Good Reads & Views

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
YA Fiction, CD Audiobook

I confess, I did not read the book The Hunger Games, but after I watched the movie I couldn’t wait for the following movies to find out what happened next so I ran to the library and checked out Catching Fire and Mockingjay. I felt the characters were so thoroughly described that they start to feel like friends almost. It seemed as though the storyline was created in an unrestrained imaginary setting that is both real and sad. It has action, romance, terror, hope, despair and, most of all, humanity. It has politics, yet not in an "in your face" way but rather in an understandable and approachable way. If you are looking for a feel good read this is probably not the book/audiobook for you. However, if you are looking for a fantastic, emotional and harrowing story with characters that come alive and feel like they remain with you, then I would definitely recommend this book.

Countdown City by Ben H. Winters
Fiction

The apocalypse is coming with a bang--courtesy of a comet--in just a couple of months, and Detective Henry Palace is trying to track down a friend’s husband. But it’s hard to track down someone when so many people have gone “bucket list” and society is collapsing. This strong mashup of mystery and science fiction is a thoughtful examination on how people would cope (or not cope) with death and the end of civilization and what would stay important in people’s minds: Salvation, ethics, survival, comfort, solidarity or even saving the world. The story made me think about how I might cope if I were put in that situation. The two other books in the series are The Last Policeman (Book 1) and World of Trouble (Book 3).

The Humans by Matt Haig
Fiction

The unnamed narrator is an otherworld alien who has taken human form in order to prevent humanity’s progress toward self-destruction. He has taken the place of a brilliant mathematician whose recent breakthrough has the potential to destroy the universe, and the narrator must remove all traces of this mathematical discovery, including any people who have knowledge of it. The narrator is initially disgusted by all things human, but as he lives among them as a man with a family and friends, he begins to discover the “weird and often frightening beauty of being human.” As a 43-year-old newborn on planet Earth, there is much that puzzles and intrigues him: clothing, dogs, coffee, peanut butter, music, dead poets (especially Emily Dickenson), and love. When he forges bonds with the friends and family of the man he has replaced, he begins to have second thoughts about his mission. An amusing and thought-provoking look at the best and worst of humanity, with an emphasis on the best.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Fiction

Buckle in for a thrill ride in this virtual adventure story with a dash of romance. Wade Watts is a broke teenager living in a trailer stack outside Oklahoma City, but inside the virtual worlds of the Oasis he is Parzival, one of the millions of “gunters” searching for clues in ‘80s trivia to the location of a $250 billion Easter Egg hidden someplace in the Oasis. When Wade and his friends decipher the first clue, it sets off a worldwide frenzy and a global conglomerate desperate to find the Egg wants to hire Wade ... or else eliminate the competition.

The virtual worlds described are really cool and a contrast to the ruined real world. The story builds slowly, but by the end I was desperate to find out what happened next. The audiobook read by Wil Wheaton is also well worth seeking out.

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
Fiction

I loved science fiction when I was in high school and tore through works by authors such as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Harry Harrison and Robert E. Heinlein. Recently I rediscovered my love of science fiction, and this book feels like one of those classic science fiction novels in the best possible way. John Scalzi has taken the Little Fuzzy series of H. Beam Piper and updated it with the blessing of Piper's family. His Jack Holloway character can be obnoxious at times, but I admired his backbone and his chutzpah standing up to much bigger and richer opponents in his quest to save the mysterious fuzzy creatures that have taken over his home and heart. If you like this book, try the original H. Beam Piper series, collected into The Complete Fuzzy. And for more by John Scalzi, try Agent to the Stars or Old Man’s War.

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
Fiction

This prequel to the renowned Miles Vorkosigan series shows how Miles’ parents fell in love, but you can read it as a complicated space opera of two conflicting planets clashing over wormholes and interstellar territory. Commander Cordelia Naismith of Beta Colony is on a scientific research mission when she is taken prisoner by Admiral Aral Vorkosigan (dubbed “The Butcher of Komarr”) of Barrayar. She expects to dislike him but soon finds he is an honorable man who treats her with respect and honesty. Caught in a web of interstellar conflict, the two former enemies come to trust one another exclusively. If you like this sweeping space opera, try Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro, the Dune series by Frank Herbert or the Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley.