Walter Tevis – Mockingbird

In fact, more then just one catastrophe has seen the surface of Earth by the time we meet Spofforth, a high-end top notch robot, the last of his kind, reigning over a world of minor robots and the dumb, pot-smoking remainders of humanity, dulled by psychodrugs and hypnotic TV.

A nuclear war has gone by and passed, but the real catastrophe is mankind vanishing completely – there are no more children, and life relies on robots, mostly. But one day, Spofforth, in his role as dean of the NY university, is contacted by a man claiming to be able to read. He offers him the job of a reader, to read the words of antique silent movies.

The man, Professor Paul Bentley, is fascinated by the new, long-forgotten world of words he discovers, and begins to think, and get rid of his drugs. Aren’t the children in the zoo, where he goes for a break, the same each day? Maybe – could they be robots? Why? And what about the woman in the red dress in front of the python cage? Or the python? Soon he is bound to find out – and reinforced by the woman in the red dress, an outlaw by the rules of his society, he starts to read and write and learn and understand more about what happened to his world.

But reading, and teaching reading even more so, is a felony, and one day Spofforth puts him into prison, far far away from New York. Paul has to learn to rely on himself, breaks free, and goes on a journey through a past-computerization-period America which offers lots of insight about human traits such as curiosity, courage, and compassion. He meets friendly telepathic robot buses and pig-headed fundamentalist Christians who become the first friends hes ever had, learns how to open mussels or finds out why toasters went out of fashion 20 years ago. In New York, on the other hand, his girlfriend Mary Lou discovers the true reason behind the decline of mankind.

I am glad I re-read this book, it is a stunning, compelling novel painting a picture of a future where mankind has lost the ability and desire to read, and the desire to live and love and explore at the same time. The spirit of truly human existence is being reborn by Bentley and his rediscovery of books, wisdom, structurized thinking, analytics – and love. Terrific. This should be on the reading list for all high schools.

Read another review of Mockingbird at Animal My Soul.

Khaled Hosseini – A Thousand Splendid Suns

The praise on the cover for the narrative talent of the author was high. And I did finish the book in time for the book club, but didn’t cook something inspired by it, which is why I didn’t blog about it in my food blog. Still, I read it, and like the last book from the book club this one didn’t really work for me.

According to Publishers Weekly,

The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women. Mariam is the scorned illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age 15 into marrying the 40-year-old Rasheed, who grows increasingly brutal as she fails to produce a child. Eighteen later, Rasheed takes another wife, 14-year-old Laila, a smart and spirited girl whose only other options, after her parents are killed by rocket fire, are prostitution or starvation. Against a backdrop of unending war, Mariam and Laila become allies in an asymmetrical battle with Rasheed, whose violent misogyny—”There was no cursing, no screaming, no pleading, no surprised yelps, only the systematic business of beating and being beaten”—is endorsed by custom and law.

Maybe it is just the fact that I’ve had stories of mistreated women and abusive men galore in my real life as well as my reading life, but I thought this book as much cliché as it comes. The plot is melodramatic, the characters, especially the male ones, are one-dimensional, have no depth.

Yes, Hosseini has a heart-warming way of writing, in a certain way which doesn’t appeal to me, yes I do mourn the losses and pains of the women depicted – but still, I think the book is nothing more than average. It seems to be a chain of painful horrid events, there is little joy for the main characters, and life in itself is a horrid experience, turning into yet another woman breaking free saga, yet another view at devastating civil wars. It is lacking a unique angle or lacking information about the described historical era beyond the compassion and placative horror. Instead, the storyline is rather predictable, and didn’t make me want to read on for most of the book.

Instead of being a splendid novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns feels like a really bad soap opera placed in a civil war Muslim country. Boring, and a waste of time.

• John Wyndham – The Day of the Triffids
• George A. Stewart – Earth Abides
• Larry Niven & David Pournelle – Lucifer’s Hammer
• Philip K. Dick & Roger Zelazny – Deus Irae
• Walter Tevis – Mockingbird

What I will be reading for the Mark Twain Mini-Challenge

• Life on the Mississippi
• Roughing it

I read this book in one sitting, although it is not a genre I usually read (and I felt it is a bit soap-opera style). I love Indian food, so the Indian cookery-themed novel dealing with personal and family isues of three generations of Indian women living in the US was a good choice for a foodie book event.

I have posted a shortish review in English and my take on one of the recipes on my food blog: Cajun Prawn Biriyani from Amulya Malladi.

A full review of the book (in German) is available at my reviews blog.

1. Schweinsgalopp, by Terry Pratchett (Hogfather) - finished Jan 9, 2008
   Discworld goes Christmas, or rather New Years Eve. It is Hogwatchsnight, and the Hogfather got kidnapped – who is delivering the gifts? Death is moonlighting as santa and his granddaughter Susan tries to find out what is wrong, while strange small gods appear everywhere and an assassin called Teatime follows his own and very strange path to success…

   Not Pratchett’s best book, but a nice twist on Christmas, commerce and family values nonetheless. The German translation is mediocre, though.

2. Killer aus dem Eis, by Christopher Hinz (Paratwa 1 – Liege Killer) – finished Jan 14, 2008
   tough technical action scifi. Earth is a postbionuclear-war biohazard zone, mankind lives in space colonies orbiting Earth. One day a bioengineered killer from the pre-apocalypse era resurfaces and brings mass murder, mayhem and destruction. And only a team of specialist from the past who lay frozen in a chamber can stop the horror…

   Reviews at Amazon were positive, some called it the best scifi ever, it is hardscience sci-fi, lots of technobabble and geeky inventions, and a complex new society (and plot) which make the novel modestly interesting. Main characters appear 120 pages into the novel, it takes another 450 to deliver real surprise. Character development is nonexistent. A little too much “Terminator”, probably because this was written 2 years after the movie. Not bad, interesting details, but overall boring and lots of useless plot strands, also rather predictable. Some of the basic ideas are highly improbable… such as a post-apocalypse mankind being able to start not one but about 200 hightech space colonies of in some casses more than 120 km length. A look at the cost for a few meters of ISS should put that into perspective.

3. Ash Ock, by Christopher Hinz (Paratwa 2) – finished Jan 14, 2008
   I wasn’t too sure if I should read this after the first novel, in particular since (reading the German edition) the translator changed between parts 1 and 2, how dumb is that? He changed key terms, like names of organizations or weapons. while the author gives the impression of trying to establish a complex storyline, it looks like he’s trying too hard. Basically a filler novel with lots of blah blah. Didn’t like it, storyline still obvious.

4. Paratwa, by Christopher Hinz (Paratwa 3) - finished Jan 14, 2008
   I skipped many pages – I just finished this because I wanted to know how it all ends. Most of the book is superfluous. While there are a few surprises in the final part of the trilogy with a convincing storyline for once, the really interesting part is the history of mankind and of the paratwa species, which is told in retrospect. I am not a big fan of novels which need to tell most of the relevant details in flashbacks or retrospect or embedded narrative. Overall: Hinz does a good job in explaining a complex new human society in space and the politics and influences, without boring the reader, and the main plot is actually planned very well (although I have a feeling that the events of book 3 were not planned like this from the beginning). But the storyline suffers from way too many people, locations, intrigues and narrative which isn’t essential to the development of the plot, and the characters are rather two-dimensional. Verdict: skip the trilogy.

5. Und plötzlich guckst Du bis zum lieben Gott, by Markus Lanz – finished Jan 17, 2008
   Biography of a German TV celeb cook, who died twice and was reuscitated and learned to live his life just the way he likes it instead of doing what was expected from him, one of the nicest and most authentic people around. Goes straight to the heart and makes you evaluate your own life critically, Terrific book about a terrific guy.

6. Without Fail, by Lee Child – – finished Jan 17, 2008
   A Jack Reacher novel. Five years after the events of the first novel (and, according to the inside flap, this is Jack Reacher novel no. 6), Jack Reacher accepts a special challenge: to kill the Vice President of the U.S. Of course we all know that Reacher, although he defines moral standards of his own, wouldn’t actually murder a politican… he meets the former girlfriend of his deceased brother, who works for the Secret Service and needs to protect the next Vice President from a murder threat. A stunning, fast-paced drama unfolds, with ex-MP Reacher at his best. Good read, some interesting insights in the U.S. political system.

7. The Hard Way, by Lee Child – finished Jan 24, 2008
   Another Jack Reacher novel. Living in New York and enjoying an espresso in Greenwich village, Jack stumbles upon a twisted and elaborate kidnapping plot – the wife and stepdaughter of a military consultant by name of Lane has been kidnapped. It is a private firm consulting to the Pentagon and employing former SEALs, Marines and SAS troops. people who are much alike Jack. Lane hires Jack to find his wife and the kidnappers. And then there is a young lady who is convinced this isn’t a kidnapping but an angry husband getting rid of a disobedient wife. Five years ago, the same thing happened to Lanes first wife… Read it in one sitting, excellent thriller.

8. Making Money, by Terry Pratchett - finished Jan 25, 2008
   Moist von Lipwig does it again. After Going Postal, he now has to run the Mint and Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork, which – to say the least – are not exactly making money at all. His personal golem, Gladys, tries to be female, his fiancée is digging in the sand of the kingdom of the Dwarfs, and the chairman of his bank goes woof – and of course someone wants to kill him. But all’s well that ends well, and Moist has a terrific plan how to rebuilt the financial system of the city sort of overnight. Only he needs to convince everyone gold is actually worthless…

   While this might be a satirical shot at the financial system today, it evidently isn’t, but it is a clever shot at old money and superrich families as well as many preconceptions about how making money works, and of course Adora Belle Dearheart and her Golem Trust and a certain part of the Unseen University play a vital role – as well as an uncanny patrician Lord Vetinary, who plays his citizens like pupptes on a string. Even more so, there is the promise of yet another Moist von Lipwig adventure ahead. Lacks some of the sparkling humor of many other Pratchett novels, but is more subtle and cynical, just like Going Postal was. A fine read.

9. Good Calories, Bad Calories, by Gary Taubes - finished Feb 03, 2008
   If you want to read one book, and one book only, or just one nonfiction book in 2008, this is the one to grab. Your life will never be the same again. Can you imagine that the whole theory of how your body processes foods, of how people become fat and get trim and lean, is a big fat lie? Taubes dives deep into the realms of obesity research and shows the bad science behind the eat less, exercise more ideology, you’ll understand why eating less, eating low-fat and exercising more won’t help, why cholesterol and fats are actually good for you, and what the real killer (literally) food is. You want to go on a diet? Read this first. Mindblowing. Must-read of the decade.