October 07, 2005
The Postman
I have heard of David Brin's The Postman before, but never had a chance to read it until recently. I am glad that I finally read this book.
Gordon is a pre-apocalytic American idealist who had become hardened by many years of post-apocalytic surviving on his own. The story really begins as he stumbles upon an old postman's uniform. From there on, he is somehow compelled to change the state of bleakness that characterizes the formerly great United States of America.
I figured that Gordon would find ways to inspire people he met in the story to hope for a better life. That was pretty clear from the beginning of the story. What I hadn't figured on was the ample amount of feminist ideals in this story. It's not that that's a bad thing - it's just that I never expected a male author to produce such thoughts. That was a big surprise.
Without this spark of feminism, the story would have been completely male-dominated. Although the main character is Gordon, it is nice to see some strong female characters as well. I would have expected feminist ideals from authors like Ursula LeGuin and Marion Zimmer Bradley, but this, coming from a male writer, made the story even better. I know that the focus is supposed to be on one man's ordeal to bring hope to the masses, but to me, the feminist aspect of the story made up a large part of what this story is about as well.
Posted by Kathy at 08:11 PM | Permalink
February 26, 2005
The Iron Dragon's Daughter
I've never read anything by Michael Swanwick before. So, I'm glad to say that I have a very good first impression of his work. The Iron Dragon's Daughter is set in an uncertain timeframe that feels somewhat like contemporary times. Actually, because of the existance of fantastical creatures like dwarves and elves, I felt like this setting was more of a 'twilight zone' scenario. This is especially true of the epilogue of the story, which really left me wondering. Nonetheless, this book is a real page turner, at least for me.
The heroine, Jane, is a human changeling, who had been a laborer for as long as she could remember. Jane toils at a dragon factory, and yearns for escape so she can live as she wishes, and get an education as well. Through a series of events, this happens for her, and the rest of the story is about her (mis)adventures as she fights to succeed in this harsh world where the rich and privileged dominates everyone else. There are several themes throughout this book: slavery, child labor, thievery, socioeconomic discrimination, substance abuse, sex, violence, and reincarnation. I'd say this is a very odd mix, but Swanwick manages quite well to meld them together into a story that is Jane's life. One refreshing point is that our heroine is not an overachiever. In fact, Jane is seemingly, a flawed character. I was reading some reader reviews on Amazon, and noticed that some of the readers were ten years old. Although I would recommend this book, there's no way I would suggest that ten year olds read it.
Posted by Kathy at 05:33 PM | Permalink
February 24, 2005
Beggars in Spain
I'm a big fan of the science fiction genre. There are some authors that I can relate to more than others, though. That's why I tend to look for science fiction works by female authors whenever possible. I say 'whenever possible' because in sci-fi, female authors are few and far between. That's why it's such a treat when I find one that I really enjoy reading. Nancy Kress is a sci-fi author who fits into that category. I really enjoyed Beggars in Spain.
The premise of this story exists to answer the question of how humans can be more productive if they do not need to sleep. Our heroine, Leisha Camden is genetically different from her twin sister, Alice. Leisha belongs to the 'Sleepless', a group of genetically altered individuals who require no sleep to function normally. As a 'side effect' of sleeplessness, Leisha and other 'Sleepless' are academically more brilliant than normal people, since they are highly productive.
As the 'Sleepless' begin to multiply in numbers, though, there's a lot of resentment from the normal people. Those normal people are thinking, "Why should the Sleepless be allowed to dominate the world?". There's an additional unforseen effect of being Sleepless, though, which I will not disclose in this review. But read the book, and you'll see why this effect opens yet another can of worms for the Sleepless. This book explores issues of genetic engineering, and the social implications that exist with it. Beggars in Spain is the first book of a trilogy, and I will definitely be putting in an order to purchase the other two books. I'm hoping the latter two books will be as spectacular as this one was.
Posted by Kathy at 11:39 PM | Permalink
January 10, 2005
Ted Chiang's Hell is the Absence of God
I am currently reading science fiction author Ted Chiang's collection of short stories. Today, I read Hell is the Absence of God. I have never read science fiction written by an Asian author before, so I was looking forward to reading some of Chiang's work.
At first, I thought Chiang was proselytizing, which would have made me hate the story. As I read further along in the story, though, I realized that the author is just guiding the reader towards thinking more provocatively about life after death. The existance of angels in the story seemed somewhat surreal to me - I wasn't sure what to make of that. Overall, I thought the story was a bit sad, but interesting.
This story is definitely worth a read, whether you are religious or not.
Posted by Kathy at 09:26 PM | Permalink
February 25, 2004
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Before I start writing about my thoughts concerning this book, I'd like to just mention that I originally thought this book was about math, based on the title. Sort of like a history of pi, the discovery of it, the ancient uses for it, and the scholarly arguments that must have occurred regarding its utility. The feminist in me wanted to read that like many other inventions, a woman was behind it, and was somehow not credited with the work or idea. However, this is not to be, as the closest this book gets to talking about mathematics is when Piscene Molitor Patel introduces himself to his fellow classmates as "Pi - 3.14" to prevent them from calling him "Pissing". This is really a book about animal behavior, Indian culture, and religion.
Now that I have that cleared away, I have to say that I really enjoyed reading about the animal behavior aspect of the book the most. I consider myself to be quite ignorant when it comes to analyzing animal behavior. I chalk that one up to having been raised in the suburbs. Like any other person who enjoys watching animal shows on the Discovery Channel, I am at the same time, puzzled and fascinated about why animals behave as they do. This book does an excellent job of explaining cat behavior, for example. After I finished reading it, I looked at my two kittens, Apollo and Mercury, and determined that Apollo is the omega cat, Mercury is the beta cat, and I'm the Alpha cat (from their perspective, anyway). So, that explains why Apollo is so much more eager to win my favors. It's because he has a vested interest in being my favorite cat. This will help protect him against Mercury, because, presumably, I would be partial to Apollo. Of course, this logic breaks down because 1) Mercury is not threatening to Apollo in any way, just larger than he is, and 2) I'm a human being, not a cat, and both Apollo and Mercury are my kittens, so if they fight, my inclination would be to stop the fight rather than help one of the cats beat the other one up. Plus, Apollo and Mercury don't fight, they play fight. It's the side effect of being well-fed at all times and not having to fend for themselves outside in the wild. I'd say the biggest benefit Apollo gains is being fed more snacks.
Anyhow, I'm digressing. Really, this book talks a lot about animal behavior. I enjoyed reading about the Indian cultural aspects as well. Definitely makes me want to take a trip to India. Most amazing is the fact that this novel is based on a true story. My final verdict is that this story is a worthy read in a casual environment, such as an airport - which is what I did.
Posted by Kathy at 10:51 PM | Permalink
January 09, 2003
No Outward Sign, Bill Neugent
I have just finished reading Bill's debut novel, and I am quite impressed with the quality of his writing. Bill is a very promising writer who has the rare ability to keep the reader engaged throughout the entire story.
"No Outward Sign" is a fictitious technical novel set in the modern-day timeframe. The location is in the Washington, D.C. area. Our protagonist, Brent Singleton, is a grayhat computer hacker. This first person narrative follows Brent Singleton as he unravels events that, if left unchecked, would lead to mass disruption of the United States computer infrastructure. Along the way, Brent also unmasks other sinister plots, which I will not detail here. Read the book. It will be well worth your time.
Bill is a vivid writer. He is adept at painting the imagery of each scene in the story. Because of this, the characters are very three-dimensional. Whenever I start reading a novel, I wonder to myself the following questions: "Is this book going to be a page turner? Is this book going to be memorable? Is this book going to inspire me to want to write a book of my own?" I'm happy to report that "No Outward Sign" has me answering "yes" to all of the questions above.
Good technical fiction challenges the reader to think about the events that occur in the story while maintaining plausibility of the events. "No Outward Sign" does feature some really elite hackers. However, the tactics written about here are quite possible. I think this is accomplished because Bill is an actual computer security engineer. This is what really makes "No Outward Sign" unique. Compared to works like Vernor Vinge's "True Names" and Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game", I was left wondering just how the attacks there could have been implemented. This is because Vinge and Card, while impressive writers, do not have the technical perspective Bill possesses.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a computer security professional, or is even mildly interested in computer security. For these people, this book will be a pleasurable read. I also recommend this book for people who are skeptics about the importance of security infrastructure implementation. For them, this book will serve as an eye opener.
Posted by Kathy at 10:58 PM | Permalink