Assignment Week Elven: Soulless by Gail Carriger and The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey (10 points, 5 each)

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Soulless by Gail Carriger is one of the novel I decided to read for this week. Its set in London, England in Victorian times. The world and society however consist of werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and natural humans. The title, Soulless, comes from a character that is a soulless person who can touch a supernatural person and neutralize them. On top of all this steampunk is intertwined in its inventions, society and the world. Both the werewolves and vampires have the market on these inventions. The villains are scientists, led by a powerful man, who hid their devious tricks and horrible experiments in London. This novel was something I enjoyed more than usual. I adore steampunk, however, this combined everything I love to read. Vampires especially, reading how well everything combines into a mystery based novel really entrances the reader.

The themes embracing this novel is love and equality between men and women. Love is a center idea in the book due to the connection between Maccon and Alexia. We are shown with their strong love from Maccon’s ability to stop the attack on Alexia. The book describes him being kept in a cell during the full moon because no one is safe and they even can’t keep furniture in there with him. With this set on his animal tendencies, Love protected Alexia. His love for her was powerful enough to him control over not attacking her. Onto the other theme presents the concept of women are intelligent human being and are equal to men. Not dolls programmed by the people around them to think and feel a certain way. Alexis is also an example of a woman who can think and act for themselves and very intelligently. Because of this she is recognized when she is named to the shadow panel. She shows independence and that she can be of help to her country.

The other novel I decided to read was The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey. This novel shows the cyberpunk elements of this weeks theme. Showing that because of many children being born with severe handicaps due to the toxic environment they are put into machines instead. Their brains worked completely, thus the machines represent a shell to them. One of these kids are placed inside a spaceship, she falls in love with one of the human men who board her. The trauma thus resolved when destiny decides they will be partnered forever. Thus giving a beautiful love story in a world that is very cold and hard. The novel however does hold questions and issues about handicapped children. What is the quality of life? And what is the relationship between the mind and the body? These questions hold a lot of thoughts in my mind while reading. This novel also very much reminds me of Alita and Ghost in the Shell, which have very similar concepts.

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