Category Archives: Dystopian

by

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

MathesonIAmLegendWhy I Read It: It’s a classic & I saw the Will Smith movie a few years ago and wanted to read the book it was based on.

Where I Got It: Own it – through paperbackswap.com

Who I Recommend This To: Those who enjoy horror flicks without the overly gross bits would enjoy this.

Narrator: Robertson Dean

Publisher: Blackstone Audio (2007)

Length: 5 hours 19 minutes

It’s the second half of the 1970s in California. Robert Neville’s world will slowly crumble over several months. We first meet him as a single man living in a fortified suburban house, going through his daily survival routine, which entails cooking, cleaning up his yard, refortifying his house as needed, stringing garlic, removing the bodies to the burning pit on the outskirts of town, topping off his gas tank, and drinking excessively. Indeed, Robert Neville is not particularly healthy in mind, spirit, or body. Through flashbacks, we glimpse his life before the decline of known society. He has a job, a wife, a daughter. But the plague took them and left him to deal with the aftermath.

At first, it is not clear to the reader what we are dealing with – vampires? zombies? merely the deranged left over few humans that survived some sort of plague? I’ll leave it up to you to read it and make up your own mind. This is one of the things I really enjoyed about the book – it didn’t follow any solid fantasy/horror trope. Instead, Robert Neville spends quality time at the local library digging up science texts, learning how a virus or bacteria could spread through out humanity, why the infected need sleep during the day, why garlic repels them. Indeed, Richard Matheson builds science into this horror story, which makes it all the more frightening in the end.

I went back and forth on liking Robert Neville. He isn’t the brightest of the bunch. Initially he seems a decent sort – missing his family and friends, questioning his own sanity, feeling conflicted about hunting and disposing of the ‘monsters’ by day. He’s also obsessed with sex. One comment had me rolling my eyes a bit – something along the lines about how it would be worse to die a virgin than to become one of the blood-needy monsters that prowl around his house at night. Really? Sigh…. But, on the other hand, it goes to show his loneliness and his possible slow slip into depravity.

Yet Robert rallies, digs into his science and experiments, and the second half of the book was even more interesting than the beginning. I began to feel for Robert and his lonely plight, his messed up purpose in life, his questions of whether or not he was the only uninfected human left alive. The ending was not what I expected at all, but I found it very fitting, satisfying, and a good explanation of the title.

The narrator put all his feeling into Robert Neville – the anguish, frustration, surprise, tender loneliness truly came through. The narrator was a perfect fit for this characters.

What I Liked: A horror flick without the gore and with the science; Robert Neville is a conflicted character and his plight comes through loud and clear; the ending was very satisfying.

What I Disliked: Very few female characters with primary roles as love/sex interest.

This book was originally published in 1954 and has been made into several movies over the years. This fits nicely into the Ye Olde Booke Clubbe challenge hosted by Darkcargo. Anyone can join in the fun!

What Others Think:

Lynn’s Book Blog

doorly.com

The Ink Slinger

Geeks of Doom

Leeswamme’s Blog

by

Persistence of Vision by Liesel K. Hill

HillPersistenceOfVisionWhy I Read It: It was the tattoo on the cover – around the dude’s eye! It sucked me in.

Where I Got It: A review copy from the author (thanks!)

Who I Recommend This To: Time travel/thriller aficionados.

Publisher: Tate Publishing (2013)

Length: 386 pages

Series: Book 1 of Interchron

The story starts simple enough. Maggie Harper is on her way to meet her brother and his latest girlfriend. It’s hot in Las Vegas, and crowded. As she plods her way towards the meeting, she sees a man on the crowded side walk, and the crowd is leaving a triangle of space around him. After an eery chit chat with him, she meets her brother, they have a drink at the nearest bar, and then the stuff hits the fan.

They both wake up on the floor of a hotel room that neither of them recognize. Neither do they recall how they got their, nor what took place in those lost hours. The police turn up nothing. A year goes by (but it’s like 2 pages for us, so no worries) and Maggie returns home from running errands to find a strange and deadly man in her house. He absolutely intends her harm and she is out muscled. But here comes our knight of the story, Marcus – the strange man from Las Vegas. He kills the assailant and flees with Maggie into the wilds, and eventually into a future time. Oddly, everyone Maggie encounters recognizes her, yet she has zero memory of them. I think tea is in order. Tea always makes it easier to sort such shit out, am I right?

OK, so to summarize, the world made a mind-boggling break through some years after Maggie’s native time concerning the brain. It was fully mapped and folks began to realize some of the deepest psychological reasons for human behavior, including criminal behavior. But then some folks of the justice system took things too far, claiming that criminals were not responsible for their actions, it was their brains and how they are put together that made them do bad things. Short story – Society falls apart.

New societies rise in their place – and they believe in collectivism. This is were all minds are joined in one beehive-like colony and individualism is wiped from each person. Gender identity no longer has any meaning, free will isn’t an issue since is doesn’t exist, and they believe themselves the most efficient human form around. This thinking starts a battle for freedom as the collectivism colonies start collecting individuals and forcing them into the colonies.

And this is where Marcus and his cronies come into play, at Interchron. They are part of a prophecy that predicts the dismantling of the collectivism colonies – and Maggie is a key piece to that effort. In fact, she spent a year fighting by their side, but then lost her memories in some freak accident and had to be returned to hot Las Vegas only hours after she was swept up into this mess. Now she has been brought back not only for her safety, but to assist the group in a new attempt to save the world.

Phew! Long set up. Now to tell you about the cool mental powers. Energy is pulled in and channeled through conduits to make all sort of things come apart, fly backward, or cease to function (if necessary – these are the good guys after all). Marcus is the strong, damaged-goods kind of guy and highly protective of Maggie. Maggie herself starts off a bit wishy-washy about raining physical damage upon her attackers, but snaps out of that pretty kick with a good kick to an opponent’s face. Doc is the most knowledgeable of the group, and I feel he is holding back on the depth of his knowledge. Karl was once Maggie’s best friend and confidante, and he plays the role again filling her in on her relationship to the rest of the group. He also provides some well-timed comic relief. There’s Lila and her mom, Nat, and later a long-lost relative of one of the main character’s shows up.

Overall, the tale was an interesting one bringing together several tropes I had not found in one book before. There’s the super hero-like mental abilities, time travel, a dystopian future, the fight for individualism, and a main character with lost memories. Stir thoroughly, add a dash of Evil Overlords, a pinch of romance, and a hint of some other world memory goddess, and you have a fascinating plot. While I believe each of the characters could have used more description, each had their own distinct voice, standing out clearly in my imagination. The ‘magic system’ of this universe was mostly defined for all but the main character; Maggie gains untold powers rather quickly and unexpectedly, blasting through the rules at the most convenient of time. In essence, I enjoyed the book enough to ignore the few detracting points. Liesel Hill has given us a unique setting with a unique conundrum that I had not bumped into before in my reading.

ScifiExperience2013BadgeWhat I Liked: The mystery of the missing memories; that feeling of, ‘can I really trust these good guy characters?,’ that I had throughout the book; Maggie is a complex, likeable character stuck in a tricky position; Marcus is all sorts of convoluted.

What I Disliked: Maggie’s character is constantly breaking the known rules of the mental powers (convenient); there was only 1 evil female character, which created a slight imbalance.

We’re at the tail end of The Science Fiction Experience hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings. Make sure to stop by his place to enjoy more SF goodness.

I received this book as part of the Persistence of Vision Blog Tour organized by the author. Click HERE to see the rest of the tour.

by

Ashes of Twilight by Kassy Tayler

10634286Why I Read It: I like reading about confined folks who got issues, whether it’s in space or under a dome on ruined Earth.

Where I Got It: From the publisher via Audiobook Jukebox (thanks!)

Who I Recommend This To: If you are a fan of Logan’s Run and YA, then this book has a lot for you.

Narrator: Nicola Barber

Publisher: AudioGO (2012)

Length: 9 hours 25 minutes

Series: Book 1 Ashes

I grew up with Logan’s Run, first the movie and then the series. There were many things I liked about them, including the characters’ needs to live beyond their assigned roles and years. Ashes of Twilight captures that same feel, but without being a duplicate of this classic. Set under a large dome somewhere in Wales, UK over what once was a large coal deposit, Wren MacAvoy struggles to fit in, to make her grandfather proud, and to unravel the hidden reasons for a friend’s death. As a coal miner, next to the lowest of the low in this structured society, she is shunned in most public places above ground and people of her status rarely marry outside of their class. And indeed, their world is very set, having existed under a dome for several generations after a world calamity made the surface unlivable.

With that set up, Kassy Tayler leads us into her world, bit by bit through Wren’s eyes. Indeed, this was one of the things I enjoyed about the writing: the story showed me Wren’s world instead of telling it to me. At 16, she and a few other young friends feel the need to stretch their wings and push for something more. One long-lived question in their lives has been what is beyond the dome wall? Alex challenges the status quo and ends up dead, his last words being, ‘The sky is blue,’ which leads to all sorts of grief and consternation.

Wren has to avoid not only the Filchers (masked folks that will grab a coal miner off the streets), and the city guard, but also her own people’s senior council. Yet she manages to attract the attention of all three plus the city Royals. Indeed, she becomes the focus for the spread of revolution. The intensity and action were sprinkled with Wren’s inner thoughts and concerns, keeping the tension high throughout the book. Along the way, she meets Pace, an aspiring city guard who ends up on the wrong side of a bit of knowledge and needs a place to hide. Young love strikes the both of them. Now, there was really only 1 thing I didn’t care for in this book, and it was the near instant love, yet no sex. Please, a set society trapped under a dome for numerous generations is going to have birth control freely available, or it would have collapsed due to over population after a few generations. It’s OK to be 16 or 18 and in lust and have that lust turn to friendship , and perhaps more later on.

I really connected with Wren and Pace and even a few of the minor characters. I like the use of animals (cats, canaries, and ponies) throughout the story. While I found it a little convenient that Pace is a super athlete brimming with muscle, a sensitive guy, and has great concern for his mum, I still enjoyed his humor and felt he made a descent counterpoint to Wren and her periodic lack of confidence. The ending gave me mixed feelings, but set up the reader for Book 2. On one hand, Wren stayed true to her 16-year-old self; on the other hand the larger picture wasn’t considered by Wren and her friends.

Nicola Barber was the perfect choice for this audiobook. She captured Wren’s voice crystal clear and I enjoyed her portrayal of Peggy, Pace, Alex, and the other young folks. Her ‘Royal’ voice was also fitting.

What I Liked: The cover; structured society trapped under a dome; big freaking secret kept from society at large; Wren’s kindness yet she has survival instincts; Pace’s humor; the characters had fears and shortcomings and this made then more real; Tayler’s storytelling is very approachable.

What I Disliked: Instant love yet no sex (not realistic); mixed feelings about the ending.