The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

So... WOW!!  I was amazed by this book.  And since I really didn't have any expectations, it was nice to be blown away.

The cover-blurb really does this story a disservice, making it seem boring and trite.  However, in reality, this novel was full of WIN!

To begin: the story focuses on a young boy named Todd Hewitt as he goes to collect some apples with his dog.  And very early on, you realize things are wrong in the community of Prentisstown.  Settlers from another world settled on the New World some 20 years ago.  Since that time, there are no women: they were all killed in a plague that caused all the men in Prentisstown to be able to hear one another's thoughts.  This plague, or perhaps a war with the indigenous Spackles resulted in all the other settlers dying except those in Prentisstown.  What's more, is that on every boy's thirteenth birthday, they boys are made "men" in an ominous ceremony.  As there are no women, Todd is the last remaining boy.

Except very little of that is true, which Todd begins to discover when he finds a quiet spot in the swampy area of Prentisstown.  Not only can the men hear one another's thoughts, they can also hear the thoughts of all the animals on the planet as well.  Proximity increases the Noise, as its called, as well as emotional distress.

This is a YA novel and the issues it tackles are multitudinous.  However, the way the story is telling is compelling and vivid and amazing.  I stayed up way to late on a work night reading this because I wanted to know what the big secret was.  And its a doozy.

Some of the focus issues: how do you live a private life when everyone around you can hear your thoughts?  There are some methods of dealing with or tamping down the Noise, but if anyone really listens to you, they can hear you thinking.  What is individuality, when you constantly live in one another's heads?  What role do individuals have who can hear your thoughts, if you can't hear their thoughts.  This is central to the theme of the book, and to a degree mimics the xenophobia the settlers feel in regard to the alien Spackles.  And, how could you stand to hurt someone if you feel and hear their pain?  This is just a tiny portion of what this novel tackles.  And when I finished it, all I could think of was DAMN!  I'm not ready for it to end!

New!

Just picked up

which is YA.

Another history by Alison Weir, hopefully more able to hold my interest than the last three.

And this last, which was reviewed on John Scalzi's Whatever site as one of the Big Idea features.



















Now, which to read first?  I'm leaning toward The Lady in the Tower:The Fall of Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir.

The Hollow Man by Dan Simmons

My husband is a BIG fan of Dan Simmons.  I've read one book by Simmons, Darwin's Blade and I enjoyed it.  I started Illium, Simmons' take on a futuristic Trojan war set in space and, unfortunately, set it down at some point and forgot about it.  I've requested a big batch of books from the Cincy Public Library, but none of them arrived until today, so I decided to read 

The two main characters, Bremen and Gail, are telepathic and married.  Gail dies from cancer and Bremen spirals down into depression and madness.  The novel shifts between scenes from Gail and Bremen's married life (Bremen is a mathematician who ends up studying human consciousness), Bremen in the years after Gail's death, and a mysterious third party who intimately knows both Gail and Bremen.  


The information about human consciousness and the effect of humanity of chaos and probability and the Universe was very interesting.  However, many of the things that happen to Bremen post-Gail seem unnecessarily contrived and a little too scripted.  


The moment when I close the pages of a book seems to crystalize my overall feelings on the book.  For this book, I liked it, but I didn't feel regret that the story was over (unlike Tigana, where I flipped through the last blank pages, hoping for more) and I was kinda irritated by the conclusion.  And when I was trying to figure out why the conclusion bothered me, I realized that it seemed that Simmons had come up with the ending and written a book to fit that ending.  And the novel seemed a little shoe-horned into that ending.  


What really struck me about the book was the discourse on the nature of human consciousness.  I wish that had been taken farther, as I found it the most compelling portion of the novel.   

The Crazies

So, its not technically a "zombie movie," but I'm really excited!  I comes out next Friday.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

I have to lay this out there.  I love zombie movies.  I enjoy the dreams I have about zombies.  I enjoyed World War Z by Max Brooks.  Husband and I train for the Zombie Apocalypse (it makes me feel better about running).  We have a plan on how to save ourselves.

In my opinion, books such as The Forest of Hands and Teeth is one of those books that elevates the YA genre from its saccharine roots.  I'm including this novel in an elite group that contains Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  I'd include Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, but it wasn't released as YA.

Mary lives in an isolated village surrounded by fences.  Some time in the past, her father was lost to the Unconsecrated outside the fence.  Her mother watches the fence, hoping to see her father.  And Mary watches with her, in order to watch her mother.

It is made clear that all men and women fulfill traditional roles in this village, with women staying in the home or becoming part of the Sisterhood (read nuns) if no man asks for them.  Men guard the village as part of the Guardians or Guild and protect the home.  Love is not considered important, rather, people tend to make poor decisions once they are in love.  While Mary is being asked to a dance preliminary to betrothal, she leaves her mother alone.  Sudden sirens indicate a breach of the fence: Mary's mother had gone close to the fence and been bitten, probably by Mary's Unconsecrated father.  

In this village, those infected are given the option of being killed or being allowed to die and Return and be thrust outside the village fence to continue among the Unconsecrated.  Mary's mother chooses the latter option and Mary watches her mother die and return.  Afterward, Mary is sent to take vows with the Sisterhood, which is where the story really begins.

Mary is very much concerned with love, and finding it.  She has dreams of something else and the main conflict in the novel is between Mary's love and her dreams.

I found this novel compelling for a multitude of reasons, but I picked it up because I wanted to see a story about life after the Zombie Apocalypse.  As I understand it, Carrie Ryan is planning to write more about this Universe, which is good, because the book was a fast read and felt like it ended prematurely.

I was frustrated by Mary allowing events to happen to her, rather than being a mover in her own story, but her character does grow.  I hope to see her again.

Trying to remember...

So... I started this blog in order to get down my thoughts on books and hopefully to keep track of the books I had read.  I forget the books I read until I borrow them again from the library and realize... hmmm this is familiar.

Therefore, I'm going to list all the books I borrow here, prior to reading them.  I shall try to be diligent in this.

Currently, I have checked out
Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster by Alison Weir
Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life by Alison Weir
Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery and Murder in Medieval England by Alison Weir

And I'm fairly bored by all of them.

I read 

and very much enjoyed it.  

I want that....

Both books I want to read.  Both coming out at the end of February. I can't wait until the library gets them!

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

I had previously read a portion of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and was interested, but not hooked.  However, after reading a blog listing what one person believed to be the 100 best science fiction and fantasy novels of all time, the synopsis of this novel caught my attention.  

In essence, this novel is a classic bildungsroman - a coming of age story.  In detail, this novel is intense, beautiful and innovative.  The novel begins with a common thug attacking a couple and being tried in court.  He is sentenced to death, with very minimal emphasis put on the fact that he had generated two children: Nellodee and Harv.  

The novel shifts and the reader discovers that nations as such don't exist anymore.  Rather, humanity has formed global tribes that are based on shared interest, ethnicity or proximity.  Tribes of interest: the Han (Han Chinese), New Victorians (mostly caucasian, but accepting anyone who identifies with the lifestyle) and Nippon (Japanese).   Lest mention of tribes make anyone believe that humanity has regressed technologically, knowledge of the fact that nanotechnology is commonplace; it is actually ubiquitous enough that it is considered a nuisance and health hazard similar to pollution today.  

A major character is John Percival Hackworth, who is a New Victorian and an upper-level engineer at a company called Bespoke.  He is tasked with creating a Primer for Lord Finkle-McGraw's (one of the originators of New Victorianism) granddaughter due to a lack the Lord saw in both his offspring and in the offspring of other New Victorians.  The New Victorian movement was generated by people who were looking for something strictly regimented and very civil.  Most originators of the tribe came to that way of thinking due to life experiences, but their children would not have the experiences that drove them to become New Victorians.  To this end, Hackworth was to create a Primer that would interact with and teach Lord Finkle-McGraw's granddaughter to be an individual who would strive to perpetuate the New Victorian tribe through conviction rather than indoctrination.  

Hackworth creates the Primer, but keeps one back for his daughter, which is subsequently stolen and given to a thete- that is a child with no tribal affiliation.  This child is Nell, and she becomes the focus of the novel.  This is a coming of age novel for Nell, but it contains so much more than the story of one life.  

The social effect of nanotechnology, is, perhaps the foremost theme of this novel: it is ubiquitous, as I stated earlier.  Using this technology, even the poorest individuals can use a machine called a matter compiler to generate food and goods.  Nanotech is used in warfare, medicine, personal upgrades, and generation of a "hive-mind" tribe called the Drummers.  Other themes, education and the effect of education on the abilities of individuals.  There is also an interesting dichotomy between Confucian values espoused by the Han, seen in the effect of educating millions of girls (using a different version of the Primer) discarded by a single-child policy and male-centric Han culture, as well as the New Victorian values, seen in the effect of educating two girls and Nell.  Through stories told by the Primer, you contemplate the nature of computers and technology in everyday life and the nature of artificial intelligence.  Through Nell and Hackworth, the nature of family, of even the terms "mother," "father" and "brother" are questioned.   

So much happens in this novel, but never was I overwhelmed with information or needlessly intricate  plots.  The central story of Nell and her experiences with the Primer draw along the narrative in such a way that you become more engrossed and more invested in the story.  This character driven novel was a joy to read, and when it ended, I flipped through the last blank pages in the book, hoping for more.    

The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

A non-fiction history by Alison Weir. It was truly fantastic. Weir's story-telling was so evocative and rich that I felt deeply engrossed; I had to remind myself that I was reading non-fiction.

The lives of Henry's wives, Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Katherine Parr, are very honestly and thoroughly examined. Henry VIII is a background figure, drifting through the stories of his wives' lives, usually to their detriment.

For any Phillipa Gregory fan, this book brings a depth and humanity to the characters you've grown familiar with. Likewise, fans of the Tudors or other fiction set in 16th century England will greatly appreciate this book.