Red Rising, Pierce Brown, Del Rey Books, 2014
First of a trilogy, this book is all about revolution, and love.
Darrow has spent his entire life as a miner, living underground on Mars. Part of a colony whose job is to mine Helium, all of the miners have been told, for many years, that the surface is uninhabitable. They are helping to build a new human society on Mars. Doubts enter into Darrow's mind after his wife is murdered by the brutal, sadistic government. Recruited by a secret underground group, Darrow learns that, for the past couple of hundred years, the miners have been Really Lied To.
The usual revolt would be crushed within a couple of days, so Darrow is given a different assignment. Months are spent turning him into a member of the elite class, both physically and mentally. He is to infiltrate the elite class, and become one of them. After he has risen to a senior position in the regime, then he will bring it down from the inside.
Along with a couple of dozen other young people, Darrow becomes a student at an institute to decide the next member of the ruling class. Split into several groups, they are each assigned to a castle in a river valley, and told to go from there. What follows is a Hunger Games-style competition, with real casualties, to winnow down the field. Darrow shows real leadership, and plenty of guts. Another student, the son of one of the rulers, is "supposed" to win, but isn't going to follow along. Does Darrow pull off an unauthorized win? Does he even survive?
This one is a gem of a story. It has everything; a brutal government and dystopian society, growing revolution, young people and some possibilities for romance. It also has an easy to read story. This is very much worth reading.
Showing posts with label brown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brown. Show all posts
Friday, July 4, 2014
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
The Mobile Youth: Voices of the Mobile Generation
The Mobile Youth: Voices of the Mobile Generation, Graham Brown, 2012, Kindle e-book (B009FEIRUM)
This book looks at the ways that present-day young people use, and interact with, their cell phones. They are not used just for phone calls anymore.
A teenage boy from China wanted an iPad and a cell phone so much that he felt compelled to sell one of his kidneys on the black market to get the money. He is now in the hospital, suffering from renal failure. He received a lot less than the going rate for his kidney. A young Amish man is returning to the community after rumspringa, but he does not want to give up his cell phone.
In the slums of Rio de Janeiro, a couple of young boys and their cell phones are the only ones telling the world about a gun battle between the government and drug dealers. A majority of the world's youth sleep with their cell phones.
A Venice Beach food truck has created quite a following by using Twitter each morning to give its lunchtime location for that day. Between 1996 and 2010, the number of American teens who smoke has gone down. It might have something to do with the explosion in cell phone usage among teens in that same period.
As part of a study, young people all over the world were asked to go without their cell phones for 24 hours (they had to actually remove the battery). Some found it difficult, but bearable. Others described their feelings using words like dead, lonely, helpless and anxious. A teenge girl posted unpleasant comments about her family on Facebook. When her father found out, he recorded a seven-minute rant, which ended with the father putting two bullets in her laptop.
Regular human contact has generally become a thing of the past. Children don't play outside anymore. Young people don't have anywhere to congregate, like the local movie theater. A group of people can be in a coffeeshop, all working on their laptops (together and alone at the same time). That is part of the reason for people's near obsession with technology. It is the closest they can get to human contact.
If your teenager is spending "too much" time on their cell phone, maybe they are looking for some version of human contact. Reading this book may help explain what they are thinking, and feeling. It is highly recommended.
This book looks at the ways that present-day young people use, and interact with, their cell phones. They are not used just for phone calls anymore.
A teenage boy from China wanted an iPad and a cell phone so much that he felt compelled to sell one of his kidneys on the black market to get the money. He is now in the hospital, suffering from renal failure. He received a lot less than the going rate for his kidney. A young Amish man is returning to the community after rumspringa, but he does not want to give up his cell phone.
In the slums of Rio de Janeiro, a couple of young boys and their cell phones are the only ones telling the world about a gun battle between the government and drug dealers. A majority of the world's youth sleep with their cell phones.
A Venice Beach food truck has created quite a following by using Twitter each morning to give its lunchtime location for that day. Between 1996 and 2010, the number of American teens who smoke has gone down. It might have something to do with the explosion in cell phone usage among teens in that same period.
As part of a study, young people all over the world were asked to go without their cell phones for 24 hours (they had to actually remove the battery). Some found it difficult, but bearable. Others described their feelings using words like dead, lonely, helpless and anxious. A teenge girl posted unpleasant comments about her family on Facebook. When her father found out, he recorded a seven-minute rant, which ended with the father putting two bullets in her laptop.
Regular human contact has generally become a thing of the past. Children don't play outside anymore. Young people don't have anywhere to congregate, like the local movie theater. A group of people can be in a coffeeshop, all working on their laptops (together and alone at the same time). That is part of the reason for people's near obsession with technology. It is the closest they can get to human contact.
If your teenager is spending "too much" time on their cell phone, maybe they are looking for some version of human contact. Reading this book may help explain what they are thinking, and feeling. It is highly recommended.
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