“City of Illusions (Hainish Cycle #3)” by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1967

“City of Illusions (Hainish Cycle #3)” by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1967

Set on Earth far into the distant future, the story is about man who is found in the middle of forest without any memories of himself; not even his name. After six (6) years of redevelopment and growth, he, now named Falk) decides to leave the tribe who cared and taught him language and their ways in search of his lost identity.

Falk encounters Estrel, who becomes his companion on his journey, and leads him to the city of Es Toch where they find members of the Shing. The Shing, an alien race, is widely regarded at the enemy and may be able to restore his memory.

The Shing is able to restore his memory as long he is willing to sacrifice his current identity, Falk, so that his previous identity can supplant his brain.

With the process of restoring his memory, he remembers his name is Ramarren and comes from a planet called Werel. He emerges as a new person with pre-Falk memories and vastly greater scientific knowledge. Falk’s personality is eventually revived and after some instability, Falk’s and Ramarren’s mind learn to coexist.

Defining and questioning the truth seems to be a central issue in this book. Additionally, themes of illusion and ambiguity are central to the novel. The story is as much a post-industrial collapse science fiction tale as it is a mystery novel.

Personally, the book got off to a decent start. The middle third of the book, which covered the “journey” was definitely draggy. I found myself speeding through. However, by two thirds of the way through the book, when Falk arrives at Es Toch, I was glued and couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.

My rating: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5 stars) - I really liked it.

“Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb”, by Philip K. Dick, 1963

“Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb”, by Philip K. Dick, 1963

Wow. What a weird story full of strange characters in an even stranger and disturbing post-nuclear-holocaust world. The novel starts with scenes of life and society rebuilding itself after a nuclear detonation/fallout. Societies regroup and form small local communities.  The story moves at a fairly quick pace and manages to develop very interesting characters along the way- - like the black salesman who simply wants to live a good life, a beautiful and promiscuous woman (who indulges in some panic sex during the second fallout), her small daughter with her own brother growing inside her (a mutation due to the nuclear bombs going off), the phocomelus with special abilities who wants to become world famous, the sinister, paranoid and mad scientist with seemingly magical powers and the elderly space traveler who was on his way to mars but is now stuck in orbit due to the nuclear explosions and becomes a disc jockey for the survivors of the apocalypse.

Hoppy Harrington, the phocomelus, and Bill, a homunculus that was once a fetus in fetu living in his twin Edie are the main characters in this book who, for me, moved the story along. Others may say Dr. Bluthgeld (Bluthgeld translated from German to English means Bloodmoney) the mad scientist, Walt Dangerfield the space traveler turned disc jockey, or McConchie the salesman were just as central to the story, and they might be right, but I can definitely say aren’t the most interesting.

Through the actions of the characters and unusual interactions between them, Dick touches upon themes like the corrupting nature of power, nostalgia, evil, rural life versus city life and the human spirit. Unlike some other post-apocalyptic novels there is no government or some kind of higher authority watching over and controlling the people's lives in Dr. Bloodmoney. But there is self-regulation in most of the small communities with the prominent citizens willing to commit murder to maintain law and order.

Dick wrote this novel in 1963 and won the Nebula award for best novel in 1965.

My rating: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5 stars)

"Absurdistan" by Gary Shteyngart, 2006

"Absurdistan" by Gary Shteyngart, 2006

Here is how the book jacket describes itself:

Open Absurdistan and meet outsize Misha Vainberg, son of the 1,238th-richest man in Russia, lover of large portions of food and drink, lover and inept performer of rap music, and lover of a South Bronx Latina whom he longs to rejoin in New York City, if only the American INS will grant him a visa. But it won't, because Misha's late Beloved Papa whacked an Oklahoma businessman of some prominence. Misha is paying the price of exile from his adopted American homeland. He's stuck in Russia, dreaming of his beloved Rouenna and the Oz of NYC. 

Salvation may lie in the tiny, oil-rich nation of Absurdistan, where a crooked consular officer will sell Misha a Belgian passport. But after a civil war breaks out between two competing ethnic groups and a local warlord installs hapless Misha as Minister of Multicultural Affairs, our hero soon finds himself covered in oil, fighting for his life, falling in love, and trying to figure out if a normal life is still possible in the twenty-first century. 

Populated by curvaceous brown-eyed beauties, circumcision-happy Hasidic Jews, a loyal manservant who never stops serving, and scheming oil execs from a certain American company whose name rhymes with Malliburton, Absurdistan is a strange, oddly true-to-life look at how we live now, from a writer who should know.

Here is how I describe the book: 

The book was a practically a disaster; senselessly profane as it is painful to read. While surely some measure of artistry was necessary to have stretched such an uninspired satire into 333-pages of filth, only a true dullard would find occasion to be impressed. 

The story is told from the perspective of a morbidly obese pig-man who possesses the intellect of a lobotomized chihuahua. This vacuous ogre of a protagonist, Misha Vainberg, dawdles away life by lavishing over-sized indulgences upon himself, pissing away his deposed father's fortune. The highlights? A highly detailed botched-circumcision, repeatedly massaging the puss-filled abscess in his gut, sleeping with his step-mother in the wake of his father's assassination, engaging in coitus with his bloated Bronx-stripper girlfriend, and rapping some sick verses that would put Tom Wolfe to shame.

The only value in this book is in its social observations; critiquing the divisive nature of religion, portraying the depravity of impoverished states, illustrating the implications of western influences and the associated propensity towards corruption. Such topics would be more effectively addressed in an essay format rather than obscured by cover-to-cover smut.

Really, it boils down to the fact that this was just a boring wank-a-thon. Boring.  I can see how people would be impressed with this book though, since Shteyngart can emulate all of the writing styles of every single polular Russian writer of the past two centuries. Ok, dude, I get it, you can write like Tolstoy and Nabokov, I get it. 

My rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2 out of 5 stars)

"Flowertown" by S.G. Redling, 2012

"Flowertown" by S.G. Redling, 2012

According to the book description, Flowertown is a high-intensity conspiracy thriller that brings the worst-case scenario vividly to life and will keep readers riveted until the final haunting page. 

I disagree. Yes, there was a conspiracy. Yes, there was worst-case scenario, but it didn't vividly come to life for me. Riveted is not a word I would use to describe my feelings towards the book. "Final haunting page", more like "final annoying page."

Here is a short summary of what the book is about. Feno Chemical spilled an experimental pesticide in rural Iowa, scores of people died.  Contamination survivors were herded into a US Army medically maintained quarantine and cut off from the world. Survivors are dosed with powerful drugs to combat the poison; chief among the side effects is their bodies give off a sickly sweet smell. So with a town full of medicated folks oozing the sweet smell from the their pores, the seven (7) square-mile containment zone becomes known simply as Flowertown. 

The main character, our heroine, Ellie, has been in quarantine for seven (7) years in Flowertown where the city infrastructure is crumbling, supplies are dwindling, and nobody is getting clean. Ellie Cauley doesn’t care anymore. Despite her paranoid best friend's insistence that conspiracies abound, she focuses on three things: staying high, hooking up with the Army sergeant she's not supposed to be fraternizing with and, most importantly, trying to ignore her ever-simmering rage. 

A series of deadly events rocks the compound and Ellie discovers something dangerous is going down in Flowertown with all signs pointing to a twisted plan of greed and abuse. She and the other residents of Flowertown have been betrayed by someone with a deadly agenda. Without no one to trust and nowhere 
to go, Ellie decides to fight with the last weapon she has—her rage.

I gave this book 1 star out of 5 stars. For me, characters were almost flat; personalities uni-dimensional. The characters don't experience personal growth or undergo any type of transformation. The plot twists were fairly predictable for the most part. I can see this book turned into a B-movie shown a Saturday afternoon on the SyFy channel; it's interesting enough to be a bad movie, but not enough to make it a good soft sci-fi novel.

My rating: ★☆☆☆☆ (1 out of 5 stars)

"Damocles" by SG Redling, 2013

"Damocles" by SG Redling, 2013

This tale about first contact with an alien species and is told from the perspective of the two individuals involved with the "first contact" event on planet Didet. One is Meg Dupris, a human female linguist who is on a deep space mission to discover new, alien worlds populated by species similar to humans. The other main character is, Loul Pell, a male from the "discovered species" who is helping the linguist learn to communicate his species.

I have been noted to be a sucker for a good first contact story, and while my preferred first contact is aliens coming to Earth, there have been some great books about Earthlings going to different places for the first time, and Damocles is a surprisingly great entry in this subgenre.

The plot is simple, elegant, and just works. Meg is a linguist on an exploratory crew from earth. They land on a planet that is part of a multiple-star system, and quickly make contact with the beings on the planet. The book jumps back and forth in point of view between the beings on the planet Didet and of the Earthers.

Other than the hiccup at the end, this was an awesome read.  It was a fun, light sci-fi read that's probably going to surprise you a bit. 

To summarize, I love "Damocles." From its rich character-driven story to its dazzling imagery, Redling took me on a journey across the stars to the planet of Didet and introduced me to two extraordinary characters - an Earth woman linguist Meg and a Didet native Luol.

My rating: ★★★★★ (5 out of 5 stars)