As per my beautiful girlfriend's suggestion in my post,
A Year of Reading, I've decided to review, well more recommend, ten of my favorite books. So quite honestly the Dune series is probably one of the favorite things I read this past year, in my entire life actually, but seeing as I already
wrote about back in July , I'll refrain from putting it in my list. I've also decided to only put them in alphabetical order because I can't put one over the other, it's too hard!
- Anthem by Ayn Rand ~ This is a must read for anyone even slightly interested in dystopian fiction. It totally compares to Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Huxley's Brave New World, and actually does something different with the genre. I'm not sure when or even how it happened, but I became utterly enthralled with the whole dystopian scene, I re-read Orwell and Huxley, picked up the "grandfather of dystopian novels" We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, Atwood, and this literary crack eventually led me to which I talk about later on here. One of the great things about Anthem is the fact Rand hadn't yet fully developed her philosophy, which she stuffs into her later novels. The other fantastic aspect to her novel here is the style. Rand writes a book in essentially first person, but in a world where first person doesn't exist. It's crazy intense and honestly must have been amazingly difficult to accomplish, yet she does it with ease. I'm not going to try and summarize Anthem because it would be far too easy to spoil various aspects, I'll just say that if you liked Orwell and Huxley read Rand!
- Choke by Chuck Palahniuk ~ Vile, wretched, disgusting, disturbing, classic Chuck! I picked up Choke I was still in a way a Palahniuk virgin -I had only read Fight Club at the time- which, as anyone who's read Palahniuk knows, is considerably "lighter" compared to his usual style. Chuck breaks all the rules on what "fiction" should be, this isn't Jane Austin or Steinbeck, he crosses every line there is, sex, morals, God, suicide, abortion, you name it and Chuck will open your eyes. This being said, he does it with a certain taste, as much taste as you can have, anyway, when your main character is a sociopathic con artist who just happens to be addicted to sex. Definitely a fun read, though, and especially refreshing for anyone who's used to the main stream book scene. Not for the squeamish, religious, morally sound, easily offended person. Once you go Chuck, you never go back.
- Elantris by Brandon Sanderson ~ This was Sanderson's debut novel and also the novel that won over Robert Jordan's widow enough to choose him to write the final book in the Wheel of Time series. I've always been surprised when an author can actually pull off writing a fantasy book in only one book, but Sanderson does just that, and he does it well. was a very well written book and definitely gave a unique view on fantasy, one which, I for one, enjoyed immensely. Though, since it was Sandersons first book, it is a bit unpolished, which doesn't really take away from the story much, just something to note if you're a neurotic reader and can't stand even minor mistakes. Sanderson has an acclaimed series out now which I'll probably pick up when I have more time, but if you're looking for a nice light fantasy check out Elantris.
- The J-Curve by Ian Bremmer ~ This was the first political science book I've ever read, and although there were several non-fiction books I enjoyed more--such as by MalcolmGladwell-- but Bremmers book was by far the most insightful. As I've said here, I have this weird obsession with dystopian societies and while reading The J-Curve I realized a few things. First of which is that North Korea is just a stones throw away from being a classic Orwellian society, the reason it isn't, though, is the very premise of Bremmers book. The more closed a society is, the harder it is for said society to stay stable, so the only way for closed societies to stay stable is to become more and more closed. This is exactly why the U.S. foreign policy is so wrong, by putting these sanctions on countries like Cuba and North Korea, we enable them to stay even more authoritarian and keep these dictators in power. We need to help these countries move to global openness, democracy will by its nature throw these dictators out of power. If only the people running our foreign policy would read this book, but maybe someone who goes into foreign policy will read this and keep it in mind and someday change the world! (Ha as if I'm that influential)
- Lamb by Christopher Moore ~ Generally I haven't read a whole lot of comedy books, but Lamb was recommended to me by a friend so I thought I'd give it a shot. Strictly speaking, I suppose, it isn't really a comedy book, it's really a fiction with a good flare of comedy and satire. That being said, Moore is a fantastic author, his style is clean and strong, his descriptions are amazing, and he can write satire with the best of them. Basically Lamb is about Christs childhood all the way up to his crucifixion, and even though I'm not the most religiously educated person, this was hilarious! It's written by Christ's best friend Biff, who is resurrected by a ditsy angel to tell his story. Whether you're religious or not Lamb is a lighthearted good read, and will give anyone a good laugh. The hardcover is even printed as a Bible look-alike, all the way down to the little strip of ribbon used to mark your page!
- Next by Michael Crichton ~ First let me start out by saying that Crichton was by far one of the best authors of our generation, and when he died on November 5h, 2008 we were all deeply dismayed. He will be missed. Next is a techno-thriller set in what could be the very near future--as the majority of his novels are--and follows several bioengineering plot lines. At first they all seem to be independent, but Crichton, as usual, ties up all the strings in the end magnificently. Though this isn't quite the genius that was Jurassic Park it is a fantastic look at the future of bioengineering and the possible ramifications of messing around with DNA. Anyone interested in science with a flair of mystery/thriller should check out Next, especially those interested in biology.
- Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks ~ After you've read 6+ fantasy books you began to see a pattern. Indeed many themes reoccur in fantasy, young innocent character has secret power, found by a 'mentor' type and told to save the world from certain doom, goes on hero's quest to save world, gains companions to help share the load, fights evil with newly discovered powers, saves the day. It's actually really disappointing after awhile, you end up looking for books that do this the best. I picked up Brent Weeks first book on a whim, and too my delight, he did something I've never seen with a fantasy. That being he made it super dark, the main character not only in conflict with "evil" but part of the evil. This is one of my favorite new authors, he did something new and refreshing, and dark with a now overpopulated genre. Not only that he made a character you love to hate, as well as a whole cast of unique companions. This is by far a must read for anyone looking for something new in the fantasy world.
- Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr. ~ I had seen the movie with Jared Leto a couple times before I read the book, but nothing could prepare me for just how intense the book was. I know better than anyone that books are far better than the movies based off them, but holy hell. This was like the difference between an amoeba and a human brain! Selby goes into some of the darkest aspects of humans nature; from addiction to obsession, and he does it in such a way you feel the characters pain. It's brilliant, but terribly depressing. By far one of the most depressing books I've ever read, up there with A Child Called It--which more than anything is depressing because it's a true story-- yet the same can probably be said about Requiem. Sure not the same characters or the exact same experiences but the human tragedy is all too real. Dark, depressing, morbid, graphic, but something I think that everyone should read if for nothing more to open their eyes to what can happen and most likely does happen in our country.
- Revelation Space Trilogy by Alastair Reynolds ~Let me be clear here, the books I'm talking about are indeed Reynolds Trilogy (Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, and Absolution Gap), but also Chasm City which is part of the same universe. In any case, I picked up the first book just out of curiosity because I didn't really know what a Space Opera was. I was seriously glad I did. The crazy part is the fact that this is Reynolds first set of books! I have recently become fairly obsessive about colonization recently, and this trilogy is what colonization could do for the human race some day! Granted it's rather far fetched, but oh man how amazing would something like this be? Reynolds isn't the run of the mill sci-fi author, he writes what is called hard sci-fi, which basically everything in his books is possible. Indeed, Reynolds has a PhD in Astronomy and worked for the European Space Agency through last year, so it's certainly closer to being real than, say, The Matrix. Reynolds also writes in a fairly dark manner, especially when you think that his scenarios could very well be true.
- Snow Crash by Neal Stevenson ~ This was the first cyberpunk I've ever read and good god it was amazing! Cyberpunk is a branch of Sci-Fi that combines "high tech with low life", (thanks wiki), which means hackers in almost dystopian futures. The story follows a hacker named Hiro Protagonist, I know real clever Stevenson, who is also a Japanese martial arts enthusiast. This is probably one of the other reasons I enjoyed Snow Crash so much, I have a strange obsession with Japanese history especially martial arts if you don't know me, Stevenson combines a fantastic dark, humorous, fun future with great fight scenes. Much of the book takes place in something called The Metaverse , which is essentially the Internet at it's most intense; think Matrix minus the killer machines. I really can't do Stevenson justice in his plotting because he masterfully combines several stories, that in the end somehow all wrap up in the end. Basically Hiro and his street punk friend Y.T. discover a drug called Snow Crash that not only kills your computer, but completely screws up hackers minds. That's the other thing I loved about this book, Stevenson is one of those authors that knows what he's talking about and does his research if he doesn't. Even though Snow Crash came out in '92 many of the psychological, anthropological, linguistical, and even technological ideas are still relevant and insightful today. I'd recommend Snow Crash to anyone interested in technology, sci-fi, even dystopian-esque books, really I think everyone should read it or at least give it a shot!
Wow I totally got carried away with this. I first intended this to be a couple sentences, maybe a couple days worth of work, but no.. I started this on the 6th! Okay part of the slowness is the fact that I'm lazy and wasn't doing many a day. Either way, I hope that someone finds joy in one of the books I've suggested. Maybe I'll do this again soon, well not soon, but at some point haha.
