What I am reading

Science Fiction - "Remake"

This was another book by Connie Willis. It is about near future world in which no more movies with live actors are made. All movies are produced digitally and most are simply digital remakes of old films. The main character is a guy who works on custom remakes or some more extensive studio projects - like removing all A.S. (addictive substances) from the movies. This can be difficult at times - just think about removing all cigarettes and alcohol from "Casablanca".

Our hero meets a girl, named Alis, who is obsessed with musicals and dancing. She dreams of dancing in the movies, even though no one makes "live actions" anymore. With a bit of time warping and some computer magic she eventually gets her wish.

There were two things I liked about this book. One was that the author invented a lot of new words for the future world (things like chooch, paste-ups and others) and you had to figure out what they were from the context, like you would if you were transported into that culture. The other thing I like about the book is that I had no idea where it was going. The ending wasn't quite like I expected.

On the other hand the plot was not as engrosing as "The Bellwether" was. I also found it somewhat funny that in this future Hollywood the only movies that were available were ones from 1980s and before. The author did not invent any future movies.

I read this book for our SF discussion group meeting. It was a quick read, although when I skipped few days between chapters I had hard time remembering the jargon from the future.

posted by richieb @ 6:07 PM