The Slynx - Tatyana Tolstaya

The Slynx is a Russian dystopian novels written by a relative of Tolstoys. I had never heard of this book before and only became aware of it because of the International Reads group formed on goodreads and book tube.
Set hundreds of years in the future life has regressed. People spend their days catching mice to eat and sell to be made into clothes, they live in primative buildings and the society is ruled over by one man. The dictator is praised for the things he brings them such as fire and the written word. There are three sets of people the Oldeners, who remember the time before, those with Consequences - some type of mutation like claws for feet and the regular people.
The main character starts off as a fairly poor man constantly hungry and searching for food, until he marries a richer woman and is welcomed to novels and fiction.

I liked many aspects of this book, but I thought much of it was a political message that went straight over my head as I know nothing of Russia. Many parts of the book seemed silly, and I think that within a week I will have forgotten the majority of this novel.

Book 3 of 5 for The Dystopian Challenge

The Road - McCarthy

And another 1001 book tackled! I also read this for the Dystopia Challenge so two hits in one :) I've been meaning to read The Road since all of the hype years ago but somehow I failed to get around to it, but I'm glad I kept it so long.
The Road is a post-apocalyptic novel, set in a grey, cold and very bleak America which fitted perfectly with the weather over the few days I was reading, which was wet and windy. The majority of the novel was read when I was woken by a huge storm at 4 in the morning, so I was curled up on the sofa with a book watching the mad dog walkers battling against winds and rains to ensure their pets had been taken out!
I would guess that the majority of books I read have a female protagonist and the view of family life and relationships is from a female perspective so it was interesting to read about a father-son relationship. The two nameless characters rely on each other for everything, they battle the world and their fears together. Other people present figures of danger, with some very grim scenes occurring when the father and son encounter gangs travelling on the road.
This book is bleak, but the relationship between the two characters brings a light to the whole book, regardless of the situation love still shines through. The novel is written in short fragments so is quick to read and highly recommended.

The Maze Runner

 I brought The Maze Runner and the two other books in this series over a year ago when they were on special offer in a discount bookshop but like many of the books in my life I just didn't get around to them.

Then I signed up for the Dystopia Challenge and knew that this was the perfect opporunity to tackle this series. A mix between The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies, The Maze Runner features a dystopian land were a group of boys have been sent underground as part of a test. 

Once a month a teenage boy arrives in the box, an elevator controlled by those in charge, with only the memory of his name to The Glade, a teenage community. Surrounding The Glade lies 8 mazes with walls which change day by day.

The book follows Thomas, a new boy named a 'Greenie' who arrives in the box. After his arrival life in The Glade, which had been stable for 2 years, starts to change. New challenges arise, the rules are changed and suspiscion lies firmly at Thomas' feet. 

 

This book is fast paced and a typical YA dystopia. I was intrigued by what was happening, read quickly and devoured the setting and the action. However, unlike The Hunger Games and The Chaos Walking Trilogy I was not gripped by any of the characters. These books usually rush me back to teenage emotions and turmoil but this failed to do that. In fact, after the usual traumatic ending, I hadn't even managed a sniffle let alone the uncontrollable weeping which ensured with each of Patrick Ness' books. I am however intrigued to read the rest of the series and see how life plays out for Thomas.

4/5



Dystopia Challenge 2013

As I have just restarted blogging after a few years out of the mix I thought a good way to meet some new bloggers and find some of the old ones I loved was to join a reading challenge, just one mind as I tend to get carried away.
I noticed I had a button for the 2011 Dystopia challenge so I followed that and discovered to my delight that it is still up and running over at Book Ardour. So I'm plunging in. I have read a few dystopian novels this year, Brave New World and Farenheit 451 but no where near my usual quantity. I'm signing up for ASocial, 5 dystopian novels.

A few potential reads:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy READ
The Trial, Kafka
The Maze Runner, James Dashner (I have the other 2 books in the series if I enjoy this) READ
The Passion of New Eve, Angela Carter
Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
Wool, Hugh Howey

Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

Sorry for the double post today!
Tomorrow, When the War Began has sat on my shelf for a good year now and I never quite got around to it. This week I saw Darren from Bart's Bookshelf and Vivienne from Serendipity both mention the book along with a post about it on bookcrossing so I thought I'd grab it and see what it was like.
The novel starts off very 'teeny' to the point where I almost gave up - a bunch of teenagers go off on a camping trip, all fairly young, mixed gender, driving illegally and off to somewhere dangerous, as you do! A few days in they spot a large number of planes flying over head, make a few jokes about war and then forget it.
When they return home to dicover what has happened my interest rose, the book started to feel dystopian and more exciting. They return to find the streets of their homes abandoned, animals (they are farmers) left to die and all the powercut. The only one source of light in the town is the park ground which is heavily guarded by armed soldiers. From then on its a battle to survive.
I really enjoyed the pace of this (after the first 20 pages), the construction of the town,the dystopian feel and also the knowledge that there is more to come and they are all in print so I don't have to wait. My criticism would be the love triangle - can someone write a YA book without a love triangle and the ending, which certainly relies on you reading the next book as there is so much left to happen.
I'll definitely get the next one, although randomly my library only has books 1,3 and 4! so I'll be waiting for my next amazon order.

Short Story Sunday and a Novella

Last year I barely read any short stories, like poetry and plays short stories are something I love but they tend to get abandoned in the crush of big old novels.
I'm aiming to read more, and hopefully post each Sunday about one. There did use to be a Short Story Sunday feature but I can't find anything up to date so I'll just keep myself company.

'The Daughters of the Late Colonel' by Katherine Mansfield
The death of their dictatorial father leaves Josephine and Constatine lost and bewildered. Not from sadness, but from merely knowing what to do. Every adecision they need to make, every action they take is laboured with fear of the father. Would he approve? Will he hate them?
Motherless and unmarried the girls have been ruled by a tyrannical father and maid, friendless and unworldly the young women are orphaned in a world which they barely know.

I really enjoyed this short story, I wanted to shake the girls and give them some bravery and strength.

'Anthem' by Ayn RandLast night I managed to knock a novella off the tbr pile, and one perfect for the dystopia challenge.

Anthem is set in a world in which children are brought up in a centre rather than with their families, taught only the basics at school and then assigned a work placement for life. The main characters in this novella discover an unknown place, a place linked to the time before. They sneak to this place as often as possible, discovering not just the thrill of doing what is not allowed but also the thrill of knowledge and discovery. For the first time they are able to think for themselves - just so long as no one finds out.
Written in first person in a series of reflective journal entries we gradually see the constraints of the society, as well as the things that are gradually being learnt, things we take for granted.

Challenges

I've been away for a long long time, my home computer died and life got complicated. I'm still computerless at home but can use the internet at work or in the public library. I'm really missing some aspects of blogging and the blogging world so trying to come back into it, even if only on a limited basis. I'm whittling down my googlereader to just a handful of blogs, and joining a few challenges.

I'm trying to spend the next year attacking the TBR pile - which is my biggest challenge as there are 450 unread books on it (I know as I counted and listed them all to shame myself). I'm going to limit myself to 2 challenges at a time, and the majority of the books I read for that challenge must come from the TBR pile or be books that I've always meant to read. This also means that I will have more time to comment and visit other bloggers following the same challenge. Any old challenges that I was signed up for I have abandoned, as all my lists were saved on the computer, which I couldn't access.

Challenges I'm participating in
The Novella Challenge (Nov 1st - Nov 30th)

This challenge will be a great way to tackle the TBR stacks, I've chosen level 3 which is to read 8 novellas. These are all from my TBR pile:
A Wilshire Diary
The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araujo
The Epic of Gigamesh
Buenas Noches, Buenos Aires
Iron, Nickel, Potasium
The Celestial Omnibus
The Castle of Otranto
Tirra Lirra by the River


Dystopia Challenge (Jan - Dec 2011)
I love this genre and have enjoyed many dystopian novels in the past, particularly YA fiction, which seems to fit this genre really well. I'm joining at the Asocial level (5 books), I've listed 6 which my reads will come from this gives me space to abandon one if I hate it.

The Trial, Kafka
Do Androids Dream of Sheep
Anthem
Tomorrow: When the War Began
Brave New World
Farenheit 451

Dystopian Challenge.

I'm joining in with the Dystopian Challenge hosted byBooks.Lists.Life. I'm pledging to read 3 of these books by November the 6th and set myself an extra 2 to tackle if all is going really well.

The Books:
Cloud Atlas, Mitchell
Z for Zachaiah, O'Brein
The Road, Cormac McCarthy

Extras:
Do Androids Dream of Sheep, Dick
Naked Lunch, Burroughs