analog

Moonbound Year: 2024 Author: Robin Sloan Length: 415 pages I’ve always enjoyed Robin Sloan’s ability to fuse analog and digital in a way that’s entertaining and new. His latest book, Moonbound, takes this even further by merging fantasy and sci-fi in a post-apocalyptic way that’s somewhat akin to Adventure Time. This coming-of-age story for a pre-teen boy scratches an itch that isn’t bogged down in all the Young Adult tropes common for this plotline. Providing the point of view from an entirely unique standpoint was just the icing on the cake for me. I almost want more from this book, but appreciate the brevity of its solo outing. What strikes me about Moonbound is the utter balance between science fiction and fantasy that doesn’t feel the need to over-explain itself (a fault of many books in both these genres). There are plenty of interesting ideas from both genres here, but there’s not a terribly strong motivation for the main character other than to get away...

The Circle Year: 2013 Author: Dave Eggers Length: 822 minutes / 13.70 hours When I saw the movie adaptation of this book, I felt like the presentation of this somewhat interesting idea was already dated by about five years. This made me curious if the book was any better. As is probably no surprise to anyone, the book was much better. Sure, the movie cut a few things from the book that I thought were a bit too unnecessary (all the “sex,” that is) or underutilized (the “Calvin” character), but the book really hits at the intensity of the internet-addicted generation. I would even go so far as to say The Circle is the modern version of 1984. I’m somewhat torn when it comes to the message presented here. I understand how trying to stay on top of millions of e-mails, and thousands of social media updates can be utterly overwhelming. I also agree that a lot of ideas that seem to be beneficial to society will have the removal...

Tag: analog

BOOK: Moonbound (2024)

BOOK: The Circle (2013)