Hello everyone,
I’ve been abandoning my book tags and TTT throughout January because life decided to catch up with my procrastinating way. But now I’m back and ready to join the fun.
Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.
This week’s topic is about the past and the future. It could be favorite historical fictions, futuristic settings, etc. I decided to do both and split the list into two top-five (in no particular order).
Top 5 Historical Fictions
Honestly, most of historical books I read are fantasy so I’m including them here.
1. The Diviners (Libba Bray) | GOODREADS
The Diviners series were set during 1920’s New York City. The atmosphere is arguably the strongest point about these books. The flappers, jazz music, the dances, and the dreamers made me feel as if I was there. But it’s not just sparks and dances, The Diviners and The Lair of Dreams are also very spooky, again owing to the atmosphere Bray managed to bring to life.
2. The Infernal Devices (Cassandra Clare) | GOODREADS
When I talked about TID, I usually talked about Jem/Will/Tessa. However, the trio are not the only memorable thing about the series. Set in Victorian London, near the end of 19th century, The Infernal Devices offer us more than a glimpse into the culture, but also a lot of fun steampunk technology.
3. The Great Train Robbery (Michael Crichton) | GOODREADS
Crichton was known as a sci-fi writer, so it’s quite odd that my favorite book of his is this take on the 1855 great gold robbery. It is a fun heist set in Victorian England and although some of the things are quite unrealistic, its portrayal of 1855 England culture was surprisingly captivating.
4. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer) | GOODREADS
Kane and Abel followed the story of two men since they were born in 1906, growing up, until their death (near the end of 20th century). It switched back and forth from Europe to US, and the setting spanned half a century to include various historic events like World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II.
5. A Darker Shade of Magic (V.E. Schwab) | GOODREADS
Mostly because I’m a little obsessed with 19th century England. Not gonna lie though, the way Schwab effortlessly blended fantasy and historical fiction, our London with its parallel Red, White, and Black London made this book one of my favorite read of 2015. Also I wrote a mini-rambling here on my first ADSOM re-read post.
Top 5 Futuristic Fictions
Disclaimer: these are five books which I think implement futuristic setting in clever or interesting way, and their inclusion in this list definitely doesn’t mean I want to live there. :p
1. Stupid Perfect World (Scott Westerfeld) | GOODREADS
This one is a very short read from Westerfeld. As in Uglies, Westerfeld plays with the utopia concept. In Stupid Perfect World, disease and starvation have been eradicated, and you can insta-travel to the Antarctic. Sounded cool, right? Oh wait, your body, including your hormone levels, is regulated by machine and you don’t even need to sleep. Hmm, I love my sleep so probably would skip this kind of future. However, it’s sort of a cool concept.
2. Ready Player One (Ernest Cline) | GOODREADS
Growing up, I spent my free time playing The Sims, rosebud-ing my way into money instead of getting my sim a real job, and trying to kill them when I got bored. Ready Player One took place in the near future (2044) where the world is all but destroyed, and most of the world population prefer to live in simulated world instead of facing reality. Kids go to simulated school, teens partied and danced in simulated world, and you could even get married in this virtual world without meeting each other. Freaky? Well, 2044 is getting closer so …
3. Sphere (Michael Crichton) | GOODREADS
Sphere told a story of human encountered with a spaceship, that might or might not be alien. But it wasn’t about human vs ET, it’s essentially a thriller on how dangerous a human mind is. What if we stumbled upon technology that brought whatever currently on your mind to life, including your biggest nightmare?
4. The Lunar Chronicles (Marissa Meyer) | GOODREADS
Because I want my own Iko.
5. Unwind (Neal Shusterman) | GOODREADS
Filing this one under “cool concept, do not want to live there.” In Unwind, Shusterman explored the idea of organ grafting and humanity. It took place sometime in a near future after the Heartland War (The Second Civil War) when technology called unwinding was found. After the war, there are a lot of needs for organs and parts, but very few organ donors so they decided to “unwind” delinquent teenagers for supply. The amazing thing about unwind is that the technology (to be able to graft any kind of organs and the promise to use 100% of the unwound body parts) is actually awesome. Imagine how many disease could be cured! However, the consequence turned out to be really scary.
That’s it, my first ever TOP TEN TUESDAY in 2016. Let me know if any of these books are in your own list. Until next time!
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Ah, Lunar Chronicles and Unwind! <3
YES TO THE SIMS. I’m so happy to hear you mention it because some days I still play it. Ready Player One is on my TTT list too–I just love that world. 😛
I LOVE THE SIMS. But unfortunately I had to uninstall because my computer could no longer handle it. 🙁 It was the best way to procrastinate, though.
Ahh yes, I love the virtual world in Ready Player One, but the reality seems rather bleak.