follow for the non-scientific mind. As in The Martian, The Punch Escrow is an adventurous book with a sense of humor that forces you to either really think or read between the lines. Sometimes, I confess, I got totally lost, but it usually didn't take long till I figured out what was going on. And, I had so much fun that I didn't mind the fact that I occasionally couldn't follow the science perfectly. There are a lot of Star-Trekkish aspects to this future world that are super fun, like a device much like the replicator in Star Trek, people-moving drones of various sizes, implanted apps, and self-driving cars with personalities. Joel's job is interesting, as well. He's a "salter", paid to confuse apps, and can do his job while walking around the city, since the implanted apps basically mean everyone is wired into a globalized computer system.

Much like The Martian, I loved the storyline - the idea of how teleportation works in this future world and its implications, the reluctant hero(es) vs. the villainous corporation, the fast-paced rush to the final life or death struggle, and the existential question that underscores it all. I also loved the fact that there are plenty of light, humorous moments. An entertaining read with a creative but plausible future world.

©2017 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Echo Boy by Matt Haig

Echo Boy by Matt Haig
Copyright 2014
The Bodley Head - YA/Sci-Fi - Dystopian
Source: Purchase

Note on the purchase:  I've read two books by Matt Haig. One was a children's book, To Be a Cat, the other, The Radleys, for adults. I thought To Be a Cat was exceptionally creative, entertaining writing and The Radleys had surprising depth for a book that at its surface appeared to be yet another inventive spin on the vampire story.

I've also come to admire Matt Haig as a human during the couple years that he's been one of my tweeps on Twitter. Ever notice how when you really start to like an author as a human you feel like it's worth going that extra mile to acquire their work? That has become the case with Matt Haig. I only had a minor understanding of what Echo Boy was about and it hasn't yet been released in the U.S. but I figured, "Hey, I really like what I know of this author and I'm pretty besotted with his writing."  I really wanted to read his latest in a timely manner. So, I ordered it from Book Depository and, while I was at it, also ordered a copy of The Humans, both because I've heard so much about it and because I prefer the British cover.  Two birds, one stone.

Brief synopsis:

Audrey has never liked Echos, created humanoids who are devoid of emotions, designed to work for their human masters but not to feel. But, she tolerates her family's Echo, Alissa. Even though Alissa's a little creepy, they've really needed help since her father's accident. Then, one day Alissa becomes a killer. Audrey escapes the murderous Echo only to find herself surrounded by Echoes, living in her wealthy uncle's mansion. Daniel is an Echo who works in uncle Alex Castle's home. But, there is something unusual about Daniel. He is a prototype, one of a kind, and he has a message for Audrey. Is Audrey's fear of Echoes unfounded? Can Daniel be trusted? And, what about her uncle? Audrey's family had an Echo created by Sempura, but Alex Castle is the head of Castle Industries, the leading creator of Echoes. Is Audrey safe with Uncle Alex or is she in danger?

My thoughts:

I'm not sure of the exact time period but since the characters occasionally say, "That's so 2090," Echo Boy is clearly set over 150 years in the future. There were moments that I found myself fighting acceptance of this future world but at the same time there were things I loved about it; for example, the flooding and other alterations on Earth due to climate change and some of the newer technology (as fast as it's changed in my own lifetime, much of it seemed plausible). But, it did take some time to immerse myself in this futuristic world and believe in it before I began to really love the story.

Once I'd accepted the author's world building, I became so enraptured by Echo Boy's' storyline that when I closed the book I didn't want to leave that new world and it sent me into a horrendous reading slump. Personally, I think that's high praise.  I also liked Audrey and Daniel enough that I would be perfectly happy if Matt Haig wrote a sequel.

Highly recommended - While I found the futuristic Earth initially difficult to buy into, once I did the story grabbed me hard and I absolutely loved the experience of living in the pages of Echo Boy's dystopian, climate-change-screwed world so much that I had trouble letting it go.  Perfect for YA lovers, dystopian fans, sci-fi fans and other escapists. Great storytelling, a unique world, terrific characterization -- an all-around fun, adventurous read.

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Another mini-review! I feel like my recent posts have been too lengthy and some of those books have been lingering in my sidebar too long, so I'm going to attempt to work on brevity.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer was an impulse purchase based on a whole lot of blogger buzz -- fortunately, one I don't regret. Cinder is a futuristic retelling of Cinderella in which the heroine is restyled as a cyborg (part human, part mechanical due to serious injuries sustained early in her life) who works as a mechanic at a stall somewhere in a new-world China. In this futuristic world, Earth is fighting a devastating plague and there is a serious threat of war from a colony on the moon.

I whipped through Cinder and have to admit I was stunned by the excellence of Meyer's world-building, characterization, slow unraveling of clues (I did figure out one important facet of the plot, early on, but it didn't change how I felt about the book) and the way the author concluded the book in a satisfying manner, in spite of the fact that it is the first in a series.

Addendum: A commenter has reminded me that Cinder does have a cliffhanger ending. I think I may have forgotten that because I was forewarned by a friend who read it. Being prepared can help, but I do recall thinking enough of the story was wrapped up to satisfy me.

Highly recommended to lovers of Young Adult novels. The futuristic setting is believable but it did take me a while to adjust to the idea of Cinderella's story taking place in Asia of the future. I liked Cinder enough to save my copy for a reread and doubt I'll forget the book before the second in the series is released.

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

In a mood to review, again. Weekly updates will begin next Tuesday.

I know I'm jumping the gun, here, reviewing When She Woke by Hillary Jordan well before its October release date, but when a review copy showed up in my mailbox I was so excited that I lost any tentative grip I had on self-control and immediately began reading.

When She Woke is a retelling of The Scarlet Letter that takes place in an undated but obviously not-too-distant future. Hannah Payne has been raised with a strong religious background, working as a wedding-dress seamstress, still living at home as an adult. After embarking on an affair and becoming pregnant, she has committed a crime.

Criminals known as Chromes are injected with a virus that changes their skin color, the differing color depending upon the crime involved. In a time period when a plague has rendered a large portion of the population infertile, abortion is murder.

The man with whom Hannah has had an affair is married and very well-known. Refusing to reveal the father of her unborn child seals her fate. Caught and tried as the murderer of her unborn child, Hannah awakens in a cell where her every move is observed by guards and broadcast to the public. Her skin is bright red to reflect her crime. After weeks of nothingness in a barren room, she is released to a world where she is not only taunted but endangered. Where can she go and how will she survive?

There's so much to this story that I think I'll just keep my thoughts fairly general. When She Woke has a central character who has been stigmatized, questions herself and -- as the blurb says -- embarks on a "path of self-discovery that forces [Hannah] to question the values she has held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith." Obviously, When She Woke is a very timely novel.

Hannah's true challenge begins as she is given a choice of living visibly in a world where she is in constant danger or moving into a home where the rules are so strict and petty that she's always in peril of being cast out and continually experiences punishing reminders of why she is a pariah.

I guess my biggest problem with When She Woke was that I never fully understood why Hannah felt abortion was an absolute necessity, given the fact that her family seemed more likely to accept a child than to harbor a known criminal. And, her intense and continued love of the man who impregnated her was, I thought, a bit irrational and hard to buy into. Not that love is necessarily a rational thing. Hormones have always led to tricky situations, haven't they?

Having mentioned what I consider some of the negatives, I do think When She Woke is a thought-provoking and surprisingly gripping book that will likely be a hit in book groups. There is a great deal worth discussing and the author does an excellent job of imagining the dangers of a world in which there is visible evidence of one's crime. The idea of people being visibly punished in such a way also seems stunningly plausible in a country where religion and politics are becoming increasingly blended, if not confused.

The ending is a little too neat and tidy, but the vast majority of When She Woke is excellent as Hannah's challenges become even more oppressive and life-threatening, the farther you get into the book. I love reading about characters who are so thoroughly backed into a corner that it's difficult to imagine a way out. When She Woke is chiefly about being yourself, not conforming to what society says you must do and be. I love the theme; I just didn't totally buy into the romance with the fellow who fathered the child she aborted.

Highly recommended, particularly as a book group selection. When She Woke is scheduled for release on October 4, 2011. Many thanks to Algonquin Books for sending me the advance review copy, which I'll be passing on to another blogger.

©2011 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Passage
by Justin Cronin
Copyright 2010
Ballantine Books
766 pages

A new virus appears in the not-so-distant future. Vicious and deadly, the disease has some unique properties that could prove useful if scientists can harness only the good side effects. But, the government has another purpose in mind.

A dozen death-row inmates have become the subject of human experimentation designed to turn them into weapons. The results are horrifying: vampire-like creatures with glowing eyes, sharp teeth, tremendous strength, a dramatically slowed aging process and a craving for blood. After government scientists have turned 12 deadly men into horrible creatures, two FBI agents are sent to pick up another test subject. This time, it's a little girl.

When all of the infected subjects escape, the virus rapidly spreads across North America, wiping out most of the population and turning the rest into blood-thirsty creatures known as "smokes", "jumps" or "virals".

Nearly a hundred years later, a small community of survivors is in danger of losing their only protection. The batteries that power their viral-repelling lights are failing. Without lights, there's no hope for survival. When a silent young girl wanders into their camp, a young man in the community named Peter discovers that she may hold the key, not only to their settlement's survival but also to the recovery of the human race. But a long and arduous journey through the dangerous land now overrun with deadly creatures is their only hope. And, the virals are growing stronger.

I finished reading my copy of The Passage, an advanced reader, the day before publication: June 7. By the time of its release, The Passage had already been hyped to proportions as epic as the book itself with Stephen King's enthusiastic recommendation helping to push the fervor, as you surely know. I didn't feel like I needed to immediately sit down and add to the publicity machine; there were other books I still hadn't gotten around to reviewing and I was curious whether the book would stick with me. A month later, I can tell you it has stuck with me just fine.

Normally, I am not a reader of books that you could refer to as "epic". I tend to like spare but lyrical writing without a lot of unnecessary detail and am of the opinion that most chunksters could stand to lose 100 pages, if not more. In this case, I was kind of stunned to find that I pretty much felt the opposite; I had trouble leaving the world inside its pages and went into a brief but miserable reading slump after I finished.

There were moments that I thought The Passage dragged a bit and it took me about 30 pages to really get sucked into the book; but, once I was immersed in that strange future world of scary virals and its ragged little band of survivors, I couldn't bear to read anything else. I set aside all of my other reads and focused on the book. I had to know what was going to happen and I was surprised to find that I relished the detailed descriptions that gave The Passage such a fabulous sense of time and place.

What I disliked about The Passage:

Not much, but it's not perfect. As I said, there were moments that the story dragged. There were also a few small passages that were a little too vague and dream-like (and, therefore, confusing -- usually involving the little girl, Amy, who is apparently clairvoyant). Occasionally there is some repetitive monologue that has to do with the buried humanity still inside those creatures and their ability to inject their dangerous thoughts into human dreams. That was a little annoying but certainly not enough to pull me out of the book long enough to reject it.

Finally, there was one incident that quite simply could not occur as the author described it. If I could ask the author one question, it would be, "Did you deliberately choose to take artistic license with this particular scenario or did you simply not do your research?" because the novel struck me as otherwise well researched. But, I've been to the location in which the scene occurred and I know what exactly was changed and why it could not happen as written. That particular scene nagged at me for a while. Then, I deliberately chose to assume the author had decided to alter the locale to his satisfaction and moved on.

What I loved about The Passage:

Justin Cronin is a rocking fine world builder. The future he created is believable and fascinating. I think that's what I loved the most -- imagining myself inside that world and questioning what I would do in the same situations, getting to know a unique set of characters who were so well described, so utterly three-dimensional that I would likely know one from another if I were to step into their fictional world. Some were heroic or foolish, some led by fear or selfishness. The characters had a broad range of personalities and, like real humans, were often a little unpredictable.

I would classify the book as tense more than horrifying, although there were two or three situations I found particularly unnerving and those were the only times I read with all the lights on. I was always able to read at night, although my mind kept playing with the storyline while I slept and I'd awaken to the memory of vivid dreams in which virals were trying to get into my head. They weren't nightmares, though, or at least they didn't feel like nightmares to me. I liked the fact that the book was not so terrifying that I could only read during the daylight hours and I loved the variety of characters and personalities in the book.

The language of the future world was also believable; language is altered over time and the new idiom was not so far removed from the language of the present. Individual words made sense in context and in regard to the world in which characters lived.

Bottom line:

A unique, satisfying and well-written tale of a terrifying disease, a ravaged world and the courage and hope still remaining amongst survivors for the eventual restoration of humanity. The fact that the creatures known as virals are vampire-like, but very different from the classic mostly-human vampires kept the book from feeling like just another vampire story. I will be eagerly awaiting the next installment, which comes out in 2012. As a movie, I'd expect this book to have an "R" rating for violence; it can be a little gory and disturbing.

My thanks to Random House/Ballantine for the advance reader's edition.

In other news:

I am on Day 4 of a pretty intense migraine but felt like I really needed to get this review written. Depending on how I feel, it might take a few days to get another review posted so please forgive my sporadic posting.

Just walked in:

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer - from HarperPerennial for a TLC Book Tour
Wicked Company by Ciji Ware - from Sourcebooks for review

Just finished:

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler - a library sale find, published in 1979 and still relevant

Just started reading but will probably finish tonight because I'm enjoying it so much:

Bellwether by Connie Willis - recommended by the Very Patient Carrie K, a delightful blogging friend with excellent taste in books, admirable knitting skill and a pleasing affection for cats.

Happy Reading!

Bookfool, off to get an ice pack for her sore head

©2010 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Bookfoolery and Babble, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.