Faraday's Orphans [Paperback]

N. Lee Wood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1998

N. Lee Wood won acclaim for her electrifying debut novel, Looking for the Mahdi--a heart-stopping thriller set in a futuristic Middle East. Now she brings us to the barren wasteland of a post-holocaust America, where the few remaining cities survive inside protective domes. When Berk Nielson, a helicoptor pilot, becomes stranded on the Outside, he finds himself at the mercy of the burning sun and dangerous clans. What he doesn't expect to encounter is a companion--a wild young girl who calls herself Saydonya--and the freedom he never realized he desired...

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In post-holocaust America 2242, domes protect the remaining cities and control their residents. While flying one of his helicopter recon missions outside the Pittsburgh dome, Berk Nielsen is stranded among the clannish survivors in Philadelphia. He meets Sadonya, a young girl, who shows him the freedom he never knew he craved. Wood's (Looking for the Mahdi, Ace, 1997) second novel examines the illusion of freedom in a controlling society. Recommended for sf collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

It is 2242, and a domed city in Ohio carries on civilization after the Shift, a time in the murky past when changes in the magnetism of the poles caused the earth to warm. Berk Nielsen, a pilot, makes mail runs to the city's outposts, but wants to go adventuring in the desert to the east. He ventures as far as the ruins of Philadelphia, where gangs of urchins, not much removed from the rats they feed on, destroy his helicopter and beat him brutally. A girl urchin and primitive apothecary, Sadonya, rescues him, and together they make the parched trek over the "Alleys" into Ohio, encountering the savage, devolved Rangers as well as a group of gentle nomads descended from Mennonites. But now Berk finds life under the dome too regimented, and strikes westward with Sadonya in a stolen plane to begin a new life. A grim but endlessly imaginative look at the future, not least because of the simple, brutal, yet poetic language Wood has invented for her future Philadelphians. John Mort --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Ace; 1St Edition edition (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441005888
• ISBN-13: 978-0441005888
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,876,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not for everyone but interesting, June 13, 2000

By 

Mfitz... "Mfitz..." (Cincinnati, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Faraday's Orphans (Ace Science Fiction) (Paperback)

I loved Wood's previous book so I was excited to read another of her novels. "Faraday's Orphans" is as different from "Looking for the Mandi" as night is from day. I don't mean it is not a good book, but it is a harsher and less comfortable book.

It is hard to really like either of the two central characters. Berk Nielsen is self centered and immature,despite having been raised with the world at his feet. Sadonya is self centerd and immature, but she is 13 and has raised her self in the middle of a constant gang war. These two do not even like each other. The only thing that unites them when they are forced together is the feeling that they deserve better, and the sheer willpower to rip life out of the tangled hell of a post apocolyptic future.

The main narritive of this book deals with helecopter pilot Berk's quest to find himself, or to at least make a name for him self, so he can keep flying and not get a "real" job. Berk's life is set against a really well visualized post-ecocolapse east cost. Wood creatively blends some standards from the 'end of the world' genera and tells a good story. You like, and even feel sorry for, Berk at the beginging of the book. As the story progressed be become less and less likeable, when forced to survive in the wilds he can, but he looses his a little bet of his soul to do it. He realizes this, and does not seem to care. Contrasted to "The Brethern" who live in the harshed part of the outside and yet are humanity at it's best he looks especially bad.

This book does not have the romace subtext that helped make "Looking for the Mandi" so fun. It could have used something like that to soften and humanise its characters. It also has an unexpectedly bleek ending, but that may be part of the point of the book.

As a Queen City native I was happy to see that for once our city fathers planned ahead. In this book Cicninnati survives the end of life as we know it

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Faraday's Orphans, May 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Faraday's Orphans (Ace Science Fiction) (Paperback)

This novel incorporates one of the coolest postapocalyptic settings I've seen. The apocalypse event is different and fascinating, and the environment and society in aftermath are believable. There's also a really cool mutation, though it doesn't get used nearly enough in the plot.

As well, the novel is character-driven and includes some nice, dark bits of characterization. Sadonya is one of the ugliest, most repulsive, most vividly written savages one could hope to see, and Berk's psychological twists are well done.

So it was a huge disappointment to get to the end and find this was basically a libertarian political screed. Berk makes the choice not to help his society, not to do the hard work and pay his dues. Instead, he sets off on his own, with the disgusting Sadonya, probably to die, but hey, to die free! It's poisonous ideological nonsense, and the author offers no criticism of Berk's selfishness. In fact, the character, Cormack, whose more cooperative ideas seem reasonable and helpful to their beleaguered society, is presented negatively throughout.

The good qualities of this novel, which also include occasional lovely sentence-level writing, couldn't outweigh its immature philosophy for me.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A character study of a young pilot in a futuristic society., August 19, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Faraday's Orphans (Paperback)

After the compelling characters and vulnerable men in "Looking For The Mahdi," I wasn't surprised to find both present in "Faraday's Orphans." I'm always searching for character-directed science fiction, and N. Lee Wood is a real find, but she seems to lose control of her plots toward the ends of her novels. In the two I've read, the action gets loose after a certain point in the final quarter. I found the plot logical until the ending, which seemed less thought out. The setting is extraordinarily vivid considering I don't remember vast chunks of description. And although the bare bones of the plot make it sound like Mad Max, the little reminders that this blighted landscape is unnatural, is the destruction of a fertile river valley, keep its setting unique. As a Philadelpian, I'm amused to see the city in a novel. It's rare to see my hometown in a book or movie and I'm just tickled to see that, as usual, Philly is portrayed as a post-apocalyptic hellhole.