The Memory of Earth: Final Review

"The Memory of Earth" is a somewhat interesting sort of science fiction book. The Memory of Earth is the first book of the Homecoming Saga by Orson Scott Card, also known for his other book "Ender's Game". The story itself takes place in the desert, possibly a couple hundred years ago told through a third person point of view. Nafai, the main protagonist is a young man who lives in a city called Basilica. Instead of living on Earth, as I thought the title implied, Nafai and his family live on a distant planet known as Harmony. The planet holds true to the name it was given, harmony throughout the land, but not for long, as turmoil is in the air. The Over soul, a powerful super computer watches over all of Harmony. The inhabitants of the world have been specially modified so that the Over soul is able to remotely control people's thoughts. All this work to preserve the harmony...yet it is losing control. What may be surprising to most is how the simple life of the population mixes in together with sophisticated technology. Technology such as refrigeration, finger print scanning, and hovering chairs, used side by side with camels and caravans. As the book progresses, relationships will be broken, relationships mended, secrets revealed, secrets hidden. Complete with lust, friendship, faith, action, and vengeance, the first of the five book series offers an in depth look into the life of an ordinary boy turned upside in the midst of a war for power. “The Memory of Earth” will catch the eyes of readers with patience, and a taste for slower-paced novels.

How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?

When I heard the hype of “Ender’s Game”, written by Orson Scott Card, I naturally assumed that his other books would be as interesting. I have never read Ender’s Game, but hearing from classmates and teachers, it seems like a pretty well- written and exciting book. The Memory of Earth on the other hand, is a book in which the reader has to read and reread to understand certain parts of the book. They have to read well into the last few chapters since the author has stretched to the brink of boring the reader out of their minds. Orson Scott Card’s style of writing in this book is not bad, but is still needs a bit of refining. While I was reading the book, I encountered many chapters where the only thing happening is a conversation. When I encounter paragraphs where it just seems the paragraphs are used to take up space, like the conversation between Nafai and Issib, where Nafai says “...I study history all the time. I left my class behind years ago. I know something about how wars start and who wins them. And this is the stupidest plan I’ve ever heard. Potokgavan has no chance of holding this area and no compelling reason to try. All that will happen is they ‘ll send an army, provoke the Gorayni into attacking, and then they’ll realize they can’t win and go home.” I end up skipping pages because of all the non essential information provided. The information is not unlike the things in Patient Zero, but the extra information provided in Patient Zero actually has a purpose. I can’t vouch for the other books Orson Scott has written, but I don’t think that The Memory of Earth is his best work, all the reviews I have searched rate the series as mediocre and not as good as the other books he has written.

Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth.

           

Nafai, the protagonist of the series is a young man who is basically the interpreter for the Over soul. Born in the city of Basilica, Nafai is a tall, well-built, eighteen year-old-boy. He is the youngest son of wealthy parents, Wetchik Volemak who is the most prominent man in Basilica, and Rasa the most well- known woman in Basilica. He has three brothers: Elemak, Mebbekew, and Issib. Studious, and a thinker, he led a normal life, thinking about things boys worry about at his age like marriage, finding a trade, and planning for the future. One day, everything changes because he hears the voice of the Over soul in his thoughts after Nafai and his brothers and father are banished from Basilica and are forced to live in the desert. He’s going through his normal routine one day, and the next he’s in the desert using skills he has learned to stay alive. Everything he learned before has changed. Rules that have never been broken for thousands of years have suddenly been broken. Nafai himself has to break a rule to follow the Over souls orders. Nafai is an interesting character to talk about because he is so cunning and he is able to adapt quickly to everything that happened. Unfortunately, everyone has faults and his biggest fault is his big mouth. There’s one thing that Nafai has not been able to change about himself, and that is he can never seem to keep his mouth shut. Little disputes where he and his brothers argue over something ridiculous and he just HAS to have the last word. For instance, in one of the many fights with his brother Elemak: “…Nafai knew he should let Elemak’s taunt go unanswered, shouldn’t provoke him anymore. But the very fact that he looked up to Elemak so much made it impossible for Nafai to leave the gibe unanswered.” His big mouth also gets him in trouble with his brothers when they bargain with Gaballufix and loses their inheritance because he thought that his more experienced brother was going to lose their one chance to acquire the Index. I haven’t read the other four books in the series, but making an educated guess, I think that Nafai will learn to become the man he wants to be, through trial and error, and with the help of the all powerful Over soul.

End of the Month Literature circle Book Review: Patient Zero

Uhh..so this week I'm writing the book review of Patient Zero. Sorry but eh, I don't really feel like writing anything right now because someone stole my Ipod Touch today during P.E -_-. Therefore, I'm just like...out of it right now. Ok so I am back and my internets all screwed up. It’s just disconnecting like every fifteen seconds and I don’t know if I’ll be able to post this up.

            So, it’s monthly review time. Great lets get started. The book that I have chosen for our very first Literature Circle was Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry. When I look back, I don’t really know why I chose this book. I was at Borders, browsing around and I just saw it in a corner. Maybe it was the awesome cover of the book, or maybe it was the description on the back. I don’t know. Take a look at it. The cover could mean anything, war, murderer, romance. Out of all that, it would probably have never been guessed that this was a story of zombies. I instantly knew that I had to have this book. After reading the small paragraph on the back of this book, I was already hooked and I DEMAND that anyone who likes horror novels, zombies, or something along the lines of that needs to read this epic book.

The story begins with this man. Some guy called Joe Ledger. Occupation: Detective. He works on the police force, but has something you can’t see, but you would get chills if you got on his bad side. He is the man who will save your ass in the events to come. From what I see, there are three groups within the story, although there might actually be just two [The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend…]. There’s Joe Ledger, and his company of ass-kicking squad, the highly, yet not very religious faction, and the typical greedy and wealthy party funding the terrorists. The book sets off on a good pace; holding your eyes so that you can’t stop reading the book the instant you set your eyes on it. Ledger gets recruited by the DMS (Department of Military Science) and also gets to meet his so called acquaintances early on in the book who describe to him the horrors of the terrorist’s plans. One of the people that Ledges meets is a queer man who goes by many names, Mr. Church, Churchill and others. This man is very mysterious, so mysterious that the world’s most technologically advanced piece of equipment is unable to find one single thing about him. So, who is he? Beats me. As the events unravel, Joe and his crew go through terrifying ordeals to discover the plans of the terrorists. I don’t want to spoil the entire book for you so let’s just say that Joe doesn’t really save the world.

John Maberry has a very peculiar style of writing. Well I think I have seen it before but I don’t remember. I have never read a book that switched between so many points of views. One second you’re in the mind of a terrorist, the next your in Joe Ledgers mind, and then you go to the mysterious leader of the Department of Military Sciences. It’s not bad, actually, it’s pretty damn smart of him because many times while I was reading the book, I became engrossed in what was happening. I turn the page and it goes off to someplace else right in the middle of the good part. I get all twitchy afterward and I have to read through a couple sections to get back to it. I can’t stress this enough, from the very start of the book, to the very end of the book, there is so much going on. It’s all really very exciting. From the zombie brain busting, to the self-inflicted wounds, everything is in such great detail. Maberry’s style of writing is like…like a T.V. I could imagine all the events being played out. Even though he doesn’t describe things in excessive detail, I could always imagine that dark, dank room filled with coppery blood. The shoes of small infants, toys, electronic devices, tattered clothes strewn all across the floor. All in all, I would state that his writing style is based a lot on action, and the ability to let the reader visualize without seeing it mind you. I’d think this book was written for guys, because of all this blood, and secret organizations, and…well…the zombies. I must applaud Maberry for writing the book like this. I have read other zombie novels but this tops them all. Using already overused ideas, he manages to put enough action so that the reader barely even recognizes that fact because they’re so into reading the next part.

The mysterious man, who lives in shadows, and dies in the shadows, the man who we know as Mr. Churchill. As I have said, no one knows who he is. In the story the Department of Military Sciences have a piece of equipment called Mind Reader which is sort of like Google, but which can pull up basically anything at will. Joe Ledger and Grace Courtland use this to try and find some bit of information of Churchill. Unfortunately for them, they don’t find anything. Nothing at all. Probably the most advanced equipment they have can’t find one single thing on this man. This piques me greatly. I want to know why he is such a shadow in the world, but also one of the most powerful men in the world, he probably has the whole world at his fingertips. Churchill already has some very important people on his side. He can get anything he wants at the push of a button. There are all these questions again which Maberry creates, which pisses me off. Despite that, I can’t help admire how he has spent a great deal of time making Churchill such a major part of the story, yet no one knows about him beyond the fact that he’s the leader of the DMS. In the first or second section of the book, Grace tells Joe how she saw Churchill fighting in the hospital. I won’t spoil it but, she says Churchill rivaled Joe in skill. Who IS this guy? Man. It really bugs me… Churchill is the type of guy who people would avoid, just cross the street and walk as fast a possible. I think that he’s creepy and it just makes me nervous how he has so much power, yet he somehow remains under the radar, unseen, and unknown except by a handful of people….