The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

The World Without Us
Alan Weisman
2007, Virgin, London
978075351239
275p.

A look at what would happen to the earth if all human life disappeared at once.

I found this to be a very interesting book. The author predicts what would happen in the future by taking a look at what happened in the past, so you get some history as well as science. I like information and this book sure had a lot of it. I learned many new things. :)

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Alien3 by Alan Dean Foster

Alien3
Alan Dean Foster
1992, 1993, Warner Books, New York
0751506672
186p.

Novelisation of the third Alien movie in which Ripley crash lands on a prison planet and discovers a xenomorph has also come along.

This is not a bad story, I really enjoyed the movie and the novel is very similar. However, at times it read like there was more than one author - it could have done with a bit more editing.

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The Gift by Roger Dunn

The Gift
Roger Dunn
1988, McPhee Gribble Publishers, Fitzroy
0140110631
136p.

Little novel based on an Australian children's mini-series in which two children win 1000 acres of bushland in Western Australia.

It was an enjoyable story - the characters were well fleshed out and it had good morals. I like that it was set in a recognisable Australia.

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The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

The Sirens of Titan
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
1959, 1979, Dell Publishing, New York
0440179483
319p.

A man and his dog are caught up in a chrono-synclastic-infudibula halfway between Earth and Mars and are scattered throughout the Solar System, appearing and disappearing on different planets at regular intervals. To explain any more would complicate things and this novel is a journey for the reader so I wont bother!

I really really really enjoyed this. Vonnegut has a seriously wicked sense of humour. And there was so much going on within the story. I wish they wrote science fiction like this again.

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The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman

The Ice Queen
Alice Hoffman
2005, 2006, Vintage, London
978099488835
211p.

A girl makes a wish one night which comes true and ruins her life. She then grows up and makes another wish which changes her forever.

I enjoyed this up to a point. I liked the storyline and the characters, however, the writing style annoyed me because it was pretentious. Readers are supposed to make up their own minds about the deeper meaning behind a story, we don't need it spelled out to us.

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The Simulacra by Philip K. Dick

The Simulacra
Philip K. Dick
1964, Ace Books. New York
no isbn
192p.

A novel of the future about a government system headed by a beautiful First Lady and her simulation husband.

This little novel was multi-layered - there were many different aspects that I really enjoyed. And the science behind it all has not dated, even 40 years later.

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The Book Boy by Joanna Trollope

The Book Boy
Joanna Trollope
2006, Bloomsbury Publishing, London
0747582114
94p.

Quick read about Alice, a housewife who cannot read and the teenage rebel who guessed her secret.

This was a very simple book with simple language, and I didn't really find the characters all that believable - they were two-dimensional.

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