Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Better known for his Booker Prize winning The Remains of the Day,book Never Let Me Go, written in 2005, was shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize, for the 2006 Arthur C. Clarke Award and for the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award. Time magazine named it the best novel of 2005 and included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. It also received an ALA Alex Award in 2006. A film adaptation directed by Mark Romanek was released in 2010.
I was discussing sci-fi movies with my-in-law Jill in late Sept 2015 (I think we were discussing The Island) and she recommended that I should read Never Let Me Go as it was very similar in theme. I subsequently found out that my niece Sue had also read it and also thought it was great. So I downloaded an ebook version and eventually it bubbled to the top and I read it.
I recommend you read this particular book cold without reading reviews or seeing the film - I am sure a lot of the interest would be taken away if you knew the ending. You would loose the joy (if such a thing can be said about this rather depressing view of the future) of seeing the story unfold. But it's not purely sci-fi as it has a strong social thread running through it and it could just as easily be described as literary fiction.
It does raise the question - why don't the protagonists just try to run for it and start a new life. Is their place in society so ingrained in them that they cannot break free. That to me is the only unsatisfactory piece - this should at least have been explored.
But to say any more would spoil the book for you.
Better known for his Booker Prize winning The Remains of the Day,book Never Let Me Go, written in 2005, was shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize, for the 2006 Arthur C. Clarke Award and for the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award. Time magazine named it the best novel of 2005 and included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. It also received an ALA Alex Award in 2006. A film adaptation directed by Mark Romanek was released in 2010.
I was discussing sci-fi movies with my-in-law Jill in late Sept 2015 (I think we were discussing The Island) and she recommended that I should read Never Let Me Go as it was very similar in theme. I subsequently found out that my niece Sue had also read it and also thought it was great. So I downloaded an ebook version and eventually it bubbled to the top and I read it.
I recommend you read this particular book cold without reading reviews or seeing the film - I am sure a lot of the interest would be taken away if you knew the ending. You would loose the joy (if such a thing can be said about this rather depressing view of the future) of seeing the story unfold. But it's not purely sci-fi as it has a strong social thread running through it and it could just as easily be described as literary fiction.
It does raise the question - why don't the protagonists just try to run for it and start a new life. Is their place in society so ingrained in them that they cannot break free. That to me is the only unsatisfactory piece - this should at least have been explored.
But to say any more would spoil the book for you.
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