Bable-17

At first when I started reading Bable-17 I was a little skeptical. I was thinking oh great another book where they are going to spend the whole time on a spaceship just drifting through space, but I was pleasantly surprised. Samuel R. Delany brought so much more to the plate than just flying through space.
The first aspect that really sparked my interest were the creatures in the bar. Or, well, humans with cosmetisurgery. I have thought about this concept before so I was thrilled that it was brought up. People have gone beyond just getting simple tattoos, they now are getting horns or tails, or anything else they can imagine being added on to their bodies. I always figured it was a just a matter of time untill this began happening in the real world, and im still waiting. Ill be first in line to get my tail attached....ok maybe not. But the concept seems very plausible and I am glad he decided to include it.
Yet the best part of the book was all of the indepth discussion and theories on language. The theory about language revealing so much about a culture was very interesting. I think it makes perfect sense. They way a group of people speaks dictates the way they think, and if you can learn how a cultures language works, you are indirectly learning how a culture thinks. Such as when Rydra mentioned how some cultures have multiple ways to describe snow where as other cultures may only have one. The more words they have for a certain thing the more important it is in a culture. The whole concept could be taken to many extremes and applied to a variety of things.
Also the other intriguing thing was Rydras ability to "read" people. Sometimes I feel the same way, being able to read what a person is thinking based on their body language and facial expressions. I think that the concept of reading people is very probable. Some people are deffinately better at reading people than others, and the concept that she would have mastered it so well as to form exact sentances seems possible. It is a skill that would be very useful to learn and I am going to start trying to observe and watch people more closely now to try and catch what they are really trying to say, see if I can do it.

The Stars my Destination

As far as sci-fi goes Ive never read a book in the genre. Ive seen a lot of sci-fi movies and TV shows but that was the extent of my knowledge. I enjoy the adventure and the creativity of new worlds but I'm not a big fan of all of the being on a space ship for chapter upon chapter, which thankfully this book didn't have. In the beginning it starts out on a spaceship but he finds a way out pretty fast. The main character Gully Foyle is interesting to say the least. At first he was easy to identify with, the feeling of mediocrity, nothing makes him special or stand out, until he becomes possessed by revenge, and that is when I thought he took a turn for the worse. I honestly didn't like the character that much, it was interesting to follow his struggle but I didn't like him as a person in the least bit. For me to really enjoy a book or novel I need to be able to relate to a major character in the book and that's what I thought this book lacked.
Yet I really enjoyed the concept of Jaunting. It reminded me of apparating in Harry Potter. Yet all of the government regulations and rules and defenses they had to make for this new mode of transportation were very intriguing. I loved how much detail Bester went into about all of the ins and outs of jaunting. Especially all of the new defenses people had to put up against it such as labyrinths and having only certain spots they can jaunt to, in the governments attempts to regulate it. Also the concept that they can only jaunt certain distances made it interesting, its not just like you can poof anywhere in the world, you have to make jumps.
I feel like the concept of all of the new rules and regulations is a lot of what sci-fi is based upon. It is just an exaggeration of our own governments and what we could turn into.

Anansi Boys

Before now I had never read anything by Neil Gaiman, I was familiar with some of his stories and movies such as Coraline, and I was curious to see what all the hype was about. After reading Anansi Boys I was sold, Neil Gaiman is well...pretty amazing. His stories have a different approach than most. Its hard to place what exactly it is that gives him his flair, but it works. He creates these new worlds that are, on the surface the same as ours, but once you really dive in you realize there is so much more. The way he presents the concepts make them see completely plausible and they could really be going on in our world and we just never noticed. The characters are very dynamic and each have their own set of distinct characteristics that make them special, well all except for Fat Charlie, or at least that's what he thinks. He comes off as a very average guy but he transforms into more than he ever thought he could be. He had the qualities all along he just never realized it.
What was also interesting about the characters is that they are black. Which I didn't realize until it was mentioned in class and I was already 3/4th's of the way through the book. I probably would of gone the whole book thinking they were white if someone hadn't told me. It was very interesting how Gaiman never mentions it. Once you find out, it fits and makes sense, but its hard to realize on your own. In most books the characters are white unless you are told otherwise, and so apparently I assume that in all books the characters are white. Especially since they lived in the UK it seemed to make sense.
But on another note I enjoyed Gaiman's God concept, and how they rooted from African stories. The concept of all of the gods as animals is very interesting and gives them unique qualities. I enjoyed how every god possessed the qualities that makes their animal unique, the strengths and the weaknesses. After reading this I realized that I will have to read the book "American Gods" by Gaiman as well to see how he expands on the concept. It is a unique way of viewing gods that I don't hear about very often.