#33 [2025/CBR17] I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

CBR17Bingo: "Diaspora" - a little bit of a stretch, but this book has countless people all taken from their homes and brought to another location that is foreign to them. (It's unclear, but it seems like they may have been brought from a different planet.)

I stumbled on this book while browsing Audiobooks for something to listen to in my car. I had no idea what I was getting into. I Who Have Never Known Men (1995) by Jacqueline Harpman was originally written in French and has recently been re-released. I'm not sure how to characterize it. It is has aspects of survival, philosophy, friendship, loneliness, and the basic experiences of life. I guess the book is technically science fiction, but there is so little detail about where our protagonists are and what happened to them that it doesn't have a strong science fiction vibe.

The book begins from the point of view of a young girl. She is locked in an underground bunker with thirty-nine other women. The girl is the youngest of the group, and very isolated, sitting alone in the corner. The women are watched over constantly by three male guards, and the electric lights turn on and off at various intervals, presumably night and day.

I was listening to this book on audio, and it was about here where I almost gave up. I had no idea what was happening or why, and I didn't feel very connected to the characters. The girl did have a fascination with one of the younger guards as she grew older, but not much else was going on. Eventually the girl decides to try to get some control over their lives, and she uses her pulse to try to count time. 

One day, an alarm sounds in the bunker, and all the guards flee the bunker with no warning. Fortunately, the alarm sounded just as they were getting their food, so the small opening they use for passing food was open. The girl was able to get through the hole and reach some keys that had been dropped. In that way, the forty women escaped from the bunker where they had spent countless years for no known reason.

When the women emerge from the bunker, no one is around. All the guards are gone. The women are able to gather food and supplies from the bunker and they take off to see if they can discover where they are or find other people. During their travels, the women discover other bunkers. Some contain men, and some women. However, none of them were lucky enough to have had access to keys when the guards fled, and they were all dead by the time the women found them.

I'm really not sure how I feel about this book. I honestly think if I'd been reading a printed version, I may have gotten frustrated and stopped reading it. And there were many times throughout the book that I got frustrated by the lack of explanations. However, it did stick with me because I remember most of it pretty well, and it definitely felt original.

I also have no idea what Harpman was trying to say with this book. I can see it as a pared down allegory to all of our lives. We don't know how we got here or what will happen to us. We have very little control over our lives, but when our lives are pared down to almost nothing, we have friends, partnerships, and we take care of each other as best we can until the end.

#17 [2023/CBR15] The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

My book club picked another book that I'd never heard of and most likely would not have read without their peer pressure. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (2018) by Stuart Turton takes place on a run-down English estate, probably in the mid 1900's. It is a unique mix of genres: there is a classic, Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery, a body switching main character who doesn't know who he is or why he's there, and a science-fiction-y explanation for everything. 

Our protagonist, whose name we later find out is Aiden Bishop, finds himself in baffling circumstances. He doesn't know who he is, he just saw a woman get murdered, and he's lost in the woods. As the day goes on, he comes across mysterious notes and signs, and his life is threatened. The next day, he wakes up on the same day (like Groundhog Day), but in the body of someone else. He is informed that he is at this estate party to discover the murderer of Evelyn Hardcastle--the daughter of the owners of the estate. There are two other people with the same goal and one of them is intent on killing him. If he can prove who the murderer is, then he will be able to leave. Aiden has eight days (and eight different bodies) to reach his goal.

I thought this book was very original with good, descriptive writing. I was impressed by how the author could keep so many people and details straight and create a story out of all of it. The whodunit part of this book was very intricate and definitely kept me guessing until the reveal. I also found how Aiden experienced living in other people's bodies (older, fatter, smarter, etc.) very interesting.

However, I didn't love this book. We never really find out who Aiden is or what motivates him. In addition, the "rules" of this game feel entirely arbitrary. I had a hard time accepting it as real, and without that realism, I cared less about what happened to the characters.

When everything is finally revealed, it seems like a sharp left turn into an entirely new genre. But there is no time to really explain it even if it could be explained. On the one hand, I admired the originality and how it made me think, but I was also frustrated by the craziness of it all and my lack of connection to the characters.

#4 [2023/CBR15] Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

I've been working my way through the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. I was recently able to get the fourth book, Exit Strategy (2018) from the library. It was a quick, interesting read that added to the Murderbot story. It looks like there are currently six books in the series, with more on the way. I think at this point I'm pretty committed to the series, although I do have a hard time keeping all of the books and the humans in the story straight.

So, to recap, the first book All Systems Red is where I met the Murderbot and the humans it saved from the evil company GrayCris. Dr. Mensah was the leader of the humans and became the official owner of Murderbot.

The second book (Artificial Condition) I can barely remember, but it's where Murderbot spends a lot of time with a very smart ship used for research purposes. I know the ship helps Murderbot and they have an interesting relationship, but I can't remember the details.

The third book (Rogue Protocal) was more recent and mentioned often in the fourth book. Murderbot goes to Misu to find more information on GrayCris and ends up hiring itself out as a security consultant. Murderbot meets a robot that has a genuine connection with its owner, which is something that is hard for Murderbot to wrap its head around.

And that brings us to Exit Strategy. Murderbot is on its way home, when it hears that Dr. Mensah is missing and/or being held for ransom at TranRollinHyfa--a space station and the corporate headquarters of GrayCris. Murderbot heads to TranRollinHyfa to help her. There, Murderbot meets up with the other humans from that first mission back in All Systems Red, and they all work together to try to save Dr. Mensah.

Murderbot is consistent in each of these novellas in that it is constantly looking to watch more space soap operas but finds itself instead using its strength and powers to protect whatever humans happen to be around. I think part of the reason these books are so popular is that we'd all like to have Murderbot around, keeping us safe. In addition, Murderbot's awkwardness with human interaction and slow realization of its emotions is relatable in some ways.

I did enjoy this book on the whole. It's an engaging, fast read. However, I do have problems remembering all the details about what company is doing what and who all the people are. I remember Dr. Mensah because she played such an important role in the first book, but I couldn't remember the other characters and their interactions with Murderbot from the first book while reading this one. I know I've been taking pretty large breaks between books--I don't want to binge and get tired of them. I also listened to the first book instead of reading it, which definitely makes names harder for me to remember. However, this book might have felt more meaningful if I could have remembered the first book better.

#50 [2022/CBR14] The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

I finally read A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan in 2018, and it was one of my favorite books of the year--and probably in my top ten ever. It was such a delightful surprise. Earlier this year, I heard there was something of a sequel coming out. I was excited but also worried that it would not live up to my expectations after the first book. However, I faced my fears and picked up The Candy House (2022) because there was no way I was going to leave it unread. 

The Candy House took me a little bit longer to get into, and it didn't grab me quite as strongly as A Visit From the Goon Squad. However, once I got into the story, it definitely had the same feel as the earlier book. I enjoyed reading it, and I noticed some continuing connections between the characters.

The Candy House begins with Bix Bouton, a multi-millionaire genius who had started some kind of internet thing (like Facebook?), feeling lost and looking for new ideas. He finds a group of Columbia professors who give him the idea of downloading your own memory. Not too many years later, Bix Bouton has commercialized "Own Your Unconscious," and people all over the world are downloading their memories so they can keep them and access them later. Then things go a step farther with a kind of collective consciousness available to others. If you want to access other people's memories, you must submit your own. 

This is an intriguing idea, although I often got hung up on the details. Before everything had really started, a character had suffered a bad stroke and was not doing well. He learned that a psychology professor at Pomona College (my alma mater!!!) was uploading people's consciousnesses and got his uploaded. But strokes damage the brain, so how could he have good memories to upload? Later, his daughter was able to watch scenes from his life almost like a movie but even healthy brains don't have such clear memories.

Later, when the collective consciousness came into being, people could use "date and time, latitude and longitude, to search the anonymous memories of others present" at certain times and places. This made for some interesting storytelling, but how could this possibly work? Again, our memories don't work that way. I don't even know what day it is today let alone what day, time, and location something happened years ago. I guess you could imagine some very impressive future technology that figures all this out, but it wasn't explained. I was constantly distracted by the thought that none of it could actually work.*

My favorite part of the book was a chapter told entirely through emails. It was the part that reminded me most of Goon Squad. It was original and showed character motivation and development and was simply fascinating to read. A woman was looking to meet her famous father, and started an email conversation with his employee, which spiraled from there. It brought in characters from the previous book and furthered the story--all through emails. This chapter felt more personal and was not hampered by my disbelief in some of the technology.

The Candy House was a good book with some interesting ideas. However, because there wasn't enough information for me to really believe or understand the technology, it limited how the book affected me. Still recommended, but I preferred A Visit From the Goon Squad.

*One of the characters works as a "citizen agent" in this book, and I also had problems believing that this was ever a remotely viable program.

"Never trust a candy house! It was only a matter of time before someone made them pay for what they thought they were getting for free." (125)

"Tongue-in-cheek nostalgia is merely the portal, the candy house, if you will, through which we hope to lure in a new generation and bewitch them." (298)

#39 [2022/CBR14] Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

Ever since one of my friends from book club recommended All Systems Red by Martha Wells, I've been working my way through the six novellas in the Murderbot Diaries series. Rogue Protocol (2018) is book 3, and it follows the "Murderbot" on its adventures. 

So, the Murderbot is a "Secunit." A Secunit is basically a robot with some organic parts that is built and rented out to be used for security. The Murderbot calls itself Murderbot because it was involved in some kind of mass killing spree before the first book. Unfortunately, it can't remember exactly what happened or why, and it seems like much of these novellas is a slow ride towards the Murderbot figuring out what happened and who was behind it. The Murderbot has hacked its governor module, so it is not at the mercy of its orders anymore.

All Systems Red had the Murderbot protecting its human charges when they are unexpectedly attacked during a research expedition. Murderbot eventually grows something of a fondness for these humans, even as its incredibly uncomfortable with any kind of emotional intimacy. Instead, the Murderbot is much more comfortable experiencing human emotion through binge watching soap operas.

In Rogue Protocol, our Murderbot heads out to the edges of the galaxy in order to find evidence against Gray Cris--the company that attacked his clients in the first book. Murderbot runs into another group of humans that end up needing its protection. But this time the humans have a robot with them. This robot, Miki, has an incredibly close relationship with its human--something Murderbot has never seen before.

I have enjoyed reading each of these Murderbot books, and I'm always left wanting more. Fortunately, I have the next book waiting for me on my Kindle right now. However, I have to admit, that the storylines run together, and it's sometimes hard to remember any particulars. There is often a lot of fighting, where Murderbot dominates, but my favorite parts are the slow growth of Murderbot as it has more "human" experiences throughout the novellas.

Recommended.

#34 [2022/CBR14] Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

I've read Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, so it felt almost inevitable that I would read her latest book. Sea of Tranquility came out this year (2022), and includes a couple of characters that we first met in The Glass Hotel (although it is definitely not necessary to read The Glass Hotel first). I found it to be an interesting, well-written, imaginative novel. St. John Mandel did an impressive job in balancing her different characters and intertwining her storylines. I only had one small issue with the believability of one part of the story.

It is 1912 and Edwin St. Andrew has embarrassed his family for the last time. The  younger son of the English gentry is sent away to America. "Edwin is capable of action but prone to inertia." (10) Thus, Edwin wanders around Canada with no direction until he finds himself in a forest that momentarily turns into a futuristic airport with the sound of violin music.

In January 2020, the video artist Paul James Smith (the brother of Vincent from The Glass House) shows a video in a forest where he added his own soundtrack. In that video, there appears to be some kind of glitch.

Olive Llewellyn lives in the future in a colony on the moon. She is traveling around Earth on a book tour. In the book, she describes walking through an airport terminal and seeing a forest. She misses her husband and daughter back at home. People are starting to get sick on Earth and she's asked what it's like to be an author of a pandemic novel during a pandemic (something that St. John Mandel is probably familiar with).

Gaspery-Jacques Roberts also lives in the future, and is stuck in a rut. But through his sister's work at the Time Institute, he is able to volunteer to travel through time to investigate the strange ripple that seems to be causing a weird connection between a futuristic airport and a peaceful forest. It is Roberts that ties Paul James Smith, Edwin Andrews, and Olive Llewellyn together.

St. John Mandel wrote an impressive, original, and very creative novel. The characters were interesting and the story makes you think.

***SPOILERS*** I found Gaspery-Jacques Roberts to be a fascinating character, and I found his journey to be very interesting. However, I did not buy the Time Institute's punishment when Gaspery defied them and warned Olive that she would die if she did not immediately return to the moon. The Time Institute framed him for murder in a different time, banishing him to jail. But the Time Institute was pissed because he'd messed with the future. Aren't they messing with the future even more by doing this? Why don't they kill him or imprison him in the present? Being lost in time is certainly a scary and creepy punishment, but it seems less than practical and would most likely have important, unintended consequences. ***END SPOILERS***

"There's a low-level, specific pain in having to accept that putting up with you requires a certain generosity of spirit in your loved ones." (103)

"Because we might reasonably think of the end of the world," Olive said, "as a continuous and never-ending process." (166)

"So I'm guessing I'm not the first to ask you what it's like to be the author of a pandemic novel during a pandemic." (167)

"If definitive proof emerges that we're living in a simulation, the correct response to that news will be So what. A life lived in a simulation is still a life." (210)

#8 [2020/CBR12] "The Calculating Stars" by Mary Robinette Kowal

When my book club chose our next read, The Calculating Stars (2018) by Mary Robinette Kowal, I'd never heard of it. The premise was promising, though, and from the outside, it looked pretty good. Apparently, it is the first book in "The Lady Astronaut" series and the winner of some awards, including the Nebula and Hugo for Best Novel.

In an alternate history of the 1950's, a meteor strikes the Earth, causing tragedy and destruction as well as the promise of an inhospitable planet. The race to space is pushed forward with more urgency because the Earth will be warming up. I wasn't quite sure how this premise was going to get women into space in the 1950's, but I was interested to see what Kowal was going to do with this story.

If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be disappointing. Some of this stems from the friend who submitted this book for book club. She told me that if I liked The Martian, I would like The Calculating Stars. Well, I loved The Martian. It was one of my favorite books of 2015, and I yearn to have another reading experience as satisfying as when I stumbled upon that book. I cannot understand how she would equate it with The Calculating Stars. They are nothing alike. Nothing.

Elma York is a "computer" at "NACA" and a former WASP in WWII. She is a savant with numbers, and she is happily married to Nathan, the lead engineer of the space program. When a meteorite hits the Earth, the space program is moved to the heartland. Elma realizes that because of all the water in the air from the strike, the Earth will cool for some years and then begin to warm. It will grow hotter exponentially until the Earth becomes uninhabitable.

My favorite parts of the book were the beginning and the end. I thought Kowal did all right with the meteorite strike and the flight out to safety. I also enjoyed some of the insight into the astronaut training, which was about the last fifth of the book. The middle of the book, however, was repetitive and boring, with many lost opportunities. Elma does a lot of math and lives her life, but there was nothing that drew me in. There was also no sense of urgency driving the space program. Without any details regarding how the space program would save humanity or how they would choose who to save, the consequences felt very low. In fact, why is the moon or Mars a better option than a warm Earth? The Earth might be warmer (we never get any specific numbers), but I'd choose it over the Moon which ranges from 260 degrees F to -280 degrees F and no air to breathe. How is this a viable option?

Kowal brings up a lot of issues in this book, including: racism, sexism, religion, mental health, climate change, women in the space program, and survival. But these issues are addressed in such a clumsy and superficial way, that it trivializes them. For instance, Kowal could have done so much with a woman struggling in a male-dominated space. Whether it was at school, as a WASP, or as an astronaut, Kowal could have focused on the isolation, the judgment, and the assumption that women couldn't do the job. She could have shown how the men dismissed her opinions, said she wasn't a "real" woman, didn't listen to her, and left her out of group projects. Instead, school was hard because she was so good, the teachers used her as an example, and the guys in her classes were jealous. Later, some of the men she's worked with are handsy, but not to her, because her father was a General and her husband is very important.

I appreciate that Kowak was trying to make her book diverse, but her characters are flat and she does not adequately address the reality of racial discrimination. There's an Asian woman. You can tell she's Asian because Kowak says so, and she speaks in stilted English. The most distinguishing feature of the first Black woman Elma meets is that her house is really, really clean. Her son also goes to Cal Tech, which is interesting because after the first Black man graduated from Cal Tech in 1932, there was not another one at the school until 1961. Access to higher education and homes was a huge barrier for minorities that had long-term consequences, but it's something that Kowal blithely ignores.

The relationship between Elma and her husband was also underwhelming. He is the most understanding man in the world and supports her in everything. He is thrilled when she gets accepted into the astronaut program. There is no discussion about the danger or their possible separation. They also had a lot of sex, which isn't bad, except when it becomes monotonous.

***SPOILERS***
Finally, Elma's biggest problem in getting into space is that she couldn't stand attention. It made her throw up. It got so bad at Stanford that she tried to kill herself--which was not given nearly enough attention or explanation. She begins to take some kind of popular tranquilizer that helps a little, but she doesn't want to use it during astronaut training. Parker uses this knowledge to try to keep her out of the space program, but when it comes out everyone's fine with it. Again, mental health is a worthy topic when fully addressed, but it was not satisfying here. It was kind of an issue and then disappeared without any real solution. It also left me with the feeling that Elma should not be going to space. There is a huge public relations aspect to space and it's not for everyone. There is so much isolation and so few resources that it makes sense to only send the healthiest, both mentally and physically, up into space.
***END SPOILERS***

I could go on, but I've already spent a ridiculous amount of time on this review. Although there were a couple interesting parts, I wouldn't recommend this one. I wanted more depth and more science.

#38 [2019/CBR11] "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro

After being comfortably single for quite some time, I got myself a gentleman friend. Fortunately, he's a reader as well, and he was shocked when he found out that I had not read Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro. He immediately loaned me his copy, and I was thrilled to have another book to read. Fortunately, I really liked this book. Perhaps it didn't affect me as strongly as it did him, but I really liked the writing, and it made me think.

When a friend of mine heard what book I was going to read, she immediately blurted out some spoilerish information, which changed how I read the book. I'm not sure why she did that, but it was pretty annoying, and I don't want to do that to anyone else. So, very generally, the book is about a special school called Hailsham. Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy are three friends who attend this school until they are sixteen. This book is about their lives and their interpersonal relationships. If you haven't read it but want to, it's probably best to stop reading this review now.

Never Let Me Go is written from Kathy's perspective as she recounts her time at Hailsham, a unique boarding school. The world is very similar to ours, but as the kids grow up, the reader discovers that the children are clones and will be used for body parts.

When you have a story line involving this kind of injustice, with people suffering so much and dying so early, you'd expect some kind of heroic attempt at freedom. I was half expecting it to turn into that Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johansson movie The Island, but I was very wrong. Ishiguro focuses on the nuanced relationships between the three main characters as well as how the truth of their lives slowly permeates their minds until it is something that feels inevitable.

The three friends split up shortly after school ends, and it is near the end of their lives that they come back together, realizing the truth of their feelings and how important they are to each other. After one last, optimistic try for a respite from surgery and death, they quietly go to their fate. Part of what makes this book so troubling and sad is that Kathy and Tommy simply accept their fate in the end. Realistically, there were no heroics, just a plaintive appeal when there was no hope to begin with.

Ishiguro made his characters clones with a very limited life. This was disturbingly relatable. As kids we don't really understand the world and we think everything is possible. A lot of our knowledge happens without us really understanding where it came from. And before we know it, it's too late; our lives are stuck on a trajectory that we might not have expected, and we've let the people closest to us slip away. It's only near the end that we see how important they all are to us. This quiet book is surrounded by the melancholy of lost chances.

The only thing that didn't quite work for me was that I wondered as I read why they didn't have problems with clones rebelling--or at the very least killing themselves. The clones were facing pain and death with no possible reprieve. I would think that suicide would be an appealing option.

Anyway, this was a very memorable, moving book. I read this book ages ago now, and many details are still clear in my mind. I think I might need to read some other books by Ishiguro now.

"What I'm not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time."

#59 [2018/CBR10] "Six Wakes" by Mur Lafferty

My book club is comprised of approximately six to ten women, almost all of them lawyers (or ex-lawyers) and one electrical engineer. There is almost always a wide range of opinions on the books we read, but the lone engineer is often on her own. She is also the primary motivator in forcing us to occasionally read science fiction. We read Ancillary Justice four years ago on her recommendation, and most recently we read Six Wakes (2017) by Mur Lafferty. Again, this is not a book I'd heard of or would have picked up on my own. I've read a couple of really good science-fiction novels that I've loved, but for the most part it's not my genre.

Six Wakes is a story about a crew of six that is running a large transport ship on its way to Artemis, a promising new Earth-like planet, where they are planning on creating a colony. The trip will take several lifetimes, and the cargo hold is filled with thousands of people held in a frozen hibernation state. In this world, cloning has become both scientifically feasible and relatively commonplace. Internationally negotiated codicils govern the ethics surrounding cloning. The entire crew is made up of clones, with plans on creating new bodies when their old ones inevitably die during the long trip.

The book begins with Maria Arena waking up in a cloning vat, blood and gore floating in the air around her, and her dead body across the room. She quickly realizes that the rest of the crew is around her, waking up in their own cloning vats, with their dead bodies nearby. It seems from their aged bodies that they've been in space for about twenty-five years, but they have no memory of any of that time. No one has any idea what's happened, but they know that one or more of them must have been the killer. To complicate things, the ship is not in good working order. The gravity is not working, their mindmaps (backups of the clones' brains so the new bodies know what's happened in the past) have been deleted, the cloning bay cannot make any more bodies, the ship is slowing down, and most records have been purged.

The rest of the crew includes: Katrina de la Cruz, the no-nonsense, ex-military, Captain of the ship; Joanna Glass, a doctor and former Senator; Wolfgang, the lunar-born security; Hiro (Akihiro Sato), the pilot and navigator; and, Paul Seurat, the programmer and engineer.

This was a very promising beginning to the novel, and I started reading with high hopes. Unfortunately, I was almost immediately frustrated. The characters felt two dimensional, and I couldn't understand their motivations at all. In addition, the world did not feel fleshed out in a realistic way. Instead of falling into a creative, alternate reality, I was constantly asking myself why things were happening. It didn't help that the writing was often unclear or awkward. There was--or what I think was supposed to be--some witty, quirky badinage between Maria and Hiro, but it came off as stilted and odd.

Another early scene that took me out of the book was when the crew hadn't eaten for twenty-four hours after being cloned. They were desperate for food, but Wolfgang and Paul decided to go to the gym where Wolfgang showed off his fitness in a bullying way. Then Joanna accused Wolfgang of being the killer. "You could have lost your temper and pushed us all to perform for you in the gym, and gotten mad and killed us all." What? Perform for you in the gym? When has that been a valid motivation for murder? Also, why are they going to the gym when they're hungry and there's so much else to do? Why did Paul even agree to go?

***SPOILERS BELOW***
Unfortunately, I found the end disappointing as well, although it explained a lot of the problems I had throughout the book. For example, why would you put a crew of six criminals in charge of thousands of people? In fact, why would you have a crew at all when you have a computer capable of imitating an entire ecosystem within the ship--including tiny, robotic bees--and is, in fact, in charge as a safeguard. The crew is superfluous and their primary jobs are to take care of each other. If they weren't there, they wouldn't be needed. Maria makes food for the six of them, Wolfgang keeps them in check, Katrina leads them, and Joanna doctors them.

In the end, it turns out that a powerful and vindictive woman, Sallie Mignon, came up with the whole thing as a kind of convoluted plot for revenge. She decided that in the world of cloning, simple murder is not the satisfying revenge that she wants. Instead, she wants to "take away their hope." So, she loads up a spaceship with all of her enemies (not clear how she got her enemies and no one else on there), then sets it up with a crew of criminals that is almost certain to self destruct. The crew slowly figures out that they all have some kind of connection with her and were set up. Apparently Mignon is counting on the crew to kill each other in space and ruin the hopes of everyone aboard? But if she had been successful, the ship would have turned around and come back to Earth. In fact, it almost happened within a year of their departure. Even if the ship had somehow become stranded, how would all the cryo people sleeping on board even know what happened, let alone "lose hope."

Mignon went to an awful lot of work for a very questionable payoff that might occur in a very long time. If she wanted to punish her enemies, she could torture them, make their bodies disappear, threaten their families, or do what she did to Maria--use her and reclone her without her most recent memories of what she'd done. (This section was the most interesting part of the book for me). In fact, why would hired killers even become a thing in a world where death did not mean anything? Kidnapping would be so much more effective because new clones cannot be made without proof of a dead body.

Paul was the secret weapon sent in with the rest of the crew. He was not a clone and was actually vehemently opposed to clones. I think he had a vague plan of killing all the clones once he was on board the ship--although I don't know how he could justify putting the thousands of humans in cryo at risk. In fact, Paul had an especially vehement, secret hatred of Maria because during the clone riots, Maria had gone into a building looking to save Sallie Mignon. But as soon as she found her, the building collapsed and everyone died--including the police and firefighters who'd followed Maria to try to get her out of the building. Apparently, these firefighters and police were old relations of Paul and he blames Maria for their deaths. First of all, I don't know why Maria would even have the memory of going into the burning building and its collapse because she certainly did not have a mindmap made in the seconds before her death. Secondly, police and fire would not simply allow, and then follow, a woman into a dangerous, burning building. They would simply grab her and keep her out of the building. I know Paul's hatred is not exactly rational, but it's ridiculous to blame Maria for all the deaths that occurred during the clone riots.

***END SPOILERS***

I certainly found this book memorable and easy to write about, but most of this review stems from frustration. Lafferty started with such an interesting premise. I wish she had spent more time creating a world that I could really believe and characters I really cared about. With real motivations and real consequences, I could have really enjoyed this book.

#11 [2018/CBR10] "Artemis" by Andy Weir

I was very excited to pick up Artemis (2017) by Andy Weir because I loved his first book, The Martian, even though science fiction isn't normally my thing. The combination of the life and death struggle, the realistic science, and the funny and smart protagonist was fantastic. It was one of my favorite books of the year. However, Artemis did not hold up to my high expectations.

Jasmine Bashara has been living on Artemis, a colony on the moon, since she was six years old. Now in her twenties, working as a porter and a sometimes smuggler, she is struggling to make enough money to better her circumstances. When a wealthy businessman makes her an offer of one million in moon currency to sabotage a rival company, she takes the offer. When it doesn't go exactly according to plan, and people start getting killed, Jazz realizes she's gotten herself into much more than she expected.

I really wanted to like Artemis, so I'll start with the positives. Artemis is a very interesting setting, and a well-imagined colony. I liked the details that made Artemis feel like a real place. Also, the book's first scene really sucks you into the novel.

Unfortunately, my main problem with the book is a big problem. I found Jazz to be both unrealistic and unlikable. I didn't like and couldn't understand her attitude. She was impressively smart and supposedly had strong ethical standards, but she has no problem destroying millions of dollars of another company's equipment for money.

***SPOILERS*** And even though she's supposedly genius-level smart, she almost kills the entire colony. Yes, it's good that she tries to save them, but everything she was doing was stupidly risky. There are many ways to get out of a bad contract that doesn't involve messing with the main oxygen supply to the colony. Also, if you've lived in the same place for almost twenty years, with only about 2,000 other people, wouldn't you still get recognized if you dressed up "in disguise" as a hooker? ***END SPOILERS***

I'm not sure if Weir did this on purpose, but it was refreshing to see a book with some diverse characters. Weir imagines the moon as an amalgam of people from many different countries from Earth. It doesn't make much difference to the story, but it's something. I would also appreciate that he wrote a book with a female protagonist if I liked her more. However, besides being smart and a creative problem solver, she was something of a cliche. She read gossip magazines and was really, really mad that her ex-boyfriend had turned out to be gay and slept with her best friend. Her emotional maturity was about a 1. It reminded me of a post I recently saw (on Facebook--Cannonball Read, I think) about some male authors writing women characters poorly. It's like Weir thought, what should I do with my female protagonist? Oh, I know, I'll dress her up as a hooker and have her talk about how hot she is.

In the end, I could not connect emotionally to the characters or the story line. The characters all felt one-dimensional and unsupported. The plot often either had not enough detail, or something that didn't feel right, and it continuously kicked me out of the story. Also, since the whole plot seemed to be Jazz's fault, I couldn't really get behind her. This was a sad disappointment for me.

#8 [2018/CBR10] "Dark Matter" by Blake Crouch

I found Dark Matter by Blake Crouch on NPR's List of Best Books of 2016. I think I was trying to break out from my rut of favorite genres and try a little science-fiction. Every once in a while, a science-fiction book will grab my imagination and keep my attention, but it doesn't happen very often. Dark Matter immediately drew me in, and I was hoping I would love it. Unfortunately, as the story went on, I became frustrated with the characterization and the science. This was a unique and memorable novel, but not one of my favorites.

Jason Dessen is a mediocre scientist and a professor at a local college. He has a lovely life with his lovely wife and teenage son. Both Dessen and his wife gave up their challenging career ambitions to settle down for the family life when they discovered that she was pregnant. They both love their life, but there is always that question hanging over their heads of what their lives could have looked like if they did not choose that path.

The excitement ratchets up fast in this novel. Walking home after some drinks with an old colleague, Desson is kidnapped by a masked man who knows his name and disturbing details about his life and wife. Desson's kidnapper is brutal and takes him at gunpoint to an abandoned warehouse at the edge of the city. He injects Desson with something, and Desson loses consciousness.

When he comes to, the warehouse has transformed to a state-of-the-art laboratory-type building. He is surrounded by strangers who all seem to know him. They say he is a renowned scientist who has accomplished the impossible, and that he's been missing for two years.

***SPOILERS***
This book uses quantum physics as the building blocks of its plot. Another version of Jason Dessen, who chose a different life in a parallel universe, decided to focus on scientific achievement rather than his girlfriend and possible family. Because of this, he was able to create a giant box that opens up to an infinite number of parallel worlds. Then he went in and didn't come back for two years.

When Desson finally shows up, it's the kidnapped family man who has no idea what's going on. His coworkers are lethally determined to keep this project a secret, and the new Desson has become a liability. Desson manages to get back into the box with the help of a coworker, and he begins the search for his old life as he tries to figure out what happened.
***************

Like I said above, this book started out pretty exciting, but I didn't love it. As the plot went on, I got a little tired of the science. I also never felt too attached to the characters. Instead of really caring about them, I was only vaguely interested in what was going to happen. I also wouldn't give this book high marks for feminism. The two main female characters felt like tools in the main character's story. I'm having a hard time putting my finger on it, but something about them rubbed me the wrong way. They didn't feel like real people.

If this book were really going to work for me, I think I would need more of the ideas and their consequences fleshed out, and more development of the characters. I appreciate that this novel was unique, but I couldn't buy into it and it wasn't one of my favorites.

#40 [2017/CBR9] "Crosstalk" by Connie Willis

Crosstalk by Connie Willis is one of the many books I've found from NPR's list of Best Books from 2016. I've also read To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, but Crosstalk had some mixed reviews and I wasn't too excited about reading it. I was afraid I was going to get stuck in an uninteresting slog of a book. Fortunately, I was very wrong. This turned out to be quite a fun and romantic page turner. I had a hard time putting it down while on vacation. Although not perfect, I was so entranced by the romance of it, I forgave all of its faults.

Briddey (short for Bridget) Flannigan works at a tech company, a small competitor to Apple. She has been dating an impressive up-and-comer named Trent Worth. Trent proposes that the two undergo a surgical procedure called an EED that allows couples to be able to feel each other's emotions and thoughts. Briddey is thrilled at the commitment, and they agree to get an EED. Briddey's nosy family and odd co-worker CB Schwarz are the only ones who both don't like Trent and don't want her to get an EED. As the plot progresses, there are unexpected consequences that throw Briddey and CB together in unexpected but incredibly sweet and romantic ways.

At first I found Briddey's family and work situation unrealistic, which initially took me out of the book. However, I was immediately entranced by the idea of the EED, how it would work, and how it would affect Briddey and Trent's relationship. I also liked Willis's exploration of technology and how it affects relationships. Although somewhat farcical, technology more often stopped meaningful communication than enhanced it.

This novel was not perfect and I sometimes got frustrated as I was reading. I found that Willis projected way ahead with where the plot was going. I only had to read one paragraph about Trent and CB to know who Briddey would end up with. Also, other plot points were obviously projected if you paid any attention to what was going on with the other characters. In addition, the book could get a little repetitive and long. I often wondered why I had to read Briddey's same thoughts on the same subject yet again.

Finally, Briddey could be (but not always) an incredibly frustrating heroine. For a large part of the book she is utterly passive, simply avoiding people around her, and not making any decisions for herself. For example, how in the world did she start dating Trent Worth? Sure, he's good looking, but he is a controlling asshole that could be spotted from one hundred yards away. And she just does everything he tells her to. "No, I have to go to the theater because Trent told me to." So many of her problems would be solved if she just said "no" and walked away.

When I thought of this novel more as a fun farce than realistic drama, I enjoyed it much more. Sure, the characters could be ridiculous, and the plot requires a large amount of misunderstandings and broken conversations, but it was fun. What kept it together for me was the relationship between CB and Briddey (I don't think this is a spoiler because it's obvious from the first time you meet CB). CB comes to the aid of Briddey a number of times during this book in what I found were just deliciously romantic situations. The science-fiction elements of the plot allowed Willis to create a romantic hero that could be everything you ever wanted (no matter how unrealistic): someone who wholly understands you, knows what you need before you ask, and is there for you when you're in trouble. I loved this part of the book and their relationship made some of the more frustrating aspects of the story more than worth it.

#5 [2017/CBR9] "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger

So, now that we're into November and Christmas toys and decorations are proliferating the stores, I should probably start writing some reviews. I've never been this far behind, but I'm still hopeful I can pull off a Cannonball...we'll see.

I almost never re-read books, but my book club decided to read The Time Traveler's Wife (2003) by Audrey Niffenegger. I had read it a long time before--at least ten years ago, probably more--and I decided I liked it enough that I should read it again.

The Time Traveler's Wife is a love story between Clare and Henry. Henry has some kind of chromosomal defect (you just accept it to make the story work) that makes him travel through time. He never knows where or when he is going to end up, but he pretty much stays within his lifetime. The chapters jump back and forth throughout Henry's life. Because of this, the book begins when Henry first meets Clare, when he is 28 and she is 20. However, because of the time traveling, Clare had first met an older Henry when she is only six, and he is in his late 30's. Thus, Clare has known Henry most of her life when the two first meet in real time, but she is still a stranger to him.

I thought Niffenegger did a very good job jumping through time, telling the story in a clear, interesting way that was both emotional and understandable. There is also some mystery and adventure as Henry is often in danger when he arrives, naked and unexpected, in unknown times and places. Clare and Henry must deal with him leaving without warning as well as other marital problems, including many heartbreaking miscarriages. I definitely bought into these two as a real couple that I cared about.

I first read this book when I was probably in my mid-twenties, and now I'm thirty-eight. I found that I now have a decidedly different perspective on this love story. I still enjoyed the story and found it eventually heartbreaking. However, in my younger years, I found the entire story wholly romantic. Reading it again now, I had more problems with how young Clare is when she first gets to know Henry. Clare is six years old when she first meets her future husband. At some point, he tells her they are going to end up together. They make out when she's sixteen, and Henry, as a forty-year-old man, sleeps with Clare when she's eighteen. Now, on the one hand, having your first sexual experience with an older, experienced man who loves you and already knows what you like, sounds just about perfect. On the other hand, there's a 30-40 year-old-man telling a young teenager that they're going to be married. It creeped me out much more the second time around. I found myself wishing that Clare could have had experiences and a life before she was tied to Henry.

Finally, there is a scene in the book where a boy Clare knows when she is in high school mistreats her. She tells Henry, and the two of them go over and terrorize him in retaliation. I did not remember it from the first time I read the book, and I found it both disturbing and unrealistic. I think I would have preferred that scene not be in the book, which is probably why I forgot it the first time around.

Anyway, even with the loss of my naive romanticism as I get older, I still really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who may have missed it the first time around.

#55 [2016/CBR8] "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August" by Claire North

Like many of the books I read for my book club, I had not heard of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (2014) by Claire North, and I probably would not have chosen it on my own. It didn't help that the Amazon page said this book was for eight to twelve year-old kids. Fortunately, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August turned out to be a thought-provoking and entertaining book.

Harry August is a special kind of person, which he discovers in his second life. He finds that when he dies, his life starts over, exactly as it had before. He is born to the same parents, in the same place, only he remembers everything about what happened before. Slowly, Harry August meets the few others of his kind spread around the world. When one of them threatens to drastically change human history for his own purposes, Harry must decide how to deal with this threat.

I was impressed by the creativity and thoughtfulness of North's story. The beginning kept me interested as I learned more about Harry August's life, how he comes to term with what he is, and what that would mean for me. When you have multiple lives, you have so many more opportunities to travel, learn, and experience things. In some ways, it is very appealing. At the same time, your idea of risk and death change dramatically. You can make mistakes and try almost anything without fear. The worst thing that will likely happen is you have to go through childhood and puberty again. However, when you live life after life without consequences and can't get away from your life, I imagine that it would be hard to be excited about anything.

I did find that there was a lull in the middle of the story as North changed focus from Harry's life in general to a new threat that was being whispered down from the future. Someone is using their knowledge of the future to push technological progress faster and earlier than ever before, which is leading to the end of the world earlier and earlier with each new life. Fortunately, it doesn't take long for the story to pick up again. Harry finds the man responsible, and the two are locked in an odd battle that goes beyond death.

Although there were points in this book where I felt it slowed down a little or didn't quite work, I thought it was well-written, thoughtful, original, and often exciting. Just the idea of being able to relive your life as Harry did was interesting enough for a book. Layer on top of that the thrilling and mysterious aspects of chasing down, through multiple lives, the man who will end the world, and there's a lot going for it. I'm glad I read it.

#29 [2015/CBR7] "Wool" by Hugh Howey

I wanted to read Wool (2013) by Hugh Howey after I saw it in an airport bookstore, but I had to read it when it became the next book for my book club. I've read what feels like a little too much dystopian fiction lately but this one looked intriguing and I was looking forward to it.

The entire population is kept safe from the toxic environment outside by a huge, underground silo, falling 150 floors into the ground below. The population is divided clearly into classes with distinct living spaces and jobs, and the population is strictly guarded by rules overshadowed with the penalty of death. If someone breaks the rules, they are forced out of the safety and community of the silo. The book begins with Sheriff Holston asking to go outside, basically asking for death.

Juliette, a smart, independent, and proactive woman who works down in the bowels of the silo with the mechanics and with no previous law experience is brought up to the top floors to be the next sheriff. She stumbles into a number of mysteries and corruption as she tries to do her job--learning that there is more to her world than she previously knew.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book. It set itself apart from other Dystopians with great characters, mystery, excitement, and believable technical and mechanical details. The overlay of class differences and controlling society was fascinating. However, there were a number of details that either didn't make sense to me or I couldn't buy. It's possible that some of these are explained more fully in the later novels, but it did take me out of the book to some extent.

SPOILERS FOLLOW as I complain about the details:
First, I couldn't understand what was making the condemned clean the lenses of the camera and why that was even important. Sure, they are deceived into believing that the world is clean and beautiful again, but why would that make them clean the camera. Do they think their cleaning is going to make the silo see what they're seeing? Do they think that the world changed that much since the last cleaning? Why do they care about the silo at all after they've been thrown out. Sure, I can see some people choosing to clean, but making it a rule that determines whether or not there will be rebellion didn't make sense to me.

Second, I couldn't understand the motivation for building the silos and destroying the world in the first place. I guess you can simply say those guys were crazy, but the book would have more punch if it were more believable. So, some crazy leaders in America were mad that they had lost their superpower status. Their solution is to destroy the entire world and put up a small percentage of the population in separated silos? Most of the unrest and questioning came from the lies and injustice of the silo keepers. People revolted because of the treatment of Juliette, not because people were desperate to die in the horrible atmosphere outside.

I was also a little disappointed with the love story between Juliette and her guy. They barely even had a conversation before they were devoted to each other. It wasn't much to go on, and it didn't do much for me.

Finally, I was curious. Why overalls? Even for judges? Are they really the most practical choice in a world with limited resources?

All right, that's a lot of complaining, and I don't take any of it back, but Howey is a talented writer and Wool was fast paced, mysterious and exciting with some great characters. I'm not sure yet if I'll be reading the rest of this series, but I did enjoy this one.

#65 [2014/CBR6] "Ancillary Justice" by Ann Leckie

Here is Amazon's description of Ancillary Justice (2014) by Ann Leckie:

"On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest. Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance."

I would never have chosen to read this book. From the genre (I read science-fiction now and again but rarely seek it out), to the description, to the book cover art, none of it piqued my interest. The cover reminded me of that Atari video game from my childhood. And I didn't even know where to start when it came to reading a story about a spaceship who is a person. But Ancillary Justice is the latest book for my local book club, and even though it wasn't my choice, I was looking forward to reading something new and out of my comfort zone. It also didn't hurt that Ancillary Justice was the winner of the Hugo, Nebula, British Science Fiction, Locus, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards.

I know a lot of people who really enjoyed this book, and the many awards it has won is a testament to the writing as well as the unique and original story. For me, it took me about fifty pages to get into the story, I loved the middle of it, and then I kind of lost interest in the end. I don't want to go into too much detail about the plot, primarily because I'd have to remember all the names of people and places and look up how to spell them. Also, if you're going to read it, it's nice to go into it without many expectations.

I guess you could look at this story as the many relationships the Justice of Toren [JoT], or Breq, has with various people in her world. There is Lieutenant Awn, the lower class, but accomplished and beloved officer JoT served in the past. There is the stuck-up, royal officer that Breq saves in a far off icy planet. She dislikes the officer and doesn't trust her, but feels compelled to help her. And then there is the ultimate ruler of the Radch, an incredibly powerful leader who JoT is bound to follow.

Leckie brings up a number of interesting issues through her story. There is class, warfare, love, and justice. The question of when to follow orders and if one small soldier can make a difference, and what would or should they give up to make that difference. I was worried that the whole ship is a person thing would be ridiculous but Leckie pretty much sold it to me. Halfway through the book, I believed and understood so clearly how JoT worked and assimilated information.

In addition, the Radche society does not distinguish gender, either physically or linguistically. In the book, all pronouns are she, whether male or female. This was both fascinating and frustrating to me. It was a sharp reminder how much I assume about characters based only on their gender. On the other hand, without knowing their gender, I had a hard time imagining the characters in my head. They always seemed like a shadowy, mystery figure, and it kept the story from feeling real. Also, I became very distracted by trying to figure out which characters were male and which were female, and trying to figure out how sexual relationships work when gender doesn't matter. I kept waiting for the book to explain itself more, and I was disappointed that it didn't.

And in the end, that was my problem with the book. I didn't understand enough about the ship, genderless people, and a divided leader to really feel invested in them. I was often frustrated because I didn't have the information that I wanted about the world. Although I appreciate that this is a well-written book, I had to push through to the end and it didn't grab me as much as I was hoping.

#42 [2014/CBR6] "Dragonfly in Amber" by Diana Gabaldon

I couldn't wait very long before my curiosity got the better of me and I went hunting for Dragonfly in Amber (1993) by Diana Gabaldon--the second in the Outlander series. This is the continuing story of Claire, the WWII nurse, dragged through time to the 1740's and her adventures with Jamie Fraser, her sexy Highlander husband. This book follows the events leading up to the Jacobite rebellion in 1745, ending with the battle at Culloden. Jamie and Claire travel first to Paris before heading home to Lollybrach, then following "Bonnie Prince Charlie" to battle.

I wasn't sure how I wanted to review this book, especially with so many more to follow (because I will read all of these tomes, no matter how long it takes). With the inevitability of spoilers, I figured I'd try a "real time review" of my thoughts as I remember them. That way, I don't have to figure out a way to organize everything I have to say. So, the rest of this review will only make sense to those who've already read the book. Also, it's going to be full of spoilers, so you wouldn't want to read this, if you haven't already read the book. Finally, just to be clear, I really did enjoy reading this book. I got sucked right into it and it took over my life for the few days it took to read it. That's why I'm waiting a bit before I read the third book.

PART  I
-Wait a minute, did I get the wrong book? How did I lose 20 years?

-Okay, Gabaldon just described Claire along the lines of "still beautiful and not showing her age." I'll take that as a sign that Claire's romance is not yet finished. I know she says Jamie is dead, but without more details, I don't believe that for a second.

-Although...on second thought, it would be pretty gutsy for Gabaldon to kill off her hunky love interest in the second of eight books. I'd almost admire her for it, but then I'd feel bad for Sam Heughan because he's doing so well and doesn't deserve to lose his job.

-I'm having a little trouble believing this love of Brianna and Roger Wakefield. I guess Gabaldon didn't have much time with them, but it seems their attraction is based on...having looked at each other?

PART II [full disclosure: I had to return the book, so I'm just guessing how the book was broken up]
-Finally, we're back in the 18th Century! But we're back at the beginning! I want to find out what happened to Jamie at Culloden!

-I like this Paris stuff with Jamie and Claire, and it's nice to have them together again. But politics has never really been my thing. Running around the Highland countryside was more exciting.

-Claire's work at the hospital is probably my favorite part of this section of the book--both good for her character and interesting to read.

-Hmmm...apparently Paris, France is the place to be right now: Captain Jack, his yet-unknown-to-him future wife, and his alarmingly-similar-looking brother all happen to be here. Very convenient for the story.

-I guess I don't do too well with the fantasy elements. I'm glad the toad guy fixed Claire, but I don't get it and it takes me out of the story.

-There is an alarming amount of child rape going on in this book.

-I know Claire was stressed out, hurt, and angry, but why would she wait so long to ask about Jamie??? It doesn't fit her character at all, it's not like she wasn't thinking about him.

-Wow. Well, if you're going to have sex with someone besides Gorgeous McRedhead*, it may as well be the King of France. Her compliance was forced through her need to free Jamie, but I like Gabaldon going against romance tropes here. I don't think I've ever seen a romance heroine sleep with another guy once she finds her man.

PART III
-Back to Lallybroch and blissful peace for...a very short while.

-Another potentially controversial scene: Jamie using Claire as a pawn to get the poor, young English lad to give up his intel. It was better than reading about torture, but maybe if he could have made his point without ripping her clothes off in front of all his men. Oh well, I forgive you, Jamie.

-Oh, look, a completely gratuitous picture of Jamie. I'm keeping it classy by choosing a head shot. A clothed head shot. 

-A couple of interesting themes have come through: 1) the differences between history as we look back at it compared to the experiences of those living it 2) also, the hard choices leaders have to make, sacrificing some to save others and/or doing something dishonorable in the hope that the ends justify the means.

-Seriously? Captain Jack Black sneaks up to Claire's room (why would he even go there in the first place?) He's tried to rape Claire twice and did crazy, sadistic shit to her husband and she just walks off with him???

-I get the impression that in Gabaldon's world, everything is pretty much fated. No matter what the characters know and do, they are unable to change what has happened.

-Okay, I'm satisfied with Claire's choice to go back. That whole last scene of Claire and Jamie in the 18th Century worked for me.

-Arrrggghhh!!! After 5,000 pages of feverish reading, trying to find out what happens to Jamie, I learn that Claire's just been assuming for twenty years that the love of her life--the man who broke into the middle of an English fort, unarmed, to save her; the man who successfully faced down an hysterical, bloodthirsty crowd, wanting to burn her for a witch--must have died because that was the plan and there was 50 percent mortality at Culloden. Maybe there is more explanation for this in later books, but Claire is not stupid and she is not a coward. Why would she give up hope that easily, without even trying to find out? This doesn't fit her character in any way and only served in adding tension to the story and perhaps keeping Claire from having to choose between leaving her daughter (when she's very young) and not going back to her husband.

* © Mrs. Julien, Pajiba comment.

#13 [2014/CBR6] "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card

I wasn't very excited about reading Ender's Game (1977) by Orson Scott Card. Nothing in the cover appealed to me. The only thing I knew about it is that it had something to do with turning boys into soldiers and that the author is apparently homophobic. But I'd also heard it was an award-winning classic. The recently released movie and the fact that even my little brother had read it was beginning to make me feel left out. So I decided to check it out as a necessary part of my cultural education. And it was really good. I was surprised by how this book affected me and how much it disturbed me.

Ender Wiggins is only six when he's brought to Battle School, but they've been watching him for most of his life and hoping that he's the one who can lead them to victory. Ender's entire life is calculated to make him into the most courageous, efficient, and creative leader. The fact that he's an unhappy child and they may be ruining his life are secondary concerns to the survival of the human species. Test after test and challenge after challenge, Ender is continually pushed beyond what some seem to think he can endure. Although there is a lot of physical stress in the Battle Room, most of the stress Ender deals with is emotional. He is isolated and lonely. He can never trust or depend on anyone. The tragedy of it is that Ender's such a sweet boy, and he's turned, unwillingly, into a killer.

I've read a lot of books that I've loved until the end, but the author falters and isn't able to tie it all together in a satisfying way. This was not the case with Ender's Game. Not only was I surprised by the twist, but Card managed to tell enough of Ender's story for some bittersweet closure and enough mystery to allow a number of possibilities for the future.

I couldn't help but compare Ender's Game to the other young adult, dystopian novel I just finished reading, Legend. I liked Legend and its characters and was thoroughly entertained, but it just wasn't as memorable or disturbing. Sure, there's plenty of violence in Legend, but it was never as hard hitting or emotional. Sometimes it felt more like a vehicle for the main characters' love story. In addition, there was very little moral ambiguity or questions of right or wrong. June had to decide if she was going to turn her back on the life she knew, but (SPOILER--for Legend) that decision was made a lot easier as soon as she found out that "the bad guys" were responsible for killing her entire family. And this is where Ender's Game excelled. Obviously, it's distressing to take a six-year-old boy and use him as a tool in a war. But do the ends justify the means? If all of humanity hangs in the balance, then maybe the suffering of one child is worth it. Yet there's also the question of whether the attack was even necessary.

All in all, this was a very good book. I am also planning on reading Ender's Shadow, since I enjoyed Ender's Game so much, and because it's on a list I found of great young-adult novels. As far as Card's homophobia, I wish he were more open-minded and accepting of others. I suspect his Mormon upbringing is at fault. You'd think someone sensitive enough to be able to empathize so well with the lonely and isolated Ender could be more accepting. Yet... "Ender turned to the door. A boy stood there, tall and slender, with beautiful black eyes and slender lips that hinted at refinement. I would follow such beauty said something inside Ender." (109) Interesting.

#100 - "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell

I had a little trouble deciding what to read for my last book in this challenge. Most importantly, I wanted it to be good. Who wants to read 99 books and then push through something boring and sucky at the very end? I have a number of good books still waiting to be read, including some by Cormac McCarthy, Edith Wharton, Charles Dickens, and John Irving. But I have already read something by all of those authors. So in the spirit of Cannonball Read and expanding my literary choices, I read The Sparrow (1996) by Mary Doria Russell, which included both an author I had never read as well as a genre I rarely read. I was not disappointed. The story, the characters, the adventure, the mystery of what had occurred, and the questions of religion and morality drew me in and kept me deeply involved throughout the book.

We know almost nothing about Father Emilio Sandoz's past when we first meet him, a mysterious figure coming home as the sole survivor, injured, shattered, and in disgrace from a missionary expedition to a far-off planet. The narrative jumps back and forth between Sandoz's struggles to come to terms with the aftermath of what occurred and how the missionary expedition came to be many years earlier. Anne and George Edwards are an older, childless married couple, infinitely capable, constantly moving forward, and always fun to be around. Sophia Mendes is a brilliant creator of Artificial Intelligence programs, Jimmy Quinn is the youngest of the group, a giant of a man who is sweet and loyal and makes the crucial discovery that begins their quest. The group is rounded out by three more Jesuit Priests, D.W. Yarbrough, an ex-military priest with a strong Texas attitude and accent as well as the naturalist Marc Robichaux and musicologist Alan Pace.

The appeal of this book for me stemmed from a number of reasons, most importantly the characters. They were smart, felt relatively real, and they were fun to be around. A simple dinner party in The Sparrow would quickly turn into funny, sometimes emotional discussions about life, religion, and morality. Another appeal was the constant mystery. First, you want to find out what happened to Sandoz's hands, then what his mysterious past contained, then how the expedition came to be, then what the new planet was like, then what could have gone so horribly wrong. I quickly came to care about the characters so much, that I'd get nervous at any little thing that went wrong, dreading their inevitable ends, and cringing at what I was imagining. Mary Doria Russell also brings up a number of interesting dilemmas about God, religion, and love, so besides the captivating characters and mystery, she asks some pretty stark, open-ended questions that keep you thinking. In addition, the sentient creatures the party encounters on the planet and their relationships, both to the humans, as well as each other bring up some interesting themes of dominance and morality.

With so many things to think about and the incredibly likable characters, I very much enjoyed reading this book and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, Children of God, although I am already concerned that it can't be as good. However, The Sparrow wasn't perfect. I found a couple major plot twists a little hard to believe. Spoilers! First, I couldn't understand how Father Sandoz could come back in such disgrace. Although the media can glom onto a scapegoat with great tenacity, I only halfway believed that Father Sandoz had done something horrible when I knew almost nothing about the story. The people who saved him found him caged, naked, bloody, and beyond comprehension, but they assumed he'd turned from a chaste priest to some kind of sex fiend? Then why didn't he just find some hot, young, alien, boy-toy and set up house? From what I've heard, prostitution isn't all that fun. Also, I couldn't believe that Sophia Mendes would forget or not realize that she was using too much fuel so they wouldn't be able to get home. She's not one who would overlook such details.

#52 - "Dune" by Frank Herbert

One of my goals for this whole reading challenge was to break out and read some books and genres that I would generally ignore or avoid. My local library has separate sections for: fantasy, mystery, romance, horror, and science-fiction; thus it wasn't too easy for me to disregard the glaring hole in my reading list that was the science-fiction genre. When I couldn't ignore it anymore I took an exploratory stroll through the science-fiction section, looking for a book I could read. But I was wary of choosing one at random, knowing that my generally low tolerance for science-fiction required one that was well-written. So I hit the internet and looked up some "best science-fiction" lists. And Dune or the Dune Trilogy was at the top of almost every list. That's all I needed to know.

Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert is apparently the classic of science-fiction literature. Herbert created an epic story about struggle, survival, power, history, and religion that has spawned movies, television shows, and innumerable sequels (some by his son and a co-writer). The story begins with the young man, Paul Atreides, who goes to the planet Arrakis (also called Dune) with his father, the Duke Leto, and his mother, Lady Jessica, when the Duke is ordered to take over rule on that planet. The move is the center of a plot between the Imperium and the Atreides' sworn enemy, the Harkonnens, to destroy the Atreides family. Complicating life on Arrakis is the extreme desert atmosphere where water is rare and precious and survival almost impossible, even without the added dangers of impossibly large sandworms, extreme storms, and the fierce, nomadic Fremen. But the mysterious and powerful spice melange, that is harvested only on the sands of Arrakis, and is a cash crop like no other, keeps the rest of the universe's interest in the barren planet high.

There were a lot of really good things about this book. Herbert manages to create an entire, complex world complete with history, religion, and competing factions. Although the book is over 500 pages, the action movies quickly and unexpectedly, which kept me engaged throughout. The combination of struggle for survival and and struggle for power as you slowly learn more about Arrakis and the surrounding world made for a pretty intense read. With the competing houses and instability in the universe, Paul Atreides grows up surrounded by an astounding amount of violence, which believably shapes his personality; and the many secondary characters that help Paul in his journey are interesting in themselves and help fill out the book.

However, there were a couple aspects of the novel that had me a bit frustrated by the end. First, I got a little tired of all the religion and mysticism. I would rather that Paul earn his right to lead his men or slowly gain his powers in a more relatable way. And even though the idea of knowing the many different lines of what your future might be was an interesting idea, whenever anyone fell into a trance or started taking a drug, or performed some kind of mystical miracle, I lost interest in both the book and the characters. Second, I was simply annoyed with Paul Atreides by the end of the book. Herbert always described Paul when he was acting arrogant and power hungry without ever giving him much feeling or emotion. I felt like Herbert went out of his way to make Paul as inhuman and unrelatable as possible. Now, I don't know what happens in the subsequent novels, but by the end of this book, I was disliking Paul because he was mean, almost cruel, and choosing power over people.

Sidenote: I have some kind of theory bubbling in my head about the role of women in these science-fiction novels. In some ways the Bene Gesserit are the most powerful women in the novel, but at the same time they are sold as mistresses to men throughout the world. Firefly has a similar culture of high-powered prostitutes, which is--I think--inherently contradictory in the real world. Is this some kind of male (or female) fantasy that is being tapped here? Or some kind of reflection of the idea that men will always need sex and women will exploit that need for power? Or something even darker?