Blind Faith - Ben Elton

Title: Blind Faith
Author: Ben Elton
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 367
Date read: September, 2010

Imagine a world where everyone knows everything about everybody. Where what a person "feels" and "truly believes" is protected under the law, while what is rational, even provable is condemned as heresy. A world where to question ignorance and intolerance is to commit a Crime against Faith, and where a desire for privacy is an admission of guilt.

A modernized version of 1984, although not quite up to the same literary standards. However, being the plebeian that I am ( ;-) ) I may just prefer this novel.

The society described was absolutely ludicrous, although at the same time scarily plausible with the fast growth of blogging sites, twitter, facebook etc. That said, the universe-building was absolutely the strength of this book. The plot was rather thin, and mostly there to support the universe rather than the other way around. I would often gasp incredulously at the oddities described, but figure that the plot itself will quickly be forgotten. Ben Elton does know how to write fascinating books though, so I consider myself well entertained by it.

Esio Trot - Roald Dahl

Title: Esio Trot
Author: Roald Dahl
Genre: Childrens
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 62
Date read: September 2010, September 2011

A tender story of authentic love between two elderly people, Mr. Silver and Mr. Hoppy, and nothing less than 140 turtles.

Another childhood discovery. Not too bad, but not amazing either. I can definitely see what attracted me to it when I first read it at age 10, but unlike many of Roald Dahl's other books, it really doesn't offer much to the adult reader. I AM glad he thought to tell us what happened to Alfie though, as that was one thing I was actually wondering about.

Chart Throb - Ben Elton

Title: Chart Throb
Author: Ben Elton
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 464
Date read: September, 2010

Chart Throb - the ultimate pop quest. Ninety-five thousand hopefuls. Three judges. Just one winner. And that is Calvin Simms, the genius behind the show. Calvin always wins because Calvin writes the rules.

But this year, as he sits smugly in judgment upon the clingers and blingers whom he has preselected in his carefully scripted "search" for a star, he has no idea that the rules are changing. The "real" is about to be put back into "reality" television, and Calvin and his fellow judges (the nation's favorite mom and the other guy) are about to become "ex-factors" themselves. Ben Elton returns to blistering comic satire with a vengeance in this no-holds-barred competition. One winner. A whole bunch of losers. Crazed, no-talent, fame junkies . . . and those are just the judges.

Chart Throb is very much like Dead Famous (also by Ben Elton) in that it takes a reality TV phenomenon to its logical extreme. In Dead Famous "Big Brother" came under scrutiny - here it is "X-Factor" and that ilk. Just like while reading Dead Famous I was kept fascinated throughout the book, could hardly put it down (read it in less than 24 hours in fact), yet felt uncomfortably like a voyeur while reading it... which I suspect was the purpose.

Chart Throb had very few likeable characters, and I was occasionally annoyed to be more or less manipulated into feeling sorry for the most unsympathetic characters... yet I could actually easily believe that such characters exist. I got a good laugh out of reading about HRH, The Prince of Wales though, and although I greatly had to suspend my disbelief for it to work, I thought it was a nice touch.

The main problem with reading Chart Throb and Blind Faith back to back was that I noticed a lot of phrases and ideas being reused. While "Love you big time" and "I'll big you up" sounds completely plausible in a future society, here it just sounded fake. (And what is up with this fascination with Wuthering Heights? From Babysitter's Club to Twilight, it's held in great esteem by everybody, and I feel tricked, because personally I think it's one of the worst books I've ever read!)

Magic Steps - Tamora Pierce

Title: Magic Steps
Author: Tamora Pierce
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~6hrs
Date read: September, 2010

Lady Sandrilene fa Toren knows all about unusual magic - she herself spins and weaves it like thread. But when she witnessed a boy dancing a spell, even she is confounded. To her dismay, Sandry learns that as the mage who discovered the power of the young dancer, she must be his teacher.

Before lessons can begin, however, Sandry and her uncle, Duke Vedris, get news of a mysterious murderer stalking a clan of local merchants. The killer employs the strangest magic of all: the ability to reduce essence to nothingness. As the murders mount and the killer grows bolder, Sandry's teaching takes on a grave purpose. For it becomes clear to everyone that the killings can only be stopped by the combined workings of two people: the young teacher and her even younger student.

Tamora Pierce's Circle books definitely aren't as good as those set in Tortall, but she's still an amazing story-teller, so even her weaker books are still well worth reading. My main problem with the Circle Opens quartet, is that they all only focus on one of the four kids, and I inevitably miss the other three and especially the way they interact with each other.

With this half-fantasy, half-murder mystery (although not very mysterious, as the reader knows who the antagonist is from a very early stage), Tamora Pierce tries to take her series in a new direction, which mostly works although I do think there's a bit too much gore and violence for the target age.