FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven

 

If you strand a bunch of (mostly) 20 something year old adults who work in a theme park for 35 days during a natural disaster, what do you think would happen?  If you're hoping for Temptation Island level hijinks, you'll be sorely disappointed. But if you're leaning toward murder and heads on a stick level violence, then this is the book for you! Think Lord of the Flies, but with adults and multiple tribes.

This book works for a lot of reasons. First, you have basically everything you need at a theme park, food, water, shelter, commercial goods...and then you have a lot of other fun things too, like pirate coves and circus tents and underground tunnels. So there are a lot of different directions things can go, and they certainly do. 

What doesn't work for me though, is the format of the storytelling. The book is a series of interviews conducted after said events. While this is great in that you get a lot of perspectives, you also don't get too much depth from anyone in particular. And the book reads more as a series of short stories rather than a cohesive narrative. 

Another point, if you're listening to the audio book, each chapter is told by a different person. Since these are interviews with "normal" people, there is a lot of throat clearing and "but you're not asking about that..." or "I'm getting off track" sort of comments. It's fine every now and then, but it's an overused device, in my opinion. Obviously, this is written into the book as well, but it came across more as a bad reader's theater (remember those!?!). 

And while the story is overall entertaining, it's over the top. As I already mentioned, the people stranded at the park pretty much have everything they need to ride out the storm. Why then, do they devolve into tribes that resort to murdering each other pretty much on day one? We are talking cutting hands off and branding people level of depravity. But if you're willing to overlook the obvious "but why" issues and don't look too deep into the mechanics of the story, this can be an entertaining read. 

Take the tribes, for example. After the initial hunkering down, people split into various areas of the park. Those who inhabited the circus area are the Freaks, (my favorite of the tribes, by the way, for creating a circus-themed horror show). The most vile and violent went to the Pirate's Cove. There are also the shop girls, the Fairies, the Deadpools, the mole men, and the robots. Why the Deadpools have multiple amazing archers or the Pirates have an actual working cannon is beyond me, but we aren't here to look too deep into this.

Of course, not everyone is ascribed to a tribe, so there are a couple of miscellaneous but compelling stories peppered in. Like from a man who inhabited an empty hotel but was stalked by a mysterious couple or the story of a woman who helped run the med tent. 

This book seems like a great idea to spawn a TV series or movie. I feel like the ideas are there but could be developed into something more. While it was overall entertaining, but just had me wanting a little more.

Grown Women by Sarai Johnson

Sarai Johnson teaches writing and literature courses at Howard and American Universities in the DC Area, and apparently wrote Grown Women, her first novel, in her free time. In my free time I do things like sleep, or sit around and do nothing, or make lists of things I should be doing. Okay okay, I also read the product of other people's free time.

Which bring us full circle to Grown Women, a novel about four generations of women, with the story beginning in 1974 when 19-year old Charlotte leaves home after giving birth to her daughter, Corinna. Out on her own, Charlotte struggles to create a stable life for her and Corinna. Despite Charlotte's upscale upbringing, she doesn't reach out to her mother, Evelyn, for support. And she never talks about the reasons she left home for the backwoods of Tennessee. When Corinna turns 18, she conceives her daughter Camille with a man whose life trajectory doesn't include them, at least not publicly.  Together, the three generations of women navigate life, often through increasingly contentious moments.  

After things between Corinna, her husband Isaac, and Camille come to a head, Corinna turns to Charlotte for help. Seeing that her help can only go so far, and wanting to provide Camille the best possible outcome, Charlotte eventually turns to Evelyn for help, which makes them face their past and reconcile it with the present.

This isn't a story with a specific destination or bad guy. It's more about how life can be good sometimes and bad other times. It's about the decisions we make daily and those closest to us. Amidst the usual struggles of making ends meet, raising a child, and finding a partner, Johnson peppers in the unusual struggles of suicide, homicide, and abuse. She also examines generational trauma and how it spreads for decades in unspoken ways. We experience how these women try to overcome that trauma and stop perpetuating the pain it inflicts, and the messy process that comes with all of it.

I'll be honest, this isn't a book I would normally pick up. It doesn't have a catchy premise or strange twist. But it's about struggles we have all dealt with and is told in an engaging way. And for a debut novel, it makes me curious about what Johnson writes next.  

The Power by Naomi Alderman

This is a story that Alderman describes as feminist science fiction - a type of speculative fiction that I like to call a "what-if" story.

The Power examines how power comes in various forms - whether physical, societal, something you are born into, something you can take from someone...and the list goes on. Alderman explores what happens when women develop an organ called a skein that enables them to deliver electrical shocks. Their inherent ability to physically overcome any man changes the balance of power in the world entirely. 

The Power is written as a manuscript of these events, having taken place thousands of years earlier. It catalogs the emergence of this new power eight years prior to a cataclysmic event. There are several stories we follow including a journalist's careful observations of women's use of their power, two women in government positions, one in the US and another in the fictional Bessaparra, and other women who have experienced violence by trusted men in their lives including Roxy, the English daughter of a mobster, and Allie, whose grasp of The Power leads to her god-like status among some.

As you can imagine, each take a different approach to what they think women's new role in the world should entail. Of course there are some who are more militant than others and some who are more benevolent than others. I guess the overarching question is, will things be different with women in charge? Or will those in power fall into the same traps as their male predecessors?

The Power has a televised series (on Prime Video) that is fantastic. It might be one of those rare instances where I prefer the televised version to the book. But that's not to say the book isn't worth reading. It's an interesting premise that explores a lot of thoughtful questions, but you'll want to check out the show after reading the book

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia

Moreno Garcia does an amazing job setting the right mood in this newer gothic tale. Set in Mexico in  the 1950's, you forget that the world is more modern than what Noemi Taboada experiences. Having grown up in Mexico City to an affluent family, Noemi's life is more about finding a worthy suitor and getting married than education or developing skills to join the workforce. 

Despite this, Noemi is a confident, charming, smart woman who would like to study at the University. While she enjoys fancy parties and delightful banter, much like a Disney princess, she wants moooooooore...Her father reluctantly agrees if she will first travel to a rural town to check on her recently married cousin, Catalina. 

What follows is a tale set in an isolated home on a treacherous hill complete with a foggy cemetery. Although it's the 1950s, the home doesn't have electricity and is intentionally kept dark and quiet. There don't seem to be telephones as everyone corresponds by letter. And dinner is in silence at the behest of the family patriarch, the mysterious Howard. There's also a lot of snake references, botany, nightmares, old mining lore, and a family secret.

Speaking of family, we have the wistful and delicate Catalina, who only speaks in riddles (because why can anyone speak plainly to explain a situation), and who has brought Noemi due to the strange letters she sent. There are also servants who act like NPCs, Catalina's seductive and questionably evil husband Virgil, the strict buttoned up Aunt Florence and her meh son Francis. Throw in a few doctors and a mysterious healer who trades town gossip for cigarettes and you have your complete cast of characters.

At the end of the day, this is a strange story and I'm not sure what I think about the punchline. It's somehow not based on a novel idea, but definitely different in execution. If you've read Children of Ruin or The Girl with All the Gifts, you'll definitely see some parallels, and these are all really different genres. I'm also reminded of Riley Sager's books, which have similarly interesting, if not a little fantastical, stories. 

This book took me awhile to finish. I'd start and then get distracted and start again and finally got the audiobook and powered through it. I don't know if I'm just better at listening to audio books or if was a great narration, but I enjoyed my final attempt much more than the first two. But not getting hooked right away makes me ambivalent when it comes to seeking out Moreno Garcia's other books. While I won't go out of my way to reach for another one, I'd be open to a recommendation.

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky has a knack for making humans supporting actors in his space-faring opera about intelligent animal life. After reading Children of Time, which I enjoyed, I wasn't sure how he would do a second book about a different species in a fresh way. But this second book is just as good as the first.

Told in a similar way to Children of Time, Children of Ruin switches between the past and present. The past being a time when human civilization has basically self-destructed and sent ships into the universe to terraform planets for future civilization. The present being thousands of years after this - as well as several thousands of years after Children of Time. It's amazing how space time really stretches things out and how quickly you get used to the vast stretches between years.

What we get from this second book that wasn't as fleshed out in the first is more about the terraforming project and how it works on a practical level. What we don't get is a lot of detail about our alien friends and how they develop their civilization. But that is forgiven when you learn their own civilization is basically destroyed, hence the ruin. What's intriguing, and what really steals the show is why this ruin occurred. Tchaikovsky has created an existential enemy that is both exciting and terrifying. I loved any scene that involved them. 

Children of Ruin explores themes of AI, immortality, the self, and invasion - both on a planetary as well as individual level. And while I felt he ended things a little too easily, I'll forgive him that because overall it was another great story in the Children of Time series. I can only hope his super villains will come back in subsequent novels, because they really were horribly fun.

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

I love "what if" books, where you have a premise that the author just goes with, no matter how out there it is. And the question of how or why really isn't the point. I think Jose Saramago is great at what ifs, but reading his books requires a degree of patience and concentration that Gramazio doesn't demand.

So, what if...a husband emerged from your attic? Forget the fact that you're not even married, or that you have an apparently magic attic. What would you do? What if, every time your husband went into the attic, he disappeared and a new one came out?

Could it be fun shopping for husbands? That one's too tall,  that one's wearing a terrible shirt, that one chews too loudly. And even if you get a good one, you can't help but wonder if he's the best the attic has to offer. Then there's the business of how to get the bad ones back in the attic and how to keep the good ones out of it.

As I'm writing this, I'm realizing how incredibly misandrist this sounds, but hear me out! Gramazio is able to take this premise and write a compelling and very funny story. Coming off of reading The Three-Body Problem, I'm starting to realize Lauren's life in The Husbands has its own periods of stability and chaos. And even the so-called stable periods, where she doesn't immediately send a husband back to the attic are filled with tension - if she likes him, how will she keep him from fetching that much needed box up there? If she doesn't like him, how will she get him back in? And what I like the most is how Gramazio shows the multiple variations of Lauren's life had she just made slightly different decisions - and how this affects her relationships with her friends and family. There's rich Lauren, poor Lauren, swinger Lauren, her best self Lauren, the Lauren who married her ex, and more.

And then there's Bohai, one of Lauren's husbands who seems to know more than he lets on when he comes down those attic stairs. I feel like Bohai needs his own book. He was such a fun, well-written partner. I loved any chapter that had him in it.

So what would you do with a magic attic? Would you embrace its power? Or run for the hills? Whether or not you agree with Lauren's choices, you'll love seeing her make them.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

*some spoilers ahead*

If you, like me, had never heard of this book until Netflix aired the eponymous series, it's ok. Sometimes we watch the movie/tv show/whatever and then read the book, even though it feels weird. 

Three-Body Problem is a concept in classical mechanics that describes the motion of three masses that orbit each other in space. The problem is that there is no solution to always accurately describe their motion (thanks wikipedia). 

So now imagine there is a planet, called Trisolaris, with three suns. The positions of the suns are unpredicable and can result in times of stability or chaos, depending on how close each of the suns gets to the planet. In fact, multiple civilizations have evolved and died out on Trisolaris. Some exist for relatively short periods of time, some long enough to get to the stone age, or the industrial age, before a chaotic period begins and destroys all of civilization.

But this book is less about Trisolaris and its inhabitants and more about earth and its inhabitants. What if there was a group of people who knew about Trisolaris? What if they wanted to help the Trisolarins find a new planet to inhabit? Much like the political climate today, there are some who would say, "bring 'em here! I don't care if humanity is destroyed in the process!" and others who would try to solve the three-body problem so they could stay where they are.

But part of the problem is that someone has already invited them to earth. And even though the journey is 450 years out, the toothpaste is out of the tube, as they say. But 450 years is a lot of time for Earth's civilization to evolve and improve while the Trisolarins remain static in their journey. So the Trisolarins invent a unique solution to stall scientific progress on earth. And this is where the story begins, with the suicide of several notable scientists, and a task force created to understand why.

This book blends a lot of scientific principles in a fairly easy to read story. It also deals with issues related to China's cultural revolution, environmental preservation, and scientific progress. While it's not my favorite sci-fi book I've read this year, I'll be picking up the second part of this trilogy to see what happens next.