Earth | David Brin

Another of my random-book-grabbing expeditions; maybe it's that I can read almost any book, or that libraries only have good books, or maybe I have psychic powers, but I always seem to end up with nice reads even if I just pull a random book down. I actually found this one when I was looking for the Da Vinci Code, but I like sci-fi and this looked massive and juicy so I took it. (I borrowed three books on this day, to keep me sane while I hunched in a corner of Swimming Sports with the smell of chlorine in my nostrils and a backache.) This was a particularly interesting read, and it left me with a lot to think about.

Earth is a science fiction novel, set in the future; but unlike most futuristic novels I've read, somehow despite all the things gone wrong in this world it doesn't register as a dystopia. As Brin puts it: 'As writers go, I suppose I'm known as an optimist. So it seems only natural that this novel projects a future, (now less than forty years from now), where there's been just a little more wisdom than folly... perhaps a bit more hope than despair. In fact, this is just about the most encouraging tomorrow I can imagine right now. What a sobering thought.'

Earth paints a picture of the world of 2038, fifty years onwards from when the book was first written; a world where technology and the Internet is more immersive and critical than ever before, a world where a human population of ten billion struggle to extract the last out of the mother planet's dwindling resources and save the last of the wildlife from extinction, mostly futilely, a world where the demographics are aging fast and young people's freedom is crushed by the increasing numbers of the old, a world where people try to claw back desperately from their sinking homes as the rising sea levels swallow the land city by city, and a world where a new religion has risen- a religion that worships the mother, Gaia, as a subconscious reflection of the pressure being put on Earth that will soon become unbearable if something isn't done. And amidst it all, a young British physicist, an old physics professor and a Maori billionaire discover something terrible within the Earth's very core that threatens to destroy everything... and only they can save the world from annihilation.

Earth is less of an fiction story than a projection, a prediction of a future for humankind. Brin uses many different characters' perspectives to bring together a vivid vision of the world in forty years' time, from a group of three young people with big dreams and small hope of realizing them to a female astronaut who loses her husband to the mysterious forces threatening to destroy the planet. The book forces us to take a step back and take a long, hard look at ourselves, and ask ourselves some fundamental and troubling questions: who are we really? What gives us the right to exploit the resources and the planet so generously given to us like we do? And most hauntingly: standing in the face of extinction, would we be able to put our problems past us and make a better future? Or are we only ever going to die out, riddled with our own flaws and poisoned by our own carelessness?

It's not perfect; the plot is a little bumpy and the prose sometimes not so elegant, but it's a compelling read, especially for those of us (like me) who are deeply interested in the future, and I admire both the author's hindsight and foresight; only with excellent use of both could one construct such a book.

Tales of the Otori | Lian Hearn

I first found the Tales of the Otori series in a teacher's bookshelf last year. I have a habit of going into bookshelves and grabbing random books, so when I saw the cover I decided it was interesting and took it for reading. The book I read then was Across the Nightingale Floor- the original Tale of the Otori, although since then the author seems to have written a prequel as well as three sequels. This year, long after I completed the first book, I again saw the rather alluring cover design featuring the closeup of the eye, and so borrowed the two next books in the original trilogy to read. And after I finished, I decided to do a post on both books rather than one, because it seems like the books were written to be read together; the second book reads stupidly incomplete without the third.

The story of the Tales of the Otori trilogy is set in a fantasy, historical Japan, told by a boy in his late teens named Takeo. This is a tale of love, loyalty, beliefs and, above all, conflict- Takeo's own struggles with his life and beliefs, Kaede, his lover's struggle to be respected in her own right in a world that worships men and devalues women, and the ultimate struggles of the Japanese clans to dominate the Three Countries of the island. It's an adventure story, very much action-based, but all the same, the story illustrates compellingly the brutality and inequality in those days, and what the pair of young lovers had to face to overcome it.

Takeo is torn between three identities: that of his birth, a wild boy among the peaceful, loving Hidden (rather like a variation of Christianity), which was all he knew until he was sixteen; the heir to the warrior class of the Otori, a position into which he was adopted, but later found out he also laid legitimate blood claim to, full of honor and pride and bringing with it the burdens of a soldier and a leader of his people; and finally, the dark, shadowy Tribe, a secret society with immense magical powers that makes money by using these to spy and assassinate for whoever pays them, and that lays claim to Takeo because of his unmatched skill in these gifts, given to him from his father who he never knew. He wants none of these, but he has to face all three, no matter how he tries to escape; he must choose his true loyalty, overcome the impossible challenges that face him and unite his people in order to bring peace to the Three Countries, a destiny which he eventually fulfils to rule from sea to sea.

Meanwhile, his lover that he met at his adopted Otori father's betrothal ceremony, the beautiful Shirakawa Kaede, struggles to prove herself in her own right and to play the game, not just be a pawn for powerful men to manipulate as they please. She falls in love with Takeo at first sight, but seemingly unsurmountable obstacles lie between them; she wants, above all, to prove that women can be just as ruthless and influential as men can, that she can wield power just like men can, in a society which places the value of men far higher than that of women. She learns to be a leader, and forces herself to take up brutality to match her male counterparts; eventually, together with Takeo, they conquer all of the Three Countries and she is finally respected in her own right, rather than just as a beautiful plaything for men to do with and discard as they please.

Together, they accomplish what seems infeasible, and their story is a fast-paced, exciting and courageous journey that spans far and wide and stops at nothing but death.