Young Adult Book Reading Challenges discussion

What do you think now that you are finished? Do you think this is a YA book? Or more for adults? Spoilers allowed.

It's definitely not written with the YA market in mind but that doesn't mean it's not suitable for YA. It's actually found in the Adult Books section in the public library in my city.

I enjoyed reading it - I think I first started wondering what about what it means to be human when I was in my teens and haven't really stopped thinking about it. This book made it easy to revisit the question.

Somewhere - as the book approached the third break - I started wondering about who or what Anaximander was - and the examiners. I guessed correctly but I certainly wasn't prepared for the ending - the last page.

WOW! This book was great. I think it's perfect for Young Adults to help get them thinking outside the box.

I love the character Anax. She is amazing in that she is thinking about life and how things were created. I think everyone does this from time to time. I like the references in the book to Genesis from the Bible. Going back and even looking at the first chapter in the bible you can see comparisons to the book. It took me a while though to see it. They story of Art and Adam and the saving of Eve. I do wonder what happened to Eve.

I thought Plato’s five great threats to order are Impurity of Breeding, Impurity of Thought, Indulgence of the Individual, Commerce, and The Outsider. This of course reminds me of Hitler's days. I wish we could've known more in the book about the human battles going on with the plague. I guess though in the future of AIs running the world this really doesn't matter anymore.

I am often curious about the boy Anax meets in the waiting room. What became of him? What did he symbolize? We were given his name and everything. He gave her a warning and it's too bad she did not listen to it. Maybe she would've been saved, or had she already gone too far by that point.

Honestly I almost feel like I need to read this book twice now to pick up on all the signs I may have missed the first read through.

Angie wrote: "I am often curious about the boy Anax meets in the waiting room. What became of him? What did he symbolize?"

If he's being examined then his behaviour has also been deemed subversive and he may have met the same fate as Anax.

It seems to me that all the advice Pericles gave to Anax was intended to make here behave in a way that would lead to her condemnation.

I agree with you - need to read the whole book again now that I know the ending.

I also find it interesting the way this book moves through different narratives. First person, third person, and then seeing the story through the hologram. And I think it works.

What do you think of the events that lead up to the creation of the Republic? I find them all too realistic - especially that it might take disastrous dust bowl conditions before people finally accept the threat of global warming.

It seems to me the whole book is a paradox (contradiction, which may or may not be true). Everything, from the title to characters' names.

Genesis - is the beginning, but isn't it really the end? at least for the human race
Anaxamander - "Anax" is Greek for king, mander means wander. Anaxamnader is female, and very coherent
Pericles was a champion of democracy (and died of plague). The "genesis" society is an oligarchy, at best.
Adam and Eve were the original humans, as explained in the bible. In "Genesis", they are the end.
Soc (Socrates) - met Anax during the first break said he was thrown by a question on ethics, which was not his specialty. Yet "ethics" was a major theme to Socrates.
The new society was run by philosophers that looked like orangutans. Orangutans are mostly solitary.
The society believed that power was a virus, yet destroyed those that "might have it" using power.

The list goes on an on. I enjoyed the book, it was unique. Notice that he never discusses "love", which is a major theme in most books.

Mike wrote: "It seems to me the whole book is a paradox (contradiction, which may or may not be true). Everything, from the title to characters' names.

Genesis - is the beginning, but isn't it really the end? ..."

That's really interesting, Mike! I caught some of those ironies, but a lot of what you noticed completely escaped me. About your very last point, when Adam began his tirade of what makes him different from Art and what he saw in Eve that Art lacked, I thought he would mention love or compassion or something of that nature; I thought it was very interesting how the author completely avoided that trope.

Although I saw the end coming (there were quite a few hints, especially if you thought about the types of questions the philosophers were asking), it was still very intense. Once they talked about orangs being unable to escape their nature even if they don't know that they are capable of harm, I just knew that Anaximander would have to be "removed." The end was still remarkably shocking and poignant though. I kept thinking about the orangs and human nature and artificial intelligence for hours after I'd finished.

Kritika,

I know what you mean. I know I've read a good book when I keep thinking about it afterwards.

I posted a note to the author and he responded. His answer was very interesting if you want to check it out.

Mike wrote: "It seems to me the whole book is a paradox (contradiction, which may or may not be true). Everything, from the title to characters' names.

Genesis - is the beginning, but isn't it really the end? ..."
Great post! I never thought about it this way. It is true that everything in this book to me has a hidden meaning. That is why I think you almost have to read this book twice to get the whole feelings of it.

After I finished the book.. my thoughts kept returning to the girl in the boat. What became of her.. where did she come from? I know that her story was not the story of the book but she still seems so important to me.

Also... sometimes I see news reports like this and I think.. would the United States build a wall? This book keeps me thinking!

Russia finds 14 million year old bacteria:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetec...

or will people not responding to antibiotics because we use them too much cause an outbreak??

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03...

Angie, yeah in addition to enjoying a good story, I enjoy the symbolism. It's detective work and a lot of fun. What is cool about this site is you can actually ask the author about your findings!

I don't think this book was meant to be a YA book originally but ended up being marketed that way. Here is a great article from Beckett himself on YA literature. He talks about whether or not it is good literature:

http://writingteennovels.com/tag/new-...

I think that I appeals to both the old and young alike because of the twist at the end it has a planet of the apes feel to it for the adults. the younger generation can appreciate the fact that it is a robotic ape so it also has an irobit feel to it. it is almost a hybrid of the two concepts

I liked this book, but I only gave it three stars. I kind of want to reread it because it wasn't like most books I've read.

I loved this book! It was very engaging and I liked the ending, I didn't see it coming. It was a very original story, and even though it wasn't really meant for young adults, it's good that such interesting and well written work is getting out that way.

Jayd Reads wrote: "I loved this book! It was very engaging and I liked the ending, I didn't see it coming. It was a very original story, and even though it wasn't really meant for young adults, it's good that such in..."

The author stated it was meant for young adults http://www.goodreads.com/group/3551-y.... And I believe that there are many young adults who would appreciate it more than many adults. It's the whole questioning the world thing that young adults do so much better than adults.

Like many, I feel that I need to read the book again to really catch everything. I listened to it and I think that I missed out because of that. I certainly didn't see all of the symbolism. But then again, I read for enjoyment and seeing symbols is not something I enjoy (too much like high school). I appreciate that others have included their thoughts though.

I'm not sure that the title is a paradox exactly. The Book of Genesis in the Bible is also an ending too, the end of paradise (among other things). I'm not a Biblical scholar or anything, but it seems that though the word "genesis" means beginning, the actual book has many beginnings and endings. Besides, it outlines the genesis of the androids, which is the real point of Anax's dissertation anyway.

Like Angie, I am curious as to what happened to Eve. She was probably killed and is not really important to the story because the androids only care about their "genesis", but it would be interesting to see what happened to her.

I also saw the ending coming, but I often look for twists and am seldom surprised by them.

Oh I see! I didn't realise. Well it's certainly different and a lot better than most of the typical young adult books that are seen, in my opinion at least.

Jayd Reads wrote: "Oh I see! I didn't realise. Well it's certainly different and a lot better than most of the typical young adult books that are seen, in my opinion at least."

Totally agreed. It doesn't talk down to the reader either. Gotta appreciate that. :)

I loved this book! It is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in awhile.

I liked the book, but thought there was too much information in it for me to really enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I actually began skimming pages, because I was waiting for something to happen. The ending was really shocking and I did not think that would happen, however it does not distract from the rest of the book which I found to be so-so.

Can you think of any characters from literature that if they sat in the room with Art may have changed the outcome of history? Maybe their personality would've made Art choose differently?

The ending completely surprised me. Loved the book!

Angie wrote: "Can you think of any characters from literature that if they sat in the room with Art may have changed the outcome of history? Maybe their personality would've made Art choose differently?"

I love this question, but I really can't think of someone. Perhaps someone who is really compassionate would make him choose differently. Completely selfless and perhaps very religious, so religious that you couldn't shake their belief.