Vonnegut, Kurt "Cat's Cradle" - 1963

Vonnegut, Kurt "Cat's Cradle" - 1963

We read this with our international online book club in June 2025.

While science-fiction is not really my thing, I would say this is more a dystopian novel. And a very good one. Granted, part of it is sci-fi though that is the case with a lot of dystopian novels. Here, the author even explained, how it happened that the world came into this distress.

I have only read one other book by Kurt Vonnegut before (Breakfast of Champions) and that was fantastic. So was this one. Kurt Vonnegut loves to play with words. And he always finds new ones that we haven't heard before but that makes a lot of sense.

As it says in the book description, our deepest fears are witnessing Armageddon and, even worse, surviviing it. My sentiments exactly. Should there be one, I'd rather not survive it than having to build up the earth again. Must be terrible.

Well, here we get the chance, We meet all sorts of different kind of quirky people who meet on a fictional Caribbean island where they witness the "End of the World". With his dark humour, the author manages to describe the encounters everyone has with Ice-Nine, a chemical that can destroy everything. And their reasons for getting engaged in the turmoil. His irony shows especially when he describes the fictional new religion Bokonon. So many witty insights that make us think about every existing religion.

He more or less ends with this quote: "Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, It might have been". One of the most true sentences there are.

If I haven't said it before, this is a great story. Definitely makes me want to read more of his books.

And here are some comments from the discussion:

• Most members thought it was really well written, and humorous in a satirical way. While at the same time having some underlying themes of criticism of religion, dictatorships, science, all in a writing style very unique to Vonnegut.
• I really liked the chapter layout, with short chapters of about only 1-2 pages, that as the chapter is read you realize the title of the chapter was really descriptive and inventive. While the end-of-world-science that happened was very quickly unfolding at the end of the story and not at all believable, it was written as a quite humorous conclusion to the story.
• I was prejudiced against it before I started reading it, so got pleasantly surprised that I really enjoyed it after all. I dislike reading about wars and horrors, but enjoy some dystopias, of which this one was a quite thoughtful fun version. I was happy we chose it as I would never have read it for myself.

From the back cover:

"With his trademark dry wit, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle is an inventive science fiction satire that preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon - and, worse still, surviving it. 

Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding 'fathers' of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to the world. For he is the inventor of ice-nine, a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet. Writer Jonah's search for its whereabouts leads to Hoenikker's three eccentric children, to an island republic in the Caribbean where the religion of Bokononism is practised, to love and to insanity. Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction is a funny and frightening satire on the end of the world and the madness of mankind."

Shute, Nevil "On the Beach"

Shute, Nevil "On the Beach" - 1959

"It's not the end of the world at all," he said. "It's only the end for us. The world will go on just the same, only we shan't be in it. I dare say it will get along all right without us."

I like dystopian novels. They tell us about what could happen if we don't stop what we're doing. Everyone should read at least one of them. This one isn't such a long story (fewer than 300 pages) and thererfore something for everyone.

And yes, the quote I mentioned at the beginning is true. The world will exist, no matter whether the earth is still there or there are people on it. So, no worries. Nobody can destroy the WORLD. We can, however, destroy everything we loved and wish for our children to still be there when they and their kids and grandkids die.

This story makes us aware that we are all in the same boat, that we cannot get away from the evil others planned. The book is from 1959. Nevil Shute was a clairvoyant.

The book was much loved by the book club, especially the different views on the subject based on age and geographical location. It was all new information to many and much appreciated.

From the back cover:

"After a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the globe, the few remaining survivors in southern Australia await the radioactive cloud that is heading their way and bringing certain death to everyone in its path. Among them is an American submarine captain struggling to resist the knowledge that his wife and children in the United States must be dead. Then a faint Morse code signal is picked up, transmitting from somewhere near Seattle, and Captain Towers must lead his submarine crew on a bleak tour of the ruined world in a desperate search for signs of life. On the Beach is a remarkably convincing portrait of how ordinary people might face the most unimaginable nightmare."

Apparently, the phrase "on the beach" is a Royal Navy term that indicates retirement from service.

Harris, Robert "Fatherland"

Harris, Robert "Fatherland" - 1992

What an awful thought. Hitler resp. the Nazis had won the war. I always say, the Germans didn't lose the war, that were the Nazis. The Germans effectively won the war. In this book (and in various others, like my favourite "The Children's War") we can all see why.

The story itself concentrates on one particular case. A policemen who is not a fan of the Nazis but still has to wear their uniform for his job, tries to find the secret behind a murder. And with that, he could transform the whole world.

We need people like that everywhere, people who don't just blindly follow some dicatators, even if it is an advantage for them.

I think, right now is the right time to read this book again. Right now, where the Right is on the rise in many, many countries. Too many, if you ask me. How can people forget what it was? Even if you haven't lived during the war, most of us haven't, lets be honest. My parents would have been ninety had they still lived. And they were five when the Nazis were elected, so anyone responsible for the regime must be about a hundred. Not many of them alive anymore. But we have to remember what our parents or grandparents told us and see where we are heading if we elect those idiots that tell us the foreigners are our enemies. Nope, those who want to abolish our hard-earned democracy are.

We should all be happy that the war ended the way it did, this book shows us what could have been had it been different.

From the back cover:

"April 1964.

The naked body of an old man floats in a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. In one week it will be Adolf Hitler’s 75th birthday. A terrible conspiracy is starting to unravel…

What if Hitler had won?"

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Top Ten Plus Genre Freebie ~ Dystopian Literature

 

"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish". It is now hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.

Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of other bloggers who share their lists here.

This week, our topic is a Genre Freebie. (We can pick a genre and build a list around it. It could a list of favorites, a to-read list, recommendations for people interested in reading books in that genre, "if you like this, try this", etc.)

I have participated in Top Ten Tuesday for almost ten years now. It has always been a lot of fun. Obviously, subjects repeat itself after a while, there are new ones but also "recycled" ones. This belongs to the latter. I have done my favourite genre three times already. First, I picked Classics, then Historical Fiction and after that Travel. But there is one genre that I also love and it seems I haven't done one on that topic, yet (at least, I couldn't find it). I know I have used most of those books whenever something came up where they would fit in. My favourite book of all, The Children's War features in 19 lists, so far. Today it makes it's 20th appearance.

So, yes, I have picked dystopian literature today. I love that genre. It depicts our fears about the future and if we look back, we can always see what people feared most at certain times. There is the fear of communism, of Big Brother, of an atomic war, of aliens. But most of all, it's often the fear of someone or something taking control of our lives, changing it forever. By some authors I have read more than just one book on the topic (Margaret Atwood, Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, J.N. Stroyar) but I have only listed one of their books, my favourite.

I hope you will find a book or two among them that you might want to read. If you do, let me know how you liked them.

Atwood, Margaret "The Handmaid’s Tale" (Re-Read) - 1985
Boye, Karin "Kallocain" (SW: Kallocain) - 1940
Bradbury, Ray "Fahrenheit 451" - 1953
Chabon, Michael "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" - 2007
Fforde, Jasper "Shades of Grey. The Road to High Saffron" - 2009
Haushofer, Marlen "The Wall" (GE: Die Wand) - 1962
Huxley, Aldous "Brave New World" - 1931
Jackson, Shirley "The Lottery" - 1948 (short story)
Levithan, David "Every Day" - 2012
McCarthy, Cormac "The Road" - 2006 
Orwell, George "Nineteen Eighty Four" - 1949
Pausewang, Gudrun "The Last Children" (GE: Die letzten Kinder von Schewenborn oder … sieht so unsere Zukunft aus?) - 1983
Sansom, C.J. (Christopher John) "Dominion" - 2011
Stephenson, Neal "Anathem" - 2008
Stroyar, J.N. "The Children's War" - 2001

📚 Happy Reading! 📚

DeLillo, Don "The Silence"

DeLillo, Don "The Silence" - 2020

We read this in our international online book club in September 2022.

I like dystopian novels and when our book club chose this one by an author I haven't read, I was looking forward to it. I'm not a huge fan of short stories but sometimes they turn out well.

This one didn't. There wasn't enough information about what was going on and certainly none about what happened after. Granted, we don't know, yet, what might happen if this ever was the case.

The world is losing its technology including all the internet. It would have been nice to see what happens to the world rather than listening to some weird, unexplainable eruptions by some of the characters.

The best part of the book is the quote in the prequel by Albert Einstein (which I knew already and totally agree with):
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

After that introduction, I would have wished that this would be shown at least a little.

Comments from another member:" I have been holding off on writing something, because I found it all so confusing. So I will say just that I found the book confusing and not at all what I was expecting. It was more like a piece of art or theatre-manuscript for some monologue than a novel. But if you look away from my expectations the story did highlight what a catastrophic event would be like from the perspective of very few people. There were the people who weirdly survived the planecrash and went on as if nothing had happened, then there was the guy who kept staring at the TV, a conspiracy theorist, the hostess. But not much about what happened in the outside world except for a few words on it not being good. Again something new to widen my reading experiences, but very confusing."

And another one: "I completely agree. It reads like a confused stream of consciousness exercise that no one was meant to really understand. Maybe it was meant to evoke some sort of feeling similar to Sartre's 'La Nausée' only this novel only evoked a sense of absurdity."

And I totally could relate to this one: "If I ever experience a catastrophic event I sincerely hope the folks I am with have more wits than the very dull characters in this book. A short but tedious book."

Book Description:

"From one of the most dazzling and essential voices in American fiction, a timely and compelling novel set in the near future about five people gathered together in a Manhattan apartment, in the midst of a catastrophic event.

Don DeLillo completed this novel just weeks before the advent of Covid-19. The Silence is the story of a different catastrophic event. Its resonances offer a mysterious solace.

It is Super Bowl Sunday in the year 2022. Five people, dinner, an apartment on the east side of Manhattan. The retired physics professor and her husband and her former student waiting for the couple who will join them from what becomes a dramatic flight from Paris. The conversation ranges from a survey telescope in North-central Chile to a favorite brand of bourbon to Einstein’s 1912 Manuscript on the Special Theory of Relativity.

Then something happens and the digital connections that have transformed our lives are severed.

What follows is a dazzling and profoundly moving conversation about what makes us human. Never has the art of fiction been such an immediate guide to our navigation of a bewildering world. Never have DeLillo’s prescience, imagination, and language been more illuminating and essential."

Jackson, Shirley "The Lottery"

Jackson, Shirley "The Lottery" - 1948

Once a month, Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best invites us to participate in her challenge Six Degrees of Separation (see here my latest post).

Often, we have not read the book but still can start our chain with the information given. This time, since it is the first time she started with short story, she said there were no excuses for not reading the starting book, right? While I don't care much for short stories, I thought this was as good a reason as any to read it. And it is available online (here). I don't read books online but for a short story that I have to get quickly, I thought I could do it.

It is hard to review this story without telling the whole story. In any case, a lot of towns in the USA seem to hold this lottery once a year. (Don't forget, this is fiction!) Nobody wants to win in this case but someone has to. This story reminded me of "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. Mind you, since that novel was written in 2008 and this short story in 1948, we can only imagine who copied the idea from whom, if that was the case.

A very dark, sinister and shocking story that could have been made into a series and probably would have as "The Hunger Games" and "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood and several other stories demonstrate.

While looking for a picture for this post, I saw this "joke":
"I hope you win the Lottery soon. Not the state-run lotto, but the Shirley Jackson one."
I'm glad to say I don't know anyone to whom I would say that. I know that these kinds of things happen in other parts of the world and I don't wish it on anyone.

From the back cover:

"In a small American town, the local residents are abuzz with excitement and nervousness when they wake on the morning of the twenty-seventh of June. Everything has been prepared for the town’s annual tradition - a lottery in which every family must participate, and no one wants to win.

'The Lottery' stands out as one of the most famous short stories in American literary history. Originally published in The New Yorker, the author immediately began receiving letters from readers who demanded an explanation of the story’s meaning. 'The Lottery' has been adapted for stage, television, radio and film."

Another book that this reminded of is "The Wave" by Morton Rhue, it's a good addition to this short story.

Sidewise Awards

I have never heard of this award before but since my favourite book ever received it in 2001, I think I should mention it. And read a few more of those books that are on this list. I do love musing about what if … what if something in history hadn't happened that way. Always a great way to start a thought. Or a book. I absolutely love dystopian novels.

Of course, there are a few websites where you can look up the latest news:
Uchronia
SFE - Science Fiction Encyclopedia
and, of course, Wikipedia 

And these are the past winners:

    1995: Paul J McAuley, Pasquale's Angel (1994)
    1996: Stephen Baxter, Voyage (1996)
    1997: Harry Turtledove, How Few Remain (1997)
    1998: Stephen Fry, Making History (1996)
    1999: Brendan DuBois, Resurrection Day (1999)
    2000: Mary Gentle, Ash: A Secret History (2000)
    2001: J N Stroyar, The Children's War (2001)
    2002: (tie) Martin J Gidron, The Severed Wing (2002); Harry Turtledove, Ruled Britannia (2002)
    2003: Murray Davies, Collaborator (2003)
    2004: Philip Roth, The Plot Against America (2004)
    2005: Ian R MacLeod, The Summer Isles (October/November 1998 Asimov's; exp 2005)
    2006: Charles Stross, Merchant Princes volumes 1-3: The Family Trade (2004), The Hidden Family (2005) and The Clan Corporate (2006)
    2007: Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union (2007)
    2008: Chris Roberson, The Dragon's Nine Sons (2008)
    2009: Robert Conroy, 1942 (2009)
    2010: Eric G Swedin, When Angels Wept: A What-If History of the Cuban Missile Crisis (2010)
    2011: Ian R MacLeod, Wake Up and Dream (2011)
    2012: C J Sansom, Dominion (2012)
    2013: (tie) D J Taylor, The Windsor Faction (2013); Bryce Zabel, Surrounded by Enemies: What If Kennedy Survived Dallas? (2013)
    2014: Kristine Kathryn Rusch, The Enemy Within (as "G-Men" in Sideways in Crime, anth 2008, ed Lou Anders; exp 2014)
    2015: Julie Mayhew, The Big Lie (2015)
    2016: Ben H Winters, Underground Airlines (2016)
    2017: Bryce Zabel, Once There Was a Way (2017)
    2018: Mary Robinette Kowal, The Calculating Stars (2018)
    2019: Annalee Newitz, The Future of Another Timeline
    2020: Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Doors of Eden
    2021: Laurent Binet, Civilizations
    2022: B.L. Blanchard, The Peacekeeper

"Due to the COVID-19 crisis, announcement of the Sidewise Awards winners for alternate history published in 2019 has been delayed a year. The 2019 short list and winners will be announced at the same time as are the 2020 short list and winners, which will occur in summer 2021."

Stroyar, J.N. "Becoming Them"

Stroyar, J.N. "Becoming Them" (The Children's War Book 3) - 2017

Ten years ago, I read "The Children's War" and "A Change of Regime", one of the best books I ever read and still my favourite. As a German, having to live with the consequences of one of the most terrible wars ever, I have always asked myself what would have happened if the Nazis had won the war. We all would have lost, that's for sure. J.N. Stroyar has brought these thoughts to paper and painted a very vivid picture in her first two books. Then, one day, I learned there was a third one. Wow! I couldn't believe it. I was lucky to find a copy. I have no idea why these books don't get reprinted, I know so many people who would love to read it.

So, I finally found a copy. It had been ten years since I read the first two books. Would I remember enough to jump right back in? Looks like I didn't even have to. The author was so clever to include a ten pages of summary in the front where she retells the story for those who want to review what was in the first books and it might even be enough for those who never read the first ones. I think this should be obligatory for any sequel to any book. Makes reading the follow-up so much easer.

They say on the back cover "the long awaited finale". I didn't even know there was to be a finale. I didn't even know there would be a third book. Mainly, I think, because so little is known about the author. All I know is that she's a US physisict who used to live in German (Frankfurt, I believe) and now lives partly in London and partly in the USA. And that she won the "Sidewise Award" in 2001, an annual award for "Alternate History". She doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. So, I haven't seen anywhere that she was writing a third story.

In this final book of the trilogy, we see how everything gets together in the end, how the long and arduous underground work finally leads to the end of the Nazi party. But not without many, many difficulties first. This third book is just as fascinating, exciting and thrilling as the first two. I hope many people will be able to read it.

I also hope that the author is going to write more books.

Quote from Wikipedia:
"The Bradenton Herald described The Children's War as 'a brutal look at what might have been and a reminder of the price of freedom.'"
So very exact and true.

From the back cover:

"The long awaited finale of The Children’s War is presented in Becoming Them. Drawn from genuine historical incidents and people, both from the past and the present, the story examines the psychology of war, torture, and resistance, of guilt and innocence.

Set in a world sixty years after the conquest of Europe by Nazi Germany, the resistance movement continues its struggle for freedom, passing their war on from generation to generation. Peter Halifax, one-time member of the English Underground, has just been released from prison and now works with his assassin wife Zosia Król in Berlin under the direction of her brother, Ryszard, who, as his alter-ego Colonel Richard Traugutt, is second in command of the Third Reich. Together they attempt to collapse the Nazi Party and reform the Reich from within.

The story begins in London where Peter has been sent to liaise with the English Underground as a member of the newly formed Nichtdeutsch Council, but instead he becomes the target of an assassination attempt. It is only one indication of the growing chaos and violence in the Reich as the population becomes disenchanted with the dithering leadership of their new Fuhrer, Josef Frauenfeld.

As a member of the Nichtdeutsch Council, Zosia attempts to organize the various opposition factions into a coherent movement while struggling to raise her family, carefully keeping her three children away from Berlin high society where Magdalena, who is Elspeth’s and Peter’s daughter, might be recognized. She also maintains contact with her base in the Carpathian mountains and undertakes jobs for them that lead her into ever more questionable actions.

Richard Traugutt, as special advisor to the Fuhrer, works to change the laws of the Reich to give more rights and freedoms to its subjects, but he is endlessly stymied by Frauenfeld who has fallen under the sway of Richard’s enemies, the Lederman brothers, who are staunch supporters of the racial categorizations of Reich law. In an attempt to shatter Frauenfeld’s illusions about the rigid class system, Richard maneuvers Peter, who is still classified as subhuman, into the highest tiers of Berlin society, into re-establishing his illicit relationship with Elspeth Vogel, and even into befriending the Fuhrer in the hopes of causing a cultural clash that will force Frauenfeld to re-evaluate his adherence to Nazi philosophy. Traugutt’s plan falls foul of all his directives, and his determination to follow his own personal agenda for reform, ruthlessly manipulating people and events to maximize their effectiveness – whatever the personal cost – results in constant conflict with his allies and a withdrawal of support from the Underground hierarchy.

As their plots unfold and the Resistance begins to tear itself apart, the past comes back to haunt them all, sowing distrust and fear among the conspirators. With each passing month they more and more come to resemble that which they hate. Their loyalties are frayed, their motives are questioned, trusted comrades turn traitor, and their enemies grow in power. Time is running out.

As background to the story, Becoming Them contains a complete summary of both The Children’s War and A Change of Regime."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2021.

Boye, Karin "Kallocain"

Boye, Karin "Kallocain" (Swedish: Kallocain) - 1940

I started reading this book and then had to go back and check when it was written. Yes, it was before "Nineteen Eighty-Four", so George Orwell must have received some of his ideas from Karin Boye.

This was another book our international online book club read. I had never heard of this Swedish author even though she seems to be quite well known for her dystopian literature. Probably not that much outside of Sweden which is a shame. So, I am glad one of our Scandinavian members recommended it.

The book is well-written, the plot runs smoothly and even with an opening paragraph that tells us more or less how the story will end, it is quite gripping to guess how the end will come.

I can never understand highly idealistic people who want to change the world with something they have no clue about. The protagonist of this novel, Leo Kall, is convinced that every person belongs to the state and we are only there to serve the state, are not allowed to have any private wishes or even thoughts. How can that be? How can someone blindly follow a leader like a lamb to the slaughter? If we knew that, we'd have fewer problems in this world.

There is a German song called "Die Gedanken sind frei" (The Thoughts Are Free). I always liked that song because it showed that no matter how much can be controlled, nobody can guess and therefore control my thoughts unless I share them. Not in this story, though. A very thought-provoking idea. What if people would know what we think. I'm pretty sure this world would be a worse place because not everybody likes the truth.
There is an article about the song on Wikipedia with a translation.

This is a great book that shows where our fear can lead us, how we can deal with ideas that want to influence our thinking, how we can try to escape the hatred all around us. I wish more people would read this kind of books. It's also interesting to see, like in "Nineteen-Eight Four" how everyone thinks, their state is the only good one and the others are bad and the others think just the same.

A highly impressive book.

Some comments by other book club members:

• This was a great discussion book, both about the story itself and all its many sides, but also to mirror it to the real world at the same time and the author's suicide a year after publishing it.
• Author's suicidal ideas are clearly showing up in this book. Heavy use of splitting and fantasizing about killing or imprisoning the bad side of the split.
• Our library was not able to get the book for me so I reluctantly read it online. I like to cozy up with a book and empathize with the characters but that didn't happen for me with Kallocain. The book was deliciously creepy as were the characters so I enjoyed it as a chilling warmup to Hallowe'en.
  

And here is a great quote that sounds so true especially at the moment:
"Here I am, then. As it must be. A question of time. If truth be told. Can you hear the truth? Not everyone is true enough to hear the truth, that is the sad thing."

This was our international online book club read in October 2020.

From the back cover: 

"A pioneering work of dystopian fiction from one of Sweden's most acclaimed writers

Written midway between Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four, as the terrible events of the Second World War were unfolding, Kallocain depicts a totalitarian 'World State' which seeks to crush the individual entirely. In this desolate, paranoid landscape of 'police eyes' and 'police ears', the obedient citizen and middle-ranking scientist Leo Kall discovers a drug that will force anyone who takes it to tell the truth. But can private thought really be obliterated? Karin Boye's chilling novel of creeping alienation shows the dangers of acquiescence and the power of resistance, no matter how futile."

Stephenson, Neal "Anathem"

Stephenson, Neal "Anathem" - 2008

"The expression anathema
(ancient Greek ἀνάθημα or ἀνάθεμα "the devotee, cursing"),
also anathema, spell ray, spell of the church or
- in connection with a curse - spell curse,
denotes a condemnation by a church
that is associated with the exclusion from the ecclesial community
and canon law is to be equated with excommunication."

I'm not a big fan of science fiction and this is certainly a book that falls under that category. However, I love dystopian literature end I think, we can easily put it into that category, as well.

It is the year 3,000 or so on the planet Arbre. All the names they use come from some earthly words, this one meaning tree, of course. People have split up into two different kind of societies, the "avout" (probably from French "avouer", to confess) who live in monastery-like world, but definitely rational, atheist, and the Sæcular, the more worldly people. The avout are the scientists who study all sorts of different things, any science we know about - and probably more.

We get to meet one of them, Erasmas, also called Raz, after having spent a year in the "concent" when they get to meet the sæcular and we can see how they usually live. After that, everything goes pear-shaped and Raz goes on the trip of a lifetime, to different planets

I loved this book. It's not about science. Or fiction. Although, if that's your preference, you might want to read this, as well. It's about philosophy, about imagination. Arbre is similar to the Earth but has taken different steps. So, you can fantasize about how we could live, how our society might look like. I also really liked digging out all the meanings of the "foreign" words.

A lot of these kind of books have it but I really appreciated the glossary in the back of the book because I could always go back to a word I didn't remember rather than having to flip to a page before where it might have been explained. Of course, it meant I read many more than those 1,024 pages because I must have read the annex about twenty times. At least!

There's even a Wiki Fandom page that explains the correlation between Earth and Arbre, links their people to famous people in our world, their languages to ours etc. and a video/trailer on YouTube.

An interesting book. I'll read more by Neal Stephenson.

From the back cover:

"Erasmas - Raz - is a young avout living in the Concent, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside world by ancient stone, honoured traditions, and complex rituals. Three times during history's darkest epochs, the cloistered community has been devastated by violence. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe.

Now, in celebration of a week-long, once-in-a-decade rite, the avout prepare to open the concent's gates. Before the week is out, both worlds - the inner and the outer - will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change. Suddenly Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world - as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet... and beyond."

McCarthy, Cormac "The Road"

McCarthy, Cormac "The Road" - 2006

I am a fan of dystopian novels. So, when my online book club suggested this one, I was all for it.

There are mainly only two people in this book, a father and his son. Most of the world has been eliminated, we don't know exactly why but it doesn't matter. What's important is the way people react. Nothing grows anymore, so people have to eat what's still available. How would you react in such a situation? That's the big question and we see all sorts of different people acting in all sorts of different ways.

This story is scary because we can all imagine an apocalypse and what earth would look like afterwards. And what is going to happen to those who are "lucky" enough to survive.

If you are interested in this topic, the book is fabulous, impressive, grand. Also a great book about the bond between a father and his son and what parents are prepared to do for their children.

My only criticism would be the author's weird spelling of "dont".

We discussed this book in our international online book club in January 2020.

From the back cover:

"The searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food - and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, 'each the other's world entire,' are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation."

Cormac McCarthy received the Pulitzer Prize for "The Road" in 2007.

Dick, Philip K. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

Dick, Philip K. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" - 1968

Why would androids dream of electric sheep? I always wondered about this weird title. I didn't wonder enough though to want to read it but when my book club decided to take it on, I had to have a go, of course.

The story is primarily about the bounty hunter Rick Deckard. After a nuclear global war damaged the earth tremendously, there are hardly any animals left. Or humans. Those that survived, mainly emigrated to Mars or other colonies on other planets. The ones left behind, are divided into two groups, the ones that are damaged through the war are called "specials" being considered second-rate people. And the androids, well, they are supposed to be modern slaves and are mainly intended to accompany to settlers to the colonies and not return to earth. Those that do it anyway are hunted by guys like Rick Deckard. But the androids get smarter and smarter and the hunt gets harder and harder.

I don't want to tell the whole story. The reason I liked the book was mainly because of the way, the different inhabitants of earth are described, the empathy that is not there between the species, the understanding that other people also have their needs. Even if we don't consider the androids, wouldn't we try to help each other after such a disaster rather than splitting up in different groups? A very philosophic question.

The androids are the slaves of the future. If they don't do what they are supposed to do, they get killed, or "retired", as they like to call it.

Oh, and then there was one part that I really liked. When they describe "stuff". Both my husband and I are more gatherers than minimalists, so I could relate very well.

"Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers or yesterday's homeopape. When nobody's around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you go to bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up the next morning there's twice as much of it. It always gets more and more."

Do I even need to mention that I never watched the movie? I tried to see who plays whom but it looks like the film is more than "loosely" based on the book. I could only find a few names that are in both.

From the back cover:

"War has left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalks, in search of the renegade replicants who are his prey. When he isn’t 'retiring' them, he dreams of owning the ultimate status symbol -- a live animal. Then Rick gets a big assignment: to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But things are never that simple, and Rick’s life quickly turns into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit."

We discussed this book in our international online book club in September 2019.

Wells, H. G. "The Time Machine"

Wells, H. G. "The Time Machine" - 1895

I watched the movie of this book (the 1960 version with Rod Taylor) sometime in the sixties or seventies and really like it. Usually, science fiction is not my thing but this was fascinating. I suppose the dystopian side did it for me.

Then I read "The Map of Time" by Félix J. Palma a couple of years ago and was fascinated again. I knew I would have to read the novel one day.

And I did not regret it. Quite a story, even if the movie took quite a few liberties … but what else is new?

As I said in my other reviews about dystopian novels, they always mirror the fears and hopes of a generation. Did the Victorians fear we would all end up as Morlocks and Eloi? I can imagine, even though the appeal of the book at the time certainly must have been the time travelling. But, in any case, this was probably one of the first books that moved away from a utopian future, that tried to warn the people that things could also go wrong.

This is certainly a great book. And with just 150 pages, anyone could read it.

From the back cover:

"'Great shapes like big machines rose out of the dimness, and cast grotesque black shadows, in which dim spectral Morlocks sheltered from the glare.'

Chilling, prophetic and hugely influential, The Time Machine sees a Victorian scientist propel himself into the year 802,701 AD, where he is delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty and contentment in the form of the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man. But he soon realizes that they are simply remnants of a once-great culture - now weak and living in terror of the sinister Morlocks lurking in the deep tunnels, who threaten his very return home.

H. G. Wells defined much of modern science fiction with this 1895 tale of time travel, which questions humanity, society, and our place on Earth."

Atwood, Margaret "Oryx and Crake"

Atwood, Margaret "Oryx and Crake" (MaddAddam # 1) - 2003

I always like reading dystopian novels. It makes you think about what might happen if we carry on living the way we live now and makes us more aware of what we should or shouldn't be changing. It usually exaggerates the problems we have today but that's the point, it makes us more aware of it.

This story is about a genetic engineering world where the plan to destroy humanity through "medication" is almost successful. The "Children of Crake" who are supposed to replace humans are more like children, they remind me of the Eloi in "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells. Just as innocent, just as naïve.

I hope I won't be around to see the world change that much but if we carry on like that, I might. In the meantime, let as many people read these kinds of books and hopefully see that we need to try to save this planet as long as it's still possible.

From the back cover:

"With the same stunning blend of prophecy and social satire she brought to her classic The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood gives us a keenly prescient novel about the future of humanity and its present. 

Humanity here equals Snowman, and in Snowman's recollections Atwood re-creates a time much like our own, when a boy named Jimmy loved an elusive, damaged girl called Oryx and a sardonic genius called Crake. But now Snowman is alone, and as we learn why we also learn about a world that could become ours one day."

Margaret Atwood was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for "Oryx and Crake" in 2003.

Margaret Atwood received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2017.

Saramago, José "Blindness"

Saramago, José "Blindness" (Portuguese: O Ensaio sobre a Cegueira) - 1995

This is my second book by this wonderful author. Same as "Cain", this book is totally captivating.

We get no information about the city or even the country where this takes place. However, this is a dystopian novel and they usually could take place anywhere. We never know what will happen if a catastrophe - or in this case an epidemic - strikes us.

In this book, the people go completely mad. Everyone goes blind one after the other and everyone is scared. That doesn't mean they all react in the same way. There are those who stick together and help others and other who live according to the motto "help yourself so God will help you". It wouldn't even be fair to the animals to say they behave like them because animals at least only take what they need.

Both the sentences and the paragraphs in this book are very long, there is hardly a place where you can stop. But that makes it even more compelling, you have the feeling you are stuck in the book just the way the blind people are stuck in their destiny. A good way to emphasize the situation.

None of the characters have a name. They are just called "the first blind man" or "the doctor's wife" and "the girl with the dark glasses". Again, this makes it easier for us to identify with them, I guess. Anyone could be one of the guys or one of the girls.

He definitely makes it easy for us to imagine that this actually could happen. We can try to imagine how it is when you turn blind. And we can feel with the people who not only go blind but lose their life as they knew it until then.

Great novel. Like many dystopian books, a look into humanity or the lack of it.

From the back cover:

"A city is struck by an epidemic of 'white blindness'. The first man to succumb sits in his car, waiting for the light to change. He is taken to an eye doctor, who does not know what to make of the phenomenon - and soon goes blind himself.

The blindness spreads, sparing no one. Authorities confine the blind to a vacant mental hospital secured by armed guards under instructions to shoot anyone trying to escape. Inside, the criminal element among the blind holds the rest captive: food rations are stolen, women are raped. The compound is set ablaze, and the blind escape into what is now a deserted city, strewn with litter and unburied corpses.

The only eyewitness to this nightmare is the doctor's wife, who faked blindness in order to join her husband in the camp. She guides seven strangers through the barren streets. The bonds within this oddly anonymous group - the doctor, the first blind man and his wife, the old man with the black eye patch, the girl with dark glasses, the boy with no mother, and the dog of tears - are as uncanny as the surrounding chaos is harrowing. Told with compassion, humor, and lyricism, Blindness is a stunning exploration of loss and disorientation in the modern world, of man's will to survive against all odds."

We discussed this book in our international online book club in April 2019.

José Saramago "who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Palma, Felix J. "The Map of Chaos"

Palma, Felix J. "The Map of Chaos" (Spanish: El mapa del caos) - 2014

I usually wait until a book is available in paperback, lighter, cheaper, takes up less space etc. And translations, I prefer to read them translated into German though I was tempted to get this one in English when I found a reduced copy with only some minor damages in a German bookshop.

Anyway, I was glad I did. After reading the first two editions of this trilogy, "The Map of Time" and "The Map of the Sky", I was eagerly awaiting the third part.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of science fiction and these books are based on H.G. Wells' novels. But Félix J. Palma has created some marvels. In this novel, he doesn't just travel in time, he travels in worlds, parallel worlds that are slight copies of each other. The idea that there might be another world with exactly the same people in it but different destinies is quite amazing. The ideas for the story are so unique, I don't think I've ever read anything like that.

Whilst he based "The Map of Time" on "The Time Machine" and "The Map of the Sky" on "War of the Worlds", this last part is based on "The Invisible Man". I shall have to read all three of them, just to see where this author got his inspiration.

"Chaos is inevitable". That's the theme of the book and there is a lot of chaos to be found. We visit Victorian London, meet lots of real-life characters from the time like the prolific writers H.G. Wells, Lewis Carroll and Arthur Conan Doyle as well as some good old acquaintances from the former books.

A marvellous conclusion of a fantastic trilogy.

I know the author has written more books and I hope they will all be translated one day.

From the back cover:

"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Map of Time and The Map of the Sky, the final installment in the award-winning trilogy that The Washington Post called 'a big, genre-bending delight'.

When the person he loves most dies in tragic circumstances, the mysterious protagonist of The Map of Chaos does all he can to speak to her one last time. A session with a renowned medium seems to offer the only solution, but the experience unleashes terrible forces that bring the world to the brink of disaster. Salvation can only be found in The Map of Chaos, an obscure book that he is desperate to uncover. In his search, he is given invaluable help by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lewis Carroll, and of course by H. G. Wells, whose Invisible Man seems to have escaped from the pages of his famous novel to sow terror among mankind. They alone can discover the means to save the world and to find the path that will reunite the lovers separated by death.

Proving once again that he is 'a master of ingenious plotting' (Kirkus Reviews), Félix J. Palma brings together a cast of real and imagined literary characters in Victorian-Age London, when spiritualism is at its height. The Map of Chaos is a spellbinding adventure that mixes impossible loves, nonstop action, real ghosts, and fake mediums, all while paying homage to the giants of science fiction.

It won the 2015 Ignotus Awards for Best Spanish Novel."

Coetzee, J.M. "The Childhood of Jesus"

Coetzee, J.M. "The Childhood of Jesus" - 2013

I don't really know what to say about this book. It is so strange. A man and a boy arrive in a new country. We are supposed to believe, I think, that they are refugees abut we have no idea from where they come and where they went, only that they had to cross an ocean. They could have gone from Africa to South America, Asia to Australia, North America to Europe or any combination thereof. The only continent I wouldn't suspect is Antarctica though it could be after climate change has taken place and they start settling people there.

That doesn't really matter. I'm not even sure whether this is supposed to be a dystopian novel or not, though I will call it that. Everyone in this country starts with a clean slate, they are given a new name, their past is forgotten. Sounds more like a utopian tale at the beginning, however, it's not. Life couldn't be made more difficult for new arrivals.

I have come to really dislike the boy and that is something I don't really like. I remember a member of our book club mention that she hated books where the children are so awful that one can only dislike them. I doubt she would have liked this book.

As to the title, I have no idea what the title has to do with the novel. There are biblical allusions but without the name "Jesus", it might as well have been coincidences.

Somewhere on the internet I read someone recommending "Disgrace" and "Life of Times of Michael K." and avoid this one. I wish I had read that before starting this novel. I did enjoy "Disgrace" a lot more than this one.

From the back cover:

"After crossing oceans, a man and a boy arrive in a new land. Here they are each assigned a name and an age, and held in a camp in the desert while they learn Spanish, the language of their new country. As Simón and David they make their way to the relocation centre in the city of Novilla, where officialdom treats them politely but not necessarily helpfully.

Simón finds a job in a grain wharf. The work is unfamiliar and backbreaking, but he soon warms to his stevedore comrades, who during breaks conduct philosophical dialogues on the dignity of labour, and generally take him to their hearts.

Now he must set about his task of locating the boy’s mother. Though like everyone else who arrives in this new country he seems to be washed clean of all traces of memory, he is convinced he will know her when he sees her. And indeed, while walking with the boy in the countryside Simón catches sight of a woman he is certain is the mother, and persuades her to assume the role.

David's new mother comes to realise that he is an exceptional child, a bright, dreamy boy with highly unusual ideas about the world. But the school authorities detect a rebellious streak in him and insist he be sent to a special school far away. His mother refuses to yield him up, and it is Simón who must drive the car as the trio flees across the mountains.

THE CHILDHOOD OF JESUS is a profound, beautiful and continually surprising novel from a very great writer."

J.M. Coetzee "who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider" received the Nobel Prize in 2003.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Zeh, Juli "The Method"

Zeh, Juli "The Method" (German: Corpus Delicti. Ein Prozess) - 2009

I read a few books by German author Juli Zeh, none of them have been translated into English. I liked them all and was surprised to see that she also wrote a dystopian one.

In this futuristic novel, we suppose that there are no more illnesses but that the state has taken over everything, something a lot of conservatives think the communists already did but this goes a lot further.

Being healthy is something you have to be, you can't even be a little depressed and you certainly shouldn't do anything that might make you sick. If you don't, that's considered treason. The biggest question is, however, does complete health make us happy?

Quote: "Health is a state of complete physical, spiritual and social wellbeing - and not the mere absence of disease."

I couldn’t agree more.

I have read more interesting dystopian novels but this one certainly gets you thinking.

From the back cover:

"Mia Holl lives in a state governed by The Method, where good health is the highest duty of the citizen. Everyone must submit medical data and sleep records to the authorities on a monthly basis, and regular exercise is mandatory. Mia is young and beautiful, a successful scientist who is outwardly obedient but with an intellect that marks her as subversive. Convinced that her brother has been wrongfully convicted of a terrible crime, Mia comes up against the full force of a regime determined to control every aspect of its citizens' lives.

The Method, set in the middle of the twenty-first century, deals with pressing questions: to what extent can the state curtail the rights of the individual? And does the individual have a right to resist? Juli Zeh has written a thrilling and visionary book about our future, and our present."

Sansom, C.J. "Dominion"

Sansom, C.J. (Christopher John) "Dominion" - 2011

"The Children's War" by J.N. Stroyar is probably my favourite book ever. Therefore, I was quite pleased to find this book that tells another story about what would or could have happened, had the Nazis won the war. I have always said I am glad they didn't, even though some of my foreign friends might think I shouldn't be thankful Germany lost the war. But that is wrong. Germany didn't lose the war, the Nazis did and that was for the good of everyone, not just the foreigners. My parents who were still quite little when they were elected have been telling me stories that go hand in hand with these kinds of books.

Therefore, well done, Christopher John Sansom. In this novel, we assume that there wasn't a WWII, just a short war in 1939 and that the Nazis won and carried on ruling the world. And what an awful world that was. Just as bad as living in Germany during those years when you weren't a Nazi. You had to hide your feelings from everyone around you, just in case they disagreed with you and reported you. My grandfather made the mistake to warn everyone before the elections and was given quite a hard time afterwards. Luckily, they lived quite remote and he could hide in the nearby bogs.

Back to the book, we follow different kinds of people in Nazi ruled Britain, the followers, the resistance, the Jews, and even some German military guys who come to "help out". We get to know them quite well and follow their stories, their hopes and their dreams.

It was extremely interesting for me to read all this, imagining my grandparents in a time like that. Maybe someday I will come upon a great book about the German resistance in those hard times.

Best quote:
"Whenever a party tells you national identity matters more than anything else in politics, that nationalism can sort out all the other problems, then watch out, because you’re on a road that can end with fascism."

From the back cover:

"1952. Twelve years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers, and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany after Dunkirk. As the long German war against Russia rages on in the east, the British people find themselves under dark authoritarian rule: the press, radio and television are controlled; the streets patrolled by violent auxiliary police and British Jews face ever greater constraints. There are terrible rumours too about what is happening in the basement of the German Embassy at Senate House. Defiance, though, is growing.

In Britain, Winston Churchill's Resistance organisation is increasingly a thorn in the government's side. And in a Birmingham mental hospital an incarcerated scientist, Frank Muncaster, may hold a secret that could change the balance of the world struggle forever. Civil Servant David Fitzgerald, secretly acting as a spy for the Resistance, is given by them the mission to rescue his old friend Frank and get him out of the country. Before long he, together with a disparate group of Resistance activists, will find themselves fugitives in the midst of London’s Great Smog; as David’s wife Sarah finds herself drawn into a world more terrifying than she ever could have imagined. And hard on their heels is Gestapo Sturmbannfuhrer Gunther Hoth, brilliant, implacable hunter of men . . .

At once a vivid, haunting re-imagining of 1950s Britain, a gripping, humane spy thriller and a poignant love story - with Dominion, C.J. Sansom once again asserts himself as the master of the historical novel."

Atwood, Margaret "The Handmaid's Tale"

Atwood, Margaret "The Handmaid's Tale" - 1985

I read this book a couple of years ago, it is one of my favourites. (Find my review from back then here.) Since it has been made into a TV series last year, it seems to be everywhere and my book club chose it as our next read. Also, Margaret Atwood just received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis), as well.

I probably enjoyed this book even more the last time than this time, I think a lot of the fears Margaret Atwood portrayed in her book thirty years ago are more true now than then. Aren't we surrounded by people who believe that only "true" Christians who follow the Bible "by the book" deserve to have a good life? At least most of the news I hear nowadays of the United States seem to suggest that. The trouble is, the louder they shout, the less Christian they are.

Unfortunately, I had to miss the book club talk but I know everyone enjoyed it.

We discussed this in our international book club in January 2018.

From the back cover:

"The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire – neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.

Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of twenty-first-century America gives full rein to Margaret Atwood's devastating irony, wit and astute perception."

Margaret Atwood was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for "The Handmaid's Tale" in 1986.

Margaret Atwood received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2017.