'Dreams of Joy' by Linda See

Dreams of Joy, Linda See (3.5)

After reading the non-fiction memoir, ‘Life and Death in Shanghai’, I could appreciate the hardships and troubled times depicted in ‘Dreams of Joy’ as likely accurate. They both describe China during the times of Mao Tse Tung, particularly during the Great Leap Forward. In this book, a young girl (Joy) whose aunt and mother escaped to Los Angeles from China at the beginning of the revolution returns to China with a misplaced romantic notion of the times. She wants to contribute to her idyllic version of communism where there are no haves and have not’s, and everyone has food and works equally. Unfortunately her reasons for going and the reality of the revolution do not match. The book varies between her voice and that of her mother, who chases her to China, realizing that in trying to build a better life for Joy, she has avoided describing China and the revolution properly. I liked the blend of drama between family and history, particularly the complex mother-daughter dynamic. I also believe the horrible behavior and times described were likely accurate. My only complaint is that I think the main character was a written a bit weakly. For the main voice of the book, her thoughts were quite simple and at times vague. The main character can be weak of nature, but I like when the voice adds depth to the story.

'Aurora' by Kim Stanley Robinson

Aurora, Kim Stanley Robinson (2.5)

This book started with an interesting and somewhat timely premise: humans are changing the earth at a drastic rate and need to find alternatives to survive long term. The book starts with a very large space ship (i.e. ark) that is bound for the Tau Ceti system in order to find a new home. The description of the ship, the complications of centuries long travel (as you can imagine, the grandchildren of the original ‘settlers’ are the ones who arrive in Tau Ceti) and the initial investigation of the planets and moons in the new system were interesting – but that all happens in the first ½ of the book. The second half is where most of my complaints lie. The personal narrative changes and the timeline speeds up. I understand why this needs to happen, but it caused me to lose interest quickly. I also felt the level of technical discussion overwhelmed the story. In the end, I appreciated the overall technical conclusions about the complexities of biology and the difficulties of finding an appropriate planet, but felt the book took far to long to get to those conclusions. There was a good story to be told, but it was told in a long, drawn-out manner with too few compelling characters.

'Smilla's Sense of Snow' by Peter Hoeg

Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Peter Hoeg (3.5)

If you enjoy anti-heroes like Lisbeth Salander and the Norwegian genre of dark suspense filled stories, this is one of the originals. Though set in Greenland and Copenhagen, I kept expecting Mikael Blomkvist to pop up to help Smilla. The story begins with the sad death of a young Greenlander whom Smilla had befriended (as much as she befriends anyone). Her particular skill, as another Greenlander, is reading and understanding ice and snow. She questions the ‘accident’ of her young friend (based on his footprints in the snow) and it takes her on a long journey to understand why someone would kill a young boy. The story is quite complicated, with many interesting characters and back-stories. Frankly it was hard to keep straight and I recommend reading it without long breaks. That being said, I really enjoyed the unusual characters, unique location and building suspense. My one complaint concerns the loose ends around a major character that disappears and pops up later – but I won’t spoil anything with details.