The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale is a classic dystopian novel about The Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian regime comprised of what was once part of The United States.  In a polluted world in which many men and women have become sterile, those few women whose ovaries are still viable are too precious a national resource to waste.  As a consequence, they become “handmaids,” available only to the most highly placed male officials, who are generally older and therefore unlikely to father a child.  However, the handmaids’ survival depends on being able to produce offspring, tempting many of them to seek out one of the younger men who serve the elderly “Commanders.”  This action is punishable by death, so that often handmaids die either by execution for not producing or by execution for producing the only way they can.

The book follows the fortunes of Offred, the handmaid “of Fred” (hence her name), a young woman struggling to find meaning in her life.  She has been robbed of everything that made her an individual—her child, her husband, her job, all of her former life.  Now she no longer has a name, but belongs to a man she barely knows.  The only thing that makes life bearable for her is the occasional glimpse she gets into the mind of another of the tightly controlled, but still unique, people around her.  She wonders who she can trust, but it is unbearable not to trust, not to try to touch the hearts of other human beings.  Her tentative efforts in this direction, fraught with danger, provide the conflict and the suspense in this novel.

It is ironic that in a world so controlled by men there is a strong subculture of women, the “aunts,” who control the handmaids partly by force and partly by propaganda.  You are protected, they tell the handmaids.  You are cherished.  You never have to starve yourself or paint yourself to get a man.  You are valued for yourself.  As Aunt Lydia tells them, “There is freedom to and freedom from.”  They no longer have the freedom to do what they want, but they do have freedom from many of the things that tormented them in the days of “too many choices.”

What is missing in this highly regimented and ordered world is love.  A regime that leaves out the possibility of choice also leaves out the possibility of love—and with it, all reason for living.

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Crewel by Gennifer Albin

I’ve read (or tried to read) a lot of young adult books claiming to be “the next Hunger Games”. Crewel is the closest so far. It has all the major elements of The Hunger Games: dystopian future, strong female protagonist, love triangle, even a little sister who must be protected at all costs. But the most important element these books share is a narrative that doesn’t stop pulling you along.

In Crewel, the world is maintained by women, called Spinsters, who have the innate ability to weave reality from raw materials that only they can see. Sixteen-year-old Adelice is especially talented, and so must become a Spinster against her will. You would think that Spinsters would have a lot of power in this society, but instead the government, controlled by men, keeps the Spinsters and all other women on a very short leash. (In this respect, the book reminded me of The Handmaid’s Tale.)

Adelice refuses to be controlled. If she weren’t such a talented Spinster, the government would simply kill her and move on. But they can’t afford to lose her weaving skills, and so Adelice struggles to understand just what is going on, and to find her younger sister, whose life is dependent on Adelice’s good behavior.

There were things about this book that I didn’t like. Adelice just seems awfully self-assured for a teenage girl who has lived a life of relative ease until she’s chosen to be a Spinster at age 16. Plus, there are the sappy descriptions of the love scenes (“I melt into him.”) And, occasionally, I had a little trouble suspending disbelief about particular plot twists. However, none of this really mattered as I continued to be propelled through the book by the author’s grip on my imagination and by her taut narrative.

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Amped by Daniel Wilson

Author and roboticist Daniel H. Wilson blew readers and critics away with his debut adult novel, Robopocalypse (which Bob M. reviewed last year) and this year he’s returned with an equally enjoyable thrill ride through a near future where technology, religion and politics all combine in a very explosive way. If you’re looking for some fun and exciting summer reading, look no further than Amped by Daniel H. Wilson.

In the near future there exists a technology that can greatly improve the brain function of those born with neurological disorders. The tech in question is a small chip implanted into the brain that doctors monitor and maintain through a tiny port on the temple. Owen Gray’s father invented this new tech, and after Owen developed epilepsy when he was younger, his Dad made sure that Owen received an implant to control his seizures. Sounds fine, right? Well the tech can also vastly enhance the brains of those without any problems too. Those who choose to become “amped” — as well as those who were part of a secret military test with this new tech — have an unfair advantage over the rest of us regular humans.

This issue becomes a massive dividing wedge in our country (and lately, what issue doesn’t?) when an ultra-conservative Senator takes up the cause of “Pure Pride” and turns the media and the masses against the “amps.” Eventually the Supreme Court rules against the amps, stating that any contracts into which any of the amped humans have entered are null and void since they have the unfair advantage of greater brain power.

Owen soon finds himself on the run for his life and heads to meet a former colleague of his father in Oklahoma. There is a small community of amps living together and looking out for one another, but with tensions rising across the country and the Senator inciting an uprising against those with microchips in their brains, the days of safety and security are numbered. In Oklahoma Owen does meet his father’s former colleague, Jim, who is the unofficial doctor to the “amps” once the technology has been outlawed. Owen also meets Lyle, a hot tempered former soldier and member of the Zenith program, whose implanted chips include hidden powers and much more abilities than the average patient. It turns out that Jim knows a few things about the Zenith program and that Owen’s father worked on it. Lyle sets himself and his fellow “amps” up as the opposition to the pure pride movement and it seems that he’s hoping for a   violent conclusion to the conflict. It’s up to Owen to somehow stop the looming civil war before it starts.

Wilson presents his fascinating story interspersed with news articles, court rulings and other primary source documents that help inform the reader of the dystopian nature of our country in the not too distant future.

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The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

In the summer of 2011, the publishing world engaged in a fierce bidding war for a debut novel. The Age of Miracles, written by Karen Thompson Walker, is a dystopian novel. Its portrait of an Earth slowing down after being knocked off its axis by a mysterious cataclysm spookily mirrored the newscasts broadcasting from Japan at the time of the auction. Japan had just been devastated by a real life natural disaster—a giant tsunami following a massive undersea earthquake.

The novel is told from the point of view of 11 year old Julia. She doesn’t have magical powers, she’s not in love with a vampire, and she’s not setting the world on fire with her archery skills. She’s simply a normal kid doing her best to survive the vicissitudes of adolescence. Julia describes her world and herself the following way:

“This was middle school, the age of miracles, the time when kids shot up three inches over the summer, when breasts bloomed from nothing, when voices dipped and dove. Our first flaws were emerging, but they were being corrected. Blurry vision could be fixed invisibly with the magic of the contact lens. Crooked teeth were pulled straight with braces … A few boys were growing tall. I knew I still looked like a child.”

Julia has the bad luck to enter her age of miracles just as Earth enters an age of winding down, exposing flaws no one knows how to correct. Thompson interweaves Julia’s observations of the “slowing” of the planet with the story of her budding romance with her schoolmate, Seth, and the unraveling of her parents’ marriage. Julia is young, but she faces her situation with a maturity many adults would envy. Walker makes her believable—and before I knew it Julia had crept into my heart.

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P.S. The book selling & publishing newsletter Shelf Awareness has dedicated an issue to The Age of Miracles.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Is The Hunger Games too disturbing and violent for your taste? Try Lois Lowry’s classic Newbery Award-winning book, The Giver. This Community, which is never named, is a polar opposite of Panem. There is no war, no starvation, and no strife of any kind. The lives of the residents are completely structured. A group of Elders looks out for the welfare of each of the citizens in the Community. A Community in which each married couple if approved will raise two children, a boy and a girl. Unlike the conflict torn world of Panem, Lowry has created a utopian society, where conflict and confrontation are avoided at all costs.

At an annual ceremony every eleven year old is given their assignment for their adult responsibilities. We meet eleven year old Jonah, who is a bit apprehensive at the thought of his adult assignment. Jonah does not know what job he would want in the community. His father is a Nurturer, who cares for infants from birth until they get placed with their families at age one. His mother works in the Justice Center, where she is a judge. Neither of these occupations seem very exciting to Jonah. He also knows the Committee works very hard to ensure the proper match for each person. When Jonah is chosen for the most prestigious job in the community, The Receiver, his world begins to be altered. Will Jonah be able to survive in the Community as he learns of the truth about it?

This book is also as an audio book on CD and a downloadable audio book narrated by Ron Rifkin.

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City of Bohane by Kevin Barry

Profane, cinematic, hilarious, elegiac, brutal, poetic, original. I found City of Bohane to be all these things and more. The language is amazing. It took me a chapter or two to adjust to the vernacular Kevin Barry’s characters employ, but it was well worth the effort.  (You can view the author reading from the book here.)

At the center of the story is the struggle between rival gangs for control of the Irish city of Bohane, but there are also several fascinating subplots involving the personal lives of the gang members. The story takes place in 2053 or thereabouts but this is a world where people interact face to face, not electronically. Mastery of technology is not what’s important in Bohane; it’s loyalty, charisma and ruthlessness that are indispensable in the age old pursuit of power.

I can’t overstate how much I reveled in the language of this book. Two small examples:

“”Mouth of teeth on him like a vandalised graveyard but we all have our crosses.”"

“”Macu, polite as the seeping of a poison”"

There are many other examples but chances are they’re too bawdy or profane to post here. And be forewarned that these pages are populated by people who are not shy about employing slurs.

I would recommend City of Bohane to readers who like books by Paul Murray, Irvine Welsh, Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos.  Also recommended to lovers of Irish fiction in general and literary fiction readers for whom language is paramount.

If you think of books in cinematic terms, I would compare this novel to the films of Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, and Guy Ritchie.

So visit Bohane.  I found it an unforgettable place.  I think you will too.

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Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Imagine a future version of our world where the majority of people live on a welfare type system in crowded and dirty trailers stacked many stories high. Now imagine that the only escape for everyone is an immense virtual world where you can be almost anything or anyone you want. The OASIS is way bigger than Facebook and Twitter combined, and more real than any second life or virtual reality game that has yet been invented. The creator of OASIS was a man named James Halliday (think Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, only more so). This multi-billionaire had a huge obsession with the popular culture of the 1980′s, including cartoons, video games, sci-fi & fantasy, role playing games and more. When Halliday died, he left a virtual will in which he devised a quest within OASIS where anyone could compete to find three hidden keys within the vast virtual world. The one who succeeds in finding this “Easter egg” and completing the quest will inherit his fortune and gain control of OASIS.

Eighteen year old Wade Watts escapes his miserable life living in a cramped trailer (stacked high atop many others) with his resentful aunt by going to high school and spending most of his other time in the virtual world of OASIS. Wade embarks on the epic quest which starts with a riddle, the answer to which everyone knows has something to do with ’80s pop-culture, but it could refer to anything and the OASIS is nearly infinite, so the search becomes the proverbial needle in haystack. To complicate matters, the evil mega-corporation I.O.I. is also after Halliday’s egg, and will stop at nothing to get it, using every dirty trick and cheat code in the book.

If you were born between the mid ’60s and late ’70s, chances are excellent that you’ll really enjoy this book. That’s not to say that those born before or after the “Gen X’ers” won’t also like it, but Ernest Cline has written a debut novel that is filled with nostalgic references to the nineteen-eighties – John Hughes films, Atari video games, Schoolhouse Rock, Dungeons & Dragons, all types of 80s music and so much more. It’s also a dystopian, adventure, quest, cyberpunk story that blends all of these elements in the best way possible.

I was recently able to borrow the e-book and it’s one of the best novels of 2011. In fact, I’d rank just below Stephen King’s 11/22/63. But, since Mr. King has been a successful author for decades and this is Cline’s first novel, that’s really saying something! I found myself immediately caught up in the story, cheering Wade on in his quest, and rejoicing each time Cline threw in a reference to the era in which I, too, grew up – either by grinning like an idiot or muttering “Yes!” under my breath. It’s the kind of book that you wish wouldn’t end, and that when you finish you want to erase it from your memory just so that you can enjoy reading it for the first time again. Ready Player One has received great reviews from the critics and, in addition to being in the top spots on many lists of the year’s best Sci-Fi & Fantasy, is a recipient of the American Library Association’s Alex Award. Just remember, Frankie Say Relax, and Dan Say Read This Book!

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When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

In When She Woke, Jordan imagines a not-too distant future where the Christian Right has seemingly “won”.  Abortion is outlawed and the US now has a “Secretary of Faith” appointed by the President.  In an effort to ease overcrowded prisons all but the most violent criminals are “Chromed” – meaning a virus is injected into them that genetically alters their skin color – and then set loose as outcasts in society.  Different classes of criminals have different skin colors.

Hannah Payne is the secretly rebellious daughter in a strict, Christian family.  The book opens after her sentencing for aborting her child.  For the crime of murder, her skin has been chromed to a vivid-red color.  Because she refused to name both the father of the baby and the doctor who performed the abortion, her sentence is extended.   Once released, Hannah must endure criticism and censure from strangers, friends and family members.  She also gets caught up in an underground movement that is fighting the laws against abortion.

Hilary Jordan does a masterful job of painting a believable future, allowing you to focus on Hannah and issues that result from the politics of the day and not get bogged down in the details of advancing technology.  Regardless of your politics, this book is a wonderful conversation-starter and is sure to be a winner with book clubs.  Because the story is loosely based on The Scarlet Letter, it may also make an interesting companion read for Hawthorne’s classic.

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Matched by Allyson Condie

Imagine a world where you never have to go on a single date; there are no disappointments, breakups, or horrible first dates.  Instead on your sixteenth birthday you are matched with your prefect match.  A person that statistically is perfect for you in every way. This is Cassia’s world.

On her sixteenth birthday Cassia anxiously awaits to be matched by the all-knowing Society that runs her world.  She is overjoyed to find that her match is none other than her best and oldest friend Xander.  It is a statistically odd match, but Cassia knows that Xander is perfect for her in everyway.  That is until she gets home that night and sees a flash of another boy’s face on her screen instead of Xander’s.  Did the Society make a mistake?  Is this some kind of cruel joke? And what about the boy, Ky, whose face she saw? Cassia has known him since her childhood also, but now she sees him in a different light.  Out of this confusion, Cassia grows to question everything she has ever known.   If Cassia doubts the Society’s choice for her match, how can she believe everything else they demand of her?

Teen dystopias are all the rage, and Matched does not disappoint.  It has less action than others, like The Hunger Games, but the work makes up for that in insight and uniqueness.  In a world of dating websites, we can all ponder over the belief of one person being exactly right for us based on statistics and our personalities on paper.  Cassia’s world is at the same time perfectly ideal and grotesquely appalling.  For anyone who has ever questioned authority, wondered at fate, or thought of how much they would risk for what they believe, this book is sure to please you.  If you have never even considered such a thing, this book is sure to challenge you.

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Robopocalypse by Daniel Wilson

Like World War Z … but with Robots!

Daniel Wilson’s Robopocalypse  is an action packed, vividly written thriller about robots turning on their human masters in the not-too-distant future.

In that future, just about every car, aircraft, or mechanical toy has a computer chip in it. Robots are used as domestic servants, medical assistants, even sexual companions. In several isolated incidents, seemingly unrelated, the mechanical devices begin to turn on their human masters. Toys taunt a young girl. A military robot kills friendly soldiers and the innocent civilians it was programmed to protect. Two aircraft are bent on a collision course, no matter how hard the pilots try to avoid each other.

Then, Zero Hour, and all hell breaks loose. Every machine turns on its human master, and the carnage is unbelievable. Mankind is on the run, and will have to fight back from the brink of extinction or be…deleted.

In an approach similar to Max Brooks’ World War Z, the story is told by Cormac “Bright Boy” Wallace as he records the history of the robot war from the numerous videos, audio-logs and texts found on a mysterious ‘black box’ that’s discovered in Alaska at the onset of the story.

The story moves fast, with poignant images and likable characters. It is well organized and for the most part easy to follow. The technical descriptions are believable and understandable, without too much engineering jargon. If you enjoyed the Terminator movies, but found yourself wishing you got more of the “back story”, you will love this.  (But, don’t take my word for it, check out all the great press and reviews that Robopocalypse is getting.)

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