I've been spending some time this weekend looking over the four books available for our reading group assignment, and I am surprised by how difficult this decision will be! First, The Windup Girl is a novel that I've already read and really enjoyed. The setting is one of the most well thought-out and realistic I have come across in science fiction in a long time (comparisons made to William Gibson's Neuromancer are well founded; another book worth checking out, by the way). I know that there is plenty I can talk about and analyze here, but I'm also curious to check out the other three selections after investigating them further.
Uglies has an interesting premise that, like The Windup Girl, is very topical. I've heard very good things, and enjoy the directness and lack of pretensions in YA novels. The plot also sounds very similar to an old Twilight Zone episode I remember watching as a kid! And I'm not the only one to notice the similarity (http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/2008/01/number-12-looks-suspiciously-familiar/).
Boneshaker is something that's been on my radar for a very long time thanks to Amazon.com recommendations, but has kept getting pushed down further on my reading list. I love both steampunk and weird fiction, and the description reminds me a little of China Mieville. This one's currently leading the pack for me!
Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America (quite a mouthful) is the one I know the least about coming into this course. I'm intrigued because it just sounds like such a fun read, but some of the mixed reviews are an area of concern. I think that New York is a very overused setting for fiction, and compared to such vivid locales as an overcrowded Thailand, a quarantined, zombie-infested, steampunk Seattle, and a world of forced beauty, this seems a little short on imagination. But then maybe this book has the greatest opportunity to surprise me. That's certainly worth considering...
There's a lot to think over here, but it looks like I win with all four choices.
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