Divided Kingdom Review

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Divided Kingdom ReviewIn Divided Kingdom society has become troubled and fragmented - obsessed with acquisition and celebrity, it is a place defined by misery, envy, and greed. Crime is rampant; the courts are swamped, the prisons overflowing, the divorce rate following marriage quickly and predictably. Faced with lawlessness and chaos, the current government - hidden in an underground bunker - is forced to make a radical decision.
The Kingdom is to be divided into four countries, this political solution, or "rearrangement" comes with considerable risk, but is seen as the only alternative to avert certain anarchy. Each citizen is psychologically assessed and placed, sometimes with force, into four administrative units, each corresponding to one of the medieval "humours."
There's the Red Quarter, inhabited by the cheerfully sanguine, and where Matthew Micklewright, our main protagonist, then aged eight, lives; the Yellow Quarter, where the choleric rage and beat each other up; the Blue Quarter, populated by the stoically phlegmatic; and the "Green Quarter that harbors melancholic depressives.
Concrete boundaries are thrown up, rigidly controlled by the border police, and each country is sealed, fearful of the threat of psychological contamination. The rearrangement deliberately manufactured to create a climate of suspicion and denial between each country - people burying parts of their personalities that don't fit, and hiding their secrets that could now be judged and condemned.
One night, as the roundup begins, young Matthew is cruelly separated from his parents and taken to an immensely sinister boarding school, where he is lectured on the Rearrangements political rationale. The country had become "a troubled place," an enthusiastic Miss Groves tells the class, and this resolution was seen as the only alternative. Subsequently our hero -now renamed Thomas Parry- is given a new family and groomed for advancement in the Red Quarter regime as a civil servant.
After years of studying and career diligence, Thomas is finally given the senior administrative job he has been aiming for; this involves the ongoing process of psychological testing and relocation of members of the population who fail to meet the demands of his quarter. Now he is able to attend commissions and attend cross-border conferences, a privilege available only to the autocratic elite.
Dispatched to a cross border conference in the Blue Quarter, Thomas clandestinely visits a nightclub, the Bathysphere. Shocking images of his past come back to haunt him, of his mother, and of his first true love. He isn't sure what to make of these memories, all he knows is that he has experienced something so totally profound and addictive that it skews his sanguine nature, setting him on a course of self-discovery as he travels through the divided kingdom's four quarters.
Thomas becomes caught up in a terror attack in the Yellow Quarter; is shipwrecked on the coast of the Blue Quarter, and is farmed off to an angst-ridden Green Quarter boarding house, eventually escaping and joining the itinerant and stateless White People, a band of nomadic outsiders who drift aimlessly from quarter to quarter, spurned and shunned by the populations of this new and unsettling world.
Reticent of Huxley's Brave New World, author Rupert Thomson, rather than focusing on the nuts and bolts, the mechanics of this dystopian world chooses instead, to chart Thomas's tortured emotional landscape, as he becomes an outlaw, a fugitive, traveling from quarter to quarter, experiencing first hand each facet of the human condition. Our hero starts off with such noble pursuits and intent, convinced that his role is safe guarding the values and integrity of the Red Quarter. "I realized that he had to fight for the system, had to believe in it, or my removal from my family will have been for nothing."
But as Thomas travels, and witnesses the Yellow Quarter's inhumanity, the Blue Quarter's innocently sweet nature, and the Green quarter's chronic depressives, he realizes that the divided kingdom is united after all, by just one thing: "longing," a longing by most people to perhaps be reunited again.
But like the Kingdom he journeys through, Thomas realizes early on, that there will be no going back, there would be no going back to the part of him that had been buried for so many years, and there would be no more glimpses of that forgotten life. Going to Club Bathysphere exposed the need in Thomas, the ache - the hollowness that lay beneath a life so seemingly well ordered, even charmed. Fragments of another life had been released, altering him forever. His experiences lead him to admit that everything he had built had been revealed for what it was - "mere scaffolding."
Thompson evokes a bleak, desolate, almost apocalyptic world, where the psychological outlines of the different Quarters are sharply defined; its landscape of fleeting female figures, semi-erotic encounters, and of canals, waterways, and even underwater seas. It's also a world of transient, almost spiritual figures, fighting for survival in cities that embody all that is selfish and self-absorbed about capitalism.
Although the narrative tends to lose impetus towards the end, Divided Kingdom is mostly a gripping saga, a part adventure story, and part treatise on the human experience, a portrait of a world that is divided into a type of "psychological racism," where misguided authorities " have force-fed us our own weakness - our intolerance, our bigotry, to create a world where the people seem to need it, and even thrive on this type of prejudice." Mike Leonard November 05.
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If the Witness Lied Review

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If the Witness Lied ReviewThe Fountain family has faced endless grief within the last couple of years and their future seems quite bleak as well. First the children's mother died, after refusing treatment for her fatal cancer so that she could give life to their baby brother Tris. Then, just two years later their father dies in a terrible accident leaving the four Fountain children alone and parentless with only their self-involved Aunt Cheryl left to care for them.
Within weeks the two Fountain daughters, Madison and Smithy flee, one going to live with her godparents and the other going to a boarding school hundreds of miles away. This leaves Jack to be the strong one, the one to take care of Tris, because Cheryl really only cares about herself and home makeover shows on TV.
As Tris' third birthday approaches, Cheryl decides that she is ready for fame and sells the family's soap-opera story to a reality television producer and Jack knows that his life is about to be thrown upside down once again. The thing is though this event brings the family together again. Along the way they find out some troubling information that makes them think....did the witness of their dad's death lie?
I believe if you looked up Caroline B. Cooney up in an encyclopedia you find "... author of heart-thudding thrillers." I could literally not stop reading this book and absolutely gobbled it up. The book as a whole was great, but there were definitely some holes that I wish had been patched up.
First of all, the plot was very original and was the driving force behind the "heart-thudding" feeling you got while reading the book. I loved how the author took a mystery and turned it into a novel about family, friendship, trust, loss, and love. These themes melded perfectly throughout the book and really made the reader take a step back and evaluate their own life in a different light. I did have a couple issues with the plot though. Some of the events, such as Cheryl gaining custody automatically over the children and there being no original investigation into the father's death, were completely left out. This left a big gap for me as I felt it could have been a crucial part in the story. The storyline was also a bit predictable, but the suspense created by the little details really helped the reader to not focus on what was coming next.
As for characters, this is really where the book lacked. All of the characters were one-dimensional; especially the adults, and I wish they were so much more. The little we did get to learn about the characters though was great. Jack was definitely the hero in the book and by far a favorite, as he sacrificed his social life in order to step up to the plate and care for his younger brother.
Another plus for this book is the author's writing style. She made the book incredibly realistic and all throughout the story I felt like I was reading an article from the local newspaper instead of a piece of fiction. Also the point of view she wrote the book in was quite interesting. It felt like a mix between third and first person, but all in the present tense, much like in Lisa McMann's novels. This quirky style took a while to get used to but in the end it definitely added to the book.
Overall this was a good novel that all teen readers will enjoy. It had enough action to satisfy anyone and will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat. I loved how the author dealt with the breaking and healing of a family and really showed what love is and its immense powers.
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Gun, with Occasional Music (Harvest Book) Review

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Gun, with Occasional Music (Harvest Book) Review"Gun, With Occasional Music" is my first Jonathan Lethem book, and it certainly won't be my last. Although reading just one of his books hardly ranks me as an expert on his career, I will say that this story about a private detective in a future, dystopian nightmare will probably be one of the most unusual experiences you'll ever have with a book (unless you make a habit of reading quirky, ultra bizarre fiction). Lethem must have been the product of a union between Raymond Chandler and William Burroughs, with genetic material donated by Dashiell Hammett and Aldous Huxley. That's the only way to describe this amazing blend of noir, science fiction, and political commentary. "Gun, With Occasional Music" is the type of book you introduce your friends to in order to see their reaction after they finish it.
Lethem's future is one in which I would not want to visit, let alone live in. For private investigator Conrad Metcalf, this nightmare is the only world he knows. What's so bad about this author's horrific visions? In the world of tomorrow, society is quite different from the world we know. For one thing, animals (rabbits, sheep, kangaroos, and cats) now walk upright, speak, commit crimes, and work. It's all a part of what authorities call "evolving," and it isn't just about the animals. Human infants take part in the hijinks as well, since society decided that it takes too long for people to grow up. The result is "babyheads," infants that speak, smoke, and drink thanks to massive infusions of growth hormones. As if that's not enough to cause you screaming fits, and apparently many of the people in this brave new world feel like screaming about it, the authorities provide "make," a drug used to modify behavior. Moreover, people can make their own blends of the drug, adding such great substances as forgettol so they don't have to remember their miserable existence. Those brave souls who wish to challenge the system, or the innocents just caught in police nets, face the dread terror of the inquisitors. This secret police directorate possesses the power to ask questions, arrest people, and carry out sentences that include freezing people for years in a sort of cryogenic state. Conrad Metcalf is a private inquisitor, a former member of the secret police who struck out on his own after his disillusionment with the system led to an early retirement.
Now Metcalf has another case, one that promises to be a real doozy. After a doctor turns up dead in a seedy motel room, a client named Orton Angwine turns up on Metcalf's doorstep. Angwine claims he had nothing to do with the murder, and he wants Metcalf to clear him from the looming cloud of suspicion. Metcalf's subsequent investigation leads him through a labyrinth of underworld types, corrupt doctors, a jilted wife, a cranky babyhead, a kangaroo with a grudge, and inquisitors who would rather see this case disappear forever. Whatever happens in the end, Metcalf must tread a fine line during his investigation because if his personal karma drops to zero he will find himself facing a six year snooze in a cryogenic tank. As Conrad homes in on the murderer, he discovers his noirish wisecracks bring more trouble than answers. The future is a dangerous place, and Conrad Metcalf is right in the middle of it without an umbrella.
You really must love the dialogue in this book. It crackles with snappy comebacks and hooked barbs, all done in a grand tradition which states that detectives in crime noir stories must speak in clever metaphors and insults. What makes it so jarring here is when Metcalf trades verbal jabs with a gun-toting kangaroo named Joey Castle. In "Gun, With Occasional Music," dialogue assumes an added dimension when you realize that the only people allowed to ask questions in the future are inquisitors, thus the reason that Conrad often frets over his inadequate responses when grilling someone for information. His stock and trade is not as a hired gun or bodyguard per se; it literally involves possessing the necessary verbal acumen to properly make inquiries and to look good while doing so. Lethem studied and mastered the style of the noir masters before writing this book, and it shows on virtually every page.
"Gun, With Occasional Music" is weirdness incarnate, but at the same time it is immensely amusing. The best recommendation I can give you is to pay close attention to the various characters Metcalf runs into during the course of his investigation. The twists and turns of the Angwine case are monumental, and easily lost track of amidst the strange scenery Lethem throws at you with unremitting frequency. This book really is one that requires a second reading because there is so much going on. The conclusion is an interesting one that wraps the plot up just as a good noir story should. Yep, all in all Lethem's little beast is a great way to spend a few days. For those unaccustomed to the joys of warped fiction, Jonathan Lethem exists to show you the way.Gun, with Occasional Music (Harvest Book) Overview

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Fever Crumb Review

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Fever Crumb ReviewFever Crumb is a prequel of sorts to Philip Reeve's fantastic Hungry Cities/Mortal Engines series. I say "of sorts" in that it's set in the pre-history of the Hungry Cities world but far back enough in time that Fever Crumb doesn't act as a direct lead-in to the larger series, but rather sets up the major concepts and incipient events of that series rather than give us more of the same characters. Though it's set earlier, I'd still recommend beginning with the later books because while I enjoyed Fever, the Mortal Engines books have a much stronger impact (think starting the Narnia series with The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe vs. The Magician's Nephew)
In the later series, cities are large, mobile monstrosities that war with one another in order to gain needed resources, one city devouring another. It's an annex or be-annexed world. In Fever Crumb, though, London is still geographically bound to one place, though smaller localities have taken up the nomadic life and one such alliance from the North--The Movement--appears on the horizon seemingly ready to invade. People are clearly on edge, especially as it wasn't all that long ago that there had been a violent uprising in London against the Scriven, the long-lived and seemingly inhuman tyrannical overlords who had ruled over London for centuries. All the Scriven were killed or driven out, but the memory of death and violence is still fresh, as is resentment toward anything remotely "other."
Fever is a young woman, a foundling brought up by Doctor Crumb in the uber-rational guild of Engineers who consider emotions silly and hindrances to logical living (they live, fittingly enough, in a giant head). The book mostly begins when Fever is sent out to work on an archaeological dig with Kit Solent, who is looking into secrets possibly buried beneath the home of the last Scriven overlord.
Clearly Reeve is going to be working several plots here. One is the simple suspense of the encroaching Movement--what do they want? Is it an invasion or something different? Will London fight or not? Another is the suspense regarding the dig--what, if anything, will they uncover? Will uncovering it be a good or bad thing? Yet a third is Fever's slow discovery of the truth of her lost background. Still focused on Fever, Reeve also explores her growing conflict between the rational, emotion-free approach she's spent near her whole life with and her newly-awakened sense of the emotional life. There are side-plots and mysteries as well surrounding several other characters: Doctor Crumb, Kit Solent, the old man who killed the last Scriven overlord and who remains ever vigilant, the old man's young apprentice in Scriven-hunting (called "skinning" for reasons you might imagine), and an ambitious tavern owner seeking to use the unrest to his own ends.
The characters are all pretty complex, even those that don't get a lot of page time. It'd be tough to accuse any of them save one or two of being "stock" types and those that are play a pretty minimal role. But from Fever to Kit to the old man and his apprentice, Reeve has created complicated, human, fully fleshed out characters.
The story does sometimes (not often and not for long) lag here and there--I would have argued for a stronger edit of Fever's back-story for instance--, but while I wouldn't call it "gripping" it mostly it pulls you along quickly and smoothly as you're eager to learn what happens. You'll also enjoy many of the mangled bits and pieces of our time that get sprinkled into the language of Fever's era, though a few times these felt a little forced. And there are just some wonderful bits of creative imagery here that I won't spoil, though it's tempting to rave about one in particular.
While not quite as strong as the Mortal Engines books, Fever Crumb stands well enough on its own and is certainly worth a read, even for those unfamiliar with the series. But as mentioned, while I recommend reading Fever, I strongly recommend doing so after picking up the series, not so much for plot as for a stronger introduction to Reeve's writing. If for some reason you don't and find you're not enamored with Fever, don't let it prevent you from trying the series.Fever Crumb Overview

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