Novel Realities Book Discussion October 14 at Sharon Forks Library: Hum by Helen Phillips

 

Hum by Helen Phillips

What role do humans play in a world where artificial intelligence has replaced most of the workforce?

Technological advancements don't seem to have improved daily living for the characters in Helen Phillips’ slightly futuristic novel Hum. 

Air quality forces families indoors where children watch videos of animals they will only ever encounter at pop-up zoos with conditions so abysmal they scare the visitors. Constant video surveillance produces targeted advertisements and androids called hums replace human workers while families struggle to pay for basic necessities. 

Hum centers around May, a mother of two who loses her job to artificial intelligence and undergoes an experimental procedure that distorts her features to evade facial recognition software in order to pay for her family's living expenses.  

Feeling friendless and disconnected from her husband, worried about finances and her children's increasing tech-dominated isolation, May spends part of her earnings treating her family to a visit to the luxurious Botanical Garden where they can reconnect and experience a convincing approximation of the natural world. 

The garden’s lush environment offers a refreshing change of pace until the children wander off, setting into motion a chain of events that threatens the whole family.

I've been a fan of Helen Phillips' unique human-centered science fiction since reading her 2015 novel The Beautiful Bureaucrat which was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. 

In Phillips' suspenseful and mind-bending 2019 novel The Need, a woman is confronted by an alternative version of herself. The Need was named a New York Times Notable Book and longlisted for the National Book Award.

FCPL’s Novel Realities book club will discuss Hum on Tuesday, October 14 at 7 p.m. at the Sharon Forks Library and newcomers are always welcome. If you enjoy speculative fiction and are looking a unique book club, please take a look at our upcoming Novel Realities book selections and make plans to attend one of our upcoming discussions.  

Alicia Cavitt

Information Specialist

Image by wweagle from Getty Images Signature via Canva

Staff Picks Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart

 Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart

One of my favorite recent reads describes a modern dystopia through the eyes of a young girl of Jewish and Korean descent. 

Intelligent and curious, ten-year-old Vera Bradford-Shmulkin’s observations about her father and stepmother raise concerns about her own family's stability and the state of the America in a post-democratic world. Struggling to form lasting friendships while striving for academic success, Vera questions what she's been told about her absent birth mother and forms a plan to locate her. 

Vera, or Faith is witty, insightful and equal parts charming and terrifying in its vision of a radically altered United States. 

Staff Picks: Trashlands by Alison Stine

 

Trashlands by Alison Stine

Alison Stine’s dystopian novel Trashlands envisions a world where environmental catastrophes have radically altered the American landscape and human civilization. The story takes place in Scrappalachia, a wasteland of broken vehicles, contaminated rivers, and extreme poverty where nonbiodegradable plastic is the only material of value. In Scrappalachia, people find shelter wherever they can, usually in abandoned vehicles or makeshift shelters.  A man as cruel as his name, Rattlesnake Master, runs a club called Trashlands, where women are forced to entertain in exchange for room and board.

Necessities like eyeglasses and expired medicines are traded for things like milk jugs, pool noodles, water bottles, and credit cards. Children are often abducted and housed in prison factories that make structural materials for building new cities far to the north. 

Despite the grim setting, survivors band together, form friendships, marry, and raise children. Some create art and strive to memorialize their world. Others teach the next generation about their lost heritage.   

Staff Picks Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep/Blade Runner by Philip K. Dick

Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) by Philip K. Dick

Did you know that the science fiction film Blade Runner is based on a novel written in 1968 by Philip K. Dick called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

The story of bounty hunter Rick Deckard tracking androids who appear to be human through post-apocalyptic San Francisco is only part of the story. The novel portrays a society where emotions are controlled remotely, endangered animals are purchased and traded as status symbols, and a charismatic media star engages in a ratings war with a Messianic figure. On the personal side, Deckard’s wife resents his career, he finds himself empathizing with--and physically attracted to--one of his targets and he's accused of being an android himself.

Fans of mind-bending fiction will enjoy this story and fans of the film will discover many new aspects of the tale. The eBook is available through Overdrive and an audio version of Blade Runner is available on RB Digital. The Libby App makes it easy to download free digital content from FCPL's eLibray so you can always enjoy reading great books.

Alicia Cavitt
Information Specialist
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