The Butcher of Anderson Station by James S A Corey - A Short Story Review

Fred Johnson was a very important character in the first Expanse book.

This is the story of how he became known as the The Butcher of Anderson Station.

It was a nice way to enjoy a little bit more of this world without having to dive into another 500+ pages.

It's entirely possible this was edited out of the original manuscript.  If so, it's a nice way to get the story out there.

James S A Corey's website - https://www.jamessacorey.com/

The writing team known as James S A Corey

Leviathan Wakes by James S A Corey - Book Report #298

Book One of The Expanse series

My first taste of the series was of the television show.  I only watched one episode and it did not grab me.  I had the copy of the first book in my basement for years.  After hearing that the TV series has been renewed for a fifth season, and friends telling me how much I would like it, I decided to dust off book one and give it a read.

I was hooked very quickly.  This is the kind of lived-in, day-to-day, blue-collar kind of science fiction that I love.  For those of you as old as me (born in the 60's) think of what you felt when you first saw the Millennium Falcon.

This was an excellent blend of gritty neo-noir detective story and grand political drama set in a solar system that has been dominated by humans.  Mars, the asteroid belt, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn all have human presence.  And much like humanity of today we are not there for scientific reasons; we are there to make a living.  Water and oxygen are more valuable than gold to the people living and working off Earth.

An ice mining ship answers a distress call, which is a trap that starts a war between Earth, Mars and The Belt.

What I liked most about the story is how it focused only on two characters and the people that surround them.  This kept the larger story from spinning the the whole thing out of control.  It is a gigantic story and it took discipline to contain it in this first book.

This is a big series, with novels, novellas and short stories that bounce around the timeline of the novels.  I've decided to read thing in publication order to experience it the way fans from the beginning would have.

Generally I like my SF to be about humans, FTL and aliens tend to make storytelling a bit more lazy.  I like that we are stuck in our own solar system and that people have to be very careful about acceleration, maneuvering and things like the Coriolis effect.  (I had to look up that last one.)

It was well written, fun, fast-paced, believable and had lots of characters that I liked.

Highly recommended.

Website of James S A Corey - https://www.jamessacorey.com/

James S A Corey is the pen name for authors
Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck

Stumptown by Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth - A Graphic Novel Review

The Case of the Girl Who Took her Shampoo (But Left her Mini)

I came to this story from ad on television.  Cobie Smulders will star in the TV adaptation of the comic series written by Greg Rucka.  

I’m a sucker for strong characters who are unafraid of dangerous situations, Dex Parios is one tough woman, who is in deep debt with a casino and must do a job for them to have her debt cleared.

As Dex looks for the granddaughter of the casino owner she uncovers dangerous connections and takes a beating in the process.

The story was quick-paced, dark, funny and scary.  Matthew Southworth’s art created a gritty mood and the colours captured the mood and atmosphere of the Oregon coast.

I enjoyed the story very much because it kept to the classic PI storytelling without having to prove itself as being “edgy” by being overtly gratuitous with the violence.  Plus, Dex is sassy as hell and I like that.

I am glad to have read it and happy that I’ll have a TV show to go with it.

Recommended.

Greg Rucka's website - http://www.gregrucka.com/wp/

Matthew Southworth's website - http://matthewsouthworth.net/

Greg Rucka

Matthew Southworth

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson - Book Report #256

Steve Jobs was an amazing individual.  He was a colossal asshole.  A visionary.  And changed the world.

To say he was a complex individual is putting it mildly.  I am surprised people didn't just punch him in the nose at every opportunity.

More than anything Jobs wanted to “make a dent in the universe.”  He wrestled and fought to make his visions reality.

He was responsible for much of the following:

The Graphical User Interface.
The computer mouse.
The personal computer. He helped to bring computers into the home.
The iPod.
iTunes - which helped to tame illegal downloading.
Pixar Animation Studios
iPhone
iPad

Through all of this, he simply was not a pleasant person to be around. He tended to see the world as either fantastic or total shit.  He yelled a people a lot, he stole the credit for ideas and he alienated people.

But his story was completely fascinating.  It is amazing to think about how much he changed our modern-day lives.  Without his vision, we could still be using flip phones.

I am writing this post on an iPad which, interestingly, has an Apple Pencil attached. Jobs hated the stylus and now that I have one I can see he was right.  I hardly use the thing and it actually gets in my way.

The author did a terrific job of showing the real Steve Jobs.  He had permission and was unafraid to show his dark sides as well as his genius.

This is a big read but should tell you something about how much influence Jobs had.

Highly recommended.

Walter Isaacson's Wikipedia page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Isaacson

Walter Isaacson

The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow by Cory Doctorow - Book Review #251

This is an interesting series of small, digest books from the PM Press Outspoken Authors series.

In them, there is a short fiction and then an interview or two.

At 134 pages I loved the overall look, feel and format of the book.  I certainly enjoyed learning about what is important to the author.  It's always enjoyable to get a glimpse inside the mind of an author whose fiction I enjoy.

The fiction took up most of the book at 106 pages.  In it, we follow Jimmy an adolescent who has been genetically engineered to live centuries.  I guess you could call it a post-apocalypse story but the apocalypse is still in progress where giant machines pass over the land destroying anything man-made and returning it to a natural state, concrete is turned back into dirt.

The thing I like about Doctorow's work is that his stories are about people trying to understand, cope and fit into the world.  All the SF stuff is part of the scenery.  Jimmy struggles with his immortality because he is stuck in the body of an 11-year-old, even though he has been around for over 30 years.

Early in the story the great machines come and destroy his home and kill his father.  We follow him as he tries to find a place in the world for himself.  Years later he finds a "cure" to his longevity and he bumps into a part of his past.

Recommended.

Cory Doctorow - https://craphound.com/

Cory Doctorow

The Leap by Chris Turner - Book Report #242

The book’s subtitle - “How to Survive and Thrive in the Sustainable Economy” makes, what the author calls The Great Leap Sideways, a bit scary.

To the contrary, Turner shows us that the leap to a sustainable economy is well underway, we just can’t really see it.  Part of the reason is that things are still very much in the grass-roots phase, but those roots have spread everywhere.

Our entire way of life, and when I say "our" I mean the entire planet, is based on the gift of stored energy that are fossils fuels.  These fuels power, transport, light and heat our entire lives.  Without it we would be in caves.

But we’ve reached the limits of what fossil fluels can do for us.  Yes, climate change.  Yes peak oil.  Yes pollution.  Believe them or don’t - it really does not matter.  Things will change because they must.  

If you find all of the news stories about the end of life as we know it keeps you up at night, Turner will help to ease your fears.  He gives many examples, primarily Denmark and Germany, of how our way of life can not only continue but expand in harmony with nature.

And if you think about it, the opportunities to make money and change the world are nearly limitless. All we have to do is reinvent everything.  The internet did that to communications and knowledge, changing the energy structure will be profoundly more lucrative and it will guarantee humanity’s survival.

So, if you are a climate change denier, believe that alternative forms of energy will wreck our economy or that there is no way it can take over from fossil fuels, don’t bother reading this.

My belief is that it will happen regardless.  The pure economics of maintaining the status quo will become too expensive anyway. 

This book is brilliant and inspirational.

Chris Turner

Super Immunity by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. - Book Review #224

I am a big fan of Dr. Fuhrman's message.

It all boils down to this:  Eat Your Vegetables, Eat Lots of Them and Eat Them All the Time.

From his other books, Eat for Health and Eat to Live he explains the multitude of benefits that a plant-based diet can provide.

In Super Immunity he zeros in on just the benefits of how his "nutritarian" diet enhances, benefits and strengthens the immune system.

If you you take a closer look at the paleo diet, or more to the point, how cavemen really ate, you'll discover they were not eating as much meat as was believed.  There is growing evidence that the whole notion of roasting meat on a stick was not how they ate at all.  Between kills they had to rely on what the could find in the environment; namely roots, nuts, seeds and other plants.

This is what our DNA is tuned for.

By providing the body with foods that are rich in nutrients we give it the resources it needs to fight off infections, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

He has never said not to eat animal-based foods but to eat them very sparingly because of the detrimental effects animal proteins have on the body.

Dr. Fuhrman's books have always struck a chord with me because there is something in his arguments that make perfect sense.  You just have to look at our teeth and jaws to see that we have much more in common with a cow than we do with a wolf.  Or look at the diets of primates, our closest relatives, to see what they eat.

Through his many books Dr. Fuhrman is proving that plant-based eating is what we need to fight many diseases and to live long, productive lives.

Highly recommended.

Dr. Fuhrman's website is:  https://www.drfuhrman.com/

Joel Fuhrman, MD

Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser - Book Report #223

How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier

Well this came as a surprise to me.  When I was adding labels to this post the author's name came up as a pre-selection.

Hmm.

Yup.  I've read this book before and completely forgot about it.  The difference today is that I enjoyed it as an audiobook.  

After reading the old post from 2015 I find that the book made the same impression on me now as it did then.

Let me lead you back to that post for a review.

https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.ca/2015/08/triumph-of-city-by-edward-glaeser-book.html

Edward Glaeser's website - https://scholar.harvard.edu/glaeser

Edward Glaeser

Dust to Dust by Chris Roberson & Robert Adler - Book Report #210

In anticipation of the new Blade Runner movie I dug into my old comic collection and read this two-volume story.

It is a prequel to the original movie, however the esthetics are the same.  The art was wonderful, it was dark, dirty, dusty, mouldy and just as wet as Ridley Scott's creation of 1982.

The main story is the same - six rogue androids are on a list to be retired.  Charlie Victor, a replicant himself with a terrific backstory, engages the help of  a "special" human, Malcolm Reed, who can discern humans from replicants.  This talent is a burden all it's own.

Together they navigate an intricate world of violence, morality and "human" rights.

I found the story to be a nice addition to the world of the original Blade Runner movie.

Star Wars: Agent of the Empire by John Ostrander - Book Review #177

I've always been a sucker for spy stories and one set in the familiar Star Wars universe had some appeal.

Volume One - Iron Eclipse

This was a straight up action adventure similar to a James Bond movie.  Our hero is deadly, capable, smart, funny, handsome and terrific with the ladies.

It was clever and fast-paced.  I liked how Jahan Cross, our spy, bumps into Han Solo and Chewie at a critical time in the story.

He also has a droid assistant that I really wish existed because I want one.

Volume Two - Hard Targets

Here we find Jahan Cross at a crossroads where he must choose between his duty as an agent of the empire and to do what is right.

I was less a fan of this one since in centered around politics and power.  There are murders and political shenanigans that I find exceedingly dull.  It's not a fault of the writer, it's a personal preference.

A young boy is caught in the middle and his life is threatened.

I found the first half of the story a slog but I enjoyed how it all came together.  There was a nice touch of humor in the plot development that allowed me to enjoy the story as a whole.

You can find out more about the author here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ostrander

Wikileaks by David Leigh and Luke Harding - Book Report #171

This book lined up nicely with The Next 100 Years, once again proving how the world of geopolitics strives to keep the world "safe" by maintaining the balance of power that benefits the United States.

Julian Assange is an interesting person, certainly intelligent and also just a bit strange.  That said, he had a cause he believed in and he pursued the release of classified documents with care.  He employed The Guardian, The New York Times and other publications to vet and publish the documents in a safe manner.  It was chiefly the newspapers that insisted and carried out the redaction of names and details that could possibly put innocent peoples lives in danger.

Obviously what Assange wanted to do was to expose the questionable actions of the United States and other countries.  What was surprising was how unsurprising the details were.  Perhaps we've been conditioned to expect these kinds of dirty deeds from the movies and books but it is sad and depressing to discover the truth of it.

It was interesting to discover how this level (governments and geopolitics) of society operates.  They seem unstoppable but with whistle-blowers like Assange and Snowden light is shined onto these secret dealings and perhaps change can be made.

Ultimately I just found the knowledge of this kind of power and how it is expressed, depressing.  We will never - ever - progress as a species if we keep killing and suppressing each other.

Being a science fiction reader I am constantly surprised how all we do is look at ourselves and all of our attention is focused inward and just on this planet.  If we could turn our gaze to the stars we'd discover that we are very much alone in the wilderness and need each other.  Imagine the possibilities for advancement if we focused our energies on expanding outwards.

By reading this kind of stuff I realise that we are very far away from the future of my imagination.  Thank God there are people like Elon Musk and Peter Diamandis who are trying to blaze trails despite how the world is run today.  These guys are the true visionaries.

Is it worth reading?

Yes.  If anything it should motivate people to help change the world in any way they feel best.  Protest, invent, live, change - anything will help to inspire others and to erode this backward and power-hungry world.

David Leigh

Luke Harding

Halfway to Hollywood by Michael Palin - A Partial Book Review

I've been a fan of Michael Palin's for many years, not for Monty Python but his world-spanning travels.

Around the World in 80 Days captured my imagination and I was completely taken by this charming man.  I have followed all his journeys, purchased every book and was gifted a beautiful collection of all his BBC trips.

I've known of his diaries for a while now, these have inspired me to write my own journal as a blog.  

I downloaded a sample of his third volume, The Traveling Years, only to discover we are two weeks into the first journey on page one.  I requested his second volume from my public library, Halfway to Hollywood, and began reading the final two years of it.  I wanted to read about how the whole thing came about.

The life of an actor is a chaotic thing.  It is filled with meetings, rehearsals, charity events, script writing, telephone calls and always there is the feeling that he had at least five projects on the go.  It was fascinating and I was convinced I could never cope with that kind of life.

What I discovered about the 80 Days journey is that it came about just like everything else; a phone call followed by weeks of nothing, then a meeting followed again by weeks of nothing.  All the while he continued to work on his various projects. 

The diaries went to show how his life is just like anybody else's in that living is not a linear thing.

He had to deal with tragedy, confusion, frustration, worry, humour and professionalism.

This kind of raw presentation takes some getting used to. It's not a guided tour of one's life but more like being given a box of accumulated memories sorted in chronological order.  It's up to the reader to connect the dots.

I may not have read most of the book but I can say that it was a wonderful experience to be allowed a glimpse into an interesting man's life.

It is not the kind of book you need to read all at once.  You can put it down and come back to it when you want.  It's okay, Michael understands and he'll wait for you.  I kept it in sight and within easy reach because I found myself wanting to turn a few more pages pretty consistently.

Michael Palin

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - Book Report #144

This novel has been on my radar for a while.  When I heard Steven Spielberg was set to direct the movie version (2017) I decided it was time to read it.

The story takes place in the near future (2044) where climate change has destroyed the economy as we know it today.  There is more poverty than North America is used to and people escape their unhappy lives through a virtual reality version of Second Life, known as the OASIS.

That time period's Steve Jobs, who created the OASIS, falls ill.  Upon his death it is revealed that he has left his vast fortune hidden somewhere in the OASIS.  But it's not THAT easy, whoever is lucky enough to find it has first to find three hidden keys to unlock three hidden gates where he or she will be challenged solve the various puzzles and tasks within the gates.

The story begins five years after the "game" was revealed and no one has found the first key.  Our narrator is Wade Watts, a teenager who lives in "the stacks", poverty stricken and living without his parents in an aunt's trailer.  Life is not pleasant for Wade and he spends as much time as he can in OASIS within the relative safety of his secret lair buried deep within a pile of junked cars.

The story leaps off the page in a very cinematic way making it easy to envision Spielberg's touch.  The novel is steeped in 1980's pop culture and video game history.  What I found interesting is that the book is considered YA making me wonder what the appeal could be to Millennials with such a dense reference to those days.  It felt like it was written for me by an author who is only 7 years younger than me.

And yes, I got almost all the references and enjoyed this story very much.

I certainly recommend it.  It is an easy read and flows quickly.  There is not a lot of dialog but the narration is effortless.

The author's website is here:

http://www.ernestcline.com/

Ernest Cline

Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku - Book Report #143

Once again, in an effort to see the good in the world, I turned to Kaku's book about the future.

He covers eight broad subject areas, looks at where the technology is today and a year or two from now.  Then he takes on the futurist role and expands the subject to the near future (present to 2030) followed by mid-century predictions (2030 to 2070) and ending with speculation on the far future (2070 to 2100).

The book looks at the future of:

The Computer
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Medicine
Nanotechnology
Energy
Space Travel
Wealth
Humanity


He ends the book with a bit of creative fiction; a day in the life of a regular office worker which brings all the technology discussed and shows how he interacts with it.

I liked the book but I did not love it.  But that's not really a flaw of the author or the book, it's just that some areas, like nanotechnology and space travel, are either in their infancy or have been so neglected that it's difficult to believe some of the changes predicted.  Some of the topics lent themselves to believable extrapolation while others felt like pure guesswork. 

Each topic is its own entity and does not lead into the next, meaning you can pick and choose which chapters to read without losing anything by skipping one or reading them out of order.

The strength of the book is that it will give you a sense of wonder and hopefulness for the future.

Now if only we can get humanity to just get along with each other we can get down to the business of creating the future depicted by Kaku.

You can find the author's website here:
http://mkaku.org/

Star Trek: The Typhon Pact: Paths of Disharmony by Dayton Ward - BookReport #141

Let me first say that I love Dayton Ward's work but I hated this book.

I so wanted to like it, I really did but the plot was so dull and you can tell that Ward's hands were tied behind his back. 

The plot revolves around the Andorians and their eventual backing out of the United Federation of planets. 

What?! You think I spoiled it? This is the fourth book in the series - knowing that you can bet that the alien race being explored is, or will be, in the Typhon Pact. The whole "Gasp!" surprise was telegraphed in the title!  Which made the first 400 pages nearly meaningless. 

The best parts of the book, and what I love about Ward's writing, is how real and believable the secondary characters were; conversations and humour came naturally and made me believe in the Star Trek universe. 

That boring political shit that Ward was forced to write about felt stiff and unnatural.  I could only read ten pages at a time before I would either fall asleep or wish I could do something more interesting, like clean the toilet or, well, clean the toilet again. 

Hey, you can't win them all. But after this one I am considering donating the rest of the un-read books in this series to my local library. Or I might just recycle them; so far this series is beyond dull. Every author has been shackled by the editors at Pocket and made to row the ship in their decreed direction. There seems to be far too much editorial control going on. 

Dayton Ward is a fantastic author who can plot and pace a book like no one else and I love his ability to breathe life into characters.  His ability to create believable and humorous dialogue is his best quality as an author.  To be honest I think I need to read is non-tie-in books to get the true measure of the man.  Reading this particular book I can hear him pounding his fists against the walls of the tiny editorial cell he was dropped in.  There is a large talent lurking here and it needs to be set free.

Don't be afraid to visit Ward's blog, The Fog Of Ward, you'll get a measure of the man there.  Trust me, he's worth reading.

http://www.daytonward.com/

Dayton Ward

Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser - Book Report #140

One more in my quest for the good in the world. Here Glaeser makes a compelling and well researched argument that the city is humanity's best invention.

I came to this book after listening to the Freakonomics podcast from May 6, 2015 titled Could The Next Brooklyn Be ... Las Vegas?!  Listen to that as a good companion to the book.  You can find it here:

http://freakonomics.com/2015/05/11/could-the-next-brooklyn-be-las-vegas-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

Everything you love and hate about city life is explored; the very nature of crowds,  people bumping into each other and exchanging ideas has led to advancements in science, business and the arts. 

By compressing people and building up, instead of sprawling out we take up much less land and reduce our individual carbon footprint. 

My favourite thought came from chapter 8, titled Is There Anything Greener Than Blacktop?  "If you love nature, stay away from it."

 

He also tackles the difficult subject of cities in decline, think Detroit of today and New York of the 1970's and how cities have re-imagined themselves over and over again. 

All in all I found this book to be a fascinating read. It made me think of where my city is doing things right and where it is not.

Edward Glaeser

Star Trek: Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire by David R. George III - Book Report #137

This is an interesting series in that it is much more an exploration of the adversaries encountered in the Star Trek universe than it is stand alone adventures from the different shows.

Each book so far, has taken individual characters out of their usual environment and entangled them into a specific culture that has been at odds with the Federation.  So far we've scrapped with the Breen, the Gorn and now the Romulans.

There are really two stories here; first, Spock is still on Romulus still trying to re-unify Vulcans and Romulans.  This was established in the TNG television shows and makes for a nice transition to the book.  The other plot line follows Benjamin Sisko as he continues to struggle to define his life and move on from his experiences in the Celestial Temple.

Both these plot lines happen at the same time as the Romulan Empire tries to avoid a civil war.

By the end of the book I have acquired a deeper understanding of the Romulan culture which will help underpin future novels.

To be honest, I'm a fan of Star Trek, but I find myself wondering how big a geek I really am.  I read these books to try and recapture a bit of the sense of wonder and excitement I got from the television shows.  This series definitely pushes our characters forward and it is those Federation characters I come to the books for.  I am less interested in the political structures of every bad guy we've encountered.

That said it just means the series is not my cup of tea -  it is not a reflection of the author's ability to write an interesting story.  In each case so far, I've wished I was following the story from the bridge of a Federation ship but I've always come away feeling like the universe has been made richer for it.  I just personally find it a bit of a slog to get through.

David R. George III

The Choice by Paul McAuley

12/100

Set in post-apocalypse Scotland after the melting of the ice caps and after aliens have found earth and live among us in the ruins.

I often find these types of stories intriguing but often depressing; only because I very much want to live in the "shiny" future not the "grubby" one. 

Here we find two teen boys going on an adventure to see an alien sea-craft accidentally beached in some shallow water nearby. 

There is some perfectly incorporated world-building making the story incredibly rich.  In the spotlight you learn that there are many other stories set in this world. 

There are some ramifications to the boys' trip that make this a most satisfying read. 

One thing I must commend Lightspeed Magazine for is providing author spotlights and interviews.  I just love DVD extras and it is most welcome to find it in a print publication.

Highly recommended.

The author's website is here:   http://www.omegacom.demon.co.uk/index.htm

This was included as an ebook exclusive and is only available if you purchase the issue.
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/issues/jan-2015-issue-56/

This story was first published in Asimov's February 2011 issue.

Asimov's February 2011

Paul McAuley