FEED

Dear Reader,

I'm never sure how much detail I should be putting into these blogs. I don't like giving away the juicy parts of the books as some of you might want to read them, so I decided some time ago, ok, about 3 minutes ago,(while I typed that last sentence, actually), anyway I decided that I would not worry about that, and I will leave it up to you Dear Reader, to research the book first to see if it might appeal to you, before you read my Blog. I have linked all the books in this Blog with the web site for easy access jut point and click. Try it, you never know where you might end up.

 

Oh ya, how did I score on my last Blog, did I get a passing grade?

 

At first glance Feed is all about zombies, when I received this book at Christmas LS was soooooo excited that she managed to get me a zombie book as a gift that she almost went straight out and bought the sequel to this trilogy, before finding out if I would even want to read the next one. But I don't think it would  have been money poorly spent, so please remember (LS) that I have a birthday coming up.

 

The book's cover page gives one pause to reflect, "The good news, we survived. The bad news, so did they"

They would be the zombies. Some time in our near future say around 2014, we will have found the all elusive cure for the common cold, and lung cancer, woot, this is a good thing don't you think? Be careful what you with for, all that shines is not gold, old Chinese proverb say, Not only can water float a boat, it can sink it also.

 

As science cured the cold and cancer, the human race replaced these with the ability to carry the zombie virus, named after the people who developed it, thinking that they had the ultimate cure, they also cursed every person from then on, we would turn into a Zombie when we died, or when we the living, (because zombies are not really living), when the living are bitten, or scratched, by an infected (zombie) person, they would be amplified, or converted into a zombie. None of us are exempt from amplification into the zombie form, we all will become that which will try to Feed off us. So stay out of public areas.

 

So with the news that everyone will eventually be converted or amplified, we as humans learn to adapt, we accept what we cannot change and learn to live life among the zombies. We surely do not want to come into contact with them, or allow them to get too close, so we barricade ourselves with fences, gates, walls, electronic surveillance systems to control entry and of course, we make up a whole bunch of laws and rules on how to deal with the infected.

 

After all, now that we have unwittingly created the dam virus, we can at least test you to see if the virus has begun to amplify within you, if it has not, and the flashing light turns green, we will open the door for you and let you in, however if the flashing light on the test unit turns red, well, I guess a bullet to the base of you're skull prevents you from coming in and infecting the rest of us, pretty much prevents you from doing anything else as well. Interesting note, apparently in the future you will die twice, once from the human state and the second from the zombie state, unless of course action is taken while you are in the throws of change.

 

Oh sure we will see what we can do to eliminate the virus, but so far 25 years of trying and no progress. I guess one could say, each generation will reap what the former generation has sown.

 

The title FEED leads us to think that zombies are the main focus of this book, they are a fact of life in the future and become just another daily task to deal with, like parking tickets, if you park in the wrong spot you get a ticket. You know the rules so just follow them or pay the consequences. Except now the stakes are higher.

In the future the news is provided to the populous over the world wide web, by bloggers, yep, that's correct, blogging becomes big business and the quickest and easiest method to get the word out, without having to actually get near anyone, what you are reading now is just practice for the future. The book kinda remands me of the Bourn novels, where the main character is setup for failure (no, not a zombie), in FEED they struggle against the odds to solve the mystery and bring the truth to the people, while trying desperately to follow a presidential candidate to the White House.

FEED, as in feed the zombies, and, as in the media FEED into the net. This was a pretty good book, suspenseful at times, the ending came quickly, too quickly.

It's definitely more than a zombie book.

 

 A Book is like a garden carried in the pocket.

bfn Brian

Toys

Dear Reader,

Remember when you were in school, and in the first or second English class of the year the teacher told you that you will have to read two books over the school year, and then you will have to write a book report on the books you read?  Remember how the entire class dropped their hands to the desks “thump”, then almost in unison the groans and moans of ‘do we have to” followed by “they better be easy books” and one or two might say “right, and how will that help me in the future”.  Although amongst the moaners and groaners, I think that in every school and every English class there were one or two kids who would just smile to themselves and think “whoopee we get to read and write book reports”

I was not one of those kids, I hated having to do book reports, I would drop my hands to my desk “thump”, then moan and groan, and hope to hell that the books were easy to read, and that the report did not have to be a long one.

Apparently someone knew something that I surely had no clue about, they made us read  books, and write reports, “against our better judgment of course”, and here we are, in the future, doing exactly what I never figured I would ever have to do again (voluntarily even) once I escaped from school.  How interesting our lives can become, The decisions we make, using the skills we were forced to learn, by a bunch of people, (adults, parents) who had no idea what it was like to be a kid during the time we were growing up. Sound familiar?

So here is my take on Toys, by James Patterson, I hope I get a good grade.

Toys is set in the future, our future, it is "a brave newworld”, (remember that one from grade 8) that Patterson brings us to, he creates our future as it has been seen by anyone who would consider themselves a sci-fi geek.  In Patterson’s future the world is united in country, but split in inhabitants.  Ok, let me explain further, (remember in school you would always use more words than necessary to fill up the pages), In Toys there are two factions of people, similar to the haves and the have knots, we have the human “Elite”, who have all the power, and all the toy’s, they are also the humans that have been enhanced, mentally and physically, augmented with electro-mechanical implants and genetic enhancements.  They are smarter (their opinion), faster, and richer, than those who originally created them.

The creators of the ‘Elite” were and are the humans, us, the other half of the, them and us, we are the have knots.  We, being the humans, because the reader must choose what side they want to be on, have nothing, no power, no voice, no choice, we are the servants and  the homeless.

Now the Elite are planning to purge the world of those who they deem to be unworthy, guess who, that’s right, they plan to purge the world of the humans, they have been at war with the humans, hunted the humans, and controlled them long enough, it’s time.

Time indeed, the Elite have lasers, trackers, flying cars, super speed, agility, and clones, yes clones to do the dirty work.  What do the humans have, what do WE have that could even start to have an impact on the great and mighty Elite, well, let me tell you.

Remember John Wyndham's novel The Chrysalids, where the people with the abnormalities are banished, what grade were you in when you read it?  I think I was in grade 8.  In Toys it looks like the abnormal people are the one’s taking over the world and banishing, eliminating in this case, the normal humans, do you remember how it ended?

So back to the book at hand, where were we, oh yes, what could the lowly humans possibly have to fight against the Elite, what hope, well how about the original human designers of the Elite, would they help? They might?  After all the Elite are only in their first generation, gestating in their test tubes for 2 years, and young as a species goes, and of course they do live longer. So the smart humans who developed the technology to transform the humans into the Elite should be able to help out, sometimes parents can even get their kids to help out around the house, so to speak.

Toys was an easy read, Patterson creates short chapters, which makes the reader want to know what’s next.  The main character Hays Baker, is touted as the next James Bond or Jason Bourne, according to the book cover, I’m not sure about that, it was good, but the Bourn novels are better.

Thanks for the book A.T. I look forward to reading the next Hays Baker novel if Patterson decides to make a series out of the character.

bfn Brian