Sci-Fi

I love reading and writing, and so I will post book reviews for you guys. I know that not everyone enjoys reading, but I hope that my book reviews will get some people motivated to read some good books. If you would like me to review a book, give me the title and I’ll try to read it. Enjoy!

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

My dad told me to read this book. My dad has pretty good taste when it comes to anything Sci-Fi-like, so I gave it a shot. Brave New World is about a future society where babies are made in factories and people have no troubles. When they do have troubles, they can take doses of what is called soma. This drug creates euphoric sensations that makes the user forget his or her troubles and feel good. No side effects at all. People in this world are programmed from the beginning of their life by listening to phrases being repeated in their sleep. What to like, what not to like. People are manufactured into social classes, and they accept it. What is seen as being immoral to the people of this world is a mother and father. One male to one female. This story is about one of the people who is brought from outside of this society from a mother-father “old fashioned” community into the Brave New World. The three key points to this chilling novel are the concept, the characters, and the plot. The concept was what stood out. The author of this book had everything planned out. Every nook and cranny of this world was explained. You understand it fully, and every dark detail of this world gets its fair share of description. You won’t be lost at this concept, I promise. You’re in good hands. The characters are mixed in terms of how well they were pulled off. Some went through personality switches throughout the book, which made things confusing at times. In some instances, the characters acted a lot differently than what they have consistently been acting like throughout the book. There was no solely strong character, but there were none that were very weak. Lastly is the plot. I feel like it was a side attraction to the concept. It was just there just so that it could be considered a story. It wasn’t that complex, it wasn’t that interesting. At times it is difficult to tell who is saying what to whom. The last part of the book felt like Lord of the Flies to me, and I didn’t like that book at all. But the plot issue doesn’t matter to me. The fact that this was written in 1931 is bind blowing. The concept and points brought up by this book get you thinking a lot, which is all I can ask for from a book. The last couple of chapters sums up the ideas of the book, and when I put it down, I wasn’t unsatisfied. It was a book that got my brain going. The plot and characters weren’t that concrete and there as a bit of over explaining, but it’s driven by concept, not story. Brave New World is a T-Bone. This chilling book will have your brain doing somersaults.

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Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Suddenly everyone is reading this book, and so I decided to give it a shot. Ender’s Game is about Ender Wiggin, a boy who’s unusually smart for his age: 6. You’ll get over his age eventually through your time reading, however, and he does grow up to some extent. Anyways, he’s sent to Battle School in space to be trained to lead a fleet of ships to defend to human race from aliens, respectfully called, “Buggers.” Obviously, the British people of the future created that name for them. (I assume, because buggers sounds very British) The three key points to this story are characters, writing, and plot. The characters of this story are strong, and they carry the plot, rather than the setting. The setting, in fact, is barely explained. A lot of this story is left up to imagination. The characters and their emotions are the only things that are described. But they are described well. Ender and his siblings, as well as some of the kids he goes to school with, are very solid concerning personality and character. Not all of them hit it off for me, but a select few were very great characters. The problem is, the side characters don’t seem to grow at all. Don’t get me wrong, the strong side-characters are powerful, but they stay the same throughout the story. They don’t change. They don’t advance. The writing, as I mentioned before, is primarily about the characters, and their interaction. The setting and location and details aren’t elaborated upon. This leaves a lot of the story up to your imagination. If you’re an imaginative person, you won’t have a problem with that, but if not…this book isn’t for you. Lastly, the plot. The plot of the story is all over the place, along with the pacing. Not enough of what happened on Earth was given, and the first 3/4 of the book felt much faster than the last 1/4, which would make sense, except the climax feels almost rushed. There were some issues with the story telling. Over all, Ender’s Game is a Porkchop. I really wanted to rate it higher, because of the characters I really liked, but the lack of description when needed made some parts of the story feel substancless and empty. I’m not saying that description makes a story. Edgar Allan Poe never went in depth with his settings, and look how great his writing turns out. There was simply not enough to rate it higher. This book will be adapted into a movie in 2013, by the way, and Harrison Ford is in it.

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The Compound by S.A. Bodeen

Eli, a fifteen-year old boy, has been living in a compound underground for the last six years with his parents and two younger sisters. Nuclear war has torn the world apart, and his billionaire father has built this compound to keep him and his family safe. However, things start going wrong, the food supply is dwindling, and there is a sense of controversy and dysfunction. The door to the outside doesn’t open for fifteen years, and so Eli has to live there…but when he suspects that his dad is keeping secrets from him, the compound becomes more like a cage than a sanctuary. This plot hooked me. I mean, nuclear war, survival…what’s not to love? I picked up this book in desperate need for a good read, because I’m still recovering from some bad ones. The two key points to this story are characters and plot. The characters in this story have a ton of momentum going for them, especially Eli. Eli is troubled, paranoid, and, frankly, a sad person. Because it is told from his point of view, you witness this depression first-hand. So, since you see this story go down through his eyes, you feel not so attached to this angry, spoiled rich boy. But then, the story develops, and you realize his weaknesses and his determination. Eli is a strong character, but the same cannot be said for his sisters. Though they aren’t huge main characters, they are given large personalities (Miss Perfect and Miss Stuck-Up) These personalities are exercised well, but aren’t expanded on. The characters change, but not enough. To make myself clearer, I’m trying to say that a character is ONE WAY. They have a strong personality, but they STAY with that personality the whole time. They don’t change a whole lot. The atmosphere and tension between these characters, however, is very dark and tainted. You feel paranoid and isolated while reading this story, because there is no happy slack time offered. The whole thing is dark. If you are a fan of Edgar Allen Poe, you’ll love this novel. The setting isn’t described in detail and it feels very dreary. The concept is simply a match to light the fuse, which, in this case, is the plot. Disappointingly, the plot moved way to quickly to keep the story holding the suspenseful feeling. It moves at a breakneck pace that is a wrecking-ball to the enjoyment. Every chapter a discovery is made. There is no time for the reader to think about anything. It’s so rushed that it starts to feel sketchy. When a story feels sketchy, I start to despise it. There were parts that were so unbelievable or cliché that it reeked of sketchiness. Overall, the Compound is an interesting read that will keep you occupied, but the fact that things move too quickly irks me. It tries to be something on large proportions, but it sprints instead of taking a break once in a while. With the subtle plot holes, this is a Porkchop.

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Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson

This is a book that I wouldn’t read, considering the fact that it revolves around the Disney universe. Disney’s cool, but…I don’t like princesses, or dragons, or anything of that sort. But, being the flexible reader I am, I decided to take a swing at this book. It was one of the most agonizingly bad books I have ever read. It’s about Finn, a DHI. (Disney Interactive Host) What happened was he went to Disney and the Disney people recorded his movements. They converted his movements and to a DHI, a hologram that tours guests around the park. Somehow this technology sends him to “dreams” at night. These dreams present a real danger, and Finn is warned that the Overtakers (Disney villains) are growing strong. This book shows the struggle between Finn and the Overtakers. It sounds out there, but I’m open to crazy plots, and every reader should be. The three key points to this book are characters, writing, and plot. The characters were all one dimensional, except for Finn’s mom. Finn has no personality, and is simply a blank slate thrown into situations. I never felt like he had an individual personality. The other characters were all sketchy, like the writing and the plot. For example, in the beginning of the book, the author mentions that one character is Baptist. It seems as if the author had these characters made up in his head, but translated to paper, they seemed flat. I could care less that this guy was Baptist. It didn’t change the story one bit, and I forgot about that useless fact a page after. The characters are bland, except for Finn’s mom and some other women in the book, which is disappointing, because Finn’s mom isn’t in every chapter. The writing was weak. You were told what was happening, but you couldn’t envision where the characters were when it happened or what the room looked like. The author clearly did a ton of research on the Disney parks, but we’re not Disney experts. We don’t know what the attractions look like, but he assumes that we know exactly what all of the rides are. I’m not opening my laptop to Google something for an author who can’t just explain what he’s talking about, so I’m sure as hell not looking up what the attractions look like. And the way things are explained is bland and boring. There was no voice in the explanations. The writing wasn’t pleasant to read. The plot is where everything goes wrong. It’s so predictable that it’s unpredictable. I thought, at first, that it would end how you would expect. Then, I was thinking what if THIS twist occurs? I was waiting for that exciting twist, but it didn’t happen. What I ORIGINALLY thought was going to happen happened. That first prediction is a prediction that is so stereotypical and not thrilling that I was angry that it happened. If the following is a spoiler, I don’t apologize. I thought that the guy giving Finn orders and helping him along was really the head of the Overtakers. He wasn’t, he was a good guy. The bad guy was the bad guy, and was easily defeated. It was horrible! Lastly, Ridley Pearson had a ton of Disney characters at his fingertips, and yet he didn’t make the best of it. Only a few made cameos, but they never actually added to the story. It was a shame. Pooh Bear and Piglet, Alladin, The Dwarves! None of them! Just the bad guy, a handful of pirates, and the ‘It’s a Small World’ Dolls. This book is a Hotdog. I hated it, and you should not even think about picking it up.

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The Giver by Lois Lowry

What the heck is The Giver? It’s that book with the old guy on the cover. Everybody has seen the cover somewhere. It is a very popular book, and has won the Newberry Award, so I decided to give it a shot. The Giver is about a boy named Jonas, who lives in a society where nobody lies, kids don’t rebel, and people are open and friendly to everyone. When Jonas turns 12, there is a ceremony where all of the Twelves (Nobody has their own birthday. They kind of share them.) receive their jobs. They don’t pick jobs, they are assigned to them. This is where the story starts. The two key points are the writing and story. I must say, the writing felt extremely lazy. At more than one point, I thought to myself, This won a Newberry Award? The writing transitioned scenes in paragraphs, and it didn’t flow. Basic words and sentences were used. Not one description in the book made me say wow. When I write, I try to make my writing flow to make it easy on the reader. I feel like whoever published this book was blind. Authors put their time and effort to make the book well-written, but it seems like this author got by without any writing skills. In other words, this writing was mediocre. It didn’t impress me at all. The story was great, and I loved hearing about this society/community and their beliefs and customs. Also, Jonas’s training sessions are interesting, but there was no substance. I don’t expect a fight scenes every chapter. In fact, I don’t expect a fight scene at all. I expected an interesting story, but instead of feeling satisfied, I felt cheated and angry. The author doesn’t spice up the story. She had so many oppertunities to throw Jonas into a crazy situation, but instead, a year has passed after transitioning from one chapter to another, and you miss all of what he has experienced. Also, the ending could have been elongated. Yes, when you’re writing for young adults, you have to keep the book short for the sake of attention span, but putting nothing into the book is just cruel and lazy. I understood the message of the story, and it made sense, but there could have been much more. This concept could have been displayed by another author, but now it can’t because Lois Lowry stole the idea and didn’t put anything into it. What a waste of a story. The Giver is a Porkchop. I don’t recommend it. Even though it had a good moral and message, the story itself was empty and restricted. I was very disappointed with this one.

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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games. It’s been hyped, its been popular, and its been made into a movie. (which is to be released in March.) Then again, a lot books are hyped for nothing. Does this book fall into that category? The Hunger Games is about a 16 year old girl named Katniss Everdeen. She lives in Panem, a country that lies where North America is today. After many wars and disputes, the world was divided, and so this movie takes place in the future. Panem is split up to 12 districts, each very different from each other, and they are ruled by the Capitol, the central city where the shady government rules. These 12 districts are all poor, each needing food and resources. The Capitol, however, is very wealthy, and they remind the country that they are the rulers and they have the power. They do this by  holding the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a televised fight to the death between 24 kids, two from each district, a guy and a girl. They are picked randomly, and they cannot back down. The Hunger Games are held in a wilderness arena, and the last person standing gets food and resources for their district. The Capitol has these games to remind Panem that not even children are out of their reach. When names are being drawn for the games, Katniss’s sister, Prim, is chosen, but Katniss steps in and volunteers to take her place. Katniss is skilled with a bow, and a great hunter, and so she has some leverage. At least, that’s when she thinks until she sees who she is up against. The three key points to the Hunger Games are plot, writing, and characters. With a plot as simple as this, the book sounds like a mindless, gory book, but so many extra factors are thrown in that make this plot larger than itself. Alliances, enemies, relationships, family issues, government, characters, and other aspects are thrown into the book, and it has you feeling paranoid. You don’t know who you can trust or who you can’t. You don’t know who is really on your side and who’s not. You don’t know when there will be a rule change in the games, or another threat thrown in. That is what gives this book substance. The plot is action-packed, but at the same time, emotional. Few books can achieve that. The writing in this book is very easy to understand, and it feels very fast paced and dramatic. The story is told from Katniss’s point of view, so every time she sees someone, or every time somebody talks to her, she puts in her thoughts. This is how we learn what the Hunger Games are and how the other characters interact. Katniss isn’t old, she’s clear in the head, and she could think straight. That translates to how we perceive this universe. Her thoughts explain what the Hunger Games are and how other people around her behave. Her thoughts aren’t angry opinions and abrupt thoughts that slow down the pace. You are constantly learning, and because you see Panem through her eyes, you can guarantee that she is trustworthy and knowledgeable. In other words, you believe what she says, and what she says defines the world in HD Blu-Ray for you. The writing isn’t page long vivid descriptions, but meaningful, progressive thoughts and dialogue. Overall, the writing of the Hunger Games is understandable, clear, and fast-paced. The story does not drag at any part. With great plot and great writing, you get something good, but if you throw great characters in the mix, you’ve hit the jackpot…and Suzanne Collins is rich. Her characters are so interesting and so tight-knit that you want to dive inside their heads and listen to their thoughts. See, this book is so easy to read because the characters and universe is already established for you. There is no expansion, and that’s fine. The only characters who are expanded on are Katniss and Peeta, another contestant. This is ok because you know who everyone is right off the bat, and you don’t have to wonder. The characters who are barely established at all, like the other no-name contestants, are supposed to be mysterious. The fact that you know only  much as Katniss creates a paranoid feel, and the characters’ fear echos that. The characters are expanded slightly, revealing interesting pasts and back stories, but you know who everybody is and you feel welcome to Panem because the characters are crystal clear to you. The same cannot be said for Catching Fire and Mockingjay, because you truly cannot know who is friendly and who wants to plant a knife in your back. This book isn’t too hardcore Sci-Fi, it’s more futuristic than Sci-Fi. Nonetheless, this book is a Filet Mignon. I highly recommend it. If you miss this one, consider yourself duped. Let the Games begin.