Quick Book Review: The Lens and the Looker by Lory S. Kaufman

You know I love dystopian/post-apocalyptic books. Well, this is one that I came across a few years ago. It’s a Kindle download which is not such fun to read if you don’t have a Kindle (I don’t like to read whole books on my PC). But now I’ve got a tablet, and it was fine reading it on there.

This was a free Kindle download from Amazon. From an interview with the author on Curling Up By the Fire: “ It’s the story of three spoiled teens from the 24th century who are kidnapped back to 14th century Verona Italy. There they must adapt to the harsh medieval ways or die. The 24th century where these youths come from is an almost perfected society, where there is no pollution, strife, hunger or degradation of human or natures spirits.”

I enjoyed this book a lot. I found fault with it, too, but I found myself wanting to continue reading all the time, which of course is a good sign.

This book is for a younger age group than I thought, I would say 12+ as it definitely felt like a children’s book to me. That was not a problem, but I didn’t feel as engaged with the story as I otherwise might have. The 24th Century world wasn’t detailed enough for me: certain aspects were worked out nicely, such as everyone having an A.I., a kind of floating robot that they were connected to all the time. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of resources spent on History Camps: camps where history was enacted as realistically as possible, with sometimes hundreds of actors playing roles for a much smaller number of children, who had to “learn from the past”, often sent there for punishment.

At first when arriving in History Camp, the three main characters decide to co-operate so they seem compliant, and they plan to later, when the time is right, sabotage their stay in the camp. It was fun to see how the children slowly start to enjoy living in the past, form attachments, and almost forget about their plans to sabotage the setting.

It was also fun to see how the story developed with baddies threatening their quiet existence, and good people who might be a mixed blessing to have around.

This is the first in a 3-part series. What I especially like about the story is the mix of 24th Century and 14th Century story. The second book appears to be mostly about the children continuing their adventure in the 14th Century. I liked the 14th Century story, but not enough to buy the next book. I would love to know what happens when they go back to the 24th Century, though! I guess that will be described in the 3rd book.

Rating: 4

Number of pages: 336

First published: 2011

I got this book: Free download from amazon.com

Genre: science fiction, children’s fiction, Young Adult fiction

Have you read this book?

Did you enjoy it?