Book Review: The Supernaturalist

The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer
Release Date: October 2004
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Audience: Young Adult/Everyone
Pages: 267
Buy the Book: Amazon
Book Rating: 3/5









While I have not read the Artemis Fowl series (me not being part of its intended demographic) I have at least heard of it and, by accident, I picked this book up at Goodwill while trawling for books to read and review on this blog. I got home, noticed the scholastic logo on it, said 'whoops', and read it regardless. Hey, I paid 0.50 for this book. Don't tread on me!

ANYWAY,  this book takes place in the 3000s in North America (neither are specifically stated) and follows the adventures of Cosmo Hill and a group he unexpectedly joins: The Supernaturalists. Cosmo Hill, a orphan in an institute that tests various military, health, and beauty products, escapes the institute when a car the orphans are travelling in wrecks on the highway. Despite his escape, Cosmo is horribly injured. Comso's near death experience allows him to see blue creatures (dubbed 'Parasites') which seem to feed upon human life energies. The rest of the novel follows Cosmo and the group as they try to eradicate the Parasites to save human lives while trying to eek out an existence of their own.

For me, one of my main problems with this novel is its lack of description. A lot of the scenes and the city in general are given very vague descriptions. Yes, this is a young adult novel, I don't expect it to be bogged down in detail, but I have little understanding where buildings sit in relation to one another, their layout, and what they look like. However, on the flip side, when introducing something to the reader (rust mites for example) he only does so once, assuming the reader was paying attention. It was nice to see an author not holding the readers hand then entire time.

My other problem was with the characters. Much like the city, character descriptions are quite vague, save a few tertiary characters. Further, I felt that many of the characters, especially Stefan, were more caricatures than characters; with one dimensional personalities or little character growth, I felt the main characters, save Ditto and Cosmo, were pretty bland. That being said, the book does keep ones attention.

For the adult readers of this blog I would say pass on it unless you find it for $1 or something. Other than some cool aspects of the future, there is nothing new here and the main characters lack depth. But, if you have a younger reader in the household, I suppose this is worth checking out at your local library.

Book Review: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Release Date: 1968
Publisher: Doubleday
Audience: Everyone
Pages: 210
Buy the Book: Amazon
Book Rating: 2/5









As I am a big fan of Blade Runner I have always been interested in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which is the book the movie draws from. However, upon reading it, despite going into it knowing it was quite different from the movie, I found the book to be rather flat.

The book follows Deckard, a bounty hunter working for the police, as he tracks down six androids who have escaped to earth. Deckard must not only destroy six dangerous robots, but also come to terms with his own humanity, and the apparent humanity the androids seem to exhibit. This problem comes to the fore for Deckard as he encounters Rachel. Rachel, a representative for the Rosen Corporation (the company that makes the androids) is an androids herself and Deckard must either come to terms with his empathy for androids, or destroy that empathy along with the androids themselves.

My main problem with the book is that it seems to just flounder around, giving over little time to any one thing. This results in many of the issues being explored by the author to be explored only skin deep. You have Deckard's relationship with his wife, with the few people left on the planet, with Rachel, with Mercerism (the religion), his own concerns about his humanity, the android's mission to prove human empathy is a myth, and several other issues all crammed into a relatively short story. At the end of the story I felt that there was little resolution to any of the issues raised in the story. While the floundering of the story and the lack of resolution can be said to reflect the main characters own failings in living a successful/happy life, I'm not buying it.

Another example of the Dying Earth genre (both earth and mars are near barren wastelands with few people living on either planet, entropy and decay slowly destroying everything.) this book, despite being the book that created Blade Runner, is just, well, ok. While I did put my expectations at the door when picking this up, it just seems the quantity of issues was chosen over quality and depth of those issues. I can't particularly say I would recommend it, but I will give a hesitant recommendation to check it out if you are a fan of the movie.

Book Review: The Time Machine

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Release Date: 1895
Publisher: William Heinemann
Audience: Everyone
Pages: 250 Pages
Read the Book Here: Project Gutenberg
Buy the Book: Amazon
Book Rating: 5/5








Since I have been discussing 19th Century Dystopian Literature, I can't neglect discussing H.G.Wells who, perhaps, is one of the most influential authors in the science fiction genre, and the Dystopian genre as well. The Time Machine follows a scientist (known only as the traveler) as he, after inventing a time machine, tests it and goes hundreds of thousands of years into the future. When he arrives 800,000 years in the future mankind has already reached the apex of civilization millenia ago and now exists in a fallen state. Further, it is revealed that humans have split into two distinct species, known as the morloc and the eloi. The traveler faces a bleak future as he soon discovers his time machine has been stolen by the morloc's and he must not only try to understand how the world has arrived at such a dark state, but recover his time machine and either travel farther into the future, or, return home.

One of the first science fiction books I read when I was younger, I was fascinated by the potential of mankind when evolution is combined with the passage of time. This concept, I think, has driven not only my search for similar books (Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut as a quick example) but also in my own writing as well, and my interest in anthropology. The idea that mankind, given different environmental conditions would create such distinct end results as the morloc and the eloi has always fascinated me. That, and much like the traveler, being witness to the passing of all civilization and viewing the end of humanity. 

This novel is one of the earlier examples of the Dying Earth genre, a genre where the author explores a specific type of apocalypse: the utter exhaustion of the earth, sun, life, the universe, and everything (sorry, couldn't resist). Or, to put it simply: entropy. This is seen in The Time Machine as the traveler goes to the very end of time itself.

Much like Frankenstein, apocalypse and post-apocalypse fiction owes much to H.G. Wells and, specifically, The Time Machine. For fans of The Road, Deathlands, and others like them, pay homage to those who created the series and give this book a read.