Severence

Ma, Ling. Severence New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2018. Print.

First Sentences:

After the End came the Beginning.

And in the Beginning, there were eight of us, then nine -- that was me -- a number that would only decrease.

Description:

Here's an interesting premise. In Ling Ma's novel Severence , a worldwide flu known as Shen Fever has spread internationally with its fascinating symptoms. Those who are "fevered" become forever stuck performing an endless loop of an ordinary behavior. One family continually sets plates and silverware out on their dining room table, sits down, and eats as if there is food on the plates, then puts all utensils and plates back into the cupboards and drawers, only to immediately take them out and repeat the process over and over and over. A woman is seen endlessly taking keys out of her purse, unlocking a door, opening it, closing it, replacing her keys, and repeating.  

But there are also a very few unfevered people. One roving band of eight discovers the novel's narrator, Candace Chen, in a New York City taxi far outside the city limits. Candace was a former Bible designer for a major publisher, working diligently in the office building until all her suppliers, customers, staff and bosses became fevered and stopped coming in or responding to messages. So she jumps into an endlessly circling cab, pushes the staring driver out, and motors far away from New York until she runs out of gas.

She joins this tiny group of what appears to be the only unfevered people in the world. The small group "stalks" houses and stores, taking for themselves canned food, generators, toys ... anything they might need in this new world. They are led by Bob who is taking them to the "Facility," a mysterious building where they will settle somewhere outside of Chicago. But with no GPS or maps, dodging abandoned cars along every road, the trip is slow. And along the way, personalities, goals, and frustrations begin to emerge, not all of them pretty to see.

But author Ling Ma brings us much more than merely a post-apocalyptic journey. She weaves in alternate chapters detailing Candace's former life in New York, her ambitions, and her lucrative contract with the publishing company that kept her in the City long after the flu hit. The decisions Candace faces her pre-flu life, as well as when the flu rises up ("The End"), and then during her post-flu life ("The Beginning"), are fascinating accounts of conflicting interactions with family, lovers, strangers, and environmental challenges thrust upon her.

And boy, can Ling Ma paint mysterious, compelling pictures with her writing style:

When she peeks into the bedroom, [her father] is in his usual stance: his back to the door, kneeling in front of the nightstand, clutching the beige phone receiver in one hand as he speaks to someone he declines, has declined over and over again, to identify, this person for whom his voice unfurls slow, drowsy murmurings, like a comb through wet hair.

I was riveted throughout this book, unable to anticipate what would happen from one page to the next. A very clever, challenging, plot full of unpredictable characters and situations. Highly recommended.

The End begins before you are ever aware of it.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Stephenson, Neal. Seveneves  

When the Moon explodes, it is quickly calculated by scientists how many months Earth (and humans) have before debris destroys everything. Plans are made for a survivalist space ship and representatives from the human race along with supplies necessary to preserve the culture. This brilliant sci-fi story of these people and the future of Earth is grippingly told is a very believable, unexpected manner. (previously reviewed here)

Artemis

Weir, Andy. Artemis: A Novel. New York: Crown 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

I bounded over the gray, dusty terrain toward the huge dome of Conrad Bubble.

Its airlock, ringed with red lights, stood distressingly far away. It's hard to run with a hundred kilograms of gear on -- even in lunar gravity. But you'd be amazed how fast you can hustle when your life is on the line.

Description:

So begins the newest, seat-of-your-pants action, Sci-fi novel from Andy Weir, author of The Martian. In Artemis: A Novel, Weir once again brilliantly depicts life on another world, this time the setting is the Moon in the permanent colony, Artemis. 

Jasmine Bashara, the young woman racing for her life in the first sentences, is a long-time resident in this new world. She is a survivor, currently working as a lowly transport specialist, loading and delivering cargo from supply rockets. But Jazz has dreams of becoming an EVA Guild member. Such a membership would allow her to don a space suit and conduct lucrative outings for visitors outside the city's protective bubble to tour the original Moon landing site. Unfortunately, during her Guild qualification test, her second-hand suit fails and she barely makes it back to safety. Failure, with no second chance for six months.

So Jazz goes back to her real money-making profession: smuggling contraband from Earth into the closed system of Artemis. This job, along with her street savvy, leads to an shady opportunity to finally make enough "slugs" (Artemis currency) to live a much better life than her current grubby situation. The proposed caper involves sabotage, science, and illegal excursions outside the bubble from a person with ultimate self-confidence, all of which Jazz thinks she can handle. 

The operation goes well - until things fall apart. Her promised million slugs are quickly slipping away unless she can dream up another, even more daring plan. But the bad guys and a few good guys have suspicions about her secret involvement with this operation and soon become involved. And thus the real action of Artemis commences.

Weir cleverly mixes the science behind a living community on the Moon throughout the plot. He introduces the giant, interconnected bubbles housing the cities and various support systems: the handheld Gizmos communication/information devices; the production of aluminum and oxygen for building and survival; and the coffin-size sleeping beds available to the poor. 

Everything must function smoothly for such an intricate closed system to survive and grow. When something (or someone) threatens the colony, drastic measures are taken. Artemis welcomes people who can contribute, but does not hesitate to deport back to Earth anyone deemed undesirable. Such a city must have a hierarchy of individuals to keep order among those who choose to live on Artemis, from Jazz at the bottom up through techno geeks, EVA Guild members, bartenders serving fake beer, police enforcers, industrialists, and an overall Administrator who oversees Artemis using any means to succeed for the good of the city. Each has an important role in Weir's colony. 

Told in Jazz's snarky, street-wise voice, Artemis is a lively story full of surprises, interesting science, and non-stop situations with clever solutions much like The Martian. The details imagined by Weir along with the clever survivor, Jazz, and the nefarious plots all combine to deliver a imaginative, scientific story full of complexities both environmental and human. Weir comes through again. Wonder when his next novel will come out?

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Weir, Andy. The Martian  

One astronaut is accidentally left behind as dead on Mars when his crew blasts off. Now he must use his wits to survive until someone realizes he is alive and can send a rescue mission months in the future. Excellent. (previously reviewed here)

Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles  

Series of chronological-set short stories about the populating, dominance, and eventual fall of Earth explorers on the planet Mars. (previously reviewed here)

The Speed of Dark

Moon, Elizabeth. The Speed of Dark. New York: Ballantine 2003. Print

First Sentences:

Questions, always questions. 

They didn't wait for the answers, either. They rushed on, piling questions on questions, covering every moment with questions, blocking off every sensation but the thorn stab of questions.

Description:

If you could undergo an experimental operation tested on monkeys that would take away your mental imperfections and make you a more "normal" (their word) person, would you give up your current happy life, friends, and possibly personality and undergo the procedure? 

In Elizabeth Moon's thought-provoking novel, The Speed of Dark, Lou Arrendal and his friends are faced with this question. Lou is a highly-functioning autistic with a special talent for seeing patterns in complex technical documentation. He is an unusual man in the modern world. While Autism has recently been cured in early infancy, Lou was born too late to benefit from this operation and thus cannot overcome his physical uniqueness and assume a more traditional role in society.

Lou works for a pharmaceutical biotech company which employs several other government-funded autistics with similar pattern recognition skills. But when these workers discover their company has secured rights to an experimental treatment to reverse autism and plan to offer (force?) employees to undertake this procedure, Lou and his friends must decide what to do. They recognize their unique skills that might be lost after such a treatment, and wonder about how the very untested process might affect their memories, relationships, and dreams.

Lou is a complex man, wonderfully concentrated on his work, a man who joins a fencing class of non-autistic adults, and thinks deeply about the possibilities and drawbacks about this looming decision. His friends, both autistic and non-autistic, are divided in their advice, but Lou has his own dreams that the procedure may or may not help him achieve. It is only in the final pages that Lou can make his decision and deal with the results.

His sessions with the company psychologist are particularly interesting, sad, and sometimes funny when narrated from Lou's perspective. Dr. Fornum holds the power in her evaluations for Lou to keep his job, so everything he says to her is slightly guarded so as not to be misinterpreted. Because Lou is cautious in his sessions, Dr. Fornum thinks Lou is not intelligent, has low verbal skills, poor people skills, and no future dreams. Never having to attend these mandatory sessions is a secret motivation for Lou to consider regarding the autism treatment procedure.

And then there is Lou's idea regarding the speed of dark:

Not knowing expands faster than knowing.... So the speed of dark could be greater than the speed of light. If there always has to be dark around the light, then it has to go out ahead of it.

It is a thoughtful book with an fascinating look into the world and mind of the autistic in a non-judgmental manner. Lou is an intellectual, pondering his world of colors hovering around each person, fascinated by shiny wind-blown mobiles that calm him, jumping on the company's trampolines to special music to focus his mind, and secretly harboring a desire to have a relationship with Marjorie, a fellow fencer. 

If I had not been what I am, what would I have been? 

Lou is a wonderful character, clever, thoughtful, questioning, and caring. What decision he arrives at is both logical and unexpected, at least to me. A great, great book with so much to think about. Highest recommendation.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon  

A mentally-disturbed man is given an experimental operation to make him genius-level smart, with the rewards and challenges involved. The novel is related via the diary entries kept by Charlie as he matches his progress with Algernon, the lab rat undergoing the same treatment.

The Regional Office Is Under Attack!

Gonzales, Manuel. The Regional Office Is Under Attack!. New York: Riverhead. 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

If you were wealthy, but extremely so, and you were in the market for a lavish adventurous getaway, one that might require the retainer of Sherpas -- in the event that you came across a mountain you wished to scale -- as well as a hot-air balloon and balloon crew in case, well, that came up, too, the desire, if you will, to hot-air-balloon over the glacial formations off the southern coast of Chile, then you could hardly do better than to contact the staff at the Morrison World Travel Concern. 

Description:

Sometimes you just need a book that is fun, distracting, unexpected, and completely off the wall. Welcome to Manuel Gonzales' The Regional Office Is Under Attack!

The Morrison World Travel Concern is an ultra-exclusive travel agency in the future which is ready to arrange your most wildly-imagined, exotic vacation experience for the very rich. But what is the Regional Office of this travel agency and why is such a harmless business under attack, you might ask? 

For that answer, you need to take their elevator one mile below street level of the Morrison World Travel Concern to the real operation of the Regional Office. The inscription that greets you as the elevator doors open reads:

The Regional Office: uniquely positioned to Empower and Strengthen otherwise troubled or at-risk Young Women to act as a Barrier of last report between the survival of the planet and the amassing Forces of Darkness that Threaten, at nearly every turn, to Destroy It.

The Regional Office actually is the organization that recruits young women to stand as protection for the world against the forces of evil in the world. This Regional Office is run by two people, Oyemi and Mr. Niles. Together they gather visionary Oracles to identify the aforementioned evil forces of the world that need to be thwarted as well as point out ordinary women who should be recruited by the Regional Office to carry out the vital, world-preserving work. 

Huh? Confused yet? And I didn't even mention the Operatives, the woman with the mechanical fighting arm, the kidnapped mother, the kindly recruiter, and the unknown forces who have been extensively trained to bring down the Regional Office for unknown reasons. 

It's a wild trip, told in non-chronological order by a variety of narrators who reveal only a few of their thoughts and motivations. To "clarify" the situation, the book quotes reports taken from a documentary report: titled, The Regional Office Is Under Attack: Tracking the Rise and Fall of an American Institution.

The outrageous people and actions of The Regional Office Is Under Attack! are calmly described by author Gonzales, who cleverly makes this strange futuristic world seem somehow reasonable and believable, pulling even skeptical readers into this chaotic future world of normal and unusual characters.

Maybe this book isn't for everyone. But if you are looking for something completely different than anything else you have read, cleverly told, and unexpectedly satisfying at the end, then give it a try. After the first few pages, you won't be able to stop yourself from reading more, whether to wallow in the interesting story or just to gather more information about this wild, wild world.

Happy reading. 

Fred

(See more recommended books)
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Neuvel, Sylvain. Sleeping Giant

Parts of a giant metallic man are discovered in locations around the world. Putting the pieces together and finding out what this giant can do and why it was scattered all over the Earth are questions not easily answered. Fantastic writing and story. (previously reviewed here)

Waking Gods

Neuvel, Sylvain. Waking Gods. New York: Del Rey. 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

A twenty-story-tall metallic figure appeared in the middle of Regent's Park this morning.

Description:

Well, that's an opening sentence that will either excite you or completely turn you off. For me, I'm all in for a wild ride.

Sylvain Neuvel's new sci-fi novel Waking Gods is the second in the Themis alien robot series, (who knew that the fantastic Sleeping Giants would spawn more books?). And it's a worthy continuation of the original story in which pieces of a huge robot are discovered buried throughout the Earth, painstakingly assembled into a gigantic humanoid shape, and actually made to work.

Waking Gods takes over from here when twelve even larger robots appear (fully assembled and ready for action) in the major cities around the world - and they are not friendly. Although they don't move an inch, they demonstrate an ability to destroy large swatches of people and buildings in a few seconds, are impervious to any counter-attacks by Earth forces, and are non-communicative about their intentions. Only Themis, the original robot, might possibly be used to stand in their way.

Unfortunately, Themis can only be operated by two specific people. Without them, Themis is a 12-story statue. But can the governments of the world first uncover the intention and motivation behind the new robots? Will Earth choose communication or weaponry to address them? Can Themis again be made operational and if so, to what effect? 

The story unfolds through memos, reports, conversations, and personal diaries that subtly give insights into individual thinking and plots. Slowly, slowly these lead to a very unusual but satisfying and logical conclusion. Full of surprises on every page, Waking Giants is a highly entertaining, mentally challenging, and thoroughly engrossing story full of unpredictable characters and activities.

And even better, Waking Gods has one of the best final sentences I have ever encountered, with a completely unexpected (by me) shock, but also the tingling promise for a new fantastic adventure for Themis and its operators. 

While Waking Gods refers to the events that happened previously, make sure you read Sleeping Giants first. It's equally as good (maybe even better?) and will help explain many people, relationships and complexities that arise in the newer novel. Both books are definitely worth the time of any reader looking for outstanding reads.

Happy reading. 

Fred

(See more recommended books)
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Neuvel, Sylvian. Sleeping Giants

Pieces of a gigantic robot are found buried throughout the world. Eventually these are assembled into a metallic figure with unknown capabilities, unresponsive to all who try to control it except for one man and woman who slowly learn a few of its secrets. (previously reviewed here)

Solaris

Lem, Stanislaw. Solaris. New York: Faber and Faber. 1961. Print.

First Sentences:

At 19.00 hours, ship's time, I made my way to the launching bay. 

The men around the shaft stood aside to let me pass, and I climbed down into the capsule. 

Description:

Exploration of new planets has been a staple of science fiction writing forever. But in the hands of the brilliant Stanislaw Lem in his brilliant and unexpected novel Solaris, this plot offers a completely different and mentally-challenging take.

You see, Solaris is an uninhabited, ocean-covered planet with two suns. Every scientist knows that the laws of physics dictate that no planetary body can have a stable orbit around two different bodies. But Solaris somehow achieves this impossibility with an orbit that corrects itself to become stable. Huh?

When space traveler Kris Kelvin lands on the Solaris to work with the three-man station crew, things are already amiss. Worker robots have been stashed in the basement, two of the crew have locked themselves in their cabins, and one man is presumed dead. And there are strange noises and apparitions that greet Kelvin, along with a reluctance from the remaining crew to talk about the situation.

It soon becomes evident that the Solaris ocean is somehow an intelligence that is interacting with the crew. Although communication with the ocean seems impossible, particularly under the eye-searing suns, Kelvin researches the station's library and history to find answers. 

It is then that his former wife, Rheya, appears to him in the flesh, beautiful, loving, and forgetful of the difficulties of their past. Is she a part of the ocean, a real being, or something else?

Lem is a master at creating a strange stage and situation, populating it with reasoning beings, then having them tirelessly seek intelligent answers and solutions. But in the case of Solaris, is there only one answer to Kelvin's situation and, if so, is he willing to accept it and deal with the repercussions?

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Lem, Stanislaw. Science Fiction from Stanislaw Lem

A variety of great science fiction works from Lem reviewed by The First Sentence Reader (previously reviewed here)

Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles

Man's first venture onto the planet Mars, from the initial deadly contact with the elusive Martians, to the destruction of the Martian culture and the re-population of  Mars by the diverse people of Earth who each travel through space for unique reasons. (previously reviewed here)

A Sound of Thunder

Bradbury, Ray. A Sound of Thunder & Other Stories. New York: HarperCollins. 1990. Print.

First Sentences:

Out there in the cold water, far from land, we waited every night for the coming of the fog, and it came, and we oiled the brass machinery and lit the fog light up in the stone tower.

Feeling like two birds in the gray sky, McDunn and I sent the light touching out, red, then white, then red again, to eye the lonely ships..

Description:

After reading any one of the science fiction/fantasy stories in Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder & Other Stories, I had to put the book down and reflect. The plot, the characters, the writing were so strong, so real, so interesting that I couldn't just plunge into the next story right away. I needed time to roll the images and events over and over in my mind. Read a sample sentence for yourself.

The darkness like a velvet shroud hung before her to be stroked by a trembling hand, with the darkness like a black panther breathing there, looking at her with unlit eyes...

With none of the usual ray guns and aliens often found in sci-fi/fantasy literature, A Sound of Thunder gives tales of people facing challenges familiar to all of us: love, uncertainty, obsession, racism, decision, and adventure. Yet each one is told in a unique voice, making the situation and people uniquely fascinating and compelling. Here's what I mean:

• A lighthouse fog horn that calls out to the lonely ocean and a creature millions of years old responds;

• A rocket ship pilot, on leave with his family at his home, simply cannot resist the call of space;

• A baseball game at a resort between the white guests and the black staff;

• A murderer obsessed with erasing every fingerprint he might have left at the crime scene;

• A hunter who time-travels back to confront a T-Rex;

• A young woman who contemplates her impending rocket ride to Mars where she will marry her waiting boyfriend.

These are people with dreams, with pride, morals, passion, and of course greed, bigotry, and ego. Each story is written by a master of words, sucking you into the plot and motivations immediately and hold on through the final paragraph. 

[The foghorn's voice was] like an empty bed beside you all night long, and like an empty house when you open the door, and like trees in autumn with no leaves. A sound like the birds flying south, crying, and a sound like November wind and the sea on the hard, cold shore....a sound that's so alone that no one can miss it, that whoever hears it will weep in their souls, and hearths will seem warmer, and being inside will seem better to all who hear it in the distant towns....whoever hears it will know the sadness of eternity and the briefness of life.

And that's just one random paragraph, full of Bradbury's images and imagination. In A Sound of Thunder, you have 300+ pages of equally compelling, breath-taking writing. Simply the best characters, plots and writing there is. 

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles

Chronological science fiction stories about the exploration of Mars by Man, from the first ships to the final days of Earth. Fabulous. (previously reviewed here)

Sleeping Giants

Neuvel, Sylvain. Sleeping Giants. New York: Del Ray. 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

-- How big was the hand? 

-- 6.9 meters, about twenty-three feet; though it seemed much larger for an eleven-year-old. 

Description:

In Sylvain Neuvel's gripping science fiction novel Sleeping Giants, a gigantic hand is discovered buried in the woods by a young girl. She had fallen into a hole that had suddenly opened up around her, finding herself in a deep excavation with smooth walls covered in unreadable hieroglyphics. And at the bottom of this "room" was the colossal hand.

Years later that same girl, now a researcher, leads a team to uncover the mystery of the hand. She realizes it is only one piece of a figure whose parts have been hidden underground - six thousand years ago by someone/something? But for what purpose?

Slowly, methodically, a huge, 20-story robotic figure begins to take shape. The team now must figure out if the figure, once assembled, can actually be made to move and what its capabilities are.

But the huge costs, the efforts to keep this find secret from the rest of the world, and the implications of a gigantic robot left by unknown beings slowly begin to exert pressure on the team and their relationships with the robot and each other. Even if the goals of fully assembling the figure and making it move are accomplished, what use will such advanced technology, probably some form of weapon, be to our embattled world? But the team continues the project because, as Oppenheimer wrote about the atomic bomb project:

If you are a scientist you believe that it is good to find out how the world works; that it is good to find out what the realities are; that it is good to turn over to mankind at large the greatest possible power to control the world and to deal with it according to its lights and its values.

Narrated through interviews conducted by a mysterious man of incredible influence and power, each character reveals his or her role and interpretation on the events as they unfold. This dramatic narration technique give the novel a crispness. The interviewer keeps the subjects on point and relating simply the facts. Occasionally, emotion and personality come through in the file transcripts that reveal possible causes behind several unexpected occurrences. 

Two personal criteria for me in stamping a book as "the best" are that 1) there is an unexpected twist on the very last page, sometimes even the last paragraph; and 2) you are overcome with an unquenchable urge to start re-reading the book as soon as you've finished that last twisty page. Sleeping Giants fulfills both criteria for me.

Neuvel promises Sleeping Giants to be the first in a trilogy, so I'm drooling in anticipation of the next two books to come. Can I wait a year? The robot lay underground for six thousand years, so maybe I could try to make it through the coming twelve months before the next in the trilogy is published. But please, Sylvain, hurry up with the next book!

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Barry, Maxx. Machine Man

After an accident that crushes his leg, an engineer designs a prostethic leg that is superior to the original. Soon he is designing (and wearing) other body parts he designs to improve his original body - but with unexpected psysical and cultural results. (previously reviewed here)

Agent to the Stars

Scalzi, John. Agent to the Stars. New York: Tor. 2010. Print.

First Sentences: 

"Fourteen million and fifteen percent of the gross? For Michelle Beck? You're out of your fucking mind, Tom." 

Headsets are a godsend. They allow you to speak on the phone while leaving your hands free for the truly important things. My hands were currently occupied with a blue rubber racquetball, which I was lightly bouncing off the pane of glass in my office window. Each quiet thonk left a tiny imprint on the glass.  It looked like a litter of poodles had levitated six feet off the ground and schmooged their noses against the window.

Someone would eventually have to wipe them all off.

Description:

Here's the situation. You are part of a highly intelligent alien race currently circling the Earth in your spaceship that looks like a gigantic asteroid. You want to introduce yourself peacefully to Earth's people with whom you are familiar due to broadcasts of television show like CHiPs that have leaked into space since the invention of television.

The problem? Your appearance resembles a gelatinous block of Jell-O. Also, you communicate via smells, usually as unpleasant as rotting cheese, dog's breath, or much worse. Of course, you realize both traits would be off-putting to Earthlings. How can your species ever hope to be welcomed by the people of Earth?

Well, in John Scalzi's Agent to the Stars, the solution is obvious. The aliens simply need to make a telephone call (the least threatening form of communication available to them) to a famous Hollywood agent and request his help in marketing themselves. 

After the call, one of the Yherajk, Joshua (long story behind his name), secretly transports to Earth and meets with Tom, a marketing whiz, to learn more about Earth up close and determine a strategy for introducing the aliens to the world. When Joshua decides to integrate himself into a neighborhood dog to achieve mobility and animal senses, the fun really starts.

Add in a jealous fellow agent, some less-than-talented goofy clients, Tom's loyal secretary Miranda, and a nosy Hollywood newspaper reporter poking around, you get a story that gathers more and more momentum with each page. And what a zany, clever, and thought-provoking ride it is.

I love Scalzi's twisty plots and thoughtful characters who find themselves in wacky situations. In Agent to the Stars, Tom and Miranda are perfectly rational people facing challenging (to say the least) situations and beings (alien and human) who all expect them to perform miracles. The dialogue between Tom, Miranda, and Joshua is sharp and witty as they simultaneously scheme to try to come up with a marketing strategy as well as hide the alien presence from those around them, especially the scandal sheet reporter. Futile on all counts, of course.

It's a great, funny, intelligent read with unexpected turns on every page. Just as you begin to see one pattern and solution, Scalzi is right there to toss in another monkey wrench that throws everything into chaos and forcing all plans to be reconfigured. Fantastic in every way.

Happy reading.

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Scalzi, John. Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas

A new recruit on a star ship rocket exploring the universe for new life notices the crew wearing redshirts seem to die on any planet landing party while the captain, first officer, and doctor always survive. Something peculiar is going on, almost like life in this wacky space adventure has been scripted. (previously reviewed here)

Barry, Max. Machine Man

Charles Neumann (ironically named) loses a leg in an industrial and designs a superior one for himself. Pleased with success, he purposely mangles and replaces his other leg, then other parts of his body until he is a superior man in every possibly way. But there are unforeseen repercussions for many people, including Neumann, in this fascinating novel. (previously reviewed here) 

Spilling Clarence

Ursu, Anne. Spilling Clarence. New York: Hyperion. 2002. Print

First Sentences:

The break room microwave was dead to begin with.

There was no doubt whatever about that. It had been in the process of dying for a great many years; for the psychopharmaceutical employees, the chunky box had always acted as an orangy-brown reminder of bygone decades.

Description:

In Anne Ursu's brilliant Spilling Clarence, a chemical factory in the small town of Clarence has an accident that releases unknown fumes into the neighborhood. The effects of this spill subtly, slowly cause residents to regain long-forgotten memories from their lives, triggered by a smell, word, image, or dream. 

Most don't even realized they spill has affected them. They just know they now are remembering buried thoughts, images, and people. Past relationships are brought to the surface along with incidents of lost opportunities, war experiences, grade school bullying, youthful plans, and suppressed emotions. 

The townspeople are ordinary people: a psychology professor raising his eight-year-old daughter; a well-published elderly woman; a graduate student researcher; a young woman working in a retirement home; and a handsome World War II veteran. Their lives are interconnected by the tiniest of threads, but all are affected by the spill in unique ways 

For many in Clarence, these visions penetrate their everyday armor, crippling their current images and lives. But for others, the revived memories are treasured and hopefully will implanted into their brains forever.

Ursu takes what could be an ordinary science fiction story and turns the focus not on the spill but rather on the individuals and their reactions to old memories. Because Ursu truly loves and respects these familiar, everyday people, Spilling Clarence becomes a very personal account that totally absorbs the reader. How will he face this painful memory? How will she overcome the knowledge she had forgotten? Will she leave Clarence to start a new life or will she remain and ride out her fears and doubts? Will he be able to face his new life or simply retreat to the safety of his bedroom?

It is a strong, clearly-voiced, thoughtful book that raises many issues on memory, relationships, choices, and family connections. But mainly it is a wonderfully-written story compassionately told about people one grows to care about deeply. Who could ask for more from any book? 

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Watson, S.J.. Before I Go to Sleep  

A woman wakes up each day with no memory of what happened the day before or any days in her past, but doggedly tries to answer questions about her previous life, husband, and family.. (previously reviewed here)