Monday 26 February 2018

Moonrise by Ben Bova - Book Report #220

The thing I like about Bova's books are how the exploration and settlement of space are done by private companies.  Governments are usually a hinderance.

Masterson Aerospace is a conglomerate that builds clipper ships, vessels that can launch from earth to orbit and go beyond to the moon.  They also work on nanotechnology, build wall screens and run a moon base.  All of these things take money to run.  Some parts of the business are more profitable than others and some are hindered by world governments.

The novels centers itself on the precarious existence of Moonbase and its uncertain future.  Should the company close it or double down?  The conflict comes from the cold equations of the P&L sheet and the loftier goal of improving the future for humanity.

There are good guys and bad guys and Bova is not scared to kill anybody.  My only complaint, and this spans most of what I've read of his, is that his bad guys tend to be insane in some way.  I would find it much more compelling if the big drama came from a perfectly sane person working for his own interests.  Instead we get a bad guy with mommy issues who should have been in prison in the first part of the book.  Instead Bova keeps him around in a barely plausible way.

I've said this before; Bova comes from the pulp era of SF and I love that about him, it makes the stories super easy to get into.  But it makes his villains so cartoonish that the tension becomes cliché.

But, did the book do its job?  Was it entertaining?  Did I have a good time?  Did it make me wish for a future with spaceflight being as common as air travel?

Yes on all counts.  Which is why I read Bova.  He can still make you think about a future that should have happened if the Apollo program was not abandoned.

And for that reason, I believe he should be read.

If you find it in a second-hand bookstore, it's worth the five bucks to buy it.

Ben Bova

Wednesday 21 February 2018

All of the People in Your Party Have Died by Robin Wasserman

This story was completely unexpected and touching.

It was much less about a computer game, although there is one, than about trust, and love.

I found myself completely taken by the story and enjoyed it very much.

Robin Wasserman's website - http://www.robinwasserman.com/about/

Robin Wasserman

Monday 19 February 2018

Street Smart by Samuel L. Schwartz - Book Report #219

This is the kind of real-world stuff a enjoy.

City planning, traffic, pedestrian alternatives, mass transportation ...

These are the kinds of things that Samuel Schwartz dealt with as New York city's First Deputy Commissioner and Chief Engineer from 1986-1990.

He even coined the term Gridlock and is also known as Gridlock Sam.

I found his insights in traffic management completely fascinating and found the book compelling.  It made me look at my own city of Edmonton, Alberta with new eyes.

If there is one lesson proven throughout the book it is that traffic need not flow.  PEOPLE need space to walk and experience the environment outside of an automobile.  It is very good for business.

Recommended.


Samuel L Schwartz

Sunday 18 February 2018

Past Blogs - February 18 to February 24


What I Read - 2010
Reviewed in 2011
Reviewed in 2011
Reviewed in 2011
Reviewed in 2011
Reviewed in 2013
Reviewed in 2014
Reviewed in 2015
Reviewed in 2015
Reviewed in 2017

Wednesday 14 February 2018

Roguelike by Marc Laidlaw

What at terrific romp!

We all know what it's like to work through a game hundreds of times to get to the end.  This was exactly that.

Here we read the results of many attempts of a first person shooter to save the emperor.  The game is actually a training simulator.

When the end is reached the reward is not what you'd expect.

Fun.

Marc Laidlaw's website - http://www.marclaidlaw.com/

Marc Laidlaw

Sunday 11 February 2018

Past Blogs - Week of February 11 to February 17

Reviewed in 2017

Reviewed in 2016

Reviewed in 2016

Reviewed in 2015

Reviewed in 2014
Reviewed in 2013

Wednesday 7 February 2018

The Relive Box by T. C. Boyle

Oh, my. What a good story.

Not because it’s uplifting, it dives deeply into obsession and addiction. 

But it goes to illustrate how any kind of  addictive compulsion can destroy lives. 

A single father is trying to cope with his compulsive use of a technology that allows him to access past memories and relive any moment he chooses.  

The danger with the tech is that people can get sucked in to reliving the past to the exclusion of the here and now. 

The father is deplorable in his struggle with the tech. He was completely unlikeable but the story was so well written I could not put it down. 

Terrific, disturbing stuff. 

T.C. Boyle's website - https://www.tcboyle.com/

TC Boyle

Monday 5 February 2018

Our Choice by Al Gore - Book Report #218

Finally.  A climate change book with actual hope for the future.

Don't get me wrong, I was still immensely depressed reading the thing.  But with every bad thing Gore talks about he also shows the way out.  The hardest thing to realise is just how entrenched our way of life is.  How our economy is based on extraction, destruction and pollution.

But it can all be fixed.  My god!  The opportunity to reinvent our way of life is right in front of us.  It is all low-hanging fruit.

The book opened my eyes to the difficulties of making change but I can still exert influence in the consumer choices I make every day.  As an example, if people start buying electric cars, manufacturers will begin to build them.   But what of the electricity from the coal-fired power plants?  Well that's another story altogether isn't it?  Those utilities have influence in the government and their profits are based on a pollution model.  That's where putting a price on pollution (a carbon tax) comes into play.  A big reason we pollute is because it is free to do so.

The amount of jobs we could create, building an economy that is in tune with our environment, is staggering to consider.

This was a wonderful book and I am very glad I had the opportunity to engage with it.

Al Gore's website - https://www.algore.com/

Al Gore

Sunday 4 February 2018

Past Blogs - Week of February 4 to February 10

The trouble with blogs is that older posts get buried as new ones are published.  In an effort to keep the reviews relevant I will dig into the past and provide quick links to those reviews that could be forgotten otherwise.  Just click the book covers to be taken to the reviews.

Reviewed in 2012

Reviewed in 2013
Reviewed in 2014
Reviewed in 2015
Reviewed in 2016