Karl's Reading List

Published by Puffin Books/Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd: Auckland, NZ, 1988 (1986). An easy story to read, The Keeper is set in a post-apocalyptic New Zealand, where a small group of villagers live on the shores of the 'Big Lake', which is later explicitly identified as Taupo. Within the village, Michael (our main character) is one of the few people - and the youngest - who can still read, and is called a 'Keeper' from the way he can 'keep' the information found within books. Michael narrates the story to us in the form of a journal he is keeping. An older 'keeper' named Charles also adds notes in a few places, expanding on the storylines that Michael remains unaware of. The Keeper is fairly typical for this type of book; there are groups of survivors, some 'outsiders' who may at times be antagonist but also may be misunderstood, there are challenges to face (Michael and his friends must help hunt down a rogue tiger, descended from those released from z...

Published by Puffin Books: London, England, 2000 (1994, 1984). When I was reading this book, I had somehow come under the belief that it was written a very young author - that Swindells had perhaps even been in high school when he wrote it. Since finishing it, I have learned that Swindells was actually much older, and that this wasn't even his first book. I tell you this, because the revelation that Swindells was an author well in to his literary career came as a bit of a shock to me. Brother in the Land tells the story of Danny Lodge who, with his younger brother and parents, is living in the little English town of Skipley. When nuclear war breaks out Danny's life changes forever. As the book progresses life in Skipley goes from back to worse; by the end of the novel most of the people in Danny's life have died in one way or another, and although the book has a 'happy ending' of sorts, this is fairly 'tacked on' (literally. Swindells apparently added the la...

Audiobook published by Audible, 2015.  Narrated by Victor Bevine. Book 1 in 'The Earthborn Trilogy'. Lucas is one of the last survivors of a dying Earth, destroyed in battle with aliens who were after the resources of Earth, particularly water. He comes across an alien spaceship and a sympathetic alien, and then - along with the ferocious female human Asha - they seek to escape the planet. The premise is a little cliché but fine. The novel as a whole is fairly B-grade pulpy - lots of limbs getting blown off, heads splattered etc. This gives the book a slightly unpleasant feel, as does the fact that many remaining humans (our protagonists not included) have resorted to cannibalism, something that always sickens me in any medium I encounter it.  There are a few moments where the plot goes in a different direction than anticipated, and there were enough interesting moments that I kept listening, but honestly, there are much better books than this to get into the genre with. Victo...

Published by Scholastic Children's Books: London, 2011 (2010). Book Three in the 'Hunger Games' series: ' The Hunger Games '; ' Catching Fire '; ' Mockingjay '. It should be immediately noted that this is a darker book than the other two in the series. No more actual Hunger Games take place, very little in the way of the glitz and glamour of the Capitol. Right from the beginning, Katniss is a refugee in District 13, most of her home District has been destroyed, and she must decide whether to let the rebels use her as a figurehead for their movement. Death always featured in the Hunger Games series as a whole, but now it is on a much larger scale. This is war, and it isn't pretty. Much of the debate in the book is on the morality of war, with Katniss far more reluctant to engage with it than some of the other characters we know - Gale is busy designing traps to be used against the Capitol, for one. The cost of war is also apparent - there are dead...

Published by Scholastic Children's Books: London, 2011 (2009). Book Two in the 'Hunger Games' series: ' The Hunger Games '; ' Catching Fire '; ' Mockingjay '. It's taken me a long time to return to the world of Panem, however I have taught the first book a few times with my year 11 classes since then, meaning that the story is still relatively fresh in my mind. Although I have also seen the movie version of this entry in the series, it was only once and back when it was in theatres, so the plot was vague enough in my mind to still give some surprises. Katniss and Peeta have both survived the 74th Hunger Games and are now living the luxurious life of victors. However, the manner in which they won has made Katniss in particular a symbol of rebellion, and it becomes quickly apparent that she must toe the line or face likely death for her and those she loves. President Snow, the leader of the Capitol, has a particular hatred for Katniss, and begins t...

Published by Random House New Zealand: Auckland, New Zealand, 2013 (2008). This is the second book by Kiwi author Fleur Beale that I have reviewed for this site. The first one, Slide the Corner , was enjoyable enough but not much more than that. Juno of Taris is a much more readable story, and one that I found myself wanting to finish. Once again, its not mind-blowingly original, but it doesn't really need to be! Juno is one of 500 residents of Taris, a small self-contained island surrounded by a protective wall located somewhere in the Southern Ocean. It is some indeterminate time in the future, following wars and disasters, and now the residents of Taris believe themselves to be the last remaining humans on Earth. They survive by working together and following the rules laid down by their 'Governance Companions' (a small group of elders) without question. Juno, a 12 year old girl, is not the best at following these rules, and has begun to realise that some people on the i...

Published in a omnibus edition as "The Circle Trilogy" : " Black "; " Red "; " White ", by Thomas Nelson: Nashville, Tennessee, 2004. The novel Red opens fifteen years after the events of Black , at least as far as one of the worlds protagonist Thomas Hunter lives in is concerned. In the other world - our world - only half an hour has passed, which is of benefit considering the gun currently pointed at his sleeping head... Red keeps up the action-packed pace of its predecessor, along with continuing its Narnia-like allegorical allusions in the 'other' world. Whereas the first novel dealt in metaphors about creation and the fall, this one takes a little longer to figure out, with a few twists and turns keeping me guessing before things finally clicked into place. When they do click into place, Dekker still manages to offer a few surprises and alterations to the familiar biblical stories which both make the reader ponder upon hi...

Published in a omnibus edition as "The Circle Trilogy" : " Black "; " Red "; " White ", by Thomas Nelson: Nashville, Tennessee, 2004. Black is a number of things: a Christian fantasy/allegory in the vein of Narnia, an action adventure with an Everyman seeking to defeat an evil terrorist organisation, a time travel story... It even contains elements of a superhero origin story! The book tells the story of Thomas Hunter, an aspiring writer who owes money to the mob and is therefore hiding out with his sister. Yet this is not all that is going on for Thomas. Every time he falls asleep in our world he wakes up in another realm that could be the future, or the past, or a distant planet, but that is also an increasingly clear "Eden" of sorts, where white bat/angels and innocent humans revel in the it relationship with Elyon, the story's depiction of a childlike God. When he falls asleep in that world he wakes up back in ours.  ...

Published by Scholastic Ltd: London, UK, 2009 (2008). Book One in the 'Hunger Games' series: ' The Hunger Games '; ' Catching Fire '; ' Mockingjay '. As far as book-to-film adaptations go, the film version of The Hunger Games is very accurate. A few minor things are changed - as an example, book Katniss is given her mockingjay pin by a minor character, Madge, whereas movie Katniss is given it by her sister, Prim - but beat by beat the plot unfolds as a fan of the movies would expect. The one advantage the book has over the movie (which is a normal advantage) is that the book can go more into Katniss's reasoning, emotions, and even backstory. Jennifer Lawrence did great emoting Katniss on the big screen, but we get a far more internalised Katniss here, pondering whether Peeta is acting or really feeling the way he states, reminiscing about Gale and wondering about her feelings towards him... None of which will make sense to someone that hasn...

Published by Penguin Books: England, 1964. (1955). This classic science fiction novel takes place in a world recovering from some global nuclear disaster (known as The Tribulation), society has reverted back to largely rural societies, and mutations are considered curses, and must be purged - be they plant, or animal, or even human. The mutant humans live predominantly in The Fringes, regions that have greater levels of residual radiation. However, on occasion these mutants are crossing the boundaries into 'normal' human territory. The hero of the story, David Strorm, gradually comes to realise that he has a mutation of his own - telepathy - and must keep that truth hidden from his super-religious father while connecting with an ever growing group of other telepaths. Eventually the truth comes out and David must flee into the Fringes, with the aim of reaching "Sealand", a reference to my own home country that I greatly enjoyed. Works where fundamentalist C...