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Personal blog devoted to long-form book reviews and criticism.

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All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel September 16, 2023

Dystopias Martha Wells Novellas Reviews Robots Space Opera

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Popular Posts

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (Review)

(Cover Designer: Tyler Comrie ) Yoko Ogawa's 1994 novel The Memory Police is unusual in part for how subtle the book's premise is. First translated into English in 2019 by Stephen Snyder, The Memory Police is ostensibly the story of a woman living under the rule of a totalitarian police state. There is a focus in this novel not only on the dehumanizing consequences of living in a dictatorship, but also on the quiet acts of rebellion that can be far more significant than they may outwardly seem. However, what makes Ogawa's approach to this material most unique is that, despite certainly being a book about characters who struggle to survive under the rule of an Orwellian government, it's never entirely clear to the reader how the oppressive force in this novel operates. For that matter, even in spite of the very real dangers that Ogawa's characters face over the course of this text, it's never clear to the reader whether or not this oppressive force which drive...

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin (Review)

(Cover Artist: Ernst Haas) There's a way that Ursula Le Guin's 1971 novel The Lathe of Heaven is often described, and I want to start this review by talking about why this is a summary of this book which I disagree with. Generally, the way I've seen The Lathe of Heaven characterized is that it is the story of a man named George Orr, who believes that everything he dreams becomes real. Terrified of this power, George is ultimately assigned therapy with a psychiatrist named William Haber, who sets out to cure George of these (supposedly) delusional beliefs in his brain's ability to change the world. In time however Haber reveals himself to actually be a mad scientist with a god complex--a man obsessed with finding a way to manipulate the reality-bending power of George's dreams so as to remake the world in his own image. Soon, George realizes that he must do whatever he can to keep the power of his dreams from Haber's control, and in so doing protect the univ...

Arrival by Ted Chiang (Review)

The most striking quality of the stories appearing in Ted Chiang's anthology Arrival (which was originally published in 2002 under the title Stories of Your Life and Others ) is the author's ability to use fiction as a rhetorical device. By saying this I don't mean that Chiang's work is comprised only of messages which he seeks to impart upon his audience, or even that his stories explicitly take the form of moral/ethical parables aimed at demonstrating some kind of lesson to his readers. Rather, it's more that throughout this collection, Chiang produces fiction which often strives to explore the tension that exists between two or more subtly contradictory ideas, examining various perspectives on his subjects through the medium of narrative. Via stories as diverse as a very contemporary-minded retelling of a biblical parable, an alien first-contact story that touches on themes of predestination and free will, and a fictional documentary about the ethics of limiti...

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