Help me identify this sci-fi book please!

March 1, 2007 10:24 PM

Many years ago I read this really good sci-fi futuristic book (at least when I was little I thought it was really good). I would really like to find it and read it again. Please help!

First question here! I searched the book and the sci-fi tags and did not find that anybody had asked about this book before.

From what I remember of the story line, it is some sort of world or colony, and everyone is the same, they all look the same, (I also seem to remember that they all had blue eyes and blond hair, but that might have been completely unrelated and something I read somewhere else). They all do the same things, all besides this young boy and this old man, who go against the status quo. In this “world” you are not allowed to have any birth defects, or be old. If you are old they say they will send you on some sort of better place created for your high level of enjoyment, but in reality, they kill you. I also think that they will kill you if you don’t conform to the norm. (I don’t remember how you get killed; something about a blue pill sounds vaguely familiar). Anyways, the young boy gets secret lessons from the old man and decides to break free of the oppression and takes another kid with him (I don’t remember if the kid was a sibling, but I do remember that the other kid is significantly younger). They escape detection because the old man taught the boy the ability to regulate his body temperature, and he regulates it so low that the machines can’t detect between him and the snow (he blankets the other kid with his body). Somewhere towards the end of the book, they crest a hill and see a farm. I think the book ended here, or at least that is the last scene of the book that I remember.

Thank you for your help!

posted by Jenny is Crafty to media & arts (9 comments total)

Is it The Giver?
posted by cschneid at 10:27 PM on March 1, 2007

Well, probably not, but the whole sending old people out to die, and everybody similar, and teaching lessons and such, sounds like The Giver to me...
posted by cschneid at 10:28 PM on March 1, 2007

Wow, this sounds an awful lot like the Logan's Run premise, though I'm sure it's something else.
posted by zek at 10:40 PM on March 1, 2007

Definitely sounds like The Giver, by Lois Lowry
posted by estherbester at 10:46 PM on March 1, 2007

I am reading the synopsis on wikipedia, I think The Giver is the right answer. I dont think Logan's Run is the right answer, but I looked it up anyways and I think I will have to get that book as well! I was actually reading Logan's run which made me think of this book (I guess I should have posted that!)

Thanks for helping me out! This has been bugging me for such a long time! Good thing there is a big new book store in town (Powells), I am going to go pick up The Giver tomorrow.
posted by Jenny is Crafty at 10:46 PM on March 1, 2007

I was actually THINKING of (not reading) Logan's run which made me think of this book. I have not read it and plan on picking that up tomorrow as well.
posted by Jenny is Crafty at 10:49 PM on March 1, 2007

It is absolutely The Giver. There is no doubt in my mind. And it is probably as good as you remember it being.
posted by crinklebat at 11:06 PM on March 1, 2007

If you enjoyed The Giver you might also enjoy its sort-of-sequel Gathering Blue.
posted by heresiarch at 6:45 AM on March 2, 2007

Good thing I just got my tax return, I think the book store is going to be giving alot of business to me today! Thank's everybody for your suggestions! Gathering Blue looks fantastic as well!
posted by Jenny is Crafty at 8:58 AM on March 2, 2007