Synopsis: It’s 2020, and no babies have been born since 1995. Review: I really thought I had read The Children of Men before, but must have just really loved the movie or something. I certainly approved of all the changes made for the screen version, because I was bored silly by this book. Oh well.
Synopsis: Incarceron is a living prison from which no one can escape, but when the warden’s daughter makes a shocking discovery, she works to break Incarceron’s protections with the aid of a boy who believes he was born on the outside. Review: I attempted to listen to the audio book of Incarceron, but the late stages of pregnancy has made it impossible for me to concentrate on anything more complicated than nursery rhymes. But the concept really grabbed me, so I snagged a copy through…
Synopsis: An impenetrable dome smashes down over a small Maine town, completely isolating them from the world. Review: I devoured Under the Dome, thoroughly enjoying King’s blend of deft characterizations, manic plotting, and outrageously broad social satire. Imagine the world coming to an end–but only over a few square miles, while the rest of America watches helpless to intervene. In true King fashion, he takes an external horror device and uses it to expose the evil within. I’d call him a Calvinist, except it seems…
Synopsis: The events leading up to the “waterless flood,” a global catechism wiping out almost all of mankind, as told from the point of view of two survivors, a sex worker and a healer, both of whom were members of a radical vegetarian cult. Review: The Year of the Flood is Margaret Atwood’s companion to Oryx and Crake, presenting the events that led to Jimmy the Snowman’s reign over the gentle, sinless Crakers in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Atwood resolutely refuses to call either book “science…
I’m giving away 3 copies of Hunger Games–check out this post for rules & to enter! Synopsis: After winning the Hunger Games, underdog Katniss Everdeen finds herself caught up in political intrigue as rebellion foments in other districts, and when the president himself makes a game-changing move, Katniss must choose between love and freedom. Review: I was totally and completely sucked in and swept away by Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins’s sequel to last year’s it novel Hunger Games. The series is starting to remind me…
Synopsis: On his quest to the Dark Tower, Roland the gunslinger and his companions move through a ghastly post-nuclear landscape in search of a train that is certainly alive and not certainly safe. Review: Whenever I start reading The Waste Lands, my heart aches waiting for Roland and Jake to be reunited. In my opinion, Jake is one of King’s best characters. Of course, he’s twinned with Jack Sawyer from The Talisman, and I think that I can’t help but bring those associations with me…
Synopsis: Rendered dispensable because she has not borne a child by the age of 50, Dorrit faces a future of human experiments and organ donations in an otherwise idyllic unit until she is called on to make her final donation. Review: Though not quite as poetically haunting as Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, The Unit is a gripping account of a utilitarian world where humans constitute the ultimate resource. Basically, any man or woman who has not had children by a certain age gets…
Synopsis: Edgar must leave Atherton, the only home he’s ever known, to finish his creator Dr. Harding’s work on the poisoned Dark Planet. Review: The Dark Planet, a stirring conclusion to the Atherton trilogy of science fiction adventures for middle grade readers, finds Edgar heading off his home planet towards the Dark Planet, where children like him are worked as slaves tilling a despoiled earth. It’s his own journey into Mordor–except the plot of the Atherton trilogy owes more to “Lost” than Tolkien. The world…
Synopsis: Katniss Everdeen takes her sister’s place in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death between teenagers, televised for the whole world. Review: I asked my YA librarian friend if The Hunger Games was any good, and her report was that it wasn’t the best book she’d ever read but she couldn’t keep it on the shelves and the kids in her school were passing it around like crazy. Being a fan of YA literature and of Rollerball-type stories, I had to check…
Synopsis: Five orphan teens find themselves trapped in a room filled with nothing but stairs, which quickly turns into an experiment that may have no end. Review: House of Stairs is a book I read about a zillion times when I was a kid. The scenario enthralled me–a seemingly endless room with stairs as far as the eye can see, and a machine dispensing pellets of food as long as the kids performed a bizarrely elaborate dance. Things get darker when the machine changes its…