Leviathans of Jupiter by Ben Bova - Book Report #266

I always intend to start Bova's Grand Tour from the beginning but have yet to accomplish it.

According to Bova, every book in the series is a stand-alone in its own right.  However, part of the payoff from reading a series is the recurring characters and a sense of understanding of how the world works.

What keeps bringing me back to his work is how plausible his vision of the future is.  Since there is no FTL technology, his stories show just how enormous the Sol system is.

The only complaint I have is something I've found in all the books; his antagonist is always a mustache-twisting egotist who suffers from some kind of mental break.  Oh, and the women.  Yikes!  Why does the author feel that every female must fall in love with one of his male characters?

Okay, that's the complaining.  As a science fiction adventure, it's a pretty darn good read.  It centers around a research station orbiting Jupiter.  Below the clouds, there is an ocean thousands of kilometres deep where life exists.

Robotic probes and lives have been lost in trying to learn about the leviathans that inhabit this strange place.  But now, after a secret project to build a better human-rated ship is completed, the station manager must work against time and his superior to launch the mission before he is ordered to stop.

It is a rather unlikely crew that makes the dangerous trip but that doesn't matter as I was treated to a terrific yarn below the clouds.

After reading the book I still want to experience the series from the beginning.

Ben Bova's website - http://benbova.com/

Ben Bova

Curing Affluenza by Richard Denniss - Book Review #265

Like Enough is Enough this book takes a look at our current capitalist system and suggests changes to allow humanity to live in harmony with the Earth's ecosystem.

In both books, it is stressed that it is the ecosystem that has allowed us to create our current economic system.  One of the ideas that really gave me pause was money; it was invented by humans and has no relationship to the environment, it only has value because we've all agreed to it.  If we continue to destroy resources in pursuit of money there will be consequences.  But we already know that.

Curing Affluenza takes a closer look at needed changes to our current capitalist system and points to the benefit of the service industries, how government services are not as bad as the press and private industry claim and how the pursuit of more stuff is part of the problem.

Dennis claims that we must change how we identify ourselves from "consumers" to "citizens" that are part of a larger whole.

Changes are needed and coming but it doesn't mean it's the end of the world.  It has happened many times before, think of how society radically changed after WWII.  The only lingering worry is whether we've done too much damage to our planet already.

I highly recommend this book.

Richard Denniss

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Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells - Book Review #264

Third in the Murderbot series.

Honestly, I found this book incredibly dull. I had put it down for over a week then, after picking it up again, nearly gave up on it.

All the charm of the previous book was gone and I was left with too many fighting action scenes which felt like they were only there to increase the word count.

I even forgot what the Murderbot was doing.  When the plot finally showed itself again it was in the dénouement and I was thankful for it.

Martha Wells

Enough is Enough by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill - Book Review #263

Doesn't it seem like the world is broken?  Climate Change and the growing gap between the rich and the poor are symptoms of capitalism reaching its limit.

There are some fundamental shortcomings in the GDP formula and the pursuit of profit above all else.

In this book, Dietz & O'Neill take a 10,000 ft look at our economic systems and offer adjustments that could make powerful changes in the way we work, measure prosperity and co-exist with the environment.

Some of their ideas seemed nearly impossible to contemplate to me.  But it is a powerful read that made me see the world in a differently.

The book pointed me to two very interesting organizations that trying to find a way for people and the environment to exist in harmony.

Take a look at the Post Carbon Institue and the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.

Rob Dietz is also a host of the Crazy Town podcast.

I recommend the book if you are convinced that the problems of the world stem from how our economies work.

Rob Dietz

Dan O'Neill

Reading Break Over

In the month of April, I took a break from reading books and blogging.

I still read like crazy but I concentrated on long-form journalism which was rewarding in its own way but I found my reading became more frenzied as I chased links to articles and found myself skimming more than reading.

I suffer from the fear of missing out on things, which is why I have so many unread books in my house.  The internet only aggravated this in me.  So I am back to reading books and will return to a steady pace of posting to this blog.

I try to post book reviews on Mondays, Graphic Novels on Saturdays and short stories on the other days.