Tag: speculative fiction

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

I read an interview with the author of this book in the Christian Science Monitor. I was immediately fascinated by the concept. It also didn’t hurt that it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. I usually borrow my books from the library, but the hold was too long on this one. I quickly bought myself a copy and read it.

The action takes place in a near future where people with insomnia can be treated with an implant. These compress the rest and restoration from sleeping so that the effects of eight hours of sleep can be achieved in only five hours. Buried deep in the license agreement is that your data can be shared with pretty much anyone who can do pretty much whatever they want with it. This leads to an algorithmic system of pre-crime. All of a person’s online activity and dreams are combined with the surveillance in public spaces to come up with a risk score. When this rises above 500, people can be involuntarily held as a “retainee” for twenty-one days for the protection of society. Sara Hussein is one such person retained. She is arrested at the airport upon returning from a business trip. She is eager to see her family but some minor issues turn into her arrest. They claim due to her dreams that she is a danger to her husband. But the system is so corrupted by financial incentives and simple carelessness and cruelty that most retainees spend much longer than twenty-one day in confinement.

This is the story of how what many feel is a good idea when executed turns out to be a disaster. It explores the concepts of identity and individuality as well as what we owe to each other in society as well as in closer relationships. In many ways, it is a modern vision of Orwell’s 1984 but far more realistic and plausible. What happens in the retention centers is on a small scale what often happens in prisons today. This is my favorite kind of speculative fiction. It takes today, nudges it into the near future, and explores how human nature reacts to the change. This is a poignant and touching story that should serve as warning. We need to take data privacy much more seriously that we do now.

My rating: 5/5

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

For March my book club reads women’s fiction or a book written by a woman. We selected this book. It was published in 2018 and proceeded to win numerous awards including the Hugo, Locus, and Nebula Awards for best novel. I finished it the night before our book club meeting this past Wednesday.

The book is an alternate history. In the spring 1952 with Dewey as president (not Truman), a meteor strikes and wipes out the entire east coast of the United States. The damage to the whole planet is so bad that the world immediately starts making plans to get off of it. Elma is the main character and narrator, a female computer (one who does math, not a machine) and former WASP pilot who dreams of becoming an astronaut.

The book starts with a bang, literally. You are dropped right into the action as the meteor hits in the first few pages. A number of the computers in the new space agency are former WASPs eager to get into space. The male leaders are eager to maintain the status quo while Elma’s husband is the image of support. In this way, it was a bit cliché for me. And certain aspects of the story seemed a bit drawn out. Overall I really enjoyed the novel. It always kept me wanting to find out what happened next. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series.

My rating: 4/5