false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223649492m/16719.jpg 16719 6 Science-fiction writers attempting coming-of-age stories have seldom risked showing the stew of loneliness, anger, and angst that really characterizes adolescence. Jonathan Lethem, on the other hand, avoids the plucky sidekick syndrome and instead gives us breathtakingly realistic Pella Marsh, a girl at that awful and wonderful crux in her life just before people start calling her "woman." Her broken family has just moved to a newly settled planet, with strange and passive natives and the decaying remnants of a great civilization. Something in the alien environment soon enables Pella to telepathically travel, hidden in the bodies of inconspicuous "household deer," into the homes of her fellow settlers. She inevitably discovers the seamy side of humanity--loss of innocence eloquently portrayed. Don't read this book on a dark day, as there's not very much sunshine in here. The entire planet is covered with ruins: ruined towns, ruined hopes and dreams, ruined families. For a rare dose of SF realism, this is a fantastic read, full of raw (but not explicit) sexuality and the unhappy hierarchies of childhood. Forget about cheerful settlers moving in next door to helpful indigenous life forms. This is what the planetary frontiers will be. No matter how far away from Earth we may travel, we'll still be the same dirty, disappointing, beautiful monsters. 587400 1998 Girl in Landscape: A Novel total:718|5:113|4:267|3:265|2:65|1:8| 718 2566 970 75 4 2 false false Wed Feb 06 19:44:26 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 24 19:53:11 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Jun 21 12:47:16 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 21 12:49:05 -0700 2007 the perspective from the preteen girl is, as far as i can tell, totally infallible. i buy it completely in the sense that i never feel like it's a guy writing how he THINKS she would feel.
on top of that we have classic western set in sci fi futu...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Oct 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Nov 02 15:41:26 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 02 15:56:30 -0800 2009
The planet is populated by small groups of human settlers, and one human city, as well as by its original occupants the Arch-Builders a...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri May 22 05:31:21 -0700 2009 Fri May 22 05:31:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Aug 28 22:34:22 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 28 22:39:26 -0700 2008 Turns out, a family on the moon with deermice & furry (furbyish?) aliens. Enjoyed the story ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Aug 05 14:29:48 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 14:34:04 -0700 2008 5 1 false false Thu Jun 19 05:01:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 19 05:09:48 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Wed Jan 14 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 29 07:59:27 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 14 21:26:53 -0800 2009
So, the back of this book gives a bizarro summary and compares the book to Lolita. Which....ok, there are elements of that book, perhaps. But, dudes, this book is set in some future world, where the sun burn...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu May 01 23:13:57 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 01 19:54:14 -0700 2008
I liked this one, but it's not one of my favorite scifi novels. The allusions to John Ford's The Searchers are pretty interesting. Good characters, very involving narrative, and a better-than-average scifi mise en scene....more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jun 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 11 07:41:47 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 02 11:25:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Sep 02 16:55:48 -0700 2007 Sat Jan 12 00:30:40 -0800 2008 - Ending a little rushed

This is the third novel I’ve read by Lethem, and I may have to read them all. In this genre (he writes in several), Lethem creates what I’d call literary science fiction. Here (and in Amnesia Moon...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Feb 09 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 23:10:26 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 23:14:29 -0800 2009 Motherless Brooklyn and As She Crawled Across The Table are both two of my favorite contemporary novels, and this is amazingly close to them. A tale of coming of age, a space western sci-fi thriller, this tale haunts one for days after finishing its last page...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Mar 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 14:53:58 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 11:57:20 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Dec 31 05:37:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 31 05:39:11 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 22 12:59:02 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 13:00:55 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1998 Wed Feb 04 22:41:07 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 22:46:22 -0800 2009
]]> 2 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 24 00:22:13 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 24 00:24:24 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Mar 06 23:42:50 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 06 23:46:10 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Thu Oct 22 08:23:17 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 08:25:10 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Jan 09 12:19:59 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 09 12:21:23 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=16719