The Humans - M's review

The Humans by Matt Haig

 

Reviewed by M

There’s really nothing like being alien that gets you thinking about home and who you are.

Forty-three year old Mathematics professor, Andrew Martin, has made a world changing mathematical discovery. This results in his swift abduction by outergalactic alien hosts. Believing humans to be inherently and undeniably violent and greedy, an alien from Vonnadoria is sent to earth as Martin’s physical replacement, his main task being to wipe out any proof or knowledge of the discovery. Narrated by the alien, The Humans is his evidential report about what it is to be human.

The Humans is a compelling and relatively light read that makes you smile more than anything else. Without giving much away and while there is death and destruction, this is a feelgood novel (at least, it was for me but depending on where your headspace is currently situated, you might feel differently).

From the first page, this is a funny book that you know is going to include a fair amount of wryly observed human navel-gazing. My gut (rather than mathematical) instinct sees The Humans as a tenderised cross between The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a David Lodge novel and Baz Luhrmann’s song Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen. Little M thought the premise sounded like the film, Meet Dave. If you like any of those, you’ll probably enjoy The Humans.

The main niggle I have is that I didn’t really connect with any of the characters – I’m not sure if this is the point (emotion-free narrator) or if it’s linked to Haig’s style/the novel’s voice. The other thing that might have affected this is that I read this novel on an e-reader (I know, gasp! More about that below).

I’d highly recommend it. Suitable for any reader who can handle the f word and light sexual references.

These two videos both say a lot about The Humans:

 

The Humans Book trailer featuring Advice For a Human:

 

 Baz Luhrmann’s Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen

 

 

About the e-reading:

I’ve never read anything on an e-reader. I’ve read plenty of non-fiction onscreen, but never fiction. So this was a first. Quite fitting that it was The Humans that smacked the champagne over this virgin voyage! My experience of reading The Humans was not too dissimilar from the Vonnadorian visitor’s experience on earth. I had to relearn how to turn a page. Plenty of mishaps. And I lost my page. Had to flick back to the beginning because my memory of the first event has been mysteriously wiped. Only, this wasn’t paper so it didn’t flick. But, I finished it and I even cried (slightly) once.

 

HUGE SPOILER & THOUGHTS

·        A flow of advice for being human is dispensed throughout. I think live in the present because it’s fleeting  and essential was a strong thread in the novel.
·        Rather than a number (prime or anything else) the alien narrator concludes that love is the basis of being human.

 

Publication details: 9 May 2013, Canongate, Edinburgh, hardback

This copy: digital proof received from the publisher for review

Monkey Wars - M's review

Monkey Wars by Richard Kurti

 

Reviewed by M

Monkey Wars was a refreshing read, quite different to many other novels that I’ve read recently.

At first glance, it is a story about monkey troops in Kolkata, India. When humans feel threatened by the mischievous Rhesus monkeys, they bring in the Langur monkeys to get rid of them. Or so the story goes....From here on, it becomes a territorial war between monkey troops. The story focuses on Mico, a young Langur monkey who is small and thinks a lot about what he sees and thinks is going on. And at some point, he has to decide which side he is on – and there are many sides.

At second glance, Monkey Wars is a fable and explores many questions about power, politics and moral decision-making. But it’s also an urban war story packed full of action, gore, military strategy, loyalties and loves, spying and insurgency.

Being a fable, monkeys and their behavioural characteristics (and ways of marking territory!) are part of the plot but they are also humanised for the sake of storytelling. At times, you recognise it’s a monkey (e.g. defecating to mark territory) but at other times, I easily imagined it was human characters. It took me a couple of chapters to get used to this idea but after that I was really into the story and it was quite page-turning. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself rooting for any particular monkey! Mico was one of my favourites, but also Papina and Hister.

Initially, the timescale of the novel seems to be a matter of days but then I realised that it became months and then most definitely years – at least a lot of monkey years (what’s that in human years?). In this sense, it’s a long story told over much of a lifetime.

The novel is divided into three parts. Part two was my favourite. The ending, for me, was slightly disappointing because it came together a bit too easily. However, it brought most threads together – and there were quite a few. The ending definitely leaves with you with a lot to think about where and how the characters who survive might end up. It might make you think about wars and situations that you know about in real life too.

Monkey Wars re-inspired me.  As much as it is a story about power, politics and war, it is also a story about how we create and use history – or rather, histories. How much of our history do we really know? Which parts have we not been told? Which parts have been colourfully embroidered or dulled? And of course, who did the telling? In Monkey Wars, the narrator is omniscient (third-person and all-knowing). I wonder if this was to give us the sense that the whole truth was being told and not just the truth from Mico or Papina or Tyrell’s point of view (author Richard Kurti tells me his reasons tomorrow)? And of course, was there anything important that the narrator may have left out?

Issues touched upon in the novel include power, politics, tyranny, strategy, genocide, war and refugees. I particularly liked the refugees aspect. I would highly recommend this novel to teens. It would likely appeal to anyone who wants to read about war, action, history, and/or ideas. And maybe monkeys. It is recommended for readers aged 11+ but I would say that younger, confident and mature readers would enjoy this novel too (note, there are some graphically violent scenes).

Monkey Wars made me (as an adult) think about:

• How many times and places this story could be about
• How the lives of animals (or even other groups of people) can go on around us/me and we don’t even notice. Or if we do, we don’t see them as part of a whole intricate life and social network.
• George Orwell’s Animal Farm

Publication details: 2 May 2013, Walker, London, paperback

This copy: uncorrected proof received for review from the publisher

 

****

Watch out for M's interview with Monkey Wars' author, Richard Kurti.

The Fault In Our Stars - M's review

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

John Green has a lot of fans. I’ve never read any of his books. But so many people recommended this book to me. So I checked it out at our local library. They didn’t have it in yet. But then, lovely Zac the children’s librarian from Christchurch, New Zealand sent me a copy.

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

As it turns out, The Fault In Our Stars is an example of the kind of contemporary YA that I love. Basically, it’s a cancer kid story and a love story all in one. Sounds really icky – but it’s not. It is neither sentimentally gushing nor patronising. It’s not overly despairing either and while terminal cancer stories don’t tend to have wholly happy endings, this is a certainly-not-depressing story. It’ll probably make you cry; it’ll also make you laugh and smile.

Green might say that it’s an alternative cancer kid story (because he picks holes in ‘cancer-kid’ as a genre) but I don’t know because I don’t think I’ve ever read a novel about children with cancer. This is probably more a love story than anything else – and it’s a beautiful one (in a good, non-soppy way).

The Fault In Our Stars is about Hazel whose lungs are shot through with terminal cancer. She lugs an oxygen cart around with her so that she can breathe. And then she meets Augustus Waters at the cancer support group. He is gorgeous, one-legged (well, he has two but one is fake) and he is clear of cancer. The story revolves around them, their everyday trials and tribulations that come with living with cancer, wishing and a novel called An Imperial Affliction (which is written by an author who lives in Amsterdam). Hazel, to put it mildly, is totally obsessed by this novel (which in turn holds the threads of her story).

The Fault In Our Stars would probably be enjoyed best by older teens partly because of some romantic situations in the story but mostly because they’re more likely to want to lap up the philosophical questions about love, life and death that this novel raises. Philosophically, it features both Soren Kierkegaard and Disney, and it blows Maslow’s pyramid of needs out of the universe. If you’ve never heard of these, don’t worry. You don’t need a map for this book and you won’t necessarily come out of it a philosophy geek either. This is also definitely a love story for the blokes too.

Green’s writing is very moreish and I’ll certainly be coming back for more.

Publication details:

Penguin, 2012, London, hardback

This copy: ours; received as a gift from Zac the children’s librarian in Christchurch, New Zealand

Review - Muddle and Win: The Battle of Sally Jones

Muddle and Win: The Battle of Sally Jones by John Dickinson

Muddle and Win is a curious book. It’s also good (or maybe bad) fun. And there are muffins.

I’ve never read anything like it before so this is not a comparative review at all because I don’t have anything previous to draw upon. What I do know is it was originally planned as a graphic novel, so there may well be overlaps with that (but I’ve never read a graphic novel either so I don’t know).

Anyway, what hooked me was the first chapter which leads you down a trapdoor in the back of your head taking you into the dark depths of your mind leading all the way down to Pandemonium. And the second thing was the idea of a Lifetime Deeds Counter (LDC): everything you do may be counted as either a good or bad deed. I really wanted to see how this would play out.  I had a feeling it might be fun.

Muddlespot is from Pandemonium – which is…down there (tucked right away in the dark depths of your head)! There’s a castle with a fire and a devil called Corozin.  Ghastly things happen to people who’re dragged there. Muddlespot is chosen as the Mission Alpha agent. Basically he has to go UP THERE (heavens forbid) and take out the biggest threat to Pandemonium.

But there’s a catch: Sally Jones. Fourteen year old Sally Jones is angelic. She truly is Miss Perfect. Everyone, yes everyone, likes Sally Jones.  She’s just so nice and thoughtful to everyone. To help keep it this way, she has a whole army of Guardian Angels protecting her mind whereas most people only have one. They’re protecting her from the devil’s agents – like Muddlespot. And so the battle begins. And, it is an actual battle with weapons and action, WHACKS! and SPLATS, and a whole lot of squelchy, gristly bits!

This is one of those books that takes figurative meaning literally.  And you end up with a whole lot of light-hearted silly good fun. But parallel to this, Muddle and Win also explores concepts of good, evil, truth, and ideas (just some of life’s itsy-bitsy philosophical questions).

At times, I thought the storyline was aimed at 10 years or younger, but the language structure (and maybe some of the ideas) is aimed at an older reader.  There are bits for everyone in there.

And remember….muffins!

Publication details:

David Fickling Books, Oxford, 30 August 2012

This copy: Proof received for review from the publisher