Feed by M.T. Anderson

Feed is cautionary tale about the excesses of consumerism. It is set in a world where Americans live in idle luxury, w/ their every want easily satisfied by their "feed," an internet connection in their head that suggests to them what they want before they even know it themselves. As a result of American's lavish lifestyles the world, particularly the environment, suffers.

Feed's protagonist is Titus, an American teenager who, while on a trip to go partying on the moon, meets a girl name Violet, who helps him change the way he thinks about his world.

I really liked this book. The message was great, the story well told and the character's were realistic. Titus, Violet, their friends, they are all wonderfully flawed characters. Each one has his or her own short comings, which makes them so real, so easy to relate too. I was always pulling for Titus to make the right choices, but he's limited by his world-view, his upbringing, the culture he was raised in and his decisions through out the book reflect that. You can't expect a person to change over night and you can't expect a society change over night either. Overall an excellent book. Give this one to fans of dystopian science fiction at its finest.

Jennifer Government

OkayI feel like I've been on a real dystopia bender lately, but hey it's my favorite genre and this blog is even called dinosaur dystopia (BTW I'm still searching for a great piece of dystopian dinosaur fiction so if you know of one lemme know), so y'all are gonna have to bear with me.

Jennifer government was awesomely dystopian, but not in the standard dystopian model. Usually dystopias are set in a post-apocalyptic world or they deal with a big brother type government. Jennifer Government does the opposite. The government has next to no power, taxes have been abolished and the police are a private organization. Large corporations hold sway over the world and more or less do as they see fit. In this story Hack Nike (Employees last names are dictated by the company they work for) signs a contract to work with the Nike corporation's guerrilla marketing department, unfortunately he doesn't read the small print and finds out he's just agreed to assassinate 10 people in order to hype the new Nike shoe line.

The book is wild ride thru a future which examines the consequences of consumerism and self-regulation. An exciting read and a great conversation starter. For grades 9+

Saga

Saga is the sequel to Epic and even though it not quite on the same level, it's still freakin' rad! Saga, like Epic, is set in a video game, but this time the setting is cyberpunk instead of fantasy. Erik's character Cinderella is back, but this time she's not the central focus of the book, instead we meet 15 year old Ghost, an anarchist airboarder who lives "off the the grid." Like Epic Saga has a strong dystopian theme, but Saga takes it in a more anarchist direction. Teens who are into anarachy signs and punk rock will relate.

Saga is much grittier than Epic, which some will like, as for me its a great book, but my heart is heart still pines for Epic ;)
For grades

Epic

Wow what a book! Epic combines my two of my favorite genres futuristic dystopia and fantasy adventure. On New Earth everyone's lives revolve around Epic, a fantasy adventure computer game. Success in Epic, results in benefits for yourself, your family, possibly even your whole town. When Erik's mother loses a dispute against Central Authority things start looking grim for his family, they could be relocated to a new area and maybe even be split up. Erik's only hope is Epic, if he plays well enough he could save the whole family.

I started this book at 11 o'clock at night with the intention of reading one chapter and then going to sleep. I read the first chapter, it was good so I read another. The second chapter was even better, I kept going. Three hundred pages later I finally made myself put it down and go to sleep. The next morning I read a little more before. I had intended to bring it to work with me so I could finish it during much lunch break, but alas I forgot it and spent all day thinking speculating about what the last 14 pages contained. I highly recommend this book! It has it all vampires, knights, magic, swashbuckling! For grades 7 and up.