Bioshock: Rapture by John Shirley

Combination video game novelization and dystopian parody of Atlas Shrugged in which a new civilization is built that doesn't turn out quite as awesome as expected.

This book is a prequel to the BioShock video games, which I have not played.  It begins with wealthy capitalist, Andrew Ryan, recruiting people to populate his wonderful, new, underwater, capitalist paradise called Rapture and apparently bridges the descent of Rapture from perfect society to the setting of the horror games.

Warning, some spoilers will follow.

The Demi-Monde: Winter, by Rod Rees

The Demi-Monde: Winter, by Rod Rees.  William Morrow, 2010.  517 pp.  978-0-06-207034-0.

... in which a young woman is enlisted to save the US President's daughter, who is trapped in a virtual world populated by Nazis, terrorists, and various villains from world history.

The Demi-Monde: Winter is the first book in a series involving a virtual reality (the Demi-Monde), set in 2018.  This virtual world was created to simulate urban warfare scenarios for US soldiers in training, and the programmers populated the world with "dupes", virtual duplicates of real-life people, famous and otherwise.  The computer world's technology is set to be comparable to the technology available in Victorian times.  The most prominent people populating the Demi-Monde are some the worst people to ever live, including Reinhard Heydrich (one of Hitler's right-hand men), Lavrentii Beria (Stalin's chief of police), Tomas de Torquemada (a prominent figure in the Catholic Church's Spanish Inquisition), and plenty of others.  The catch?  The people in the Demi-Monde don't know that they're not real; all they know is that living in the Demi-Monde is hell.  Unfortunately for the real-life humans who are spending time in this computer simulation, if you die in the computer, then you die in real life.  Somehow, the US President's daughter Norma has been lured into the Demi-Monde, and is being held captive by Heydrich and his lackeys.  The US Army recruits a young woman, Ella Thomas, to infiltrate the Demi-Monde and bring Norma out safely.  However, the rulers of the Demi-Monde have a bigger plan for Norma and all of the residents of the computer world.

The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley

The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley.  Little, Brown and Company, 2012.  978-0-316-19327-6.

... in which Myfanwy Thomas awakes with no memory of who she is, and must somehow return to her life as a high-ranking official in a secret government agency that protects the world from supernatural enemies.

Myfanwy Thomas (pronounced miff-uh-ney) wakes up one night and finds herself surrounded by dead bodies wearing latex gloves, with no memory of who she is.  In her pocket, she finds a letter from her pre-amnesiac self, explaining that her name is Myfanwy Thomas and that she is being hunted by people who want to destroy her.  Following the clues from her pre-amnesiac self, Myfanwy Thomas gradually learns that she is a Rook for the Checquy, a top-secret British government agency with hundreds of agents, directed towards protecting the world from various supernatural threats.  Myfanwy's title of Rook places her in the very highest echelon of the Checquy, essentially making her a general in charge of all domestic supernatural problems.  Myfanwy has to continue to follow the clues to discover who she is and who is trying to kill her, while also preventing her dangerous colleagues at the Checquy from discovering her total amnesia, and while preventing a full-scale invasion of horrifying monsters attempting to take over Great Britain.

After the Golden Age, by Carrie Vaughn

After the Golden Age, by Carrie Vaughn.  Tor Books, 2011.  342 pp.  978-0-7653-6460-9.

... in which Celia, the totally normal daughter of the two greatest superheroes on Earth, fights evil and finds her own way in the world.

Celia West is the daughter of Captain Olympus and Spark, the two greatest superheroes in the world.  Unfortunately for Celia, she was born completely normal, and her most exciting accomplishment is her silver medal from a high school swim meet.  Estranged from her parents, who were disappointed at her lack of superpowers, Celia now works as an accountant.  When her accounting firm is called in to work on the financials of the Destructor, her parents' biggest nemesis who is about to stand trial, Celia gets drawn back into the world of superheroes and supervillains.  As one of her biggest secrets is revealed to the world, Celia has to learn to contend with bad guys, her parents, and her own place in the world.

The Mindful Carnivore, by Tovar Cerulli

The Mindful Carnivore: A Vegetarian's Hunt for Sustenance, by Tovar Cerulli.  Pegasus Books, 2012. 

... in which the author explains his reasoning for becoming a vegetarian, and then the ethics and philosophy behind his gradual move back to eating meat.

This review is of a digital copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

Throughout his life, Tovar Cerulli has spent more time outdoors and observing nature than most people do.  His childhood gave him a deep appreciation of how each animal is important to the natural world, and he came away with a deep reverence for all kinds of life.  His experiences with fishing as a child also gave him an understanding of where his food comes from, and how it connects him back to the wider world.  As an adult, this awareness led to Cerulli becoming a vegetarian, and then a vegan, believing that it was unethical to take a life for the purposes of eating, especially when there were so many other options available.  Over time, however, Cerulli's further observations of the natural world led him to an understanding that his veganism was, in a way, separating him more from the natural world and was leaving him hungering for something more.  The Mindful Carnivore is an explanation of the beliefs that brought Cerulli back to eating meat, and back to hunting and fishing, and how his new lifestyle remains compatible with the beliefs that brought him to vegetarianism.

The Annotated Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien

The Annotated Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien and annotated by Douglas A. Anderson.  Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988.  335 pp.  0-395-47690-9.

... in which Bilbo and company's adventures are annotated with notes about Tolkien's inspirations and the various changes between different editions of The Hobbit.

The Annotated Hobbit is a unique copy of The Hobbit because in its margins, writer Douglas Anderson has added in a plethora of notes and images to supplement the main text.  Most of the notes are about Tolkien's various inspirations, both in terms of plot and linguistics.  There are also various footnotes noting the different changes between various editions over the years, and illustrations are included throughout the book showing different artists' interpretations of the events from different international editions.  I'm not going to bother to summarize the plot, because if you don't know the plot of The Hobbit by now, then you probably don't care.

Lucy, by Laurence Gonzales.  Vintage Books, 2011.  307 pp.  978-0-307-4890-5.

... in which Lucy, a the product of a science experiment with breeding humans and bonobos together, teaches the world what it means to be human.

Lucy opens in the Congo, where primatologist Jenny Lowe is studying bonobos (a cousin of the chimpanzee, and one of humanity's closest relatives).  When Jenny is forced to flee from the Congo as the civil war reaches her study site in the jungle, she finds that another primate researcher has been murdered.  Her colleague leaves behind a 14-year-old daughter, Lucy, and Jenny feels obligated to take Lucy with her as she flees the country.  Jenny takes Lucy to Chicago with her, and when it becomes clear that Lucy has no living family, Jenny adopts her as her own daughter.  When reading through Lucy's father's notes, it becomes clear that Lucy is the product of a strange experiment: she is half human, half bonobo.  Because Lucy appears to be completely human, and is more intelligent and articulate than most humans, Jenny tries to enroll her in school.  As Lucy begins to settle in to her new life, her secret inevitably gets out, and Lucy becomes an overnight celebrity.  Lucy's new public presence sparks a debate about what it means to be human, and could threaten her life and the lives of everyone she loves.

Never Let Me Go

Most of the books I read could be compared to junk food. Light, sweet affairs which dissolve quickly and let me rant excitedly about, whether I love them or hate them. Though I don't see myself trending towards the classics anytime soon, it really felt good to read a real piece of literature, which is what Never Let Me Go is. And I feel like unlike the sugary books I more often read, I will be digesting this one for the rest of my life.

I believe Emma was curious about whether this book would have been better if the overall concept and storyline hadn't already been spoiled for her before she started reading it. I did not know the book's concept before I started reading, and I believe it did in fact make my experience more powerful.

The deftness with which Kazuo Ishiguro weaves his narrative defies description. Suffice it to say, he manages to tell you what he is doing to you, the reader, directly without you even realizing it until it is too late. You are already trapped in the narrative related by this book's main character, Kathy and you are doomed to experience the book as if it were your own past.

The book explores regret, tragedy and interpersonal relationships. Growing apart and of life and of death. Its varied characters ooze humanity and every single one of them is engaging.

The book is not entirely without flaw, and I would feel remiss to not mention where I saw them. The climax of the book involves a final set of revelations which seem to fall short of explanaing a few of the later plot developments, but upon further reflection this sort of ties back to the theme the book strives for, of good things coming to an end and of tragic unfairness brought on by unthinking apathy and selfishness. A stronger reason here very well could have undermined the power of this book, but I felt unstatisfied. That very well could have been the point.

Second, there is another instance of anti-intellectuallism on display, although this one is so incredibly slight that you could be forgiven for missing it. I just have a problem with the default assumption that somehow the people who dedicate their lives to medicine must be total inhuman monsters, and that somehow science inherently requires and benefits from dehumanization. Again, this bias is incredibly slight, practically an offhand comment or two just a few times in the whole book.

Final and most egregious is that there is no resistance to the events depicted. I could not believe that these characters would act so passively in reaction to what they experience. I can't help but think this must be a product of the difference between my culture as an American and the culture of the writer as British and Japanese. It might be my biased perspective, but it almost seems like characters are resigned to inaction because they don't want to be in defiance of any rules... that they don't want to rock the boat or inconvenience anyone else. Again, it could be merely a product of my different cultural perspective, but the placidity was the only thing these characters had which wasn't completely, spellbindingly human to me.

This is a singularly good book. It would not be hyperbole to say this book changed my perspective on life itself and I truly thank Emma for leading me to it. 5/5

The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green

The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green.  Dutton Books, 2012.  318 pp.  978-0-525-47881-2.

... in which two teenagers meet at a cancer support group and deal with love, pain and loss.

The Fault in Our Stars is narrated from the point of view of Hazel, a 16-year-old girl who is slowly dying from metastatic thyroid cancer.  She spends her time attending classes at a local community college and going to a largely useless support group for teenagers with cancer.  While reluctantly attending a support group meeting one day, Hazel meets 17-year-old Augustus, a handsome and charming boy who lost a leg to osteosarcoma, which has gone into remission.  Hazel and Augustus bond over their shared experiences with cancer, and their shared love of a particular novel.  As their relationship progresses, Hazel has to consider the fact that her diagnosis is terminal, despite the fact that her death is coming slowly, and she must decide how this will ultimately affect the way she forms relationships, especially her relationship with Augustus.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

In which a 16 year old girl makes a decision to determine her future, and deals with her choice.

Emily already wrote a good summary of Divergent, so I won't go into the plot much here.  Divergent is about a girl in a dystopian Chicago confronted with life defining choices, love, conspiracies and adventure.  Divergent is one of the best young adult books I've read because of the exciting story and compelling heroine.  I highly recommend it!