genetic_engineering – Made by Mikal

Oryx and Crake

I bought this book ages ago, on the recommendation of a friend (I don’t remember who), but I only just got around to reading it. Its a hard book to read in places — its not hopeful, or particularly fun, and its confronting in places — especially the plot that revolves around child exploitation. There’s very little to like about the future society that Atwood posits here, but perhaps that’s the point.

Despite not being a happy fun story, the book made me think about things like genetic engineering in a way I didn’t before and I think that’s what Atwood was seeking to achieve. So I’d have to describe the book as a success.

Title: Oryx and Crake
Author: Margaret Atwood
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: 2004
Pages: 376

A novel of the future explores a world that has been devastated by ecological and scientific disasters.

The Android’s Dream

This is a Scalzi book, so its clever and funny, and has possibly one of the best first sentences I have read ever. It is a light read, and I finished all of it apart from the last 50 pages or so on a single flight. Scalzi also plays again with the idea of transferring consciousness, which is something which he deals with a lot in the Old Man’s War series. I liked this book.

[isbn: 9780765348289]

Logos Run

This is the continuation from Runner, and continues the story of the attempt to re-enable the star gates. It has the comicly incompetent Technosociety once again, as well as series of genetically engineered protagonists. I am bothered by why the star gate power supplies cause people to fall ill — you’d think in a highly advanced society capable of building star gates they might have spent some time on shielding. Or did the shielding somehow fail on all the power sources sometime over the thousands of years of decay? The has a disappointing ending, but was a fun read until then. I find it hard to suspend disbelief about how the AIs present themselves, but apart from that the book was solid. This one is probably not as good as the first.

[isbn: 0441015360; 9780441015368]

Runner

I bought this book on impulse, and I am glad I did. The book is very Buddhist in its outlook, and characters believe in reincarnation, which makes it ok for people to die. There sure is a lot of that happening in this book, perhaps more so than in Dietz’s combat books. The underlying story is very different from the other Dietz stuff I have read, and very good. The Legion of the Damned books suffer from very one dimensional characterizations of their female characters, whereas this book has a strong female as a leading and fully developed character, which is a nice change. I enjoyed this book.

[isbn: 9780441014095]

East of the Sun, West of the Moon

This book didn’t review well, but I thought it was ok. Its not the best book in the Council Wars series, but it is readable and has an interesting story. It doesn’t wrap up the story line completely though, so I guess I’ll have to wait for the next one to be written.

[isbn: 1416555188;9781416555186]

Against the Tide

This is the third book in the Council Wars series. This book covers the long promised invasion by New Destiny forces, as well as Megan’s continued life in the harem. This book has a theme of incompetence in command, which is quite similar to some of Ringo’s other books, such as A Hymn Before Battle and Gust Front. It is not fine literature, but it is a fun read and the characters are likeable.

[isbn: 1416520570;9781416520573]

Emerald Sea

This book is really a book (Emerald Sea) and a novella (In a Time of Darkness) both of which follow on from There Will Be Dragons. Emerald Sea is more self-indulgent than the previous book, and isn’t as strong as the first. It is still quite readable. In a Time of Darkness has a very awkward set of subject matter (the keeping of a harem girl against her will), which will make many readers uncomfortable, and isn’t as strong a story as either of the first two stories in this series.

[isbn: 1416509208;9781416509202]

There Will Be Dragons

I bought this book randomly when I saw it at a charity book sale. While the title is kid of odd, its actually quite a good read. The book is sort of a science fiction fantasy novel, set in the far future with a reasonably plausible plot line. There are a few elements that I feel could be explained a bit better, but overall the book is quite good. I’ll be buying the next one in the series.

[isbn: 0743488598]

Rendezvous With Rama

This is a classic book, so I expected a lot from it. I was a little disappointed to be honest. The book is slow, although interesting. There chapters are all very short as well (around four or five pages), which is a little odd. There is a lot of potential with this concept, and I feel this book could have gone a lot further.

[isbn: 0330240242]
[awards: winner hugo 1974; winner nebula 1973]

The Dolphins of Pern

This is quite a different book from most of the recent Pern books because of its leisurely pace. Its a nice read, although it feels like not much actually happens in the book. Unfortunately the plot is pretty much a cliche at this point — child has special affinity for animal X, parents don’t understand, child pursues said affinity anyways, falls out with parents, ultimately proves that animal X is actually super awesome and important for Pern, group hugs. So, this book is an ok read, but lazily plotted and nothing much happens.

[isbn: 0345368959]