1984 paints a future (well alright, past technically) where there is no law, and yet everyone fears to break it. A land so poor, yet constantly boasting it’s over-manufacturing. A world so controlled, that the past literally changes to suit the need of the ruling class. It depicts such a cultural and societal wasteland that nothing else really quite compares.

1984 is terrifying.

Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was alright, everything was alright, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself.

Within this bleak landscape, those with rebellious thoughts walk amongst the privileged, and even find love in the most unlikely of places. Big Brother frowns upon these thoughts and actions and actively works to eliminate all possible threads of rebellion from the populace. The story revolves around Winston Smith, a member of the Outer Party, who still remembers the past. Ironically his job revolves around the elimination, alteration, and utter fabrication of that very concept. Against all odds, Winston finds love in Julia, a model citizen by observation. They hide their affair from all, taking great pains to ensure that their secret remains theirs alone.

But in a world of utter observation and control, can anything really be secret?

First off, I have to give props to Shepard Fairey for designing the cover to my edition of 1984 (as of June of 2008, talk about fresh). It’s a fantastic retro-throwback that uses minimal colours – black, red, and gold – retro font, and a real scrapbook feel that just makes the book that much creepier. I am utterly in love with the design. If I find Animal Farm with the Shepard Fairey design, I’ll have to pick it up too, if only for the cover art. It feels old, even though my copy is brand new.

Second, 1984 blew my mind to little itty-bitty pieces, stomped on them, and then left them out in the elements to rot away. This book is utterly and impressively depressing. It does probably the greatest job of building you up, and then ripping you down and leaving you there, clutching at the tatters of your soul saying “what the hell just happened?” Joss Whedon has absolutely nothing on this story.

What’s truly unnerving about the entire thing is that even though it’s almost 50 years now, and wrote about a future 25 years in the future, 1984 still manages to stay current. Technology is referenced and doesn’t feel dated because the evolution of society stagnated and so technology did not evolve unless expressly focused on by The Party. It’s a future that is bleak and terrifying, and yet still manages to feel that that future is always on the fringe, like humanity is only one wrong decision from going that way. Hidden microphones, Telescreens that constantly broadcast to and monitor the populace, and the dreaded Thought Police, who spirit you away in the night and erase you from history, or return you later on a broken person.

My biggest issue with 1984 is that it is amazingly self-indulgent. If Guitarists can be described as “masturbating with their guitars” on stage, then 1984 was George Orwell’s self-sin masterpiece. There are 30 page stretches of this book without any sort of dialogue, where the Narrator (Winston) basically talks about how he feels and what he thinks has happened to the world. Even the portions of Golstein’s book are incredibly dense. The end result is that there are long stretches of the book that are exceptionally hard to read, and if you don’t focus you can easily find yourself losing your spot very quickly.

The whole book is an obvious stab at the idea of totalitarian regimes. The book ends on a horrifying end, and that only re-enforces the ideal Orwell was trying to impress. There is even a good portion of the book dedicated to the explanation of how to create and maintain just such a society. That shouldn’t be possible, and yet he does it with eloquence and well-explained thoughts.

Everyone should read this book, if only to understand What Eric Blair was trying to get across. It’s poignant, it’s moving, and it’s horrific. Like watching the end of the world in slow-motion.

8.5/10

Mr. Muller, let me show you and endless trail of sunsets. Let me save you.
Excerpt from The Electric Church

Our anti-hero, Avery Cates, is a gunner: a gun for higher, assassin, hit man, or all-around kill-for-cash sort of dude. He’s 27 and doesn’t know how he got as far as he did. He’s hired by the corrupt upper-class to stop an up and coming religion: The Electric Church. Rumors have been spreading that the EC has been forcibly gaining converts, but due to regulations the SSF (The System Pigs, as they are lovingly referred to) can’t legally do anything about it. They call in Cates to try and assassinate the head of the EC.

I found it really difficult to get past some of the dialog in this book. There was simply that much swearing throughout it that I found it hard at times to actually get into specific scenes. I can understand having some, or even moderate amounts of swearing, but when you have at least one a sentence for an entire page, it gets a little old.

Another problem I had was how shallow much of the book really was. There was a lot of depth put into how crummy the world has become, but very little is put into those who exist in it. The population of the slums is described – repeatedly – as “The Gray Masses.” I could deal with that, but even the main characters lacked the depth I usually expect from them. You had a dude with mental powers, a super tech, the anti-hero, the smooth criminal, and the git’r dun twins. Honestly they couldn’t have been much more cookie cutter if they tried. Even the antagonists were straight-forward. Evil bribed cop, sketchy church, The Fuzz, The Sociopath, the list goes on. Everyone was so… typical, that it really got to me. The only character development happened near the end of the book, and it was too little too late for me.

My complaints aside, it was an entertaining read. The internal banter of Averys’ mind put a smirk on my face more often than not. The repeated idea of “of course this is happening, because my day hasn’t hit rock bottom quite yet” is completely at one in The Electric Church. I enjoyed the fact that even as one action scene is toning down, another one is coming around the corner to kick the bejesus out of Avery.

It’s also interesting to read the subtle transformation that Cates has throughout the book, and though I say I saw it coming, it was still well done. I also appreciated that by the end of the book, the only thing driving Cates was spite. It’s not often you read about how the main character is going to finish what they started “just be-fucking-cause.”

If you’re a fan of the Cyberpunk genré and don’t want anything too dark and depressing, this is a pretty good option. It’s not the best example I can think of for Cyberpunk, but it was an enjoyable read. I don’t know if I could do it again simply because of the curse-dense dialog and shallow development of the characters.

6/10