snow crash

Snow Crash
A badass, somehow very detailed, yet fast paced novel. I would just get sucked into the descriptions for things like a pizza delivery truck. Y.T. I think was one of my favorite characters, she was so well written, she had two sides to her, one being the teenie skater punk, the other seemed like a woman film noir detective. The way society was set up by franchising was pretty realistic too, since now water is becoming privatized in present day’s reality. There was also one of the best uses of literary devices I have seen in a novel; the electronic virtual library database complete with librarian. The passages of the novel where he is conversing back an forth with the database, unveiling ancient yet related history, I could read this for hours. For some reason if you hand me a text book on the history of certain cultures I have a lot more trouble with it where as if two people where conversing and giving commentary on the history of that culture, I find it way easier and enjoyable to digest. It was also amazing how they brought religion and myth and united it with binary and the metaverse. It was such a good coupling. The use of language and even computer language spreading like a disease, using it to fight for control of language and information, this book had it all. Hiro Protaganost, hacker, former pizza delivery guy, and ninja to save us all, a mad lib gone horribly right.

TIGER! tiger!

The stars, my destination Alfred Bester
This story was an amazing rags to, I don’t want to say riches but this character has started from being confined to a room in space to being in complete control, almost god like. It’s a familiar tail everyone likes to hear but put into the sci-fi context. The future world described here did not seem that complex or unrealistic either, a thing I dislike about a few science fiction novels but have been recently starting to enjoy. The only thing this book really asked you to believe in was jaunting, or moving from one place to another with only the use of your mind for teleportation. I have come to enjoy reading science fiction with unrealistic future depictions. Sometimes the purpose of the genre is not to show us what is going to happen, but instead the genre is given a separate reality in which to explore social criticisms without the confines of our present or our realistic future reality. This allows authors to make their criticisms in extreme manors. Like the part in this book where the main character hands PyrE over to crowds of people telling them that he is giving everyone the power of death… all it takes is one person to think about ruining existence on Earth, Its almost (forgive the crude example) Saw. The story has almost mirrored itself at this point, jaunting was discovered and at first could only be accomplished with the threat of death, now he learns he can jaunt through space using faith.

Mediascape 5 years out

In five years it will be only natural that technology will change. Technology has a history of changing very rapidly. Right now most homes own computers, something that was unheard of years before. I think tablets will become a standard issue. A child will be born and he will be given his tablet, to learn how to speak, to learn how to read. Then he will take that tablet to school. All the other students will have theirs too. there will be less and less communication from person to person, instead all communications will happen digitally. existence will become less personal.

15 years out

population will be a huge crisis and if people are living longer because of advances in technology there will have to be some form of population control or some sort of population crisis. since things have been becoming less personal and people have been becoming to involved in there technology it will be easier for peoples in power to stay in power and maybe they can be the cause of this population control.

50 years out

ruins... unstable, uninhabitable atmosphere , unless we can move out into space or into the water

anansi boys

Anansi Boys
I thoroughly enjoyed neil gaiman’s Anansi boys. I had no idea what the story was about, it came as a complete surprise. When I was younger I was familiar with Anansi the spider and had a sneaking suspicion from the title but was thrilled to actually find how the stories were related to gaimans book. I also liked how this was folk fantasy, a genre I never really considered. I always thought as folk tales as those culture stories you have as a kid, this was a little more adult and was more just related too. Like Bible stories for adults. All the characters came full circle in the end… I love that type of cleaver writing where it seems the writer from the very beginning conceived the end. It reflected upon the books own themes as well, there was a passage saying that there where only so many people to one mans individual life that always keep appearing like casts in a play, everyone else are just extras. The book kept doing this as well, displaying a theme or an interesting writing style through the characters in the story, then the narrator would comment on it as if he himself just noticed, it just all fit so perfectly into a very easily read adventure. I am someone who has trouble with fantasy… wildlife fighting a holy war against good and evil is a turn off to me; but for some reason gaiman’s way of human interaction with the spirits of all the animals is more tangible for me. My only small issues are with the ending and the “lime” the ending seemed a little dragged out but the story was so good I almost did not mind. Regarding the lime. I am pretty sure that gaiman was just trying to show how small the island was when everyone asked fat Charlie If he was the one with the lime, but it was so embedded it made me wonder if there was any greater significance with the lime. The thought almost made my head explode.

A Wild Sheep Chase

A Wild Sheep Chase had its moments but it was a very long, dragged out. At the beginning of the novel it introduced a character who was at the very least interesting, but the author devoted a good amount of time to her back-story and then it turned out not to matter at all. It wasn’t until the book got half way in that it started the sheep chase. It was also weird that it was presented as a Japanese horror when it did not seem like a Japanese book at all. It was not until I heard names of places that I realized that it was not taking place in the United States. It also did not seem to fit the horror description. It seemed more of a “fantasy realism” novel; the way it involved ghosts, ESP, and sheep taking over people. It also felt a little Film Noir. The way the main character seemed to be like a detective with his fem fatal. He is either drinking alone or there is a “partially there” girl in his life. The book also had a weird timeline. The book jumped around a lot from years past, to sidetracked memories, but these little blips in time lasted for chapters. It also seemed like the character “the rat” came out of nowhere and he was one of the most important characters of the story. The beginning of the book should have included a large chunk of his background. You almost could have edited out the first part of the book and it still would have made sense and maybe would have read more like a horror because of the pace of it. Also wouldn’t the murder at the end be linked back to the main character because the town new he was the only one up in the house just before the man went up at the end to meet with “the rat”? or wouldn’t the man know that he was going to blow up because of his sixth sense?

monster island

Monster Island is the first zombie novel I have ever read. At first I was skeptical about how I would like it but it gave me a run for my money. Not only did I like it, I could not put it down. Just the way it was written was so in grousing with page after page twists. Right off the bat it takes a relatable American up standing citizen character and it turns him on his side making him apart of a minority with his daughter trying desperately to survive. It was also practical in its explanation of the redistribution of power and survivors’; being that places that where hellholes before the epidemic were now centers for refugees. Once Dekalb and his crew reach New York the story is on. I could not help but notice how well the story could have been translated into a summer fun action, adventure, and comedy flick starring Brendan Frasier like the mummy. Quick passages that pack a wallop of twists winding through a situation that spirals deeper into hopelessness. I also liked how this zombie novel brought new zombie traits to the table. This is the first I have ever seen an author provide that maybe under circumstances zombies might all be connected and special individuals might be able to tap into that and seize control over the hive mind and suddenly, zombies have a leader that they don’t question; it’s a completely organized dictatorship with immense power. Also the twist with the mummy zombie priest was unexpected. I thought Gary was going to stay with him until the end but how it actually played out made sense. It was almost comical how Jack tried to put his people out of their misery by destroying them, which would have been in the vain of the priests work anyways. Then end was also satisfying. It left a few questions though. How did Dekalb’s letter survive and where was he now. The book ends differently then the blog but I think I like the blog better. The blog is more personal and you can tell that the writer is holding on to his own ride.

Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein

The Frankenstein story is notorious. I come from the same perspective most of us come from. I have seen countless reproductions of the story through satires, such as Young Frankenstein and through the original black and white films but I didn’t realize how different the original story was until I read Mary Shelly’s version. The biggest difference in the story was the story perspective. Telling the story through letters of a voyager heading to the arctic, at first I thought I was reading the wrong thing. Instead the letters added a sense of realism, we weren’t hearing the story from the lone scientist but from someone who believed his tale and thought it was credible enough to retell. As I was reading I was also waiting page after page for the notorious description of the monster, bolts in the neck, a forehead with stitches. The description however never came, the monster was left up to your own imagination, I just wish I didn’t have so many other iconic scenes stuck in my head to prevent my imagination from running wild with my own version of the creature. There was also a beautiful relationship between the creature, Victor, and the sailor. All seem to be romanticists and they all had a similar relationship with companionship. The Creature was just the most extreme, an outcast from society with the original deadbeat dad. Victor too had an element of being an outcast. The voyager had the same element but only played to a small degree. The fact that he is sailing to the desolate arctic, even with his crew he feels alone. There is a potential for friendship with Victor and its his same passions such as his love for science with draws the sailor to Victor. The other problem I had with the story was with the settings, like where the creature was made. I realize I only had these hang ups because of all the other adaptations I have seen and wish I didn’t but Geneva is not the same as Transylvania or some other god forsaken back country cliffs with horribly dusty laboratories that always seem to have a thunderstorm of a lifetime looming about the place.