Klara is an AF (“Artificial Friend”) who sits in a store and eagerly awaits the arrival of the child who will choose to take her home. Because she has emotional intelligence that most AFs lack, Klara loves being placed in the store’s front window and getting a detailed look at all the human interactions that are taking place outside.… Continue reading
Tag: sci-fi
When his novel All The Light We Cannot See was published, Anthony Doerr established himself as a master of the non-linear narrative. His newest release, Cloud Cuckoo Land, showcases the exact same type of mastery, but with higher stakes this time—five characters, five complex points of view.… Continue reading
“I am a bad mother, but I’m learning to be good.”
This is the mantra that Frida and her fellow moms must recite as they enter a yearlong program that will determine the status of their parental rights. During a “very bad day” in which she leaves her daughter, Harriet, alone for two hours, Frida is reported by her neighbors and finds herself swept away from motherhood by a “new and improved,” hyper-surveillant Child Protective Services program.… Continue reading
In his genre-bending novel Appleseed, Matt Bell offers an ambitious take on the horror of a climate doomed past the point of saving. As he lays out three storylines that transcend the traditionally distinct categorizations of fantasy, fable, sci-fi, and climate fiction, readers are invited into a world whose slow destruction by forces of human greed and exploitation is painfully familiar.… Continue reading
Sometimes, I want to go beyond reading a book and absorb a few opinions and anecdotes from the authors who write the books I’m reading. Other times, I want to listen and learn from my fellow book-lovers: the writers, bloggers, and Instagrammers who make the literary community so vibrant.… Continue reading
