Category: Books & Literature

On donkeys and democracy

When one mentions George Orwell, most people immediately think of Nineteen Eighty-Four.  But a few years earlier Orwell had written another little book, a novella titled Animal Farm.  Nineteen Eighty-Four is undoubtedly Orwell’s master work, with it’s terrifying depiction of a society where every citizen is watched so closely that even talking in your sleep can get you arrested and where the rulers are so confident in their power that they entertain themselves by allowing individuals the illusion of freedom and rebellion, only so that breaking them later is that much more devastating.  It is a warning of where we can end up if we sit back and let those in power have too much.

Animal Farm 1954 DVD cover
Cover of the 1954 animated film

But more significant in my eyes is Orwell’s little fairy tale, as he called it, for Animal Farm shows us just how easily society can reach that state.  Animal Farm, for those of you who’ve never read it, is a fable about a bunch of farm animals who rebel against their human master, run him off the farm, and start working the land for themselves.

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On the backwards book

Last week I started, and subsequently put down, a potentially very interesting novel.  The October List by Jeffrey Deaver is unique, as far as I know, in that it tells the story backwards.

The October List by Jeffrey Deaver

When you open the book you find yourself in Chapter 36.  Every subsequent chapter is set a little earlier in the story and it finally ends, with what I’m told is a tremendous twist, at Chapter 1.  The author’s note, acknowledgements and title page are right at the back of the book. Continue reading “On the backwards book”

KokkieH Reviews Firelands: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale by Piper Bayard

Firelands by Piper Bayard
Used with permission

Eighty years in the future, America has devolved into a totalitarian theocracy. The ruling Josephites clone the only seeds that grow in the post-apocalyptic climate, allowing their Prophet to control who eats and who starves.

Subsisting on the fringes, Archer risks violation and death each day as she scours the forest for game to feed her people. When a Josephite refugee seeks sanctuary in her home, Archer is driven to chance a desperate gamble. A gamble that will bring down the Prophet and deliver seeds and freedom, or end in a fiery death for herself and for everyone she loves.

Seeds are life. . . . Seeds are power. . . . Seeds are the only hope of a despairing people. What will Archer do for the seeds of freedom, and what will she justify in their name?
 – Online book description

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KokkieH Reviews Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
Cover illustration by Chris McGrath
Publisher: http://www.orbitbooks.net

Harry Dresden’s faced some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpions. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you’re the only professional wizard in the Chicago area phone book.

But in all Harry’s years of supernatural sleuthing, he’s never faced anything like this: the spirit world’s gone postal. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble — and not just of the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone — or something — is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc.

But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn’t figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself… – Book description on cover

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KokkieH Reviews The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John le Carré

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold book cover

Alec Leamas is tired. It’s the 1960s, he’s been out in the cold for years, spying in Berlin for his British masters, and has seen too many good agents murdered for their troubles. Now Control wants to bring him in at last – but only after one final assignment. He must travel deep into the heart of Communist Germany and betray his country, a job that he will do with his usual cynical professionalism. But when George Smiley tries to help a young woman Leamas has befriended, Leamas’ mission may prove to be the worst thing he could ever have done. – Online book description

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