The Road by Cormac McCarthy - Book Review #329

 

What a read!

The post-apocalyptic story is one we are all familiar with.  Some catastrophe has fallen upon humanity, be it environmental, plague, or war, and we follow a story of survival.

A father and son are walking from the north, most likely the eastern seaboard of America, to the south.  The father wants to escape the winter and to presumably find a better life for his son. 

The world McCarthy created felt a bit further on in this genre, I thought of it as a post-post-apocalypse.  

It is a story of survival, against nature and people.  Dedication.  And determination.

When it looked like the story was going to devolve into a Mad Max kind of thing, it didn't.  I found this refreshing.

I tore through the book and very nearly read it in one sitting.

Doc Savage: Fortress of Solitude by Lester Dent writing as Kenneth Robeson - Book Review #324

Back in 2006, a publisher called Nostalgia Ventures, Inc., created beautiful reproductions of the old pulp era adventures of Doc Savage.

Doc was the original template of our "modern" heroes Batman and Superman.  Indiana Jones is very much in keeping with Doc Savage.

I purchased lots of the magazines for a few years then drifted off.  I blew the dust off the books recently and picked up issue #1 which contains two "complete book-length novels," Fortress of Solitude and The Devil Genghis.

It was an interesting place to start a new publication of reprints.  I would have expected Will Murray, the consulting editor of the series, to start at the beginning.  Instead he chose these two stories, #68 and #70, when the series was well established.

John Sunlight, the antagonist of the books, marked a departure in the series.  It was the first time Doc suffered the bad guy to get away.

In Fortress of Solitude, John Sunlight stumbles upon Doc's secret hideaway.  Once he makes his way inside, he takes advantage of all the technology within for his own purposes. 

Up to this point the Fortress has not been revealed to the readers, only that Doc occasionally went there to think, learn, and train. 

The beauty of the Doc Savage books is that you need not read them in order.  Each story is self contained and the Doc Savage universe is explained in each installment with the first time reader in mind. 

That is, except for these two.

Biding Time by Robert J Sawyer

I was happy to return to New Klondike on Mars with PI Alex Lomax and to discover how much of a badass he was.

He has a new case, tracking down the killer of a recent Transfer, which leads him to an impounded ship.

When Lomax was gathering evidence in the shipyards, I was thinking how much I'd love to read more stories around ships, smugglers and underhanded plans.

Then I remembered I had purchased Sawyer's 2013 novel Red Planet Blues!  I ran to my basement bookshelf, blew the dust off the paperback and now it is on my TBR shelf.  Yes!  More Lomax goodness.

This story made for a nice bookending of the collection, even though it was the penultimate story, it was a very satisfying way to sequence the stories.

I have thoroughly enjoyed myself reading this anthology.

Get your hands on it, it is well worth the effort to find.

Originally published here.

Flashes by Robert J Sawyer

Oh my!  I was struck by this one.

Good science fiction tries to tackle the big What If? questions.  And this one certainly did.

What if there is intelligent life "out there?"  What if they contact us?  What if they share everything they know with us?

There are many times in life where I wish somebody would just give us the answer to cancer or cold fusion so we can get on with our lives.

But for everything there is a cost or a consequence and here Sawyer explores some of the negatives of reading the Encyclopedia Galactica.

Chilling and yet, thank goodness, Sawyer still managed to add his indelible optimism into a short sentence.  Or maybe that was me.  Maybe I was simply projecting some hope into the story.

In any case it was a good read and allowed me to consider the ramifications of knowledge gained without earning it.

Ocean by Warren Ellis - A Graphic Novel

This is the kind of Science Fiction I crave.

A straight-ahead mystery in a far off world.  Jupiter's moon Europa, in this case.

Something is lurking in the depths, under the ice, and it's not nice.

But then there are people and corporations who are also not nice, that want to exploit the discovery.

Enter Inspector Nathan Kane of the United Nations who is sent to investigate and prevent any profiteering of the discovery.

Things get dangerous and deadly very fast but then the story settles into a threat of violence rather than an all out gunplay.  It's teamwork and intelligence that drives the adventure to its wild end.  The majority of characters that moved the plot forward were women, which I found very refreshing.  Not one damsel in distress among them, these gals were in charge of their roles.

I liked the story very much, which was enhanced by the rich, clean art.  Chris Sprouse gave the story the immense scale the setting needed.  The spotless order of the interiors gave it that old-style, shiny Science Fiction feel that has been gone since Star Wars came along and made things gritty.  It was a nice change.

It is rare to find science fiction that does not rely on some kind of techno-magic or alien monster to drive a story.  The trick is to make the setting interesting and fill it with people we recognize.  Technology should be advanced but it doesn't need to bee too far out.  Guns shooting bullets on a space station is a recipe for disaster, but if you change the slugs to acid capsules that only burn organic matter, that's an advancement we can relate to.

If you can get your hands on a copy of this, you will be happy with the work.

Art by Chris Sprouse

The Penguin History of Canada by Robert Bothwell - Book Report #211

The history of Canada?

What?

All of it?

Yes.  A book like this needs to be looked at as a table of content.  By reading through it you can be pointed to further exploration.

There are periods in our history that capture my imagination more than others.  Through reading this book I have a better understanding of how events fit into our current time.  It also gives me a better insight into what to look for when I am trying to find other books that explore specific events in more detail.

I took a long time to get through the book.  I put it down for months at time but once I got into the last 150 years, my interest solidified and I gave the book the attention it needed.

To think that a nearly 600 page book as a good start, an index, a table of content can be a bit daunting.  But now I feel that I have done the hard part and I can dive into the subjects that stand out to me.

Great fun awaits.

Recommended.

Robert Bothwell - http://www.history.utoronto.ca/robert-bothwell

Robert Bothwell

Someone Is Stealing The Great Throne Rooms Of The Galaxy by Harry Turtledove

This story was as cute as the hamster protagonist of it.

That's right - I said hamster.

It was delightful, irreverent and fun. 

The space cadet hamster is tasked to investigate the thefts. 

Lots of puns and playing with the tropes of the omniscient narrator. 

A joy.

Harry Turtledove's website - https://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/turtledove.html

Harry Turtledove

The Laws of Lifetime Growth by Dan Sullivan - Book Report #173

I needed a break from the depressing world of geopolitics and warfare.  I needed to hear about being able to take control and improve my own little world.

Years ago I went through a self-help phase and found the subject to be interesting and helpful but it can get to be a bit preachy.

I came to Dan Sullivan through Peter Diamandis and their Exponential Wisdom podcast.

If you listen to the podcast you will hear Dan's laws echoed there.

Basically Dan expands on 10 rules that help to align your attitude to expose yourself to growth.

1- Make your future bigger than you past - Dream baby!  Where do you want to go?

2- Make your learning greater than your experience - You need to feel out of your depth.  Learn.

3- Make your contribution greater than your reward - Give away your ideas without the expectation of reward, or money, or recognition.

4- Make your performance greater than your applause - If you get recognition, great!  It's a byproduct of what you do.  Don't do something just for the recognition.  You will stagnate.

5- Make your gratitude greater than your success - You got to where you are from the help and work of others.  Never forget that.  Thank them.

6- Make your enjoyment greater than your effort - This is hard.  Everybody says "Do what you love."  Not easy to do that but always try to get to that state.

7- Make your co-operation greater than your status - Related to #5 help others as others have helped you.  Don't try to steal credit.  Be about the project.

8- Make your confidence greater than your comfort -  Related to #2.  If you feel like you can handle anything that comes to you, you are not being challenged and not growing.

9- Make your purpose greater than your money - Related to #6 don't just work for money.  If you won't do something because you're not being paid enough or at all, then your focus is not on the purpose.

10- Make your questions greater than your answers - If your question leads to an answer in one or two steps you are not asking big enough questions.  Your questions should lead to more questions.

That last one is a bit fuzzy but basically it's designed to get you to keep learning.

If you keep learning you keep growing.  If you keep growing you keep living.  If your lucky, the person most surprised about your death will be you.

Is that dark?  It wasn't meant to be.

Jamie Oliver, The Kitchen Crusader, Unauthorised Biography by Gilly Smith - Book Report #147

At first I was a bit wary of this book.  It was the word "unauthorised" that raised a warning flag.  To me, it sounded like a volume that would do nothing but tear the guy apart, otherwise why wouldn't it be authorized?  

What I found was a well researched story of his early life, culled from many print and TV interviews.  I found it was actually quite balanced in portraying the man.

I must confess that I am a giant fan of Mr. Oliver. He has changed everything about how I cook and how I purchase food. So I really wanted to just like the guy.  I really didn't want to find out that he was some kind of jerk you'd never want to be in the same room with.  According to Smith, Oliver is pretty much what you see on TV.  

The dark side that is Jamie Oliver, like many rebels (think Jobs or Musk), is that he can be single-minded in his pursuits.  This can lead to stresses in his marriage and create friction with the institutions he has targeted.  This guy has the ability of Thor and can come in with a great big hammer and smash things up.  But it is his passion that ultimately comes through and even though he may have upset people along the way, most concede that he is doing good things and is working form a noble place.

Much of the book dug deeply into his movement to improve food quality in the UK's schools and how it has impacted other movements, such as Slow Food and the local/organic trends in food culture.

It sure made me think more deeply about my own food hang-ups and gave me some positive energy to continue on the path of consuming better quality ingredients.  The local/organic thing is much more than eating healthier but there is also a very real economic impact that results from the purchases we make.  This should also be considered when deciding to buy local or not.

I would recommend this book as it will get you thinking about food culture, agriculture, pesticides and making informed choices.

The author's web page is:   http://gillysmith.com/

Gilly Smith

* * *

I found this at a lovely used book store on Whyte Ave, uninspiringly called The Edmonton Book Store, but don't let that discourage you.  I have never seen such an outstanding collection of non-fiction in one place, plus, the basement is a literal treasure trove of western Canadian history.  I must go back soon.  They are located at 10533 82 Ave.

Visit the website at -  http://www.edmontonbookstore.com/

* * *

I will be donating this book to my library in the hopes that somebody else can get behind the notion of paying attention to what we eat.

Book Report #125 - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Book 49 of 52
Page count 550

I have no idea how to do justice to such a lyrical, beautiful, desperate, tragic and important work.

Zusak's use of language is a thing of beauty.  The narrator was unique and I thoroughly enjoyed the style of story telling.

We follow the life, triumphs and tragedies of Liesel Meminger a young German girl caught in the circumstances of the Second World War.


I believe this novel will stay with me for weeks before I can shake the effects of it.  As sad as it was I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to read it.

Highly recommended.  Not for the faint of heart.

He does not have a dedicated website.  His Wikipedia page is HERE.

Markus Zusak

Book Review #111 - Ocean Titans by Daniel Sekulich

Book 35 of 52

Page count - 242

This book was published in 2006 and looks at modern commercial shipping.  The twist here is in the sub title; Journeys In Search Of The Soul Of A Ship.  Most times a ship is humanized first by giving it a name and then by referring to it as "she."  Emotional connections are often formed with vehicles, from bicycles to cars, planes and ships, even spacecrafts; they take us from one place and, hopefully, safely deliver is to another.

Sekulich begins his journey where it all ends; the ship-breaking yards of Alang, India, where we find him searching for clues about the last crew of the tanker SS Sag River.  He wanders the vessel looking through the various areas finding small, personal items left aboard by its last inhabitants.  It's really is quite a sad scene but from it we are shown the wonderful and largely invisible world of commercial shipping.

Just about everything we own has spent some time aboard a ship, transported from a factory to a dock, a rail car and or a truck and delivered to a store to be purchased by us.  It's a system that is vital to our economies and yet we only hear about them when disasters happen.

The author takes us around the world searching and experiencing the impact a ship has on people.  We start at the design phase to the fascinating world of ship building; from the first cut of steel to sea trials.  We get an understanding of the ship owners, the captains, the engineers who keep the vessels running and to the deck hands.  We also learn about the sea itself and how people cope with the weeks and months of isolation.  Finally we see the last days of a ship; from being beached to being taken apart by the folks who's lives depend on recycling these gigantic machines.  We are also treated  to a glimmer of life in the creation of something new from the scrapped, forgotten and yet wonderful boats.

From the title I expected a romantic view of the subject and I was not disappointed.  It was also a well researched and interesting subject, I can't recommend it enthusiastically enough. It was a charming, understanding, respectful and hopeful read.  I've come away with a well rounded understanding of this nearly invisible, world-spanning industry.  Through it all the book is deeply infused with humanity; it would have been easy to get lost in the numbers and the technicality of it, but the author never lost sight of the fact that it is people that make the whole damn thing work.

Wonderful.

Daniel Sekulich

You can find his blog HERE.