FANdemonium Faves – World Book Day
Today is World Book Day, so we here at FANdemonium Network though we’d take the opportunity to talk a little about our favourite books and what they mean to us. Joining in to talk about the books they love are Clare, Clara and Angel.
The Wool Trilogy by Hugh Howey
Chosen by Clare
What’s it about?
The Wool Trilogy comprises Wool, Shift and Dust. The trilogy is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the very air on Earth is toxic, and what’s left of mankind dwells in an underground silo.
The structure of the silo, with its multiple levels, is also the structure of their society. Mechanical at the bottom power the systems of the Silo. The farming and residential levels in the middle feed and house the population. Closer to the top you have the secure IT department, and then above that, the Sherrif and Mayor’s departments. Travel between the levels is rare, mostly confined to the porters who carry messages and loads up and down the immense spiral staircase. The most extreme punishment in this world involves being “sent to clean”. A suit is created and put on the person who is then sent out of an airlock at the top of the silo to clean the cameras around at ground level so that those inside can clearly see the devastated world out there. They never make it back.
Early on the current Sherrif, Holston, is “sent to clean” and a new Sherrif must be chosen. The Mayor is given files on three potential candidates. One is a woman, Juliette, who works in Mechanical. Curious about this woman and wanting to see for herself, the Mayor undetakes the gruelling journey down 144 levels to the bottom of the silo. In doing so the Mayor unknowingly sets in motion a series of deadly events, revealing that the silo is concealing unimaginable secrets.
The second book, Shift, is a prequel series which reveals many more secrets about how the Silo came to be. The series wraps up in Dust, but to say much about the plot of that one would give away far too much about what comes before.
Why did you choose it?
Wool has some of the best world building I have ever read. I love the idea of such a confined world. Such a claustrophobic atmosphere is echoed by the strictures of the society that exists inside. I love the way that the circle of life and death is represented, both in the traffic on the spiral staircase in the middle of the silo, and also in the literal sense.
It also conveys a powerful message about pushing against roles enforced by society. Our main character Juliette, aka Jules, has been breaking rules and traditions since she was young. She has never fit in to the mould that the silo society would have expected of her. Jules, to me, is a groundbreaker, and she is not alone. There are several other characters through the series that chafe against what is expected of them, and in doing so bring about huge changes.
Maldoror and Poems By Comte de Lautréamont
Chosen by Clara
What’s it about?
Maldoror (the main story) is what I’ll stick to here. The book follows Maldoror, someone who may not even be human but is the incarnation of evil itself. Following his younger years through to teenage life as he fights his own darkness and questions everyone else’s sanity. The book is hard to place as it has no real setting, no real story that it follows. It’s a hectic and insane look inside the mind of a lunatic and his life of demonic thoughts and actions.
Why did I choose it?
Because it’s just fantastic. The beginning verse states; “unless he brings to his reading a rigorous logic and tautness of mind equal at least to his wariness, the deadly emanations of this book will dissolve his soul as water does sugar.” And it’s not joking. This book is dark, yes, but it’s not dark just for the sake of it.
It’s a book that’s constantly questioning morality and what morality actually is. Why, asks Maldoror, can genius only be sided with goodness? Why can he as a genius not be seen as one just because he chooses to use his genius to depict the delights of cruelty? Isn’t this hypocritical?
It questions humanity’s morals, why they have them, if it’s perfectly fine to be hypocritical in the way that Maldoror sees and asks why people don’t accept that the darkness in him is just as much in them but they refuse to accept it.
I’ve read many books about characters struggling to do the right thing but not many that dares say “but who says it’s the right thing? You’re all hypocrites!” It’s dark, disturbing and daring and I think it’s a book that everyone should read at least once.
The Dune Trilogy by Frank Herbert
Chosen by Angel(Sorry, Tolkien. But your LotR movie trilogy reached a huge audience that got them into the book(s) afterwards already)
What’s it about?
- Just a warning: the links provided all contain MAJOR spoilers!
The original trilogy(which is the best and purest, in my opinion) of Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune are the penultimate of the series.
They follow the Atreides bloodline and the choices they make that shape the entire universe. The most important Atreides in the books is Paul. Paul is the prematurely made Kwisatz Haderach, a godlike being.
Paul was never meant to be. His Bene Gesserit mother formed him in the womb against the wishes of her Sisterhood to please her Duke, Leto. She was instructed to give birth to a girl to marry to a rival family to heal a centuries old rift that would also bring about the planned Kwisatz Haderach.
The family is moved to the desert planet, Arrakis, aka Dune. They have been given control of the only place that manufactures the Spice melange. This spice gives long life, incredible powers, even the ability to warp space and time, but it also becomes a lifelong addiction that changes the eyes of the addict to “blue within blue”. There, the entire universe will be changed and affected for better and worse as Paul comes into his powers, fights age old enemies, makes unusual allies, and loses those he loves most to fulfill what he is told is his destiny.
Why did you choose it?
Women play a central role in these books. I love the female characters most(unless you bring up Feyd-Rautha). It should also be noted that the power these women hold was given to them by the author in the early 1960’s. This is pure matriarchal power without any of the modern third wave feminist toxicity. These women are the most powerful women in fiction, ever. The powers of the Bene Gesserit are unrivaled in any other work. One accidentally becomes the ultimate Bene Gesserit while still in the womb.
This is not a feminist work! It does not pander to female or male readers-Paul-a male-is the most powerful, after all. And the women aren’t all perfect Mary Sues. Alia , for example, is beautiful, wonderful, incredibly dangerous, but she is flawed and pays a price for it.
The books span beyond the original three, but they become diluted and they don’t feel as genuine. Oh, I read them, because the world is so damn great, but still…
My close second is ANYTHING by Terry Pratchett. His Discworld books especially are wonderfully absurd, yet strangely familiar.
#ShareAStory this World Book Day
So those are the choices of a few of the staff here at FANdemonium Network this World Book Day. We hope that maybe you are encouraged to pick up one of more of the titles we chose to expand your TBR list. We’d also love to hear YOUR favourites FANdemaniacs, so let us know in the comments or via social media.
