2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

The year is 2312 and the exodus from earth has begun. With the discovery of terraforming and interplanetary travel, humanity has colonized the solar system in an attempt to preserve their ways of life. Swan er Hong has lived her life on Mercury as an artist, often using her own body as a canvas. When her grandmother dies, she inherits data on a little-known conspiracy and is launched on a dangerous investigation with strange new allies. And all the while she must grapple with the implications of the modifications she's made to herself over the years, modifications which now may threaten the integrity of her investigation.

Kim Stanley Robinson was first brought to my attention by a guest post on this blog, and when I saw 2312 on the list of Nebula nominees (and since I had a hankering for some hard SF) I nominated it for my book club and it was selected. Fast forward to now: my hankering for hard SF has been sated, and I'm reminded why I often stay with YA and fantasy. 2312 was interesting--I got through its 561 pages in about a week, which says something about the quality of the writing--but I'm left without a really strong impression of the story, which says something else entirely.

Twin-Bred by Karen A. Wyle

Mara Cadell is a human scientist on Tofarn. Like every other human, the Tofa, Tofarn's indigenous inhabitants, are a mystery to her. But it's become clear that humans and Tofa are on the path towards conflict if a way of communicating and mediating disputes isn't found. She begins the LEVI project, named after her long-dead twin (who she has kept alive in her mind), in attempt to forge a bridge between species. Human and tofa children will share a uterus and be raised together, in an attempt to create mutual understanding.

Twin-Bred has an interesting premise, but that's where my appreciation of the story ends. Each chapter opens with a snippet of one of Mara's reports on the LEVI project, but Karen A. Wyle may as well have written the whole book in report-form for all the excitement it engenders in readers. The book is written in such a flat, clinical way that I was unable get excited about anything that happened. I was praying for war just so some suspense would be created.

Suggested book for March 2012

 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams

Genre: science fiction

Satire, space adventure, and randomness abound in this spry tale. Arthur Dent narrowly avoids extinction along with the rest of the human race when he's whisked off-planet by his friend Ford, who coincidentally is an alien. After narrowly escaping the bureaucratic Vogons, Arthur runs into the only other remaining human in the galaxy: Trisha McMillan, who never called him after they met at a costume party. Did I mention they're on the galaxy's most amazing spaceship, which moves in an incredibly improbable way? Enjoy your space travels, friends. Just remember to bring your towel.

View my suggested books by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy