The Mirage by Matt Ruff

I have always been a big fan of alternate fiction so I was very excited when I came across a review for The Mirage by Matt Ruff.   The Mirage presents a world that is a mirror image of the world we live in now.  On November 11, 2001, twin towers on the Tigress and Euphrates are destroyed by planes flown by Christian fundamentalists.  The United Arab States (UAS) is a world superpower and America is a bunch of disjointed city states, including an independent Texas.  Much of the back story is revealed in excerpts from the Library of Alexandria, this world’s version of Wikipedia invented by Muammar Gaddafi.

Nine years later, Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi and his team — Samir, and Amal, capture and interrogate a suicide bomber. The prisoner claims that the world in which they are living is a mirage. In the real world, America is a superpower, and the Arab states are just a collection of backward third-world countries.  A search of the bomber’s apartment turns up a copy of The New York Times, dated September 12, 2001, which recounts the destruction of the twin towers in New York City.   As Mustafa and his team continue to investigate this bizarre claim, they come in contact with the gangster Saddam Hussein and Senator Osama Bin Laden, both of whom know about the mirage claim and provide both help and hindrance as the investigation proceeds. Mustafa and his team also make a visit to America and the independent republic of Texas where they come across a “who’s who” of well known and sometimes notorious American political and religious leaders, including David Koresh, Dick Cheney and Lyndon B. Johnson.

A typical problem with books that start with a great premise is that sometimes the author doesn’t know how to end it without becoming too farfetched or unsatisfying to the reader.  Fortunately, I felt that Matt Ruff did a good job with the ending.  I came away feeling that sometimes no matter how much things have changed, in many ways they still stay the same, and yet there is hope for the future and maybe this time we will get it right.

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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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Star Wars: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn

This heist/caper story is highly reminiscent of the movie ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ with Han Solo & Lando Calrissian in roles similar to those played by George Clooney & Brad Pitt. (And it’s funny because both the positive and negative reviews on Goodreads claim the similarity to that particular movie as the main reason for why readers did or did not like it.) But, this novel is also just a great Star Wars story in its own right, taking place just after the events of Episode IV: A New Hope, when Han Solo helped defeat the Empire and blow up the Death Star to save the Galaxy. Scoundrels mixes familiar and unfamiliar characters in a job involving stealing a hefty sum from one of the richest and most powerful crime lords on the planet Wukkar.

There is plenty of the action that Star Wars fans are used to with droids, aliens, landspeeders and blasters and more that make it easy to visualize the story as if it were a movie. Scoundrels is also sprinkled with some very humorous moments throughout the story. We get some background on Han & Lando’s rocky friendship and even learn what is very likely the reason that Lando ends up betraying his friends in Cloud City in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. There are a few other references that true geeks will appreciate, incuding one to the Han vs. Greedo showdown in the Mos Eisley cantina.

If you’ll pardon a small *spoiler* I just can’t help myself from mentioning one of my favorite scenes in the novel (which I also couldn’t help gushing about to my wife, who is not exactly a Star Wars geek). While the heist is going down, Zahn throws in a reference to ‘Indiana Jones’ – also created by George Lucas – when Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford, of course) is fleeing in front of a runaway giant ball that is crushing everything in its path.

The book contains a twist ending with another familiar Star Wars character making an appearance at the very end, but I won’t spoil that surprise. This is only the third Star Wars novel I’ve read, and my first by Timothy Zahn, who is a wonderful storyteller that has been writing in the Star Wars universe for a very long time. I’m definitely planning on reading more; in fact, I recently forked over two bucks to get his e-book novella about Lando and a few of the other crew from this novel in an earlier adventure: Star Wars: Winner Lose All.

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Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet is one of my favorite science fiction novels, because it deals not so much with the science as with the moral and philosophical questions about life on other planets. 

Dr. Edwin Ransom, a Cambridge literature professor on a walking tour in the rural English countryside, is kidnapped by the evil scientist Weston and his companion Devine and taken to Malacandra or, as we would call it, Mars.  On a previous visit, Weston and Devine had been summoned by the guardian spirit, Oyarsa, of Malacandra and had mistakenly assumed that what Oyarsa wanted was a human for sacrifice. Believing that any further trade with the planet will be impossible until they provide a sacrifice (Devine wants precious metals and Weston wants to make Mars a habitation for humans),  they go back to Earth in search of a hapless human to fulfill this role.

Once on Malacandra, Ransom escapes from his captors and is taken in by a race of beings who are far kinder to him than his fellow humans.  In fact, Ransom is struck by their intelligence and goodness to the point of feeling ashamed of his own species.  He now feels the need to explain the “bent” (their only word denoting what we would call “evil”) tendencies of human kind, and he also wants to protect his new friends from the two bent men who have brought him here.

In the end, all three men are brought before Oyarsa, who tells them that he knows very little about their planet.  He is able to communicate with the guardian spirit of every planet except theirs, which he calls Thulcandra, meaning the Silent Planet.  The reason for this is made clear to Ransom; indeed, the education he receives both from the beings who befriended him and from Oyarsa completely changes his ideas about the nature of life and of death as well.

When by a miracle the three men make it back to Earth, Ransom tries to put his newfound knowledge into practice.  The conclusion of the book consists of an afterword and several letters Ransom has written to the few colleagues he has entrusted with his amazing story.  We discover that the work of “fiction” we have been reading is actually his attempt to share with open-minded readers the fruits of his experiences.

C.S. Lewis often used a fantastic setting to strip away the trappings of everyday life and expose the truths hidden within.  Out of the Silent Planet leaves the reader with a sense of awe and with the idea that deep space and even our own damaged planet are filled with wonders that we are normally too jaded to see.
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Redshirts by John Scalzi

Any geek worth his or her salt will know where the title for this book came from. For those of you who aren’t Sci-Fi nerds, it comes from Star Trek and a “redshirt” is a low ranking crew member who accompanies the Captain and other bridge officers on dangerous missions away from the ship. The redshirts almost always die. This concept is so ingrained into Star Trek lore, that J.J. Abrams even included it in his movie re-booting the franchise a few years ago. Here, Scalzi puts his own unique — and hilarious — spin on the idea in his newest* novel. (*Dang it, I wrote this review when the book came out last June, but we’ve had too many hold requests on it for us to promote it on our blog until now.)

Regular readers of this blog may remember what a huge fan I am of John Scalzi, and will note that I have blogged about several of his books before. So, suffice it to say, that I was really, really looking forward to this one! Ensign Andrew Dahl is a recent graduate of Space Fleet Academy and newly assigned to the Universal Union’s flagship vessel Intrepid. He makes a few friends with other new crewmen (and women) while waiting to board the ship and as soon as he’s on board he’s approached by the Chief Science Officer, Q’eeng. Dahl is accompanied to his assigned department (Xenobiology) and on the way Q’eeng asks him if he is interested in participating in away missions. Dahl isn’t necessarily keen to leave the ship on any dangerous missions, but he gets the impression that Q’eeng wants him to agree, so he does. After a few strange incidents in the Xenobiology lab, he and his friends discuss the odd start to their assignments in the mess hall — and they all seem to have noticed some of the same strange things about the U.U. ship Intrepid. Everyone on board, from bridge officers to department heads, to crewmen (and women), behaves VERY strangely about away missions.

Soon, Dahl and some fellow ensigns accompany a couple of Lieutenants to a space station which emitted a distress call to which the Intrepid has responded. The two away teams find themselves in some very deep doo-doo because the machines on board the space station have gone berserk and are killing all the humans. Needless to say, once the survivors have returned to their ship, Ensign Dahl and his crewmates begin to put two and two together about why everyone board is so twitchy about away missions and working directly with the bridge officers.  As the tagline on the front of the book says, “They were expendable … until they started comparing notes.” What follows is a rollicking send up of that old sci-fi show we geeks love, which also has some thought-provoking big ideas – and “meta-ness” – behind it.

If you liked Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide series of books, if you enjoyed the movie Galaxy Quest,  and definitely if you are a Fan of Star Trek (Trekkie or Trekker), you have got to read this new novel by this award-winning author and all around cool guy.

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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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11/22/63 by Stephen King

If you had the chance to go back in time and change history to prevent a national tragedy, would you? That is the chance given to Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in Maine. Al Templeton, the owner of a local diner, lets Jake in on a secret: there’s a “rabbit hole” in his storeroom that leads back to 1958. Al has a plan to go back and stop Lee Harvey Oswald from killing President Kennedy. But, Al is now dying of lung cancer, so he needs Jake’s help to complete his self-appointed mission to save the country by changing its history.

Jake also teaches adult GED classes and he read a theme written by his school’s janitor on “the day that changed my life.” It seems that there was a very gruesome and horrible event in Harry the janitor’s childhood – something that has scarred him for life, both physically and mentally. Jake’s not quite sure what to make of this time travel stuff, but decides that if it’s for real, he’s also going to try and change the course of events that led to this personal tragedy, in addition to trying to stop Oswald from killing Kennedy.

Of course, no story this good (and yes, it really is a good as everyone has said) would be so simple and straightforward. We learn that the past is obdurate. Don’t worry, I had to look that word up too. It means “unmoved by persuasion, pity, or tender feelings; stubborn; unyielding.” Basically, when you try to change the past, the past tries to stop you. The larger of a change you are making, the more the past will try to stop that change. And stopping Oswald from assassinating Kennedy is a mighty big change.

What makes Stephen King‘s novel so great is not just the premise (a fairly neat twist on the time travel idea), but the story itself and the characters about whom we come to care so much. Since the “rabbit hole” dumps Jake out in Maine in 1958, and Kennedy’s date with destiny is in Dallas in 1963, that leaves Jake with five years of living to do – as well as making sure that Oswald really did do it and acted alone. Along the way he gets a job teaching, meets a librarian named Sadie, and falls in love.

Does Jake stop Oswald? What would happen to our history if Kennedy had lived? What about Jake and Sadie? You don’t really want me to tell you, you really want to pick this book up and discover its wonder yourself. I’ll just end by saying that I’m not what you’d call a crying man, and it’s rare for a book to bring me to tears, but this is one of two books I read in 2011 that did just that.

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Best ‘New to Us’ Books in 2012: Dan B.’s Picks

Now that we’ve shared some of our favorite new books from 2012, we’ll also tell you about some of our favorite “New to Us” (older) books that we each discovered this year. Again, different library staff will take turns blogging about 5 of our favorite “New to Us” books from this year. Here are mine:

Somewhere in Heaven by Christopher Andersen
This is the fascinating story of Christopher and Dana Reeve’s lives in front of, and away from, the cameras. Chris, a graduate of Julliard and a huge star after Superman, returned to Williamstown, MA  each summer for their theater festival, and it was there that he met Dana, a singer and actress, who became the love of his life. The story continues with their touching courtship, eventual marriage, blending families, and Chris’ horrible paralyzing accident. Through it all, Dana’s devotion to Chris never wavered for an instant, and she helped him with his physical therapy, their profuse charity work, and raising their son. Read my full review.

Dauntless by Jack Campbell
John Geary was a soldier in the first battle of a war that has been raging for the last century. He’s also the sole survivor who held off the Syndicate forces and escaped into a hibernation pod that was just now rescued from oblivion by the flagship of the Alliance fleet. Now “Black Jack” Geary, a man returned from the dead who became a legendary hero, must find a way to lead the Alliance after they lost the latest battle very badly. He must also deal with the culture shock of being thrown a century into the future. Read my full review.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Eighteen year old Wade Watts escapes his life in this dystopian future by plugging into the OASIS, a virtual world where anyone can be anything – given enough credits. The reclusive inventor of OASIS, James Halliday, has died and left a video will in which he states that whoever can solve his 1980’s themed riddles to find three keys and unlock three hidden gates to find his “easter egg” will gain his fortune and control of OASIS. Wade is one of millions of hunters looking for the egg, including several friends, but so is the evil mega-corporation IOI – and they’re using every cheat code they can. Read my full review.

Among Others by Jo Walton
I usually need a lot of action in a story to get me hooked and to really enjoy it. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate character development and ideas. But, that’s why I’ve had a hard time trying to describe this Hugo & Nebula Award winning novel and explain why I really liked it. It’s about Mori Phelps, a 15-year-old girl who ran away from her insane mother in Wales and is now in boarding school in England thanks to her estranged father’s family. There’s also magic, faeries, libraries, and books – oh so many wonderful science fiction & fantasy books!

Blackout & All Clear by Connie Willis
These two novels form one award winning story from Willis. Time traveling historians from Oxford suddenly have their schedules altered and trips to the past cancelled for no known reason. Three such travelers, Michael, Polly and Merope, mysteriously become trapped in the past while observing the events of World War II. Willis does a fabulous job of putting the reader in the midst of history and letting us know what daily life was really like for Londoners during the Blitz, or the Dover area fishermen during the Battle of Dunkirk. A wonderful mix of time travel and history with plenty of suspense.

Best New Books of 2012: Pam W.’s Picks

I am a big fan of mysteries, but I also like to read a little of everything else, especially if it is set in jolly old England. 2012 was a really good year for new books, I have to say.   There were so many good books that I found it hard to narrow it to a small list, but here are my five of my favorites from this year! — Pam W.

The Cutting Season by Attica Locke
Caren, the caretaker of a plantation in Louisiana, is the descendant of slaves who worked on the same plantation. Her mother was also once the cook for the family who own the plantation, so the family has several generations of complicated history with the house and the owners. When Caren finds a young migrant worker on the land who was murdered, the investigation becomes entwined with the murder of a former slave who was Caren’s ancestor 100 years ago. I found the double murder plot intriguing and the setting was very unusual. Locke’s spooky setting and eerie suspense make this novel more than a traditional mystery.

Beastly Things by Donna Leon
When the body of a disfigured man is found in a canal, the police wonder how to go about investigating his death. No one has been reported missing, and they can’t post a photograph to get an identification. The autopsy shows that the man had a rare disease that caused the disfiguration. This gives the police a name and leads them to a slaughterhouse where he worked as a veterinarian. But was the murderer someone he knew professionally or personally? This 21st book in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series is typical of Leon’s fine work. There are usually two or more investigations taking place at the same time, and each case tends to raise more issues than a simply murder mystery. In addition, the reader is given a glimpse into how an average Venetian lives through the life of Brunetti and his family. Start with the first book if you can, but this one is a good read by itself.

Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn
William Kuhn’s story is one I’m sure many folks have thought about in passing over the years. What is the Queen really like? Does she enjoy her life? Does she ever wish to be someone or somewhere else? In Mrs. Queen Takes the Train, the author imagines the answers to those questions. One day, the Queen finds herself outside of Buckingham Palace on her own. She begins to walk down the street and realizes she can slip away from all of her guards and staff for a while. Meanwhile, the palace staff race to find her before word leaks out that she is missing. I loved how Kuhn’s vision of the Queen makes her seem very human. I would recommend this book highly and I think fans of Downton Abbey and Upstairs/Downstairs will enjoy this modern version of what goes on behind the palace doors.

The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey
In this updated version of Jane Eyre, Gemma Hardy is taken from Iceland to Scotland after the death of her parents to live with relatives, only to lose her beloved uncle soon after. Her aunt and cousins are not kind to Gemma, so she is happy when she finds they are sending her to boarding school. Unfortunately, she is little more than a servant in the school. Gemma is strong and resourceful, though, and survives the school long enough to get a position as a governess. The setting of Scotland in the 1950’s is interesting and Gemma is a very appealing character who I was pulling for from the beginning.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
Julia is only eleven when the earth’s rotation starts slowing down. At first no one knows what will happen in the future. Will the slowing wreak havoc, or will it simply mean a change in schedule? For Julia, life is simply weirder than it was. Everything had already begun to change for her because she went from elementary school to middle school. Her old friends are no longer interested in her and she suddenly has become a loner. Her parents seem suddenly to be different and less dependable than she always thought. The boy she has a crush on is friendly on some days but on others he ignores her. How is a young girl to make sense of her own life when the whole world is going crazy? Thompson’s novel is less a post-apocalyptic novel and more a coming of age story, but a very good one. Riveting and intense, you won’t forget this book easily.

Best New Books of 2012: Dan B.’s Picks

We’re happy to once again present our favorite books of the year on our Book-a-Day Blog! Different library staff will take turns each day letting you know their top 5 favorite books from this year. Then, following that, we’ll do the same thing, but tell you our five favorite “new to us” (older books) that we each discovered this year.

I read over 90 books this year, which I believe is the most I’ve read in a single year. My picks for the best new books in 2012 include some funny books and some amazing sci-fi & fantasy.  — Dan B.

Lunatics by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel
Two very funny authors have teamed up to form the League of Comic Justice! The key to a great buddy story lies in the characters being opposites. Philip Horkman is a quiet, straight laced, play-by-the-rules kind of guy who owns a pet store, and who referees girls soccer. Jeffrey Peckerman is a loud, obnoxious, know-it-all, who always goes out of his way to let everyone know exactly what ticks him off. These two middle aged men from suburban New Jersey end up on the run from the law, and Chuck E. Cheese, for committing acts of terrorism. If you want a good laugh with your next read, try this. Read my full review.

The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde
The hilarious new Thursday Next novel is the best in the series since The Eyre Affair! After having been missing for a whole book, she’s now back in action, although injuries and her age are catching up with her. Thursday becomes the Chief Librarian in town in a world where libraries have enough money for an executive chef and armed security to recapture overdue books. Meanwhile, Swindon is due to be smited by the Almighty on Friday, her son is destined to murder someone that same day, and the evil Goliath corporation tries to replace Thursday with synthetic copies.

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King
Dark Tower fans rejoice! Stephen King has returned to his epic creation of Midworld with Roland the gunslinger and his ka-tet of companions: Jake, Susannah, Eddie and Oy. It takes place between the events of book 4 and 5 in the series, while the band of travelers makes their way toward the Dark Tower they must take shelter during a fierce windstorm. Roland tells a tale of his younger days investigating a murderous shape shifter, witnessed by a now terrified teen. To get the boy to trust him, the younger Roland tells yet another story of magic and horror mixed together.

Redshirts by John Scalzi
Ensign Andrew Dahl and his fellow rookie crew members on the Universal Union’s flagship vessel Intrepid begin to notice something strange about the ship and its crew. It seems that there is rather high mortality rate for low ranking crew members on away missions, the senior bridge oficers have very dramatic monologues, and the science department comes up with technology and solutions that are downright impossible. Sound familiar? This novel is a love letter to a certain Sci-Fi TV series from the late 60s, and absolutely filled with geek-tastic humor throughout!

The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams
Meet Bobby Dollar, a wise-cracking, take-no-guff, drinking, cussing and carousing angel. He’s an advocate for recently deceased souls (determining whether they go to Heaven or Hell). One day the angels and demons show up to argue over a soul’s fate, only the soul is missing. Not only does Bobby have to figure out what happened to this – and other – missing souls, he also has to avoid getting killed by an ancient monstrosity, deal with his lustful urges toward a demoness, and figure out why it seems like his superiors upstairs are hiding things from him. Read my full review.