I love to read! I wanted to press on with distance learning, but I needed a pause to mention three of the books I read this past two weeks. Two are by Cory Doctorow: Overclocked and Little Brother. One is by Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book.
Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present
Publisher: Perseus Publishing
ISBN-13: 9781560259817
This is a collection of short stories that was really challenging and enjoyable. Two of the stories “Anda’s Game” and “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” were moving in cyberspace context. The former is an expose of cyber sweatshops where third world denizens labor to win prizes and make money for people who want status in a given game, but would rather pay then paly themselves-the exploitive element is wrenching. The latter chronicles the effort of the system administrators left alive after an apocalyptic bio-terror attack to maintain the World Wide Web. It is moving, quite moving. One other story that bears mentioning is “After the Siege”. This story is based on the reminiscences of the horrors that Doctorow’s grandmother lived through in the Siege of Leningrad in WWII. It has all of the ‘magic’ to make it scifi, but the gritty details are universal in the human suffering and loss that is the core of war.
Little Brother
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
ISBN-13: 9780765319852
The title is a pun on the ‘villain’ of 1984, Big Brother. The protagonist, Marcus, a seventeen year old from San Francisico, uses ‘w1n5t0n’ for his handle on line, making the connection with Winston Smith in 1984.
Mary Quattlebaum notes in the Washington Post: “His whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.” Marcus is radicalized by the experience and dedicates himself to bringing the Department of Homeland Security.
I Think Doctorow has done an excellent job in rendering the life we have been facing since 9/11 and the issues concerning personal freedom by overstating, exaggerating what would happen if wholesale carnage again occured in the United States.
The Graveyard Book
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN-13: 9780060530921
This is a middle-grade novel with illustrations by none other than Dave McKean. This ‘team’ is so good and gets better and better. Nobody Owens, Bod, is the protagonist of this book. He is the only living resident of a graveyard in England. He came to live there under unusual and tragic circumstances. His guardian is Silas, a vampire, who ‘lives’ there, as well.
The novel is terrifying at times and an endearing coming of age story at other instances. There are wonderful ghouls, spirits, and humans. I think anyone will enjoy the book who enjoys Neil Gaiman or J.K. Rowling.
