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| Prepare for lots of Caterpillar references. Also this picture links to the books Amazon page. |
Exurbia: A Novel About Caterpillars will not be what you
think it is.
Well it wasn't for me
because I didn't have the wonderful blurb that's out now since I had an ARC to
read.
So I went into this quite blind and
I must say that I was treated to one of the best books I've read so far this year.
I'll actually go a step further and say that
this is—as of February 28, 2015— the best book I've read this year and I've read a
few really good ones so far.
Now for the substance.
This book is filled with amazing ideas about spirituality,
transhumanism, individuality, collectivism, and morality. It made me ask myself, just what defines
humanity? Is it our physical bodies or
is it our consciousness, is it all that and more, is it none of that? What's more impressive is that my mind was
addressing these questions only secondary as a monumental plot was taking shape
in front of my eyes. The fact that this
book both entertained me and made me think very deeply about my very existence
and other very broad and heavy subjects, for me, puts this at a level of great
fiction. My favorite games (Legacy of
Kain), animes (Big O), and shows (The Wire) all manage to do this and
enthralled me in the fiction. Now it
comes as a shock to me that this is a series.
I read this thinking it as a standalone book and the ending wraps it all
up very nicely. I imagine someone else's
story will be told in the next one but hell, I'm definitely looking forward to
it.
Okay now I'll do a sort of critique here, both good and
bad. For some reason I want to do the
bad first, maybe because that's what I encountered first.
The beginning confused the hell out of me. There was so much new and crazy terminology
and names thrown at me that it was tough to wrap my head around it all. I couldn't tell what were real terms and what
was what the author might have made up for his fictional future. My instinct was to stop and try to force
myself to understand it all but being an indie author myself and a pretty slow
reader with two (low paying) jobs I had no time for that. So I just pressed on and didn't give a second
thought to those confusing terms, only guessing what they meant to keep the
story flowing. Eventually I did figure
out what it meant thanks to all the context clues that the author, Alex,
provides and the terms are used repeatedly for good effect which forced me to
learn them. Somewhere near the middle it
all makes sense even sooner if you don't have trouble focusing on the beginning
of new books.
And to continue that thought it does take some time for some
concepts to be fully explained but I don't know if that's good or bad. By the end every question I had was suitably
explained, two big things in particular.
That list of negatives is actually awfully short now that I
look at it.
Okay now for the good.
This book is filled with amazing ideas of science and spirituality and
gave me that feeling of being a part of some new frontier adventure. It felt like what I imagine the late 1800's
and early to middle 1900's felt like, like I was a part of something grand and
new, and impossible. I'm amazed at how
it all meshed together so well and flawlessly.
Just about every part of this writing was strong including the
characters which I don't expect from science fiction books because the few I've
read have not had the strongest characters.
My favorite characters in order had to be Jura the aging physicist
trapped between two worlds, Mrs. Butterworth *snicker snicker snicker* the
mysterious woman from space with an even more mysterious agenda, 261 the moralising
imp (awesome title) a genetically modified man made for the purpose of
impartial judgment, Moxiana a girl with strange dreams and a penchant for
heralding mass destruction, and the old crone who protects young Moxiana
despite premonitions that she will die doing so. Everything escalates very naturally plot wise
and then goes super crazy near the end to where I could not put the damn book
down even when I had other pressing things to do. And we're introduced to this
future in a very natural way and it’s really a wonderfully beautiful world. Hell even destruction comes in the form of a
gorgeous LSD inspired wave of beauty.
Anyways I could go on and on about a lot of the stuff inside
the book but this is already pretty long so I'll just leave you with the
generic list of positives and negatives to summarize.
The Good
+Smart Read
+Beautiful prose and descriptions and not overly long.
+Complex terminology is used often enough that it becomes
easier to understand
+Intellectually strong characters like my favorites Jura,
the Moralising Imp 261, Moxiana, the old Crone, and Mrs. Butterworth. There are many more besides my favorites.
+Great ideas
+The plot escalates nicely and the climax is fast paced and
leaves you with some revelations that blow your mind
+Improves upon a second reading
+By the end everything is explained
+High minded ideas that creep into your mind and conscience,
great philosophical fodder.
+Highly imaginative future
The Bad
-The very beginning confused me to no end with an overload
of tough terminology
-It takes a while for some concepts to be fully explained
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