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Monday, April 4, 2011

THE SCIENCE OF LOVE

Check out the recent spate of new Science Fiction books below, that have arrived with a large dollop of romantic angst, and the sting of dystopia.  If this trend continues, we might need a new genre: Romience?.

GIRL PARTS by John Cusick, 2010.  Summary: The lives of David, wealthy and popular but still lonely, and Charlie, a soulful outsider, intersect when Rose, the female Companion bot David's parents buy to treat his dissociative disorder, forms a bond with Charlie.
My rating: 3 and a half stars.

MATCHED by Ally Condie, 2010.  Summary: All her life, Cassia has never had a choice. The Society dictates everything: when and how to play, where to work, where to live, what to eat and wear, when to die, and most importantly to Cassia as she turns 17, who to marry. When she is Matched with her best friend Xander, things couldn't be more perfect. But why did her neighbor Ky's face show up on her match disk as well?
My rating: 3 and a half stars.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis, 2011.  Summary: Amy, a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed, is nearly killed when her cyro chamber is unplugged fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing. All she knows is that she must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again--and she doesn't know who she can trust on a ship ruled by a tyrant.  My rating: 4 stars.

DELIRIUM by Lauren Oliver, 2011.  Summary:  Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, when she falls in love.
My rating: 3 and a half stars.

WITHER by Lauren DeStefano, 2011.  Summary: After modern science turns every human into a genetic time bomb with men dying at age twenty-five and women dying at age twenty, girls are kidnapped and married off in order to repopulate the world.
My rating: 3 and a half stars.