Indian Readers discussion

Yes, but see if you can confirm safety or get it from somewhere - I really liked it. But there's no paperback edition, only a hardcover one. It's a pretty obscure book.

The After/Life by Vardan Partamyan - 2/5

The novel opens with the protagonist, Nad Raven, describing in flashback how he ended up in the small community of survivors following a global nuclear devastation in this post-apocalyptic dystopian story reminiscent of the classic 1984. We see Raven growing up in a self-sufficient community evolving its own rules, customs and hierarchies, confined in its self-created surroundings, apparently happy and at peace, until some events shatter its peace to reveal conspiracies and grim progressions to dark, dystopian, autocratic conditions.

The plot is promising – a small, self-contained, self-sufficient, stagnated community is a ripe place for conspiracies to occur, autocratic dreams of power acquisition to fester and develop into malignancy. The story is not unbelievable or implausible. The events depicted, too, are highly possible and intriguing. Overall, it is a good read.

But it has some flaws as well – the foremost being a restricted, first-person limited narrative style – the entire narration is descriptive, the protagonist narrating in chronological sequence the entire story. But the reader is not allowed to make any insights into the situation or characters. The blank left by the author where readers fill in details and hence connect with the story or characters is absent here. The scarcity of dialogues leaves nothing to imagination, and the reader cannot escape the confines of narration to give his/her own input. Dialogues, if any, are not put at strategic places – instead, the characters mouth only what the reader has already guessed. In some places, nothing is left to the reader’s imagination, and in others, too much is left for him/her to imagine – in both cases, it is fatal to the work.

The characters, owing to the narrative flaws, lack details – since the readers cannot infer anything more than what they are told by Raven, the pictures remain half incomplete. Important characters, such as Suzannah, Ms. Kendall and Viler remain conveniently in the background, reducing plot-complexity and rending it over-simplicity. A lack of detailed, nuanced characters is acceptable, but only when a substantial, formidable plot takes its place as the focal point of the work.

The plot too has gaps not satisfactorily filled – it is important to show how a society like this developed in detail - at two strategic junctures, this is missing – how the School, in the face of global destruction, achieves self-sufficiency, is not explained at all – the gradual workings of such a society would not only lend the story credibility and depth, but also consolidate a strong storyline and characterization. Similarly, the second opportunity – the Orwellian closed society flourishing under systematic brainwashing was poorly conceived – only a fleeting mention of a few slogans and a fiery death sentence (pun intended) are not enough to impress upon the readers its grimness. And thus, the climax, where the society turns back on Viler is equally unconvincing.

Irony and satire are the backbone of any dystopian work, without which it remains ordinary story-telling. It is through strategic use of these devices that a work achieves its desired effect. Sadly, they are completely missing from this work. The inclusion of literary allusions, such as the reference to The Odyssey could have been explored further, giving this work some sort of layers to work with. A symbolic layer of meaning, aptly explored in terms of lending depth, is what makes a work literary.

Also, the focal point of a post-apocalyptic/dystopian society lies in the examination of what it means to be human – what defines humanity, and how the crisis in the story steals away that rare thing that makes us human. The human sensitivity that should be either examined, challenged, or at least commented upon is not touched upon at all in the work.

A simple plot with simple execution like this may work fine with a short story, but stretches too much when labored into a novel. It could have been a better, gripping short story or long short-story. Although the work is not gripping enough, it is not bad either.

Brilliant review! You have a sharp, original style with a very appropriate choice of expression. You ought to be writing yourself .

Ranjit wrote: "Brilliant review! You have a sharp, original style with a very appropriate choice of expression. You ought to be writing yourself ."

Thank you, may be some day I will! :)

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks - 5/5

Written in the form of a journalistic report after the end of the new World War Z, the global outbreak of zombies pushing every nation on earth in a war against the undead, this book is vivid, imaginative and deeply introspective and incisive. Chronicling the accounts of survivors of this outbreak from different countries of the world, it subtly covers the wide span of this long-drawn battle right from its inception when it was misdiagnosed as African rabies, culminating into a terrifying war against the living dead that soon reached its peak, to its end as it slowly dwindled as the military and civilian efforts battled the onslaught of unrelenting zombies.

There are numerous stories, described from dizzyingly different points of view, ranging from war veterans to simple civilians battling for survival, and each of them is riveting, to say the least. From these endless stories, there is none less interesting, less gripping than the others, there is no point when a reader would get tired of zombies trying to tear off flesh from a living, frightened human – well, it is so easy to get a 350-page novel on zombies to decay into boredom and repetitiveness.

But this work simply doesn't, for various reasons – for one thing, there’s a sheer amount of research that has given this work of fiction an incredible credibility and depth. Military tactics are not simply invented from empty air – their defense tactics, their weapons, their strategies have been well-researched, along with geo-politics and international disputes even in the midst of a global threat to humankind’s survival. The world and its leaders are not depicted as the clichéd united troops in the midst of a common enemy – the domestic and international strife, the selfishness, the heartlessness and chaos is extremely well-portrayed. The emotional toll that a catastrophe of this dimension takes on all classes of people is amazingly well-depicted. The psychological trauma shown alone is worth reading for.

And not just the human part, but also the zombie part has been explained well - how the outbreak started, how the zombies had to be dealt with and why. The traits of the zombies are amazingly well-drawn, down to every visual and character detail, so much so that I am pretty confident I can tackle a zombie on my own in real life as well (as long as the zombies are portrayed accurately)!

For a post-apocalyptic book reeling from the shocks of a global-scale zombie outbreak, the novel has an astonishing lucidity, a cohesiveness and chronological continuity built through seemingly random survivors’ accounts, interspersed with immense military, political, cultural, historical and psychological detail to render it effective, hard-hitting and credible.

It is so well-informed and detailed, that at the end of the book it is hard to believe that the whole work was a sham, everything written in the book in your hands and all the stuff reeling in your head as an aftermath was nothing but a work of fiction, just a good story. It seems impossible to believe that none of this stuff ever happened – the book is that good.

A great deal of credit goes to this book because it doesn't glamorize the strength of the human spirit or the kindness of humans when facing extinction, but shows the gory selfishness, necessary cruelty in war, the petty politics of governments, the ego clashes in military setup, the thinly-veiled critiques of current politics of the U.S. or Iran or the oil-stinking Middle East regimes or even the hard Chinese or African administration and umpteen other facets that direct the course of any war that takes place on earth – not just a zombie war, in a very convincing, original way devoid of preaching, sentimentality or melodrama. The political satire part of the book is perhaps the most interesting one, apart from the close account of psychological ramifications of a global crisis made worse by uncooperative regimes.

The appeal of this work lies in its universality – replace zombies with any external or internal threat, and humans will still behave that way – this is where the central appeal of this amazing work lies.

A highly recommended read, even if you have no interest whatsoever in zombies or post-apocalyptic stories. After all, the story isn't about them.

Ah well, its cinematic adaptation, starring Brad Pitt, releases June 21, 2013, worldwide.

Broke Through Britan: One Man's Penniless Odyssey by Peter Mortimer - 5/5

In 1998, Peter Mortimer, in his 50s, decided to travel 500 kms through his home country Britain, but utterly penniless - a kind neighbor gifted him their terrier to accompany him, and the seemingly short journey, carried on foot brought to him, as well the readers, a wealth of experience never to be gained otherwise.

It sheds light upon one crucial aspect of life - what it means to exist on the fringes of a society, in a state of destitution, where you have no shelter and do not know where your next meal will come from, if it ever will.

On the way, he encounters all kinds of people - the outright rude, the outright kind and generous, the suspecting yet kind.

It is a very heart-warming account, told with no needless grandiosity - there is a consistent light-hearted, humorous, yet compassionate vein throughout the narrative, making it a light, easy read, despite being filled with the uncertainty of the journey and desperate lack of funds.

The Corruption by Leigh M. Lane - 3.5/5

This was a very good novelette with elements of both cyberpunk and fantasy - an interesting mix of genres, albeit not jarring. Set in 2094, the work is in the form of a journal kept by the protagonist Julie as she recounts the horrors of her wired world and her subsequent adventures in the quest of escaping its ordeals.

Year 2094 - the world has advanced amazingly - people, albeit only the elites, have a new technology within their grasp. They can connect their minds to cyberspace, and work their way with the virtual world without the need for any physical contact. i.e., they are wired, 24/7. And these elites are the envy of the rest of the world.

However, later generations of this technology end up infecting their minds, causing those connected to lose their identity, and essentially their humanity by losing the ability to feel any emotion. Like zombies, they exist solely in order to infect other humans by infecting them. The second-generation of those cyber-connected individuals are the most dangerous - they are born connected virtually, having no experience of any emotion whatsoever.

The world is divided into small survivor camps, and thus begins their attempts to outrun these technological zombies capable of intellect but not emotion.

The language is fluid, the dialogues perfect, the events flowing into each other credibly and logically. The writing is intense and almost perfect for about 80% of the book. The only flaw of the novelette is that it succeeds in gaining the readers' attention to the story, draws him/her in sufficiently and then towards the end, makes the story take an inexplicable course that leaves one dissatisfied, since the original plot of the war is cast aside.

Other than this one flaw, there are some very laudable aspects to the plot and characterization - the characters are believable, and the reader can connect to them easily. There is just that perfect amount of depth to the character as would suit a story like this.

The story is gender-sensitive. It doesn't aim to transform women into superwomen, nor does it keep them confined to being damsels in distress. Most of all, I love the substitution of the tiresome phrase "mankind" to a more humanistic "humankind".

A very skillful execution of a mix of cyberpunk and fantasy, it is an easy, light read. The novelette would have been absolutely smashing if it had overcome only two of its flaws - carrying the story to a logical end on the premise with which it had started, and a deeper examination of the pressing question that defines the essence of any science fiction book - what does it mean to be human?

Yet, it was almost an excellent work - a controlled, highly skilled execution.

Lit Bug wrote: "Broke Through Britan: One Man's Penniless Odyssey by Peter Mortimer - 5/5

In 1998, Peter Mortimer, in his 50s, decided to trav..."
want to read this one

Yep, even his other books are worth checking out.

Delirium by Susan Kaye Quinn - 4/5

Delirium (Debt Collector #1) is the first installment of the Debt Collector series, and is a pretty short read going only 48 pages. A gritty future-noir story, it follows the predicament of Lirium (short for Delirium), the protagonist and the Debt Collector.

What happens when your debts and your life span are less than your measured future productive-years? In short, when due to bankruptcy or ill-health, you become a liability on the world rather than an asset? A Debt Collector comes to you, and collects your remaining life and remits it to those who have greater potential to serve the society. The government, of course, has a systematic code to regulate it and prevent misuse of this practice.

Lirium has just collected his last collection of debt from Mr. Henry, a cancer patient with little life left and remitted it to a productive client – and returns home waiting for an escort to make him forget the mechanical nature of his job, when he realizes she isn’t what she seems to be. He soon discovers that there are darker, sinister implications of what he does. And in the process, he discovers his own release.

A brilliant short story on all levels – ingenuity of thought, crisp narrative and a skillful management of suspense. The plot is credible, the narrative pace is perfect, the dialogues are appropriate, and the irony hard-hitting and amply displayed. An SF dystopia's delight – edgy future-noir, sinister, hard-hitting and above all, human.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - 3.5/5

A Shakespearean comedy, the play follows two friends spinning lies in order to marry their girls - but soon all hell breaks loose with goof-ups, forcing them to admit the truth - Aunt Augusta is the most impressive character, serving as the object of satire of contemporary society. As in Shakespearean comedies, all ends well.

It is charming for its time, abounds in wit and repartee, and is a brilliant example of the Restoration comedy, or the Comedy of Manners, whose prime features were stock characters used to satirize the manners and affectations of a social class or of multiple classes through a witty comedy, albeit through artificial plot structures and dialogues rather than characterization or plot.

Cecily and Gwendolyn represent the silly women and their silly necessities regarding love, Aunt Augusta represents the shallow upper class that judges people by superficial yardsticks while Algernon and Jack are stereotypical men.

As a representative of its genre Restoration comedy, it is a brilliant work - but for today, it is a short, okay read.

Anthem by Ayn Rand - 1/5

As in all her work, Rand's philosophy of individualism as against the philosophy of collective work and thought as envisioned by Socialism is highlighted in this 1984-esque work, published a decade before 1984.

While her philosophy is commendable, the novelette is just awful. The writing is uninspiring, stretched out and bereft of any lasting emotion. Written in a sparse, cold style reminiscent of 1984, it fails to evoke any emotion in the reader - not even that dread that Orwell invoked.

The plot is fallacious - the impossibility of inventing electricity by a few men in the way described simply hits the reader on the head. Too many plot-holes ruin an already weak work.

Built on the same premise as 1984, a socialist brainwashing community governed by strict, rigid rules, the work lacks common sense, emotion as well as depth.

Also fallacious is its categorization into the SF genre - this is a mere dystopia, and a single pseudo-invention of electricity that is finally revealed by the protagonist to have already existed centuries ago simply doesn't count as science-fiction.

A very poor work, way below The Fountainhead that was so rich, detailed, logical and passionate.

good, I will strike off Anthem from my list. Earlier I was happy when I could add a book, nowadays I am happier when I'm able to delete a book :P

LOL :) It was simply terrible, the only good thing about it is its length, or lack of it - only a 100 pages or so.

2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut - 6/5

Yes, that's right. It's a 6/5 rating. 5/5 seems so... unfair.

Kurt Vonnegut is perhaps the most under-rated author of our literary history. This tiny short story (only 12 pages) is filled with so much satire, angst and anger that one tends to forget it is sci-fi. Although, this is the first story where the SF aspect is so well forgotten as the story develops, that even those repelled by SF would love this.

The title 2 B R 0 T B is an acronym for the eternal conflict in humanity - To Be Or Not To Be (RIP Shakespeare) - and this is exactly the theme of the story, in a world where aging is stopped, births and deaths are controlled to keep the population stagnant. But the science part ends there - and the trials of humans begin.

Good stories are moving and sad. Exceptional stories, like this one, leave us frustrated, angry and disturbed, And Vonnegut does that in exactly 12 pages. Forget your aversion to SF - this one's a classic.

V de Vendetta Tomo 1 (V for Vendetta #1) by Alan Moore - 3/5

Solely based on the first installment, there is enough stuff that is likable - the mysterious character V, the gradual revelations of the nature of the state machinery, and the early introduction to the allusion to Guy Fawkes of the Gunpowder Plot of the Fifth of November.

Although, the icon of Fawkes as an allegory against Conservatism is ironic, given that Fawkes was himself in favor of the Conservatives, I assume its target in allegory is the symbolic one man's struggle against anarchy, rather than being a symbol for Progressives. I assume, then, that the allegory is only partial.

The comic book form is a personally disliked form for me, rather than a real flaw - it provides less scope for ruminations by the author, though it allows the narrative to speed up action by hampering the narrator's own opinions.

Also, the illustrations were irksome to the eye, though they were in line with the content of the story.

Overall, a good read, but not outright unputdownable.

Around India in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh - 3/5

It is a refreshing account of a British woman of Indian origin in her late twenties seeking out the country she felt remotely belonged to, in a span of four months through 80 trains, covering a large part of India with her travel buddy who she has chosen to refer to as only Passepartout, the French word meaning ‘all-purpose’. From November to the end of her eventful journey, she discovers the Indian way of life through travels in mostly second and third class, and sometimes in luxurious trains as well.

The tone of the account is for the most parts charming, peppered with bits of history thrown in by her fellow travelers, punctuated by her own moods ranging from bliss and excitement to moments of frustration and agony. Despite not possessing the depth that has the power to turn it into a mesmerizing travelogue, in itself, as a memoir, it is interesting. However, the growing sardonic tone towards the latter half of her writing, mostly on account of her growing discomfort with Passepartout, renders the memoir bitter and unpleasant to read – not that travelogues/memoirs have to be necessarily gleeful and positive, but she lacks the art of writing insightfully from her experiences. Her disillusioning experiences, then, cease to seem like unfortunate events and descends into whining and ceaseless burnouts.

This account holds interest mainly for the reason that there is a lack of similar travelogues better than this. Its lone status lends it an air of excitement. However, for those having read far better travel pieces, there is a significant lack of many essential elements that raise a personal travel memoir into an appealing journey across an unknown land. For instance, the humor in the book depends mainly on her own mood swings, rather than a calm reflection of events that have passed more than a year before the book was out. The bitterness stings heavily, since it is more of a personal spat with a fellow traveler than any real substantial reason – the minor disagreement was blown out of proportion to vent her own distaste for a differing opinion.

Passepartout has been given a uni-dimensional role in the whole book – that of an intolerant brute victimizing the author and ruining her journey. It is more of an injustice to include only one dimension of a person you travel with for almost three-fourths of the journey and yet have hardly anything good to say about. He comes in the picture only when she has an unhappy incident with him to describe, or has been asked for forgiveness. Rest of the time, he is almost invisible.

Her travels are more of visiting places and observation of needless details, like Monaco wrappers or feeding a puppy Marie Lite biscuits than building a vivid picture of the places. Customs and traditions are described unevenly (heavily in some places, negligibly in others) – which leaves a reader dissatisfied. The lack of detail – in appearance of people, differences between places, people and local food, amongst others and immense detailing of her own moods and spats leaves much to be desired.

Despite its obvious flaws, it is a pretty good read, considering the novelty of the idea – her journey must have been incredible, but it does not come out effectively in the book. And yet, it is recommended for people who prefer light travel writing bereft of heavy observations on history, politics, economics and introspection. It is more a fun read, and would have been even more charming and truly engaging if she had managed to temper the incisive sarcasm and infectious ill-temper keeping in mind the nature of the book.

what you have written makes sense, Lit Bug. I just read it a month ago, and immensely liked it. After reading through your review the negative points are striking me. If given a chance now I would give it 3.5-4 stars rather than the initial 5-star

Thanks Smitha :) It was definitely nice but nowhere near the astounding Begums, Thugs, and White Mughals: The Journals of Fanny Parkes or Smoke and Mirrors : An Experience of China - these are so beautiful, insightful as well as broad-minded and fair that this book pales considerably in comparison and comes across as rather self-centered and tunnel-visioned. I really loved the other two books and recommend them heavily - they're absolutely delightful!

I, the Provocateur by Vardan Partamyan - 2/5

The second book by Vardan Partamyan is far better than his first one in terms of plot, characterization and credibility - it is very pleasing, naturally, to read an author who has improved tremendously in a very short time.

We see a post-apocalyptic planet in a 1984-esque state, where the protagonist, a rebel is sent to instigate a civil war by sabotaging different departments of the government and pitting them against each other and turning the citizens against them, eventually. The story progresses very smoothly since the very start, and taking a very predictable course. Suddenly, and (pleasantly) surprisingly, we see the story taking perfectly credible and unexpected twists and turns, and our dear hero is not only a helpless witness to the unfolding drama, but an important part of the twist itself.

While many things have been improved upon since the last work, such as bringing a fiercer mood to the work and involving a parallel complexity in the intertwining of the protagonist's as well as the planet's history and future, there are some minor flaws that could have been worked upon that would have massively improved the work - the most striking drawback was that of too lengthy descriptions of the protagonist and his surroundings but too short descriptions of the logic behind some important (in the context of the plot) technologies and path-breaking events. This minor drawback, however, causes the work to be insufficient in grabbing one's attention. The beautiful speed that the work picks up at one point of the story begins to flag just a few pages later until a new twist suddenly accelerates the pace again.

For now, the only other issue is perhaps that of not having truly strong and memorable female characters even, if not a female as the protagonist. Other than that, the work is well done. Good for a light, short read.

Lit Bug wrote: "Thanks Smitha :) It was definitely nice but nowhere near the astounding Begums, Thugs, and White Mughals: The Journals of Fanny Parkes or Smoke and Mirrors : An Experience of China - these are so b..."

now two more books to read. But I just love travellogues. And I would surely read these in near future, if I'm able to procure these titles

Begums, Thugs, and White Mughals: The Journals of Fanny Parkes is also available under the title Begums, Thugs And Englishmen: The Journals Of Fanny Parkes so you can get either edition and still don't lose out. :) I got a copy from Landmark a few years ago so you can also ask them to procure it for you.

Neuromancer by William Gibson - 4.5/5


Neuromancer is a seminal archetypal cyberpunk work by William Gibson, and the first in the Sprawl trilogy. It is also the first work to win the science-fiction triple crown – the Hugo award, the Nebula award and the Philip K. Dick award. Today, the novel is considered synonymous with the word cyberpunk, and is listed as one of the 100 Best Novels of All Time by Time magazine.

Neuromancer has several aspects to its credit as a brilliant work. It is representative of the subgenre cyberpunk in that it is a story set in the cyberspace with most of the action taking place there – as well as it caters to the punk element that carries undertones of rebellion against the monolithic culture as well as a cool avatar, signified by the sleek black leather apparel and glasses that were made popular by the movie series Matrix Trilogy almost 20 years later.

The story is set on a near-future Earth where the protagonist Case is a low-level hustler in the dystopian city of Chiba, Japan. He is an ex-cowboy, an exceptional ex-hacker who made a critical mistake in his career – he stole from his employers, and as a punishment, was neurologically incapacitated so that he could no longer hack. High on drugs and on the brink of suicide, he is recruited by Armitage to finish a hacking task in exchange of physically and neurologically healing him. Molly, another recruit by Armitage, is to work with Case in hacking.

The story progresses swiftly, with intriguing twists surrounding Armitage and those who are financially backing him, and as Case and Molly dig deeper, it turns out that nothing is what it seems. Pitted against the mega-corporation that controls the entire operation, they battle it out as the two AIs, Wintermute and Neuromancer try to overpower them and meet their goals.

Gibson was the first to coin the word ‘cyberspace’ and on his typewriter, he imagined all the stuff we have today – internet, the World Wide Web, virtual reality and potential hacking. In an era where these did not exist, he not only predicted, but perhaps because of his predictions, computers took the cue to their evolution. It is him we ought to thank for our computer science innovations today.

The narrative is swift, the dialogues crisp, doing away with all embellishments or unnecessary attempts at any sort of entertaining factors. No-nonsense, geeky stuff. If you liked the Matrix trilogy and its virtual world, there is no reason you will not equally love cyberpunk.

The only drawback (from a first-time, entry-level reader POV) is the lack of context and Gibson’s completely technical terminology. The language is not as lucid as a newbie would want it to be, leading perhaps to ennui since it is hardly comprehensible to those not yet jacked-in to cyberspace vocabulary. Those ignorant of terms such as jacked-in, flatline, deck, matrix or cowboy would find it almost impossible to what is going on. The absence of a clearly-formed context too leads to chaos in the virtual reality of the readers’ minds.

A clear theme running through the entire work is cyberpunk’s classic theme – of the distinction between the mind and the body. Cyberspace is inhabited by the mind, the real world by the corporeal; cowboys are addicted to the matrix, looking down upon the inhabitation of flesh, attempting to overcome the physical insufficiencies through drug-intake; Dixie Flatline is dead, but his consciousness survives in a ROM and at the end, wishes to be freed of his physical embodiment in order to be able to inhabit the matrix. Case is the mind, while Molly is the flesh that enables him to hack through the systems. Wintermute is mind, Neuromancer, the body.

However, it does not suggest the superiority of the mind of the body – it rather showcases the mutual dependence of each other. Wintermute cannot operate on its own – it needs a physical embodiment in order to operate across the matrix, in the form of Armitage to reach to Neuromancer, while Case needs Molly to infiltrate Sense/Net and T-A corporation.

It is a brilliant work, and if they say “Cyberpunk is dead”, it is only because we have failed to carry forward the radical imagination that the likes of Gibson displayed – what they predicted has already come true, at least a major part of it. The natural progression of imagination into what future science would be capable of has been stunted, and we are no longer able to stimulate ourselves with perfectly possible radical ideas.

As to the criticism that cyberpunk is limited to a white, male, loner POV, it is justified in the sense that it overrules the concerns of real life such as gender, environmental, capitalistic and racial issues and caters to a very limited version of real life – but the subgenre, if it included these, might not have been what it is. It can be argued that the typical flavor of cyberpunk would be lost, and the whole idea of virtual reality and hacking would be lost in the crowd of other delicate issues. Despite claims, Neuromancer is not sexist – it is merely apathetic and the story is as much focused on Molly as much on Case, and interchanging their roles would not make one suspect otherwise. Rather than sexist, it is gender-neutral.

The reactionary sub-genres of cyberpunk, particularly those espoused by Pat Cadigan, Lyda Morehouse, Lisa Mason or Melissa Scott are understandable as off-shoots to an exclusionary genre as cyberpunk, and even desirable.

On the whole, barring the issues of lack of context and difficult vocabulary, the work is a real classic and Matrix movie series fans are bound to love it.

Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda by Rosamond Halsey Carr - 5/5

This is a thought-provoking memoir of the author's life in Rwanda, leaving behind her prosperous and promising life in the First world. Married to a renowned hunter Kenneth, she followed him to Belgium-ruled Africa where their marriage disintegrated and resulted in divorce, but her affectionate relationship with him remained stable till his death nevertheless. Her separation from him, however, granted her a new life - an adventurous life as a plantation manager-turned owner, her remarkable friendship with a renowned gorilla activist Dian Fossey who was later murdered, her dutiful house-keeper Sembarago, the Rwandan genocide of 1994 between the Hutus and the Tutsi minority who had oppressed the Hutus for long, her unwilling but necessary relocation to her home on account of the escalating violence to her eventual return to her homeland Rwanda in the midst of the ongoing genocide in order to set up an orphanage for the child-survivors at the age of 81. She died in 2006 at age 94, but her orphanage lives on.

Her story is one of guts, determination and a passionate love for her new home, told with warmth and a charming, matter-of-fact tone. It is the story of a woman who followed her heart instead of falling for the drab routine that has held most of us captive. A reminder that our life is what we choose to do with it. A wonderful memoir.

Confessions of a red neck zombie killing psycho by L.R. Currell - 3.5/5

Atrocious as the title is, it is a surprisingly well-written thriller-mystery. The premise is very interesting - thrilling, in fact. The zombies are only the background to this exciting story. Buck, Denny and Tammy are running for their lives, trying to escape the zombies, and are only too glad to find a house for a night's rest. Owned and inhabited by two brothers, the trio is overwhelmed, but suspicious - they begin to doubt if they were safer on the road chased by zombies.

The dialogue is very well-written, the chemistry between the two sets of characters - the brothers and the fleeing trio is just right. The atmosphere is sinister, well-maintained for most part, but then it weakens towards the end. The drama builds up the suspense very well. The conclusion is open-ended, hinting at a possible sequel.

A short read at only 45 pages, it is interesting, sinister and exciting. A very good use of the zombie trope to pen a mystery.

The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World by Jacqueline Novogratz - 6/5

A LIFE-CHANGING BOOK

This is a thought-provoking, intense memoir by Novogratz as she recounts leaving her high-profile First World banking job in order to travel to the Third World to seek the causes and solutions of extreme poverty, eventually spending years in Rwanda, Pakistan and India, while intermittently taking up further training back in the USA.

It all started with the Blue Sweater that she gave away to Goodwill, a charitable institution – 11 years later, she spotted the same sweater on a little, poor boy in Africa while on a visit there – and thus began her journey, brought by the belief that the inter-connected world can affect everyone in ways never imagined.

Freshly graduated, with little skills, resources or insight, she jumped into the continent of Africa with a steely resolve to make a difference, to use her privileged life in a way that could alleviate the sufferings of the poorest of the poor.

Spending two years in Rwanda, focusing on empowering women economically, she realized why millions of dollars in charity did little to solve poverty – despite Rwanda being almost corruption-free, peaceful and inhabited by a hard-working, diligent population. Learning to navigate through the difficulties, she, along with other women, set up Duterimbere, a microfinance institution that not only succeeded, but grew to be the biggest institution in the next 20 years in Rwanda, simultaneously liberating women economically and raising a significant population over the poverty-line.

Away in the USA for further training during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, she returns there periodically over the next 10 years to understand how people who had lived all their lives as neighbours and even spouses could kill each other. And the numbers were horrible – 8,00,000 Rwandans were killed in a span of 3 months, destroying completely the economy and any hope of reconstruction. And yet, Rwanda prospered once again.

Later, she worked in Pakistan as well as India, setting up the Acumen Fund, observing how different initiatives were hugely successful there in providing quality services to the very poor despite limited resources and immense corruption.

To summarize, the memoir talks about her changing perspectives about poverty, its reasons and its solutions. She talks lucidly, from a practical, rather than a theoretical/intellectual perspective the hurdles in the path of poverty alleviation, and how empowerment of the poor themselves is the most successful idea in the long run.

Empowerment to her is inclusive of various aspects – trust-building, economic, cultural, health services, allocation and management of resources, affordable innovations, investment and philanthropy. Her observations on philanthropy and why it fails despite its best intentions is particularly insightful.

As she herself said, “Solutions to poverty must be driven by discipline, accountability and market-strength, not easy sentimentality. It is about building solutions from the perspective of the poor people themselves rather than imposing grand theories and plans upon them.”

Written in a very lucid, simple way, the work is an invaluable study into the work of a handful of dedicated individuals across the world bent upon making the world a better place for the most unprivileged by listening to them closely and applying common sense and hard work to alleviate their inhuman conditions of life.

Curve Day by L.R. Currell - 4/5

This is a dystopian novel that depicts a future-earth grappling with population explosion. The United States mandates that one day every year, citizens would be free to kill legitimately those they wanted, with the hope that it would curb population effectively as well as crime on other days. The rest of the days, however, it was a crime, carrying a death penalty effective immediately.

We see different characters, in different parallel story-lines, preparing for Curve day - the day designated for lawful killing. The story starts one month prior to the day, culminating into the scene of the day itself, when their fates cross in the quest for survival.

This is a plot that can easily go awry. But it is written very well - the plot brings out the goodness in people as well as the vile, insensitive side of many people. It is interesting to see how the day has different implications for different people - how new social codes of conduct, new symbols, new means of communication arise in new situations.

Credit must be given adequately to the fact that nowhere does the work lapse into shallow sentimentality or melodrama - the author very efficiently shows the reader, rather than telling him/her. The dialogues are crisp and brisk, the situation well-navigated, the implications well-explored from the perspectives of various people.

There is a significant similarity between the author's style of writing and Orwell's prose. It is quite similar to 1984 in tone - the cold, non-judgmental tone of narration, the in-built satire, the dystopian vein and an efficient tying up of all threads.

There are only a few shortcomings of the work - the descriptions are long, though not tedious. Hence, though it is pleasant to read, there is a yearning to read faster, the plot not advancing as quickly as needed. Many scenes seem a bit stretched out in terms of detail - perhaps, it is better as a movie script than a book. This is a story that builds up excitement on account of its plot and good writing, but progresses slowly in order to describe everything.

The climax is an action scene - and an impressive one, though, again, quite long to sustain the tension built up so far. Perhaps all this book needs is a bit tighter editing. Otherwise, it is an absolute delight to read.

The Silver Ninja by Wilmar Luna - 3/5

Review - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

The blue sweater : appears to be engrossing for me, have added.

Shivani wrote: "The blue sweater : appears to be engrossing for me, have added."

:) I missed out an important point in the review - not only is it an examination of poverty and its allied topics, it is also a mesmerizing memoir of her life in Africa, from a purely human POV, even if you put the poverty question aside... It's beautiful...

Embassytown by China Miéville - 5/5

It is difficult to pin down this work to any genre – SF? Yes, but not quite. Not an intersection of SF and Fantasy either. Political? Definitely yes, but not that alone. Mieville himself, perhaps, describes it best – WEIRD FICTION.

No, it isn’t weird as an end in itself. It is thematically complex, uses devices of SF and Fantasy only as a necessary, inevitable setting to posit even more radical views on concepts we are already extremely familiar with. Language. Politics. Similes and Metaphors. Power. And the intersections of power and knowledge. Colonialism.

This novel has a very simple premise. In the far-future, humans have settled on the very farthest edge of the Universe they can possibly traverse to, so far – a planet inhabited by native Ariekei, on which humans have built a small town – Embassytown, and for many thousands of megahours, have sustained a symbiotic, peaceful relationship with the peculiar Ariekenes.

The Ariekenes have a very simple conception of language – they cannot lie. Because they can only articulate what they know to be true, and their language is limited to their experience. With the coming of humans, they transform people into similes in their language in order to signify them. Those humans become reference points for them, signifiers, as Saussure would put it.

They speak with two mouths simultaneously. No human can do that – so Embassytown breeds sets of two people destined to become an Ambassador – two bodies, two minds, two mouths, one thought, one speech. One speaking in the Cut voice, another in the Turn voice simultaneously, so that the Ariekenes would understand them.

Avice Benner Cho, a simile, and an Immer returns to her town, Embassytown with her fourth spouse Scile, just in time to witness the arrival of a new Ambassador EzRa, Ez and Ra. This new Ambassador upsets the fragile exchange between the Ariekei and humans, and utter chaos ensues. Meanwhile, other Ambassadors have agendas of her own, Scile has his own ideas, and Avice is left to her own devices to make sense of a place she no longer relates to, with people she can no longer trust.

Language, its transition from simile to metaphor, its wielding as a source of knowledge, and therefore, power is the basic theme of the novel. The inability of language to escape Politics and Power equations. The embedding of contradictions in language itself, what Derrida would call Deconstruction. It is about our vulnerability to language, and its power to shatter the world through words. It is the idea of language having multiple pointers, one signifier encompassing multiple significations, plural meanings all contradictory to each other, paradoxes that conveniently assimilate into each other.

You think the plot is boring and you wanna skip it? Damn… Mieville will prove you utterly wrong and you’ll keep on wondering why you chose to dump him. Somebody needs to stop this guy! He’s projecting complex, uninteresting ideas about language and its ramifications on power with such vivacity, such wild imagination and draws it to an end with such concreteness though he began with an abstract idea, it is impossible to pin down the essence of this book in a review the size allowed by Goodreads.

It has so many levels of complexity, it is rich, allusive, weird, sensible, imaginative and titillating to the very core. Mieville is a fantastic world-builder. Oh, we know that not only his worlds are fake, and completely impossible to come across anytime in the future, but they are so amazingly well-drawn, as if from first-hand experience. Perhaps Mieville did go there, after all. It is so realistic, how could a person fake it so realistically? He built two (three?) mythical cities in THE CITY AND THE CITY, and he now suddenly transports you to a completely different world, but just as credible as his imaginary cities.

Technically, the narrative slowed down in places where the interest was at its peak. It is, however, a necessity, given the complexity of ideas. The ideas, sometimes, seem stretched out – because they seem so simple to us, but are catastrophic to the Ariekenes. Now, the narrative is smooth, reader-friendly, despite being weird.

Anyone interested in how language shapes our world, and sometimes destroys it, how it is both a source of power and powerlessness, how it is complicit with politics and also a weapon to resist politics must read this. It is highly imaginative and a rare masterpiece in how it blends the SF/Fantasy (heck, Weird Fiction) genre with a more prosaic discourse of power through language.

DEMANDS a second read.

Any surprises it won some of the top awards for Science Fiction?

The Biomass Revolution by Nicholas Sansbury Smith - 2.5/5

Review - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi - 4/5

This 2009 Nebula and Hugo Award-winning futuristic bio-punk novel is set in the 23rd century Thailand, when global warming has depleted all natural energy sources and overturned all remnants of the past, familiar world. Now manual kink-springs are used to generate power. Rising ocean levels have ensured the depletion of old-world farming and food resources, resulting into rampant biotechnology, owned by huge mega-corporations, who produce and sell genehacked seeds and use bio-terrorism and conspire politically to attain economic leverage. The world is rife with frequent bio-catastrophes in the form of mutant diseases, which forces the world even more to rely on the biotechnology of the corporates.

Only Thailand has escaped the fate - with sheer foresight, it has built its indigenous seed-bank that has massively reduced its dependence on AgriGen, a major biotech company. But Thailand is not immune to political machinings - the three most powerful men in Thailand are locked in an uneasy, covert battle with each other - Somdet Chaopraya, Akkarat and General Pracha. When Emiko, the windup girl, murder Somdet, who is also the legal protector of the Child Queen of Thailand, the political battle becomes only more intense as Akkarat and Pracha try to take over power from each others' hands, as AgriGen ambassadors try to take advantage of the confusion to lay their hands upon the hidden seedbank.

The result is not only a political and military battle, but a hard-hitting inquiry into the nature of politics, biotechnology and its corporatization, neo-colonialism and the effects of global warming while we have not yet imagined the configurations of power in a world with no old power sources. The windup Emiko, who is at the crux of the novel, also raises the question of what it means to be human, and if there is really such a thing as HUMAN.

The novel is told in several threads, one of Emiko, which half-way merges with that of Anderson, of Hock Sen and Mai with Anderson which merges with Emiko towards the end, of the white shirts Jaidee and Kanya who stories are wound with the rest of the others. The coming together of these threads is amazingly done. The dialogues are seamless, with no unnecessary, mundane or commonplace observations. Each character has a clear, distinct, credible and necessary-to-the-plot personality. And while we may not agree with what a particular character has done, the world-building, though simple, is so perfect, one can always sympathize with what happened.

It is a wonderful read, and a delightful book in terms of both story-telling and a representative of its narrow sub-genre.

Slow River by Nicola Griffith - 4/5

Nicola Griffith’s Nebula Award and Lambda Award-winning second novel Slow River is a very near-future SF lesbian story focusing on a young woman’s journey to self-discovery and establishing her own identity, told across three time-frames, spanning from her privileged childhood as the potential heiress of the van Oest family who controls waterworks that provide clean drinking water in an age where untreated water is no longer drinkable, to her abduction and her family’s unexplained silence and refusal to pay her ransom, going on where Lore must find a way to survive in a world that no longer recognizes her.

The novel begins at the last of the three stages of her life – where she begins a quest of self-sufficiency, finally pushing away the past that held her captive – Spanner, who had taken her in when she lay naked and vulnerable, dumped to die by her abductors, and the disturbing facts about her family that dawned upon her gradually as her story progresses in flashbacks from the time she was kidnapped.

Entwined by the past two strands of her life – her life before the abduction and after her abduction, it slowly starts to dawn upon the reader what Lore is doing that night in the present, and how she has attempted twice to rebuild her shattered life.

The heiress of a water-management financial mega-empire, she led a sheltered, privileged life where life was wonderful for her, surrounded by a loving family. When she is kidnapped and a ransom demanded, she is shocked by the sheer silence her family maintains and refuses to pay the ransom. Knowing that nobody would save her, she valiantly escapes her tormentors, left naked in the night, crouching in the shadows, when Spanner, a young woman hears her pleas for help and hesitantly picks her up and shelters her.

Spanner, the second part of her life, is an amoral thief who thrives on the margins of the society – Lore’s protection is not for free, Lore soon understands – Spanner has a price for everything, and now Lore finds herself having to choose between the devil and the deep sea – to return fatally injured to a family who would not take her back, or to assist Spanner in her data theft and thus be protected from the outer world. Thus begins her new life where she learns how to survive in a crooked world that does not understand her, her privileged status, where she has to shed every scrap of her former life and begin to thrive in the side alleys of an unforgiving world. With her love-hate relationship with Spanner, she and Spanner also become lovers, while simultaneously insulating themselves from each other and refusing to reveal the chinks in their respective armours. All the while, as her story with Spanner progresses, the reader, along with Lore, gain insights into the more troubling facets of the Oest family, and we see Lore maturing from a happy-go-lucky, naïve and frightened-of-monsters kid to a young, sharp, street savvy woman.

In her quest for freedom from Spanner with whom she is forced to thieve in order to gain her protection, she decides courageously to venture out on her own, requiring a last, final assistance from Spanner in order to take on the identity of a dead woman to begin a honest life of her own, working in a water purification plant, with a new lover, Ruth. And then, the Oest family beckons again, after a span of almost three years, beckoning Lore to come back, that everything has been finally sorted out, and Lore learns of her sister Stella’s suicide, driven by her own beloved father. Lore, who had pined for her family till now, now refuses to go back.

Slow River is an amazingly well-written novel, thematically complex and inter-twining various present-day concerns. It is a lesbian romance of Lore and Spanner, a different sort of captive and captor, protector and protected, master and apprentice. It is a story of near-future world where identities can be switched for a price, where ecological dystopias and bio-tech corporations run the world economy, it is the story of survival and self-discovery of a privileged woman thrown out inexplicably by her family to survive on the thresholds of an unforgiving society.

The final strand, of the present time was perhaps the least interesting – the former two strands were far more interesting and thematically complex. The dialogues are subtle, sparse and we are required to read between the lines at every step. The real story lies there – superficially read, it yields little, but there is a treasure below if you know where to dig. Also brilliant technically is the narration of the novel – the three strands are not only chronologically linear though told in flashbacks as is usual, they are inter-woven in a way that they complement the understanding of one strand by a crucial piece of information in another strand. Rather than forming coherence of the present through the past, it is a web where each strand of one section seeks to support and explain the structure of the next section.

Technically and thematically complex, it is one of the most astounding stories of science fiction – a near-future so near, it might come true in barely a hundred years or so.

Squad 19 - Prequel Volume 1 - 2.5/5 and A Royal Knight - Prequel Volume 2 - 3/5 by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Squad 19 review - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

A Royal Knight review - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Lit Bug wrote: "Thomas Hardy has always been a favorite. Have read the following :

The Mayor of Casterbridge
The Return of the Native
Far from the Madding Crowd
Tess of the d'Urbervilles

His writing belonged to ..."

Try his "Jude the obscure". One of his saddest books. But still a great work.

I did, and it was heart-breaking! One of his best books, it is...

Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany - 4/5

Babel-17 is one of the greatest classics in the history of literary SF, and I now know why. Delany is a veritable genius - what we gush about today in Mieville is but a more sophisticated, more complex offshoot of Delany's ingenious conceptions of making the abstract concrete.

Language is what defines us, our thoughts, our perceptions. What separates our critical thinking processes is the perception of I as different from you, the awareness of an independent conscious existence

What happens when you are stripped of your language and embedded with another language replete with its own dominant ideology? Language, we know by now, is far from innocent. It is a political tool, a vehicle to convey a specific political ideology across a whole population. Language is an infection - those bred in a specific language are infected with its prejudices and conditionings. With its conceptions of right and wrong, friend and foe. Language is culture. Culture is politics. And politics is power. Alter the language, and you alter the consciousness of an individual - or even a group.

Thematically, the novel addresses the question of how language determines our perception of our world, even before we consciously decide what our beliefs are. Language is the subconscious that invisibly and imperceptibly controls and instructs our seemingly conscious, rational mind.

Babel-17 opens with the protagonist, the poet Rydra Wong being assigned a top military task of decoding the mysterious code Babel-17 that is found out to be the signal by which the Invaders, a collections of some planets far in the Galaxy are attacking and destroying the Alliance, another collection of planets. Taking a crew with her, she decides to board a spaceship that will take her at the place of the next intended attack, so she can decipher the radio-frequency language at the site of destruction.

Wong discovers, with her knack for language, that Babel-17 is not a code, but an unknown analytical artificial language invented by the Invaders. But as she progresses in understanding the language, it begins to change her. From a supporter of the Alliance, she begins to become a traitor without realizing it, under the influence of the strange language - the language without the concept of I.

It is astounding how Delany conjured up such a philosophical concept and pinned it down so concretely in the story, without making any of the explanations given above. To do that is a rare feat, to get the idea across without elaborating on it, simply through the story. Even with minimal world-building and dashes of clean, but sparkling humor throughout the work, the novel never loses focus, yet never, despite the complex theme, linger heavy upon the mind.

Coming to the technical part of the writing process, the novel was the most interesting in the beginning and the end - the middle part slowed down, since there was more confusion as to what was going wrong with the ships hurled in and out of the Novae. Not that the interest seems to be flagging, but the sparkling curiosity seems to dim down in the middle.

The humor was hilarious - James Bond as a mythological creature! References to Shakespeare and Baudelaire as ancient poets ;)

The science part is less even - I assume a few thousand years later, radios will be so outdates as to be not understood by that generation, let alone be in use. True, it was written in the 60s, but it could have been more imaginative, for sure. But this is only the most minor fault - better to be ignored in a masterful work as this.

For sure, we know now where Embassytown got its inspiration from - the latter is far more lucid, sophisticated, thematically complex and brilliantly conceived than Babel-17, but Babel-17 appeared half a century earlier, when Language and Politics were still a radical combination, a new thought.

Babel-17 sure deserves the accolades it has received and stands as a landmark work in the history of sensible, literary SF.

Women Serial Killers of the 17th Century by Sylvia Perrini - 3/5

It is difficult to rate this book - there are numerous shortcomings to the effort, as well as some strikingly good points to it. It is good, nay, horrifying. The scale of brutality is enormous, but has a visibly different trend in terms of intention than what we face in today's serial killers.

Perrini, in this very, very short book talks about five women serial killers of the 17 century, all hugely notorious even in their own day when poisoning and murders were rampant, unlike now. Confined to serial killers in Europe, she gives an extremely short, and therefore, unsatisfactory account of these five women who went to extraordinary lengths, either out of a sadistic desire or jealousy or simply as a profession to kill hundreds (yes, hundreds) of people.


All but one used poison as their means to murder. All but one were sane, not psychologically disturbed. Only one was a verified sadist who tortured her victims. All were high-profile cases that raised quite a scandal back then. One of them holds a Guinness Book World Record, unbroken yet, for the maximum number of murders (above 650 victims). None of them were repentant.

One of the good things about this book is that it not only gives an overview of the most scandalized and most horrifying killings, it also gives a sociological context in which these murders happened. Why poison was chosen by four of the five women, and why three prominent businesswomen sold it to their clients with murderous intent had social roots, rather than economic or psychological roots. Often, books on murders fail to address this issue.

Another good thing about this book is an overview of the methods of punishments that were meted out to murderers in that era, and to these women in particular, which sometimes varied from country to country, even for the same mode of punishment.

The book was a major disappointment in the extremely short length of the accounts included, even if it can be excused for including only five case studies, in an era where such transgressions were the norm, rather than exception. No doubt, the reports were scintillating, but too short to derive any sense of having actually read something. A short length, unfortunately, also means little information.

Though this book has very little re-read value, I do not regret reading it at all - if anything else, it has whetted my appetite for other books in the series by the same author featuring women serial killers of the 18th century, and I will perk up at any suggestion of other similar books. And I would definitely recommend this short, half-an-hour read to anyone interested in blood-curdling, spine-chilling accounts of women serial killers centuries ago.

American Serial Killers: Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Ed Gein, Ted Bundy, Albert Fish, Wayne Williams, John Edward Robinson, Andrew Cunanan - Source Wikipedia - 2/5

I came across this book under a different title, and compiled by an author named Keith Haley (Hailey?), and realized after a little reading that the writing style was uncannily similar to Wiki's style - then I noticed that these were acknowledged in the bibliography section as being a Wikipedia compilation.

As a collections of facts on major serial killers of America, it is worthwhile. As an in-depth analysis of the motivations of each killer and his/her psychological profile, it is a sheer let-down. But then, it cannot be expected to have a personal touch since it is a collection of Wiki articles, which are written with certain specific objectives and requirements of style and content.

I would rather prefer Ann Rule's accounts any day over this - Her books on Ted Bundy and the Green River Killer are so profound and informative, lively and saddening - these, in contrast, about the same killers, are dry collections of facts.

I wouldn't bother reading anything now that is a wiki collection, unless I absolutely have no option.

it has whet my curiosity. I saw another book about women serial killers, while researching this one.Women Who Kill: Profiles of Female Serial Killers

Yes, it is by the same author - I've added almost all her books to my TBR list! She has a century by century list of women serial killers ;)

Another is Title: Women, Murder and Femininity: Gender Representations of Women Who Kill (Cultural Criminology)
Author(s): Elisabeth Seal
Series: Cultural Criminology

Wow! That might be a real treasure - Thanks a lot! I'll look into it as soon as possible!

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood - 3/5

I have terribly mixed feelings about this one, though it tends to lean more towards sheer disappointment. I'd expected a lot more from a writer of Atwood's stature. She retains her trademark lyrical narrative, which is perhaps the only thing that makes this work bearable. Technically, I find too many flaws, and to put it simply, I found the whole work too long, often disinteresting, though sometimes, it was sheer brilliance. I'm sad to rate it thus, despite being perfectly aware of the sheer amount of research that has gone into the technical (rather, biological) part of the book.

Oryx and Crake is a near future dystopian work where we see the story through the eyes of Jimmy aka Snowman, the sole survivor of an apocalyptic event that wiped off, presumably, all of Earth's population, except himself. Through his ruminations into the past as he searches for other survivors, and a way to cope up with his past, while keeping himself busy with the Craker population, we see how this apocalypse came about, and how Oryx, Crake and Jimmy are embroiled in the catastrophe, led on by relentless biotech, bioterrorism and capitalism.

To my dismay, I found the characters flat - not only the three couldn't figure out each other, even the reader couldn't properly figure them out. Perhaps Jimmy alone, among the principal characters, and his defiant mother are the most comprehensible, credible characters. Jimmy is the eternally clueless, bumbling kid drowned in self-pity while Crake is the oh-so-smart whiz at genetics, super-cynical, planning the creation of a new world. Oryx is the most elusive, and most useless character in the whole story - does the plot really need her? Would her absence have any impact on the outcome of the story, or any other characters? No way - so I don't see what purpose she fulfills by being here.

The world-building is too haphazard - given the advanced biotechnology, does Atwood want to tell us we're still stuck with radios and cellphones and postcards, while people go around enhancing themselves with all kinds of biotech in a world where agriculture is extinct and food production is done in factories through bio-engineering. Really, is this the world she thinks we'll find credible?

The narrations was slow, tedious and leisurely. While in the beginning chapters, it almost had a pleasing, lyrical quality, especially in the chapters where we see Jimmy and Crake in their boyhood bonding over TV shows, virtual games and hacking, it slowly descends into boredom as the chapters progress, pages are flipped, and little worthwhile happens while our Snowman goes over insignificant events of his life, which neither reveal anything new about his character or the world around him, nor gives an inkling about the future. All we get are little revelations sprinkled through the haze of pensive account of an endlessly self-pitying preteen boy-turned-adult.

Even the intended satire falls flat – depiction of destruction of agri coupled with commercialization of bio-engineered food through brand names such as SoyOBoy Burgers or ChickieNobs… doesn’t do the trick.

Even when the story finally picks up speed in the last few chapters of the work, it is very haphazard, unbelievable and shoddy - how exactly Crake convinced the MaddAddam to join Paradice (yes, with a C) is so briefly explained, it comes across as humbug. Fine, his plan was nice, but well, it was so.... poorly conceived.

It was done far better by Brad Pitt as Jeffery Goines in 12 Monkeys - I find it easier to believe him than believe Crake as a cynical radical.

It is perhaps only Atwood's lyrical charm that lends this work readability - with a sturdy reputation as this, readers expect better plots, denser characters, more coherent, cohesive and convincing world-building with a measured brevity of narration from Atwood. That kind of style and language works well with Curious Pursuits, but not in SF dystopias.

And this was written just recently, barely a decade ago - even if the book had measure up on one count, it would have been great - it is neither a great dystopia, nor does it have good plot complexity. Neither are the characters believable or interesting, nor is there significant action. To put it simply, any work must have a focal point - a point around which other aspects revolve slowly to merge together into that point towards the end.

Like an invisible black hole, slowly but surely swallowing the objects revolving around it - but this one, oh, there is no gravitation, no focal point, and planets and other cosmic stuff, big or small, come and go at their will.

Overall, I wish I hadn't taken up the book, or at least, I should have lemmed it.

And that said, I found her views about art very interesting and compelling. Loved that part.

finished already? I am still only halfway through, but liking it so far. Oryx might have been added to the story for the insight into human trafficking and female suppression which led Crake to make up seasonally aestivating bio humans later.
I am enjoying this book, perhaps due to my inability to critically evaluate books. :D

Well, I enjoyed it immensely too, in the beginning - but then my attention and interest began to falter because then the central plot is so weak and unconvincing, and then I've read better novels still, where both the characters and the events interested me much more, without losing the critical eye that is the trademark of serious SF - eg Nemesis by Isaac Asimov or the recent The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.

Even if I don't look at it from a critical eye, I found it dragging towards the latter half. I was thinking, okay, but what next - things that came weren't as interesting, and there were huge gaps between one significant event and the other. The only character I really cared for was Jimmy's mother.

As for Oryx, I too thought she might show "something" at least - about the flesh trade or her own experiences or thoughts - she didn't open up to Crake or Jimmy, but neither did she open up to the reader. I was very interested in her since the beginning - but the end spoils it all, at least for me.

Let's see, maybe you have a different perspective, so when you've read it, I'll be looking forward to what you feel about everything... :)

I've reached the part where Jimmy is shown his mother being executed.
Oryx is enigmatic so far.

I loved that scene - one of the few times I really felt sorry for Jimmy - another was when he got into Martha Stuart.

I'm curious what you'll think of the trio when you're done!

#101

Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott - 4/5

Slightly put off by classic cyberpunk on account of its difficult prose, the way it dumps the unwary reader in the middle of a strange world, hoping s/he will figure it out before s/he misses out on what is happening, I was skeptical of taking up another work that promised cyberpunk, though of a different flavor. Not only was I pleasantly surprised at how lucidly the process of jacking into the matrix and running its programs can be described, it was an adrenaline of pleasure to see how many notches above feminist cyberpunk is above classic cyberpunk.

I had wondered, after reading Neuromancer, if bringing in delicate concerns such as a queer gender would take away the focus from the main premise of cyberpunk, which is the virtual reality. I see now that not only does good writing not interfere with what cyberpunk is, but in fact, enriches it and takes it to a whole new level, in fact, bestows a kind of literariness to it.

The novel goes thus - Set at the end of 21st century in America, the world is a place where crackers enter and interact on the virtual reality platforms using neural implants, stealing from corporations and selling them in the shadows, the illegal hubs of the virtual worlds, while huge corporations safeguard their data through IC(E)s, or Intrusion Countermeasure (Electronic). India Carless a.k.a. Trouble is a cracker in the shadows. With the Evans-Tindale bill passed, making shadow-cracking illegal by making hacking of bits and bytes as illegal as property theft with its stringent laws, she leaves her partner Cerise a.k.a. Alice-B-Good, a fellow shadow-cracker, and their entire close-knit queer cracker group, for good, to go legit. Fast-forward three years. The Treasury, where India now works in the lights as a syscop, notices that Trouble, the shadow-cracker, has returned to the nets after a long-hiatus. Pursued by the Treasury, India flees once again in the pursuit of the imposter who has taken her name, her working style, her identity.

There are several subtexts in the novel - the texture of this feminist cyberpunk is so very different from that of classic cyberpunk. The queering of the main characters - Trouble and all her friends - is the most obvious feature. Women, even the tough ones, in classic cyberpunk were delegated as hetero, the object of desire for a macho man who acts as the protagonist. Although it doesn't explicitly demean women - for instance, Molly in Neuromancer was as crucial to the plot as the male hero - it doesn't raise the issues of identity as well.

The subtext of queerness lends this possibility - identity - virtual, real-time and sexual. The virtual identity of India was christened Trouble, a moniker derived of her extraordinary capability to court trouble and get out of it, and still be the best in business. Her real-life identity, that of India Carless, out of the shadows, clean for three years, maintaining a precarious balance of her corporate work and queer status - which is quite unacceptable even now. Her sexual identity, that of a queer, that gives, or rather, takes away from her her social leverage - on the nets, she is doubly marginalized - for her choice to use the brainworm, which feeds her physical sensations in the virtual world, and her choice of partners, which corners her and her entire queer group, made unwelcome by the heteros and the non-wired hacker community.

A step further is the character of Silk online - she seduces Cerise as a woman, and Max as a man - this fluidity of genders and sexuality is all the more obvious as an extension of the future world where anonymity would also cover sexuality, not just names.

Taking away from men the legitimate right to machines that classic cyberpunk was so heavily focused on, the novel enters the world of female queers, and sometimes men too, where even the virtual world of hacking is a small place.

Bodies, through their sexuality, and the second-generation (Trouble and her friends) hackers' choice to go for the brainworm, are reproduced culturally and show how they are technologically disciplined. Their bodies, through these two acts, are their identity. The crisis of somebody impersonating Trouble online is not just one of virtual identity, but also one of communities (the queer community, here) that rally together to save Trouble. Like in the real world, queers face marginalization in the virtual world as well.

Essentially, feminist cyberpunk picks up where classic cyberpunk left - the void left by cyberpunk in discussing real life issues is filled by its other half, without compromising on the basic premise of virtual reality.

The narration is swift, the dialogues crisp, fresh and no-nonsense. There is too much detailing sometimes, so it was tempting to skim-read a few portions. Originally published in early '90s, it seems a little outdated, owing to the fact that internet, virtually unknown then, has not only caught up with cyberpunk, but already surpassed it in some ways. But considering from the time when it was new and quite radical, to talk about virtual platforms and queerness, it stands as an enviable landmark.

And despite being a little dated, as all classics are bound to be at some point, it is still delicious to read - the technology seems a bit dated, but the plot and characters are refreshing as ever!