Jo called me to tell me that Ken Follett released a sequel to one of my all-time favorite books, Pillars of the Earth. The new book is called World Without End, and takes place 300 years after the original. (Pillars is about several generations of people in the 12th century building a massive cathedral in England. My high school guidance counselor suggested it to me when I was freaking out about whether to study English or Math.)
Now the only question is whether to reread Pillars first. It's a 1000 page commitment, but might enhance my experience of World. I guess the other question is who took my original copy, forcing me to buy a replacement with a different cover.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer
This is the first book in a long time that I stayed up late (too late!) to finish. This is hard-core science fiction, a la Asimov, but absolutely readable and totally delightful.
It is the story of a married couple in their eighties, and it begins in the year 2048. The wife, Sarah, is a famous scientist who decoded an alien communique thirty years earlier. When the aliens contact Earth again, Sarah is asked to work on the new message. Sarah is offered a "rollback", a chance to return to being in her twenties, physically, so she can work on the decryption. She accepts, with the caveat that her husband Don gets the rollback as well. It works for him, but not for her. And that's all in the first few pages.
The book alternates between the time period that begins in 2048 with the second message from the aliens, and the time period that began in 2009, when the first message was received. It's funny to be in the 2048 world with all its technology and see 2009 as the quaintly simple time. The story also shares third-person narration between Sarah's point of view and Don's. Sarah struggles with decoding and aging; Don struggles with not aging and conceiving of another sixty years of life he didn't expect.
I liked this book because I liked the plot and the characters. The story of Earth's communication with a distant galaxy, including the message with which the galaxy replies, is creative and unique. Sarah, her husband, and the other ancillary characters are likable with realistically familiar hopes and fears. That is what I love about good science-fiction writing: once you suspend your disbelief, there are complex characters in interesting circumstances with a good dose of social commentary thrown in.
The social critiques in this book were not severe. The rollback obviously critiqued our society's adoration for everything youthful, physically. There wasn't that much negative discussion of technology replacing humans or replacing interpersonal interactions. There was even a friendly heroic robot. This book did offer a theme of universal values across not just people, but galaxies. The aliens, who we never meet (well, not exactly), still develop strongly as characters with valid desires. In that way, it reminded me of how Star Trek can suddenly make you think about the universal nature of existence.
Perhaps my favorite line from the book, in all its campyness, is spoken by Sarah: "The Aliens from Sigma Draconis have responded to the radio message my team sent all those years ago." It was such a throwback to a 1950's sci-fi movie that I had to chuckle at how out of place it seemed in an otherwise well-written, serious book.
It is the story of a married couple in their eighties, and it begins in the year 2048. The wife, Sarah, is a famous scientist who decoded an alien communique thirty years earlier. When the aliens contact Earth again, Sarah is asked to work on the new message. Sarah is offered a "rollback", a chance to return to being in her twenties, physically, so she can work on the decryption. She accepts, with the caveat that her husband Don gets the rollback as well. It works for him, but not for her. And that's all in the first few pages.
The book alternates between the time period that begins in 2048 with the second message from the aliens, and the time period that began in 2009, when the first message was received. It's funny to be in the 2048 world with all its technology and see 2009 as the quaintly simple time. The story also shares third-person narration between Sarah's point of view and Don's. Sarah struggles with decoding and aging; Don struggles with not aging and conceiving of another sixty years of life he didn't expect.
I liked this book because I liked the plot and the characters. The story of Earth's communication with a distant galaxy, including the message with which the galaxy replies, is creative and unique. Sarah, her husband, and the other ancillary characters are likable with realistically familiar hopes and fears. That is what I love about good science-fiction writing: once you suspend your disbelief, there are complex characters in interesting circumstances with a good dose of social commentary thrown in.
The social critiques in this book were not severe. The rollback obviously critiqued our society's adoration for everything youthful, physically. There wasn't that much negative discussion of technology replacing humans or replacing interpersonal interactions. There was even a friendly heroic robot. This book did offer a theme of universal values across not just people, but galaxies. The aliens, who we never meet (well, not exactly), still develop strongly as characters with valid desires. In that way, it reminded me of how Star Trek can suddenly make you think about the universal nature of existence.
Perhaps my favorite line from the book, in all its campyness, is spoken by Sarah: "The Aliens from Sigma Draconis have responded to the radio message my team sent all those years ago." It was such a throwback to a 1950's sci-fi movie that I had to chuckle at how out of place it seemed in an otherwise well-written, serious book.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Broken Paradise by Cecelia Samartin
I was out of borrowed books and vacation books and I-need-a-treat books so I cruised the library's newest acquisitions. This is the first of five new books I took out. Given my affinity towards books set in foreign places, as well as my affinity towards Latin American topics, it was surprising to me that this is first book I can remember reading that is set in Cuba.
The book follows the lives of two best friend-cousins, Nora and Alicia. Growing up, Nora is quiet and compliant, while Alicia is beautiful and wild. During the Batista reign in Cuba, the girls live a charmed, upper-middle class life. However, when Castro comes to power, Alicia's father is accused of being anti-Communist, just one of the many things that convince Nora's parents to emigrate to the United States. Nora adjusts (with a few hiccups) into life as a Cuban-American. Through her correspondence with Alicia over the years, we can see how different her life would have been if she hadn't left.
I was really struck by how bad things got in Cuba and how quickly they got bad. I suppose I had always throught of Cuba as run by Castro, who we are not supposed to like, but otherwise sunny and full of good cigars. This book really taught me a lot more about the history and about how poor the living conditions became when he took power through current times. Some of the descriptions of people waiting it out and in denial when he first took over, as well as the seemingly random violence towards citizens reminded me of Hitler's rise to power. The book also opened my eyes to Cuban-American sentiment about returning to Cuba with Castro in power; many Cubans don't see it as their country as long as he is in power.
The writing in the book was not as good as the story or the descriptions of Cubans. It switched haphazardly between a poetic and a matter-of-fact style, sometimes within the same chapter. It also was structurally confusing in a few places when significant amounts of time had elapsed without the reader knowing.
Overall, I enjoyed the process of learning more about pre-Castro Cuba, Communist Cuba, and Cuban-American attitudes towards Cuba. The friendship between the girls was touching and I did want to know how the book would end (although I had a hunch that was right). However, I was not sold on the book as a whole because the writing just wasn't good enough to support the contents.
The book follows the lives of two best friend-cousins, Nora and Alicia. Growing up, Nora is quiet and compliant, while Alicia is beautiful and wild. During the Batista reign in Cuba, the girls live a charmed, upper-middle class life. However, when Castro comes to power, Alicia's father is accused of being anti-Communist, just one of the many things that convince Nora's parents to emigrate to the United States. Nora adjusts (with a few hiccups) into life as a Cuban-American. Through her correspondence with Alicia over the years, we can see how different her life would have been if she hadn't left.
I was really struck by how bad things got in Cuba and how quickly they got bad. I suppose I had always throught of Cuba as run by Castro, who we are not supposed to like, but otherwise sunny and full of good cigars. This book really taught me a lot more about the history and about how poor the living conditions became when he took power through current times. Some of the descriptions of people waiting it out and in denial when he first took over, as well as the seemingly random violence towards citizens reminded me of Hitler's rise to power. The book also opened my eyes to Cuban-American sentiment about returning to Cuba with Castro in power; many Cubans don't see it as their country as long as he is in power.
The writing in the book was not as good as the story or the descriptions of Cubans. It switched haphazardly between a poetic and a matter-of-fact style, sometimes within the same chapter. It also was structurally confusing in a few places when significant amounts of time had elapsed without the reader knowing.
Overall, I enjoyed the process of learning more about pre-Castro Cuba, Communist Cuba, and Cuban-American attitudes towards Cuba. The friendship between the girls was touching and I did want to know how the book would end (although I had a hunch that was right). However, I was not sold on the book as a whole because the writing just wasn't good enough to support the contents.
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