Free Radicals by Zeke Teflon

Free Radicals: A Novel of Utopia and Dystopia, Zeke Teflon. Tucson AZ: See Sharp Press, 2012. e-book, 245 pps.

     Kel Turner is suddenly exiled off of planet earth. He has to make his way around a new planet. In his travels, he encounters a variety of religious cult-like communities and problems. There is much more to Free Radicals but I don't want to give it away.

     The cult-like community that I laughed at the most was a variant of Alcoholics Anonymous. The adherents refer to their founder as Will B. Their rituals are outrageous.

     
sapphoq reviews says: Zeke Teflon had me hooked from the dedication. I love Anonymous and was very glad to read the inclusion of both Anonymous and the surviving members of LulSec.
     Free Radicals is witty. I enjoyed the off-beat qualities of it-- the star travel, the hooded references, the anarchists. Zeke Teflon is right up there with Cory Doctorow. Highly recommended to fans of well-written adult dystopian fiction.

Delirium Trilogy by Lauren Oliver

Delirium, Lauren Oliver. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2012. 480 pps.

Pandemonium, Lauren Oliver. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2013. 375 pps.

Requiem, Lauren Oliver. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2014. 432 pps.

Lauren Oliver is on Twitter (tm) as https://twitter.com/OliverBooks

The Delirium Trilogy opens in Portland, Maine. It is a city that the author appears to have intimate familiarity with. I recognized it. That Lauren Oliver was able to re-create a Portland in her trilogy [albeit a dystopian Portland] made me warm up to the writing immediately. She displays the same knowledge of all of the geographical locations she uses in her books. And I like that. A sense of place adds depth to any story.

In the trilogy, love is a disease. There is big government, censorship, messing with brains, and dictates that must be followed on a very large scale. Some readers may only be interested in the love story. But there is much more here than that.

                 ~ Less Government, More Fun ! ~

sapphoq reviews says: Although the Delirium Trilogy was written for teens, there is much in these books for astute adults to love. Fans of Veronica Roth [yes, I am!] will love this very different view of a dystopian world. Highly recommended.

Fluke by Christopher Moore

Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings, Christopher Moore. New York: HarperCollins e-books, 2002.  340 pps., including excerpt from another book.

     Fluke is set in Hawaii. It starts off as a story about researchers studying whale song. There are the good guys-- which include a hot chick and a howlie who wants to be an Hawaiian Rastafarian-- and the bad guys and some neutral folks all studying whales for their own purposes.

     Something happens when you don't expect it. Fluke suddenly becomes a tale involving an underwater dystopia, weapons-testing, and captivity. People who were given up as dead grace the pages. And there is a genetically engineered race of a human-whale hybrid.  Plus a nice twist at the end.

sapphoq reviews says: Christopher Moore did quite a bit of research in order to make Fluke feel realistic before the reader is swallowed up into the belly of a whale. After that, the reader has to adjust to a changing fictional reality. My favorite character is Kona, the pot-smoking young man. And yes, there is something appealing about the tail of a whale that reads "Bite me." (That's on the cover of the book).  The reason given for the singing of the whales felt contrived and almost spoiled Fluke for me. But I stuck through it and thought it was a worthy investment of my time. Recommended to those who like the ocean, whales, and dystopian fiction.