Homer's Travels: Book: Laline Paull's "The Bees"

Friday, January 09, 2015

Book: Laline Paull's "The Bees"

A new year and a new Goodreads reading challenge.  This year I have set twenty-six books as my goal.  The first book, that I stated reading on the first, was Laline Paull's "The Bees".

The book looks at life through the eyes of a bee.  The author follows the life of an odd worker bee who is born larger and more intelligent than her fellow workers.

The story is an interesting look at hierarchical, theocratic, authoritarian, conformist societies.   A society where heredity and mind control are used to keep the the members in line.  In the end the book is an interesting commentary about how religion, government, marketing, and, in a way, technology can be used to quash dissent.

As I read the book it reminded me of "Watership Down", a book I enjoyed in High School.  In fact it reminded me too much of it.  The basic idea of the book felt like a copy.  This and the somewhat predictable ending of the story were the books only faults though.

Despite these flaws, the author has a nice writing style and the words flow smoothly off the pages.  I gave this book three stars on Goodreads.  It was not a great book but it was a good one to start the new year with.

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