Incarceron - A prison with some odd quirks

Finished Catherin Fisher's Incarceron. This is a kind of steampunk dystopia that shares some common ground with books by Scott Westerfeld, or Suzanne Collins. It was recommended by someone with very good taste who liked it very much.

In the world of the story, a society survived some kind of catastrophic conflict and responded by attempting to eliminate all possibility of future instability. Any trouble-making elements are confined in a vast prison, which is designed as a kind of social experiment, aiming to create a utopia within. The prison's location is a secret, and no one ever enters or leaves. Outside, society has been artificially restored to a reproduction of life in the 18th century, and progress, change, or any use of knowledge or technology which doesn't fit into that era is forbidden.

We follow two protagonists. The first is a girl who is about to marry the prince in a marriage arranged by her father, the Warden, who has sole oversight of the titular prison. The second is an inmate of the prison, a boy who is troubled by strange fits and visions, and who believes he came, impossibly, from the outside world, though he can't remember his life before. Their adventures and discoveries about their society, about the prison, and about their own and the realm's history, give us book one of a two part series.

And, ok, this was not a bad book. Unique world building, interesting characters, political intrigue and some creative ideas.

Maybe I was predisposed to be irritable with it, because the author had a word choice tic that pulled me right out of the plot a few times early on.

On page 23, "something inside her went cold." Well, sure, that's fine, but then:
on page 24, "the threat of his unveiled personality turned her cold" and that exact description "_______ turned him/her cold" was repeated by different characters 3 times or more in the first 75 pages. Granted, there is a lot going on that is creepy, unnerving, unsettling, chilling, and ominous, but surely the very different characters could have slightly varied reactions.

That quirk of word choice got me started noting every repetition or odd phrasing. Soon everything seemed to be done coldly, or arrogantly, and everyone was incessantly scowling or muttering.

Trying to set that aside, I just didn't ever come to really like the protagonists, and some of the central riddles of the plot were never really explained and, well, this one left me appropriately..cold.

Books, Food, and Books About Food

I was running late for my doctor visit today, and so only had a moment to spare for choosing a book to bring. I wasn't really in the middle of anything, and just took along Hungry Monkey by Matthew Amster-Burton, since it's light (literally light, as in make my bag too heavy) and I was in between novels anyway. This sort of anecdotal reading lends itself to a setting where you are absolutely guaranteed to be required to put your book aside right at the crucial moment in the plot. Doctor's really don't appreciate being told to hold on just a second while you finish a paragraph. Shocking, no?

Possibly not the best pick, as this book is full of descriptions of food and tantalizing recipes of all kinds and I was stuck at a cancer center that offers jello cups, shortbread cookies, and those scary neon orange cracker and faux cheese sandwiches (tell me those aren't carcinogenic, I dare you.) Hardly a serious problem, I know, though it was kinda sad to read about all the great restaurants the author frequents on a weekly basis. Restaurants are officially prohibited until my white cell count is something like twice what it is now. It's gotten high enough twice in the past year and a half, and one of those times I was in the hospital. I prefer to pretend restaurants don't exist.

Anyway, the recipes were promising, but the format's not all that practical. I like my recipes in a reference kind of context, easy to refer back to, rather than scattered through memoir. Simply Recipes is good, for example. But it is fun to read about food, especially when the author adores it and has a lot of information to share. But best to reserve this reading for times when you have access to a kitchen.

Next on the Library Stack: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Books in the Mail!

There is no better kind of mail than books (for a book lover, obviously) and I recently received two!

First, a dear friend from college was kind enough to send me a copy of Except the Queen, by Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder.

This friend is a book person, and one of the perks of her job is getting to take home books that have been sent to the mystery magazine she works for. I haven't read Jane Yolen in a while, and I'm not familiar with Midori Snyder, so this book offers the double benefit of returning to an old favorite and discovering a new author. Plus, my friend has great taste in books, and the cover and blurb make this one plenty intriguing.

And then, and then, folks, I received an advance readers copy of Robin McKinley's as yet unreleased new book, Pegasus. Eat your hearts out, fellow McKinley fans.

..Ah, I don't mean it.

Will you forgive my gloating if I tell you I am attempting to leave both of these tempting books untouched until I've reached the bottom of the teetering pile of library books waiting nearby? Is it weird to feel that it might be somehow rude to return them all unread? Probably. But I really did want to read those books until these shiny new ones came along. My good intentions will probably only last a week or two.

For those of you who love Robin McKinley's writing, but don't have an advance copy of her next book, I recommend that you devote some of you internet meandering time to Robin McKinley's Blog because:
a)Robin McKinley writes it, obviously
b)she also occasionally posts bits and pieces of what she's working on, and
c)reading her blog has a lot to do with how I ended up in possession of a copy of Pegasus.

Everybody ought to read John Green

I'm convinced this is true: you should go out and read one of John Green's books. I should go out and read another of John Green's books. This is one smart and talented author, as well as one funny guy, which you know if you've ever found him bantering with his brother on their youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers

Read John Green. This is all I've got to say at the moment. I would really like to post about the actual content of Looking for Alaska, but am instead practicing delayed gratification..or delayed massive spoilers, since that, I realized, is what I was writing.

Massive spoilers to come later.

The Time Traveler's Wife

I wondered as I finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife how Audrey Niffenegger must feel to go from aspiring writer to blockbuster success with literary awards, a movie deal and a top spot on the best seller list with one novel. For an author who has thought so much about time travel, about cause and effect, about before and after - it must be an interesting experience.

The story is about love and relationships. That is its purpose, and time travel is the devise, the forge that creates and tempers the relationship that is the focus of the book, but the unusual details of the time travel itself were what stood out to me. This wasn't a story of a brilliant inventor or daring adventurer. Time travel wasn't achieved through science or magic. It was a disease. And while the main characters weren't all that relatable, being strangely sick I can relate to.

Henry travels through time, and he can't control when it happens or what happens when he travels. He is far more aware than most people that his life is not something he can really control. Looking at disability, at being unable to live a 'normal' life, through this science fiction analogy was fascinating to me. Time travel interferes dramatically with what this character wants to be able to do, it takes a heavy toll on him, and on his wife, who worries and waits, and it carries the constant risk of unforeseen catastrophe. Or foreseen catastrophe that cannot be prevented.

There was a lot of realism here - in the self-absorption that is so easy to fall into when you have a strange problem that isn't shared by the people around you, the futility and frustration of having your body malfunction outside your control, the wearying and wearing down effect of struggling for a long time, and the way hardship brings joy into sharper focus, but makes it almost inseparable from fear of loss.

Every person who has been terribly ill can find bits of truth in this story, however fantastical its premise and melodramatic its characters.