Jeff VanderMeer has just posted his first column examining politics in fiction at The Huffington Post, which can be found HERE: This first installment spotlights several recent novels that examines today's pressing political issues through speculative fiction. Here are a couple of excerpts:
“Less nuanced, more direct, Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (Tor Books, Hardcover) is Orwell for the teen set, a young adult tale of fighting back against a Department of Homeland Security run amok in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in San Francisco (apparently a popular target). Jailed and tortured, seventeen-year-old Marcus, a hacker, decides to take on the DHS. There's little subtlety here—the bad guys are bad guys, the teens heroic and ultra-competent—but Doctorow's understanding of modern technology and his ability to connect with the next generation make Little Brother as close to a handbook for the resistance as any novel yet written.”
“Finally, a few short-takes on other books of interest: Editor John Joseph Adams' Seeds of Change (Prime Books, Hardcover) tackles racism, global warming, peak oil, and political revolution in an attractive hardcover featuring thought-provoking short stories by rising stars like Tobias Buckell, Jay Lake, and Mark Budtz; Iain M. Banks' Use of Weapons (Orbit Books, Trade Paperback), perhaps the most incisive and shocking commentary on war since Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, is now back in print; and John Grant's Corrupted Science: Fraud, Ideology, and Politics (FFF, hardcover) which includes a scathing expose of George W. Bush's subversion of science that reads more like fiction than fact, has just been given a big push by the publisher and is once again available in your local chain bookstore.”
It’s an interesting article, so definitely check it out...
About Jeff VanderMeer:
Jeff VanderMeer is an award-winning fiction writer with novels published in over twenty countries. He writes nonfiction for Amazon.com and The Washington Post Book World, among others. He has also collaborated on short movies with rock groups like The Church and edited anthologies such as Best American Fantasy. His short story “The Situation” was recently featured on Wired.com.
“Less nuanced, more direct, Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (Tor Books, Hardcover) is Orwell for the teen set, a young adult tale of fighting back against a Department of Homeland Security run amok in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in San Francisco (apparently a popular target). Jailed and tortured, seventeen-year-old Marcus, a hacker, decides to take on the DHS. There's little subtlety here—the bad guys are bad guys, the teens heroic and ultra-competent—but Doctorow's understanding of modern technology and his ability to connect with the next generation make Little Brother as close to a handbook for the resistance as any novel yet written.”“Finally, a few short-takes on other books of interest: Editor John Joseph Adams' Seeds of Change (Prime Books, Hardcover) tackles racism, global warming, peak oil, and political revolution in an attractive hardcover featuring thought-provoking short stories by rising stars like Tobias Buckell, Jay Lake, and Mark Budtz; Iain M. Banks' Use of Weapons (Orbit Books, Trade Paperback), perhaps the most incisive and shocking commentary on war since Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, is now back in print; and John Grant's Corrupted Science: Fraud, Ideology, and Politics (FFF, hardcover) which includes a scathing expose of George W. Bush's subversion of science that reads more like fiction than fact, has just been given a big push by the publisher and is once again available in your local chain bookstore.”
It’s an interesting article, so definitely check it out...
About Jeff VanderMeer:
Jeff VanderMeer is an award-winning fiction writer with novels published in over twenty countries. He writes nonfiction for Amazon.com and The Washington Post Book World, among others. He has also collaborated on short movies with rock groups like The Church and edited anthologies such as Best American Fantasy. His short story “The Situation” was recently featured on Wired.com.
Maybe they should have written this stuff about Russia. This sounds boring and lame. Wasn't this done in the eighties by better authors?
ReplyDeleteYou know, I would read this. But I hate the Huffington Post with a passion.
ReplyDeleteJust gotta say it.
After re-reading the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and the biographies of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, Barack Obama was so despondent over the realization that he bastardized the Constitution, lied to the...
ReplyDeleteInternational politics