by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (1972)

2024 reads, 23/22:

“Over the pile of ancient trash, over the colorful rags and broken glass, drifts a tremor, a vibration, just like the hot air above a tin roof at noon; it floats over the mound and continues, cuts across our path right beside a marker, lingers over the road, waits for half a second—or am I just imagining that? —and slithers into the field, over the bushes, over the rotten fences, toward the old car graveyard.”

I acknowledge that recency bias may be talking here, but – did I just read one of my favorite science fiction books so far?

Science fiction is and has always been about humans in the face of progress, whether forward or backward. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? muses on what it means to be a human. Neuromancer toys with the concept of losing our humanity, and our world, to technology. The Three-Body Problem and its trilogy has humanity rallying together (and splitting apart) in the face of adversity. Even the Hitchhiker’s Guide series has humanity face the ultimate absurdity: itself.

Roadside Picnic continues this pattern of humanity facing itself, and does so extremely well. Short summary: in the wake of an alien visit, multiple “zones” are left around the surface of the earth. These zones are subject to unexplainable physics, rare artifacts, and dangers beyond our comprehension. Furthermore, these zones are illegal to enter. A subclass of criminals called “stalkers” sneak into these zones to retrieve precious objects that can be sold on the black market (and yes, this is the book that inspired Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker).

The premise seems simple, but remember, science fiction is about us. The novel starts ten years or so after “the Visit,” and humanity is no step closer to knowing anything about it – it’s just humans and the Zone. Instead of an alien invasion story, the Strugatskys weave together a novella with philosophical deliberations, fairy tales, and horrific alien technology.

“I lock myself in the stall, take out the flask, unscrew it, and attach myself to it like a leech. I’m sitting on the bench, my heart is empty, my head is empty, my soul is empty, gulping down the hard stuff like water. Alive. I got out. The Zone let me out. The damned hag. My lifeblood. Traitorous bitch. Alive. The novices can’t understand this. No one but a stalker can understand.”

The main character, stalker Red Schuhart, is in my opinion one of the greatest characters ever written. Outside of the Zone, with absolutely no care in the world, he is aloof and hot-headed, careless and an alcoholic. But his skills and concentration in the Zone are unmatched: you feel his focus narrow, his conniving nature, and know that he will stop at nothing to get through this mysterious area. As I write this, I can see how this book may have inspired Annihilation by VanderMeer.

What better way to show how insignificant we are than to have an entire story revolve around the aftermath of a short-lived alien visit. The ending is one of the most bittersweet, and I’ve been thinking about it since I’ve read it. This is a sci-fi classic, and it’s short enough such that I recommend it to anyone even remotely interested.

“Aren’t humans absurd? I suppose we like praise for its own sake. The way children like ice cream. It’s an inferiority complex, that’s what it is. Praise assuages our insecurities. And ridiculously so. How could I rise in my own opinion?”

#readingyear2024 #scifi #dystopia #book2screen #favorites

by Jeff VanderMeer (2014)

2024 reads, 22/22:

“The birds sang as they should; the deer took flight, their white tails exclamation points against the green and brown of the underbrush; the raccoons, bowlegged, swayed about their business, ignoring us. As a group, we felt almost giddy, I think, to be free after so many confining months of training and preparation.”

Kind of funny that my last two books have been in the realm of “ecological sci-fi,” but here we are. However, Annihilation strips away any satire and comedy that may have been in Galapagos, and instead presents an anxiety-ridden atmospheric novel of four scientists who go out to explore the dangerous and unfamiliar “Area X.”

The descriptions of the flora and fauna of Area X are great, and the narrator writes with an unreliable tone while at the same time, sounding like writing a lab report. It’s kind of jarring, but VanderMeer captures the surreal and tense mystery through his Lovecraftian prose very well.

“I took samples as we went, but halfheartedly. All of these tiny remnants I was stuffing into glass tubes with tweezers … what would they tell me? Not much, I felt.”

However, while there was a plot, it didn’t go very far for me. And that’s okay, sometimes things don’t need to happen – I tend to really enjoy books that have no plot line at all. But for this particular brand of sci-fi, I wish for a little more. What might help with this, though, is not reading the blurb on the back of the book. Nothing is spoiled, but some things might hit harder without knowing ahead of time.

Will I finish the trilogy? Maybe. It’s not on the top of my to-read list, but I am curious to learn more about Area X and the world of Southern Reach. But if the genre of eco-horror sci-fi sounds interesting to you, you should pick this one up – and let me know your thoughts.

“You would love it here.”

#readingyear2024 #scifi #environment #spooky #book2screen

by Patrick Radden Keefe (2018)

2024 reads, 20/22:

“Who should be held accountable for a shared history of violence? It was a question that was dogging Northern Ireland as a whole.”

What initially drew me to this book was the TV show Derry Girls, a masterful (and incredibly funny) portrayal of life in 1990s Northern Ireland. The show juxtaposes the realities of the Troubles with the high school “problems” of a group of friends. But since the show is primarily a comedy, I was left wanting to better understand that era of Ireland. Even before Derry Girls, I had only the vaguest idea of what the Troubles were about, admittedly only through songs such as The Cranberries’ Zombie, or U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday. All I knew was that there was violence in Ireland back then, but there were many gaps in my knowledge.

Generally, I liked Say Nothing – it’s probably closer to 3.5 stars for me, as it did a great job at laying out what had happened during the Troubles. My big takeaway was learning about famous IRA figures such as the Price sisters, Gerry Adams, and Brendan Hughes, and how their stories intertwined and shaped Irish history and independence.

Keefe also spent a lot of time on the aftermath of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, as the last third of the book focused on the Belfast Project at Boston College. This was interesting, but I would have liked to see more on the background of the conflict between Ireland and the UK (but to be fair, that’s through no fault of the author, as he clearly states the scope of his book).

Overall, I’ve been trying to increase my nonfiction reading, but my problem with nonfiction is that at times, it can feel like a bore to get through. That being said, I ultimately always come out glad I read it. Maybe I’ll get to some more nonfiction on my TBR list soon. If the Troubles, or Irish history/politics (or even journalism) interests you at all, this is a great book to pick up.

“History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave… But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme”

-Seamus Heaney, The Cure of Troy

#readingyear2024 #govpol #history #book2screen

by Philip K. Dick (1968)

2024 reads, 16/22:

It’s hard not to picture Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, the main character of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by PDK, and the inspiration for Ridley Scott’s 1982 movie Blade Runner. But this isn’t a bad thing, especially since Blade Runner is my favorite movie. It’s also surprising I’ve only now gotten around to reading the source material.

“Future and past blurred; what he had already experienced and what he would eventually experience blended so that nothing remained but the moment.”

Lots of differences between the movie and the book, and the biggest of which that stood out to me was the large focus on religion in the book. The core religion in DADOES, Mercerism, ultimately aims to increase human empathy; this sounds great, but it has its flaws. For example, its followers must use a device called an “empathy box,” which connects multiple people simultaneously into a virtual collective suffering. I loved this double-edged sword take on religion – by basing it on human empathy, we are led to believe in its inherent “good.”

Animal imagery is also much more prevalent in the book. This futuristic society seems to not just categorize, but rank, different beings: replicants, animals (both real and ‘electric’), specials (or chickenheads), and humans. It’s not as simple as humans vs. replicants; there are layers, or tiers, to this society. Maybe it’s because of the background reading I did on religion before reading Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, but this societal structure reminded me of the great chain of being, a hierarchical structure of all life decreed by God (the perfect scapegoat). This all circles back to the dark underside of religion, adding another dimension to Mercerism.

“Empathy, evidently, existed only within the human community, whereas intelligence to some degree could be found throughout every phylum and order including the arachnida.”

Based on how much I’ve mentioned the movie left out, you might think that this is a case of “the book is better than the movie” – and maybe, for most people, it is. But I just think they are two different pieces of art, trying to resonate with us in different ways. Reading this book got me thinking about adaptations in general, and what causes them to fail or succeed.

While they both accurately portray this concept of humanity and empathy, PKD does so by allowing us insight into the characters’ thoughts and feelings. The inner monologues of Deckard and John Isidore are all laid out. On the other hand, Ridley Scott chooses to use atmosphere and soundtrack. We read the characters’ faces, we feel Vangelis’ score pulsing throughout, pulling us in and widening our view on dystopia. We get a general sense of the time and mood, which is, in my opinion, also extremely effective.

After finally reading this book, I fully believe that Blade Runner and DADOES both get five stars, in their own way. If you like the book, give the movie a chance. If you like the movie, give the book a chance. I’m sure you’ll enjoy at least one of them.

“You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe.”

PS: The unnamed owl in the movie, is officially named “Scrappy” in the book…

#readingyear2024 #scifi #dystopia #book2screen #pkd #book2screen

by Phillip K. Dick (1977)

2024 reads, 15/22

Not really sure where to start with this one – Philip K. Dick (PDK for short), arguably one of the best science fiction writers of all time, has been on my to-read list for years. In fact, it’s surprising that I haven’t read anything by him yet, especially since Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is the inspiration for my favorite movie, Blade Runner. But I digress – we’ll get to that review soon enough.

A Scanner Darkly is a dystopian sci-fi novel set in 1994 California, in an alternate timeline where America has lost the war on drugs. Dealers, users, and federal agents are all intertwined in one another’s lives, and the existence of “scramble suits,” a body suit that conceals one’s identity, only complicates matters. Bob Arctor is an undercover narcotics agent investigating users such as Jim Barris, Ernie Luckman, and Charles Freck, whose house is bugged with “scanners” for Arctor’s alter-ego to surveil.

“Does a passive infrared scanner like they used to use or a cube-type holo-scanner like they use these days, the latest thing, see into me—into us—clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can’t any longer these days see into myself.”

I’m slightly reminded of other counterculture novels, e.g., One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; any of the works of Kesey, Leary, and HST between the beats and the hippies. Barris even recites Leary’s catchphrase as a sign-off: “Turn on, tune out, and good-by.” But where those novels focus on the actual use or psychedelics of drugs, A Scanner Darkly focuses more on the consequences of repeated drug use.

The concept of the “scramble suit” is also intriguing; as readers, we know who Arctor and his alter ego are, but I was left wondering about the identities and motives of the other characters. How do they fit into this mess? What exactly is Arctor looking for? The idea of double lives is pervasive throughout this novel, both in a temporal and spatial sense, and adds to the haziness.

“There she was, stable and as if forever; then—nothing. Vanished like fire or air, an element of the earth back into the earth. To mix with the everyone-else people that never ceased to be. Poured out among them. The evaporated girl, he thought. Of transformation. That comes and goes as she will. And no one, nothing, can hold on to her.”

This book was amazing and heartbreaking at the same time, and made me immediately pick up my next PKD book. For anyone looking to get into PKD, or just wanting to read a science fiction classic, this is a great one to go with.

P.S. The movie did a great job capturing not just the confusing nature of the novel, but also remained pretty faithful to the book. Worth the watch!

#readingyear2024 #scifi #dystopia #wtf #pkd #book2screen

by Cixin Liu (2010)

2024 reads, 13/22

“In the eternal night of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, two civilizations had swept through like two shooting stars, and the universe had remembered their light.”

Again, keeping this review fairly light since it hinges on the events of the previous two novels in the trilogy. But man, oh man, what a way to end. This series will destroy you, and then put you back together again.

The story has evolved from Ye Wenjie first making contact with the Trisolarans, to the fate of the earth, the solar system, and the entire universe. Through space exploration, theoretical physics, and even fairy tales, Liu manages to weave a well-crafted story with scary sci-fi and hope for humanity. Apparently there’s lots of fan-written material out there for those who felt that this story was incomplete – but I didn’t feel that way at all, it ended exactly how it should have.

I really enjoyed the characters as well – I will be thinking of the story of Cheng Xin and Yun Tianming for a long time to come. Thomas Wade and 艾AA are also enjoyable to read as well, and they both complement Cheng Xin’s humanity with fierceness (albeit in different ways).

The Three-Body Problem was the prologue, The Dark Forest was the reaction, and Death’s End is the ultimate conclusion. This is an amazing science fiction trilogy, and I’m so happy that Netflix decided to renew and let the Game of Thrones team finish the series.

“Finally, a chain of organic molecules, trembling, split into two strands. The strands attracted other molecules around them until two identical copies of the original were made, and these split apart again and replicated themselves…. In this game of building blocks, the probability of producing such a self-replicating chain of organic molecules was so minuscule that it was as if a tornado had picked up a pile of metallic trash and deposited it as a fully-assembled Mercedes-Benz. But it happened, and so, a breathtaking history of 3.5 billion years had begun.”

#readingyear2024 #scifi #science #book2screen

by Cixin Liu (2008)

2024 reads, 11/22

“The stern of the ship faced the Solar System, where the sun was by now no more than a yellow star just a bit brighter than the rest. The peripheral spiral arm of the Milky Way lay in this direction, its stars sparse. The depth and expanse of deep space exhibited an arrogance that left no support for the mind or the eyes.”

Going to keep this review a bit short, since its plot hinges on the ending of the previous book in the trilogy, The Three Body Problem. But basically, The Dark Forest takes place almost immediately following the events of 3BP, and Liu pulls out all the punches for this one.

While 3BP stood out to me due to its mystery and storytelling, there’s less of this in TDF (since you already know the circumstances of everything going on). However, TDF excels not just in its more in-depth treatment of space sci-fi, but what was more interesting to me was watching humanity deal with the earth-shattering aftermath of 3BP.

“‘When twilight fades, you can see the stars. When dawn fades, all that’s left is…’ ‘All that’s left is the harsh light of reality.’”

While the story starts off a bit slowly, it quickly picks up, and its ending blew me away. At first, I found the new main character Luo Ji hard to like (his first act as Wallfacer was weird), but after some character development I quickly came to enjoy his presence on the page. My favorite character, Da Shi, also makes his return.

I usually end these reviews with who I might recommend the book to, but if you’ve read 3BP, then I don’t need to convince you to read this one. Now it’s time to end the trilogy…

“It’s a wonder to be alive. If you don’t understand that, how can you search for anything deeper?”

Netflix series addendum: I do hope Netflix picks up their 3BP adaptation for a second season. I would love to see some of the ideas in this book put to the big screen, and the Game of Thrones team seems like the ideal duo to undertake this.

#readingyear2024 #scifi #science #book2screen

by Cixin Liu (2006)

2024 reads, 9/22

“Can the fundamental nature of matter really be lawlessness? Can the stability and order of the world be but a temporary dynamic equilibrium achieved in a corner of the universe, a short-lived eddy in a chaotic current?”

What a wild ride. I don’t read much science fiction, and my only two standouts among those I have read were Neuromancer and Hitchhikers Guide. But The Three-Body Problem now also takes a place at the top of my favorite sci-fi books. And one thing that this book did for me that the others didn’t was encourage me to pick up more sci-fi in the future.

This book is engaging, but be warned, it’s one big prologue; many loose threads and characters come together nicely at the end to form one giant loose thread (so naturally I quickly picked up the second in the trilogy). The Neuromancer-like virtual reality game, the mysterious happenings to scientists around the world, and Operation Guzheng (if you know you know) were standout parts. Da Shi quickly became my favorite character of the book, being comedic relief while consistently saving the day. I also really enjoyed how the classic astrophysics problem of three gravitational bodies related to the plot – it wasn’t clear at first, but I loved the payoff.

“The seed of civilization remains. It will germinate and again progress through the unpredictable world of Three Body. We invite you to log on in the future.”

I actually started reading this before I realized the Netflix adaptation was coming out, which was some incredible timing. The show is great, but as usual, the book gets more involved and takes the time to really flesh out the story. If nothing else, watch the Netflix series, but I do recommend this book for anyone looking for some profound science fiction.

#readingyear2024 #scifi #science #book2screen

by Stephen King (1975)

"‘I haven’t given up hope of rational explanations, Susan. I’m hoping for one. Almost praying for one. Monsters in the movies are sort of fun, but the thought of them actually prowling through the night isn’t fun at all.’”

I may be entering my Stephen King era after this read. Back in high school I had read some of his shorter works, but I don’t think I was old enough at the time to appreciate his storytelling. As I currently contemplate whether I want to jump into his seven-volume Dark Tower series, I figured a good place to start is with one of his earlier and more well-known novels.

In the expanded edition’s introduction (which is well worth the read, by the way), King cites Bram Stoker’s Dracula as his source of inspiration – he wanted to explore what would have happened if Dracula appeared in 1960’s small-town America instead of 1890’s London. ‘Salem’s Lot also has many homages to Shirly Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. You certainly don’t need to read either of these to enjoy ‘Salem’s Lot, but having read them, I felt I appreciated his novel that much more.

“Being in the town is prosaic, sensuous, alcoholic. And in the dark, the town is yours and you are the town’s and together you sleep like the dead, like the very stones in your north field. There is no life here but the slow death of days, and so when the evil falls on the town, its coming seems almost preordained, sweet and morphic. It is almost as though the town knows the evil was coming and the shape it would take.”

In fact, much like The Haunting of Hill House, the further I got in ‘Salem’s Lot, the more I wanted to read – but for a different reason. Instead of just wanting questions answered and tension resolved, as I did in Jackson’s novel, there was more ‘action’ in this book that I wanted to get to; I constantly wanted to know what happened next. It was enticing, entertaining, emotional, and spooky all at once.

It’s also worth pointing out that the many childhood themes (e.g., guilt, fear, loss of innocence, the disconnect between children and adults) that permeate throughout King’s work start budding in ‘Salem’s Lot. I have not read It, but I’ve seen both the 1990 and 2017/2019 movies, and there are similarities between The Loser’s Club and the characters in this novel (specifically, Mark).

“Before drifting away entirely, [Mark] found himself reflecting—not for the first time—on the peculiarity of adults. They took laxatives, liquor, or sleeping pills to drive away their terrors so that sleep would come, and their terrors were so tame and domestic: the job, the money, what the teacher will think if I can’t get Jennie nicer clothes, does my wife still love me, who are my friends. They were pallid compared to the fears every child lies cheek and jowl with in his dark bed, with no one to confess to in hope of perfect understanding but another child.”

Even though October is over, I recommend this to anyone who wants a spooky read, any time of the year.

#readingyear2023 #spooky #book2screen

by Shirley Jackson (1959)

“Perhaps someone had once hoped to lighten the air of the blue room in Hill House with a dainty wallpaper, not seeing how such a hope would evaporate in Hill House, leaving only the faintest hint of its existence, like an almost inaudible echo of sobbing far away. . .”

Going into this, I had no idea that any preconceived notion of a ‘haunted house story’ I had would completely vanish – but despite this, it was still a perfect October read. Expecting the literary equivalent of jump scares, I instead got this gothic blanket of uneasiness, unfamiliarity, and tension, consistently asking myself while reading, what does it mean to be haunted? I didn't get an answer, but by the time I finished, I understood the question better.

Shirley Jackson does a superb job at taking the time and fleshing out the four main characters who stay in the house. It’s a slow but necessary introduction to appreciate the themes of belonging and identity throughout (among many other themes, too many to get into in this review). A house with an infamous past is the perfect backdrop to get into relationships between these characters.

“They were all silent, looking into the fire, lazy after their several journeys, and Eleanor thought, I am the fourth person in this room; I am one of them; I belong.”

I found that my reading speed was directly proportional to my progress in the book. Towards the end, it becomes almost impossible to put down, likely because there were more and more questions that I wanted answered (and if you finished the book, you may know why this is the case). This is a gothic classic that I recommend to anyone wanting to broaden their spooky novel repertoire.

“Her eyes hurt with tears against the screaming blackness of the path and the shuddering whiteness of the trees, and she thought, with a clear intelligent picture of the words in her mind, burning, Now I am really afraid.”

#readingyear2023 #american #gothic #spooky #book2screen