Speculative Fiction Archives - Page 3 of 4

The Handmaid’s Tale

by Margaret Atwood

I don’t think I can say much about this book that hasn’t already been said (see a small sampling below), and I read it several years ago, so the details aren’t clear. But the chilling feeling the book gave me was. The Handmaid’s Tale, like 1984, is set in a frightening version of the future, in a society totally constricted by government -and religious- control. Some catastrophe has caused fewer and fewer children to be born, until women are pretty much only valued for their childbearing ability- and used as objects to that purpose. They have no rights. Their manner of dress, who they speak to, where they go- all is restricted. The protagonist, Offred, is one of the “handmaids” kept to bear children- and as she slowly unfolds her story, we learn more and more exactly what that role entails. Probably one of the most depressing things about the story is that Offred can remember what life was like before- she used to have a family, a job, live in a society we could recognize. Comparing her current situation to how she remembers life used to be, Offred observes how quickly everyone’s perceptions – even her own- have changed to fall in line with the prevailing brainwashing. She tries to find little ways to keep her spirits up and assert her personality without bringing undue attention to herself -that would be dangerous- but it’s a stark life, a depressing existence, with no happy ending.

The only other book I’ve read by Atwood, Cat’s Eye, didn’t really touch me strongly, but Handmaid’s Tale is a compelling, horrifyingly fascinating book. I really ought to try more by this author.

Rating: 4/5

350 pages, 1985

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Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Past Reads, Speculative Fiction

Seal Child

by Sylvia Peck

This haunting little book is a modern story based on the myth of selkies, seals who change themselves into people. Its main character is Molly, a young girl spending a vacation on a Maine island with her family. One day Molly hears a baby seal crying, and following the sound finds a horrible scene: a skinned dead seal on the beach. Shortly after, she discovers a strange girl named Meara living with her elderly neighbor. As the girls become acquainted, Meara\’s secret gradually unfolds: she is really a seal, and the dead body on the beach was her mother. Before long Meara and Molly are inseperable, until their friendship is finally tested and Meara must choose to stay on land or return to the sea. Seal Child is a lovely book, well-written and intriguing. It has a few quiet surprises. The secondary characters (the elderly neighbor, Molly\’s little brother, her parents) are not well-developed, but as the narrative is focused on Molly\’s concerns and Meara\’s oddities, this doesn\’t weaken the story much.

Rating: 3/5 …….. 200 pages, 1989

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Good Reads

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Juvenile Fic, Past Reads, Speculative Fiction

The Disapparation of James

by Anne Ursu

A family takes their two young children to the circus. Their usually shy, withdrawn little boy volunteers to be part of the clown\’s final magic trick. At first his parents are pleased with James\’ participation- then shocked, angered and dismayed when he actually disappears from the stage. The Disapparation of James then examines all the emotional turmoil following the incident- ranging from sorrow and rage to disbelief and denial. It not only covers the reactions of parents and sister, but delves into responses by the police, media, neighbors, even the clown himself. Interesting, but the brief chapters covered so many characters it was hard in the end to really care about any of them. The most intriguing one was the little girl, who seemed more determined than her parents to solve the mystery of James\’ disappearance. Being a parent myself, the book certainly did touch a chord: what would I do if my child suddenly vanished in a public place? how would I feel, how would I deal with it? how would I find her again? But as a reader, the lack of a final explanation for what happened to James left me feeling frustrated, and as a whole it was rather disappointing.

Rating: 2/5 288 pages, 2003

Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Past Reads, Speculative Fiction

The Music of Dolphins

by Karen Hesse

It \”began as a book about speech development, and evolved into something very different,\” the author says. The Music of Dolphins is the story of a feral child, a teenage girl found after living with dolphins in the ocean for twelve years. Rescued and taken to a research facility where scientists try to teach her to speak and act human. They also want to learn from her how dolphins communicate. Mila, the dolphin-girl, is confused by her new surroundings, ambiguous human behavior, and why people who profess to care about her keep her imprisoned. Although she likes learning English, and especially music, her greatest desire is to return to the ocean and the dolphins. Alongside her story is that of another girl, Shay, taken from neglectful parents who had kept her locked in a dark room. While Mila is constantly learning and thriving, Shay\’s rehabilitation goes very poorly. Told through Mila\’s diary, which begins as awkward sentence fragments (and presented in a very large font size), the story grows in complexity as Mila continues to learn and understand more and more (whereupon the font gets smaller). Targeted to a younger audience, the story is still well-enough crafted to be enjoyed by older readers who are interested in such examinations of human and animal nature.

Rating: 3/5 181 pages, 1996

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Fiction, Juvenile Fic, Past Reads, Speculative Fiction

Other Lives

by Andre Brink

This novel is composed of overlapping stories about three men in modern South Africa, whose lives are subtly interconnected. In the first two tales, the protagonist faces a sudden change which makes him question his very identity. A painter arrives at his studio to find an unknown family waiting for him; they enfold him into their lives with total familiarity, yet he has no idea who they are. When in confusion and guilt (at how delightful he finds this new woman who thinks she\’s his wife) he tries to return to the home he remembers, there ensues a Kafkaesque scene of frightening futility as he cannot locate his old apartment in the building. He has no choice but to return to his new family, now afraid of exposing how much he is a stranger to them.

The second story is about a successful white man who is an architect. He wakens one day to find that his skin color has suddenly, inexplicably changed- it is now black. At first terrified of being discovered as an intruder in his own home, he soon realizes that no one else notices anything amiss. Yet his sense of self has altered so much he cannot help acting differently to those around him- with some disturbing results.

The last story lacks a sudden, dreamlike change as impetus; its surreal elements move in undertones. It centers around the relationship of a concert pianist and the beautiful, famous soprano singer he accompanies. He is strongly attracted to her, but all her previous relationships ended badly, with suspicious and mysterious deaths. She makes him promise he will never, ever touch her. She says \”I cannot risk dividing my concentration\”- professing a need to focus all her passion on her music. But then they find themselves alone in her family\’s old, half-abandoned rambling farmhouse…

As the characters each engage in self-examination, many secrets they keep from each other become slowly revealed, betrayals that link each story to the next like threads twisted under the ground. Sex is a large part of these stories; some scenes are tender, others rather horrific. I have to say the architect\’s confrontation of his children\’s au-pair disturbed me the most. I found the first two stories more fascinating, the last one lost me at the beginning with a plethora of musical references (mostly names) unfamiliar to me. Mention of culture and political situations in South Africa went over my head as well, but did not detract from my enjoyment of the book, which I could hardly put down. Trust (or lack of it), self-identity and racism are all strong themes in Other Lives, which raises unsettling questions: how well can we know each other? and: how well do we even know ourselves? Like my last experiences reading short stories, the endings left so many unanswered puzzles- and yet that made them all the more intriguing to me.

This title I received as an ARC from Sourcebooks.

Rating: 4/5 321 pages, 2008

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Speculative Fiction

When Fox is a Thousand

by Larissa Lai

Another failed attempt at magical realism. When Fox is a Thousand is a fantastical tale told from three viewpoints: a young Asian-American woman living in modern-day Vancouver, a female poet in medieval China, and a fox who has lived almost a thousand years, using magical powers to animate the bodies of dead women and cause mischief. I was really enjoying the prose, and the modern characters. But the others parts really lost me. I\’m sure all the characters\’ stories weave together in the end, but when after more than fifty pages I still can\’t really tell what is going on, I don\’t see the point in continuing. I read seventy-two pages of this surreal book before leaving it behind.

Abandoned 236 pages, 1995

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Speculative Fiction

Winter\’s Tale

by Mark Helprin

I don\’t know how this book ended up on my TBR list. It is a vast, sprawling fantasy of New York City. The main character is Peter Lake, an ignorant yokel who stumbles into the City in the 1800s and quickly falls into an organized group of thieves and petty criminals. One day while breaking into a house he falls in love with a rich girl (one of the most preposterous scenes in the book), who has a terminal illness.

Winter\’s Tale is full of surreal incidents and picturesque language to the point of ridiculousness. I was enjoying it for the sheer fun and astonishment of the word play until I reached page 200 where Peter Lake dropped out of sight and the already meandering plot took off in a direction I couldn\’t recognize. Then I did something I\’ve never done before. I skipped about 150 pages and began reading again, when Peter Lake (like Rip Van Winkle) reappears after half a century has gone by. Having seriously lost interest in the storyline, I skimmed the last fourth of the book, reading only those parts that dealt with Peter Lake\’s search for his legendary white horse that could leap four city blocks and aspired to fly in the sky. Something about the style of this book reminded me a lot of The Tin Drum, or even One Hundred Years of Solitude. If anyone\’s managed to read and like Winter\’s Tale, I\’d love to hear why!

Abandoned Published: 1983, pp 688

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Speculative Fiction

Lady Into Fox

by David Garnett

This story is about transformation and change. Like Franz Kafka\’s The Metamorphosis, in this surreal fantasy a person inexplicably becomes an animal, yet retaining their human mind and emotions. Unlike Kafka\’s book, where Gregor Samsa\’s change was met with disgust and repulsion by his family, sweet Sylvia Tebrick\’s husband still loves her strongly. After all, it\’s much easier to feel affection towards a fox than a large insect! When Sylvia suddenly becomes a fox, her husband sends away the household dogs and servants in an attempt to keep her condition secret. Sylvia the fox is at first distressed with her animal form, trying to walk upright, play cards, wear clothes like usual. But gradually, to the grief and dismay of her husband, she behaves more and more like a wild fox, until he can no longer keep her safely in the house. Sadly, the ending is inevitable and not very well disguised from the reader.

The strength of this book lies in its examination of emotional and psychological reactions to a sudden change in a loved one, which we have no power to halt or reverse. I\’ve read that at the time of its publication, it was appreciated by many British families of war veterans, who had to face living with a loved one turned stranger by disability or mental trauma. But I think it is highly applicable today: accidents, illness and any number of things can irrevocably alter a person beyond recognition. Lady Into Fox has a strongly mythical feeling, haunting like a dream that remains with you long after waking.

Out of print for a long time, this book was reprinted by McSweeney\’s in 2004, in a beautiful edition containing the original woodcut illustrations.

Rating: 4/5 …….. 78 pages, 1922

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Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Fiction, Past Reads, Speculative Fiction

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur\’s Court

by Mark Twain

I never heard of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur\’s Court until I chanced across it on a library shelf. It is quite different from Twain\’s other novels. It tells of a 19th century engineer who gets hit on the head and inexplicably wakes up in medieval England during King Arthur\’s time. A knight finds him and takes him to court, where his manner of dress and speech arouses suspicion and he\’s going to be burned at the stake. But he remembers an eclipse will occur on the same date, and uses this knowledge to make himself appear powerful and magical, frightening everyone and landing himself a position as King\’s advisor. Before long he\’s practically taken control and uses his ingenuity to introduce technological advances. He attempts to teach the whole country things like the use of soap, democratic ideas, and the falsehood of superstitions. He runs up again Merlin, who is portrayed as a charlatan and fool, but dangerously in the people\’s favor. More than an adventure story, this book is a satire on English society, criticizing the power of monarchy, poking fun at the knights, ridiculing the ignorance and squalor of medieval society. I don\’t know how accurate it is historically, and I really questioned if one man (even if he is an \”ingenious Yank\”) could have had in his head all the knowledge needed to \”re-invent\” and build everything he did (like railroads, printing press, gunpowder, electricity and dozens other things) but it is very funny with lots of tongue-in-cheek type of humor.

Rating: 4/5 307 pages, 1889

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Historical Fiction, Past Reads, Speculative Fiction

Never Let Me Go

by Kazuo Ishiguro

This quiet yet disturbing novel begins as the reminisces of a thirty-year old woman of her years growing up in a secluded boarding school called Halisham. Never Let Me Go is the story of Kathy, her best friend Ruth and the passive Tommy, a trio that forms a shifting love triangle. At first the focus is on kids in a private school with their cliques and changing loyalties, pranks, team sports, art classes and speculations about the professors. But there’s something very odd about this school. The materials are downright shabby, the teachers are overly anxious to instill in the students how “special” they are, there’s a strange emphasis on creativity and very strict regiments to keep them in excellent health. Kept confused and unknowing, the reader shares Kathy’s ignorance, only seeing the world through her naive perspective. Slowly it becomes clear what is going on, suspicions being quelled as quickly as they arise- because the truth is so awful the students don’t want to know about it and keep themselves in the dark, acting like perpetual children. Even when they grow into young adults and leave Halisham for their final purpose, they retain a passivity and apathetic acceptance of their fate that stems from a loss of all hope…

Ishiguro’s understated writing style echoes the mood of the story: solemn, overshadowed and monotone. The whole book feels like an overcast day where you can’t see far ahead of you but it’s all so gloomy you don’t even want to very much. We never learn much about the world at large and its connections to the awful purpose for students of Halisham, because the book isn’t about science fiction or medicine. It’s about humanity and hope in the face of severe exploitation of the most disposable group of human society: clones.

Rating: 3/5

288 pages, 2005

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Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Past Reads, Speculative Fiction

Tag: Speculative Fiction

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