Get Lost in Literature

 “All a seed truly needs to sprout is time.” Anastasia Miller insists her whole life that she is an alien here to kickstart the invasion of Earth by an alien species of plant people. She advertises it to everyone she meets almost as soon as she meets them. Of course nobody believes her, it’s outrageous and crazy. Her roommates Mandy and Lucas accept her for who she is, extraterrestrial or not, and her boyfriend Graham loves her unconditionally. But nobody really understands until an astronomer intercepts an alien signal from outer space and things begin to change. The first thing that really pops out of my head on the subject of Overgrowth is how when people realize the aliens have been among them the whole time, they turn on each other. People begin accusing neighbors and friends who are “a little out there” of being aliens, even attacking them. They’re rioting in the streets and looting. I don’t think this behavior is outside the realm of possibility of what would happen in a re...

"All mankind is trapped within a waking dream of a world that doesn't exist." Sigur Johanson and Tina Lund are biologists working for the oil company to study worms that have mysteriously cropped up along the sea slopes. Leon Anawak is a cetologist and whale watch guide who’s taken by surprise when the normally peaceful animals begin attacking boats. Schools of fish turn murderous, seafood turns poisonous… The ocean is turning into a battle ground. But why and how? (And that’s just Part One) Let me start my review by saying I loved this book. There’s not a thing worth complaining about. Originally written in German, I read the English translation, and you know how people always say things get lost in translation? If something was lost, it was lost on me. I found this book to be highly suspenseful. The science bits were a bit slow, but there were plenty of action sequences to spice things up a bit. And the mystery of why this is happening kept me flipping the pages late in...

"The past was dead, the future was unimaginable. What certainty had he that a single human creature now living was on his side?" Let me start by saying that a portion of my readers are not going to like my review as I plan to compare it to certain current events. Some Democrats (mostly online) have dramatically compared the current Administration to the government that exists inside this book. After reading the book, I think the comparison is a bit extreme, but they're not completely wrong about there being similarities. Winston Smith starts this dystopian classic by writing a diary, an act that is punishable by death. He lives in the totalitarian state of Oceania, where free-thinking is forbidden. As stated above I can't help but draw parallels between our current day world, and the world depicted in 1984 . Everyone in Oceania is under surveillance; their movements and conversations constantly videoed and recorded by telescreens and monitored by the Thought Police. T...

"We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam." This story takes place in a futuristic world where books are banned and burned. Guy Montag, whose job it is to burn the books, is about to become an enemy of the state. I'm having a hard time thinking critically about this book. It wasn't a difficult read, it was scary in certain places, and I found it deeply enjoyable (sometimes classic lit can drag on), and relevant to today's societal and political problems. Yet the review doesn't come easy. Guy Montag lives a life of normalcy. He gets up and goes to work everyday, lucky enough to have a job he enjoys. He comes home to his wife, Mildred who spends her days watching tv. Watching television has become a favorite hobby of the people of this dystopian society, their house installed with three wall-tvs, and Mildred begging for a fourth. She's the epitome of this 'perfect' society. She...

“And even if I turned out to be entirely sane—well then, great, it meant that an alien advance party was suddenly nosing around my planet. Worse, they were lawyering up.” ― Rob Reid, Year Zero Nick Carter--not that Nick Carter--has 48 hours to save the world. Aliens owe Earth all the money in the universe because they've been stealing our music. And rather than go universally broke on music pirating fines, they want to help us self-destruct. This book was funny, but you probably won't find the meaning to life inside of it, if that's what you're looking for. It does make a few cold jabs at the digital generation; media piracy is at an all-time high because everybody's doing it, simply because everybody else is doing it. And if you like lots of science in your science fiction, this probably isn't the book for you either. There's plenty of gadgets, intergalactic travel, aliens, and fantastic alien planets, but very little logic as to how any of this is possible...

“Some roads go on and on,” the Kind One said. “And some roads end before their route. But no road goes on forever.” ― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds This is perhaps one of my shortest reviews ever, written during a reviewing slump, but I read very few titles that start with V and this was the best book of the bunch. An intergalactically famous inventor charges a ship's captain with protecting a boy. The captain's crew become a family, but her story turns to tragedy. Despite the sadness, the story ends pleasantly with hope. This book was not what I expected. It was science-light science fiction. No long-winded explanations of tech and very little tech at all. There were no wildly fantastic space battles, just the practicality of life among the stars. The narrative was not quick, but a slow burn as the characters drove the story from past to present and across the universe.

  "The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience." Frank Herbert, Dune Please forgive my lackluster review, this one is not current, written in 2020. As you know, 2020 was a trying year, Covid-19 sucking the life out of most people, myself included. I can see why this book touched so many and I enjoyed reading it for the most part. I think some of the plot devices were a tad bit lazy: every oh-so-convenient moment that fell in line with The Prophecy, for example. But the characters were delightful in their schemes. The setting was great. Plot would probably have been better for me if I wasn't overthinking on overdrive, stress makes me cynical. I maybe think the world building and vocabulary could have been improved upon, just a bit, but I might also be reading this at the wrong age. I liked the touches on environmental and ecological issues. I liked that he addressed political and theological conflicts, and the void between the ruling class...

  "No rest for the wicked, Julie Mao said in his mind. No peace for the good." XO Jim Holden, soon to be Captain of the Rocinante and his crew, answer a distress call from a seemingly abandoned ship. Detective Miller is put under contract to find rebel Julie Mao and transport her home to her family. Disaster strikes and they become the only people standing between humanity and annihilation. I loved the world building. There's Mars and Earth and the Belters, and sure that's kind of cool all on its own. But true to the series name "The Expanse," the author left me feeling overwhelmed at times by the endless expanse that is our universe; colonies of humans spread across the planets, but never having reached the stars... When I picture the space stations built on rocks, floating lightyears from anywhere, and spaceships built like cities traveling across the empty sky, it makes human connection seem so much more important and yet... Mars, Earth, and the Belters a...

  "Your assumptions are windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in." Nessie gets up one day and leaves her house in a walking coma, seemingly impervious to all external stimuli. Soon Nessie is joined by others like her, as they begin their journey to God knows where. They are the flock. Shana, Nessie's sister, gives up everything to care for her sister and is soon joined by other devoted friends and relatives of the flock. These are the shepherds. Both shepherds and flock are closely monitored by Benji Ray and his coworkers from the CDC as a secondary outbreak occurs, more deadly and insidious than the first. I loved certain things about this book. The mystery of the flock: what happened to them and where are they going and why are they going there. The shepherds' dedication and sacrifice, the forging of bonds in the time of mass hysteria, as the caravan travels in blind faith. Equal parts suspense and cautionary tale, it...

“Perhaps the logical conclusion of everyone looking the same is everyone thinking the same.” ― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies In this futuristic world, there are Uglies and there are Pretties. Main character, Tally is an Ugly, who can't wait for her sixteenth birthday, that magical birthday when all newly 16-year-olds get to undergo plastic surgery to become a Pretty. Once Pretty, she gets to go to New Prettytown, where a Pretty's only job is to have fun. Everything looks like it's going to go according to Tally's plan, until her friend Shay, decides to run away rather than become pretty...And Tally is given the task of tracking her down and bringing her back to civilization. I didn't love this book from start to finish, but some parts were definitely more lovable than others. At first, the story was hard to get into: Even though the story is told by Tally, who is almost sixteen, her voice seemed to belong to someone much younger than a teenager approaching adulthood. In ...

  The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking #1) by Patrick Ness   "That's the thing I'm learning about being thrown out on your own. Nobody does nothing for you. If you don't change it, it don't get changed." Todd Hewwit knows a lot of things: he knows a group of settlers left the Old World for the New World, to live a simpler existence away from the evils of society. He knows there was a war between the native people, The Spackles, and the humans. He knows The Spackles used Germ Warfare; releasing bugs that turned the internal monologues of men into never ending Noise, while killing off all the women, and giving animals the power to speak. He knows The Spackles were eventually defeated, leaving Prentisstown the only surviving settlement. Todd, the youngest member of Prentisstown, is eagerly awaiting the arrival of his thirteenth birthday, where he will officially be considered a man. But when Todd and his dog Manchee discover a hole in the Noise, he learns...

  "Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow." Robert Walton failed writer turned sailor, opens the story by writing to his sister Margaret. He is sailing far north, when the crew rescue Victor Frankenstein who is lost upon an ice flow. Victor is a broken man with a story to tell. Even if you haven't seen the movies, even if you haven't read the book, you're probably familiar with the concept of Frankenstein: a mad scientist sews a body together and restores life to dead limbs, creating a hideous monster. This book wasn't at all what I was expecting. After Victor's mother dies he is sent away to university where he studies science and discovers how to reanimate the dead. He becomes obsessed with his science experiment, shunning all social contact an...

 “Every morning is an afterlife. Every evening, I die anew in the trenches amid nightmares of artillery finding their target.” - Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey Beacon 23 is a “lighthouse,” a one-man space-station anchored on the fringes of an asteroid field, there to guide space travelers safely through danger. The man who runs Beacon 23 is nameless, one of many stationed to a solitary life, making sure NASA’s never fail Beacons never fail… Until one day, his does. So this book will delight sci-fi nerds. If it’s space travel, intergalactic war, and aliens that you like, this book has it. If you like explosions, quick impulsive decisions, and crazy characters, this book’s got those. It’s a fast read, if you like that kind of thing, and if you do, that’s okay and this book’s for you. But if you’re the type of reader who likes to read a little deeper, this one might also be for you, too. Beacon 23 appears to be anti-war propaganda wrapped in a fast-paced space opera. The main character whose...

  "The hotel room was pain and noise and chaos. Victor came to, dazed, trapped between the school lab and the hotel room, Angie's scream in his head and Sydney's in his ears. Sydney? But the girl was nowhere to be seen..." The book blurb for this story, describe Victor and Eli as "brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys..." but that's an understatement. Victor and Eli are psychopaths who meet in college; they're both geniuses, top of the class, with the world at their fingertips and they're both hungry for power. Victor is a loner, who's world famous psychologists parents have abandoned him for book tours, leaving him to his studies in neuroscience. He doesn't try to fit in, he doesn't want to... But he finds himself drawn to Eli- a charismatic, athletic, pre-med student, who enjoys being the center of attention. Working together, they figure out that the key to having all the power they want is surviving . I love an antihero story, and here...

 “Every morning is an afterlife. Every evening, I die anew in the trenches amid nightmares of artillery finding their target.” Beacon23 is a “lighthouse,” a one-man space-station anchored on the fringes of an asteroid field, there to guide space travelers safely through danger. The man who runs Beacon 23 is nameless, one of many stationed to a solitary life, making sure NASA’s never fail Beacon’s never fail… Until one day, his does. So this book will delight sci-fi nerds. If it’s space travel, intergalactic war, and aliens that you like, this book has it. If you like explosions, quick impulsive decisions, and crazy characters, this book’s got those. It’s a fast read, if you like that kind of thing, and if you do, that’s okay and this book’s for you. But if you’re the type of reader who likes to read a little deeper, this one might also be for you, too. Beacon 23 appears to be anti-war propaganda wrapped in a fast-paced space opera. The main character who’s real name is never reveal...

...there is no you there is no me there is only we we we we we..." There's quite a bit going on in this book. Elisa Esposito is a mute woman working as a janitor at a government research facility in 1960s Baltimore. Colonel Richard Strickland has been put in charge of an expedition to the Amazon to capture a river creature the local tribes are worshiping. The creature is captured and brought to the research facility, tying Strickland and Elisa's lives to its own. The writing is sharp, the story is fast paced, the characters are well thought out. If you just want a really good story to fall into this is a good one. Woman meets monster, woman wants to save monster. What could go wrong is as intriguing as what could go right. It goes a touch further, I think, riddled through with political statements using the way things were to point out how things are. A mute woman, a gay senior, a black woman, and a Russian spy are standing between the creature and its absolute destruction...

  "It's great to live free of the other sheep until you hear the wolves howl." Kate Holland and her husband Dan move to Greenloop, a small neighborhood nestled in the forest beneath Mt Ranier. Greenloop is advertised as both, the antithesis of the evils created by city living, and the future of housing development. Smart homes built in the middle of nowhere, running off of bio-gas and solar panels, with drones dropping groceries into the backyards. It's the perfect place to live if you're looking to reconnect with nature... Until a volcanic eruption leaves the residents of Greenloop isolated... and hunted. This is not WWZ . I found it a little slow to start where WWZ was disturbing from the first page. I also found the Journal entries and character interviews so much like WWZ I wondered if the writing style was a crutch. ( It sold well once before, right? ) It was preachy in some locations, which I wouldn't have minded ( because I happen to agree with Max Br...

The Interprovincial Medical Institute has taken it upon itself to protect us, from ourselves. A parasitic orgnaization, it infects young minds and turns selected children into doctors. It monopolizes the medical profession entirely, forcing its human hosts into a co-dependent relationship. Baron de Verdira, a cruel ruler in a desperate countryside, is heavily reliant on the Institute's expertise to keep himself alive. His old doctor died under mysterious circumstances and it will be up to his replacement to unravel the horrors in Chateau de Verdira, just as a bitter winter descends. The baron's new doctor discovers a dangerous parasite infestation, other than its own. A strange creature with probing black legs, that's quietly propagating and subsequently killing its hosts. As the doctor investigates the newly discovered parasite, she begins to realize there is more infecting the residents of Verdira than parasites.  Leech by Hiron Ennes is being market as a "debut...

  “Who is she?” said Inarë, and smiled in the most unsettling way. “Why, she’s the fury of the stars." Kira Navarez, is a xenobiologist. It's her job to make sure that newly discovered planets are safe for colonizaton, as humanity expands life across the galaxy. Stationed on a moon, Adrasteia, she's close to ending her career of shuttling through space looking for life on other planets, ready to settle down and start a family. (That doesn't go as planned.) Accidentally, she finds Life. An entity, known as The Soft Blade, part alien parasite and part nanotechnology, bonds with her body inadvertently starting an intergalactic war that only she has the power to end. (Personal opinion) Sometimes, I perceive the science-fiction genre as having more masculine themes than feminine ones, and sometimes when female characters appear their character is cheapened by their inability to survive without their main love interest. (end personal opinion) Christopher Paolini earns my res...

T. Kingfisher's  What Moves the Dead,  is a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's, The Fall of the House of Usher.  I've never read anything by T.Kingfisher before, I couldn't resist the temptation offered by this ARC from NetGalley. I'm a longtime Poe fan, and The Fall of the House of Usher is my favorite. Alex Easton, a retired Gallacian soldier, receives a letter from his childhood friend, Madeline Usher. The letter is urgent, she doesn't have long left to live and now her brother's health is failing as well. He rides out to the House of Usher, to find the manor decrepit; its occupants too poor to maintain it, and too sickly to leave it. An American surgeon, Dr. James Denton, has been called to treat the Ushers' strange malady, but admits to not knowing what it is or how to help them. As Alex tries to help his friends, he begins to realize there is more to the mystery than meets the eye. Out on the heath, the animals are acting strangely... The first two par...