Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn - Book Review #277

I love Star Wars.  I love heists.  Put them together and you get Han and Chewie putting a team together to rob a Black Sun crime boss.  Nothing to it.

This story takes place shortly after the events of A New Hope, where Han has lost his reward from the Alliance and he has to make it up to pay his debt to Jabba.

I can't say enough about the talents of Marc Thompson, who narrated the book.  His abilities to create character voices was as if an entire cast was making the production.  It really felt like an episode of the movies.

That said Timothy Zahn sometimes went over the top in putting obstacles in the way of the terrific team of specialists Han gathered to do the job.  The safe they had to crack was so elaborate that I completely lost my interest in it.

All-in-all it was an entertaining story if a bit long, I loved how Zahn tied in events of the past with hints of the future.  He also created characters that I wound up caring about and look forward to reading about in the future.


The book is certainly set up for a sequel.

Lots of fun.

Timothy Zahn's ISFDB page - http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Timothy_Zahn

Timothy Zahn

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

Star Trek: Into Darkness by Alan Dean Foster - Book Review #258

This was my first experience with a movie novelization and I must say that Foster did a terrific job of it.  As a matter of fact, he made tolerable, even enjoyable the never-ending fight scene from the movie between Spock and Khan.

Foster had a terrific way with the narrative that touches on the old pulps without crossing into purple prose.  I could feel that I was in the hands of a confident writer.

All in all, this was a terrific way to experience the movie in another form.  I liked it very much.

I found the narration of the book by Alice Eve to be refreshing and I thought her take on the characters was spot-on.  I could listen to her voice all day.


Recommended.

Alan Dean Foster's website - http://www.alandeanfoster.com/version2.0/frameset.htm

Hawkeye: My Life As A Weapon by Matt Fraction - A Graphic Novel Review

This character is pretty cool.  Sure, Clint Barton is rich and fit but he has no super powers, just very good skills with a bow.

I certainly loved the humor of the first three stories and the art of David Aja lent itself to the tone of the book.

Hawkeye has an equal in Kate Bishop, who is also Hawkeye.  Like Clint, she's conveniently rich and fit.  Hey, it's comics - so it's complicated - but it's still a different approach; to have a hero occupied by two different people. 

I enjoyed the stories.  Oh my, the neighbourhood bad guys were terrific and funny.  Any normal person would be scared of Russian Mafia types.  In these stories Clint is not just fighting the big picture "injustice" but he is fighting it on a personal level - protecting the other tenants of his building.

Best of all Clint makes mistakes.  He is not the all-knowing, never-makes-mistakes hero.  It makes the tension a little bit more real, when you know he can really get hurt.  That said, I think he has a super power - being able to get knocked to the head all the time without a concussion.

This made for a good time and a nice change in form.  Reading a comic book can feel a little bit like watching TV but it's still reading.  Honestly, I often wish there were illustrations in the books and stories I read.  Blending the art of writing with visual arts can be very satisfying.

The art of David Aja

Matt Fraction

The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change by Al Gore - Book Report #238

My goodness this was a "BIG" book.

That's right:  All caps, bold, italics and in quotation marks.

Each chapter could have been a book in and of itself.  Which made this volume overwhelming and, at times, made me throw up my hands in frustration, thinking that the troubles of our time are just too big to take on!

I wanted hope and, sadly, like so many of these kinds of books, the discussion was thin on solutions.  But, as I started to think on it, the reason answers are not provided is for the simple reason that they have not been thought of yet.

Peter Diamandis is fond of saying that the world's biggest problems are the world's biggest business opportunities.  And he's right; living here on the prairies I'm personally worried about drought, but the world is lousy with water.  In my mind desalination will be a world wide game changer.  If that one problem alone could be solved, scarcity of fresh water, so much of our problems could be solved.

Imagine - pipelines filled with drinking water, instead of oil. Wow!

Al Gore takes on the world in this book.  Like I said, it's a big book.  He discussed:

Table of Contents:

1. Work: The World of Work in the New Global Economy
a. An Introduction to the Global Economy
b. Outsourcing
c. Robosourcing
d. Automation in the Financial Industry
e. The Redistribution of Wealth

2. Power: The Shifting of Power from Nation-States to Multinational Corporations
a. The Rising Power of Multinational Corporations
b. The Declining Power of the United States

3. The Internet: The Global Mind
a. The Rise of the Internet
b. The Internet of Things, and ‘Big Data’
c. Global Democracy
i. Overthrowing Dictatorial Regimes
ii. Reforming Established Democracies
d. The Dangers of the Internet

4. Biotechnology
a. Biotechnology in Food Production: GMOs
b. Biotechnology in Medicine

5. Demographics and Natural Resource Depletion
a. Population Increase
b. Displacement of Peoples: Xenophobia and Urban Stress
c. Environmental Stress
d. Techno-Optimism
e. Techno-Pessimism
f. The Solution: Reforming GDP

6. Climate Change
a. The Problem
b. The Effects: The Threat to Food and Freshwater Sources, and the Displacement of Peoples
c. The Solution

See what I mean?  These are intense subjects.

I was glad I took the time to get through it.  There once was a saying, "think globally and act locally," this book illustrates that there is an abundance of problems to tackle and you can make a difference even if you choose to work on one or two things yourself.

If you can start a business to solve a problem, so much the better.

Highly recommended, but hang on to your optimism it will be challenged by Al Gore.

His website is here - https://www.algore.com/

Foodist by Darya Pino Rose, Ph.D - Book Report #233

This was a terrific book to give dieters a dose of reality.  To help people relax in pursuit of a new healthy eating plan.

In it she recommends eating real, whole, natural, unprocessed foods.  This is where the secret of weight loss without deprivation lives.   

You'll have to cook for yourself a lot more but you will benefit from all of the micronutrients and phytochemicals that are bountiful in fresh veggies and fruit.

One of her catchphrase is that "Life Should Be Awesome" - don't deny yourself the pleasures of life that food can provide.  You don't have to be an orthodox dieter.  Live life.  Have that burger, once in a while, if it makes you happy.  

You eat 21 meals in a week; if you slip from your path once or twice that means you've stayed true 90% of the time.

I recommend this book highly, especially for somebody who is just starting to venture into healthy eating.

Darya Rose's website - http://www.summertomato.com/foodist

Just Getting Started by Todd Babiak - Book Report #206

I am an active member (user?) of the Edmonton Public Library.  Whenever I go down a literary rabbit hole, the library has been there to provide me with books to satisfy my curiosity.

Lately, I've been interested in history: Canadian and local history in particular.

And what could be a better read than the history of the Edmonton Public Library itself?

Babiak did a terrific job of blending local history to that of EPL.

In the early days of Edmonton, we were punching above our weight in the pursuit of a library but since Calgary had built a Carnegie funded branch, Edmonton felt it needed one too.  But, interestingly, the Carnegie group had many strings attached to any money gifted to build a library.  This did not make the "founders" happy so they went it alone to build the Strathcona branch.

This was in the times when Edmonton and Strathcona were two separate towns.  How can Strathcona have one and not Edmonton, the capital city?  Edmonton's own library was rushed into being in a space above a liquor store and meat shop.

You see?  This is actually quite interesting.

I was captivated by the book.  The writing was crisp and never lacked a sense of humour.

It was a terrific read that coloured in part of Edmonton's past for me.  I enjoyed learning about the library that I love so much.

Todd Babiak - http://toddbabiak.com/

Edmonton Public Library - https://www.epl.ca/

Todd Babiak

Edmonton's own Carnegie Library - Demolished in 1968

Mission to Mars by Buzz Aldrin - Book Report #198

Buzz Aldrin, of Apollo 11, has been an advocate for continued and ambitious exploration of space ever since he returned to Earth.

Here he makes the case for Mars and describes a method to accomplish the permanent settlement of the planet.

I have always been a fan of space exploration.  My greatest disappointment was how it was put on the back burner and the American capability has atrophied to the point that they no longer have a domestic ability to put humans in orbit.

There are many mission plans to take humans to the red planet but this one has an elegant transportation system of continual cycling to and from Mars that I find compelling.

Part of the genius of the Aldrin cycler is how it puts hardware into space that offers free return trips back and forth between Earth and Mars in perpetuity.

Political will is necessary to make any push into space, the battle is to find that will and leverage it.

I found the book well written and inspiring.

Buzz Aldrin - https://buzzaldrin.com/

Buzz Aldrin

 

Lost Beneath The Ice by Andrew Cohen - Book Report #197

The thing I like about coffee table books is how they have the power to pique my interest in a subject.

The exploration of the Canadian north and the North West Passage has caused no end of calamity.  Most famous is the Franklin expedition and its disappearance.

In 1850 Captain Robert McClure of the HMS Investigator is sent to find Franklin.  He was unsuccessful in that task but discovered the elusive North West Passage in the process.

But it wasn't as easy as all that.  The ship and crew found themselves trapped in the ice and were forced to winter in Mercy Bay of Banks Island - for three years.

The book was published by Parks Canada and tells two stories; the historical tale of the dire trip of the Investigator and the modern search for the wreck of the ship.

I enjoyed this book very much -  it has expanded my knowledge of Canadian northern history and my desire to learn more.

Andrew Cohen - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cohen_(journalist)

Andrew Cohen

The Aviators by Winston Groom - Book Report #181

The subtitle says it all; Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight.

These three men came of age just whey flight itself was born.  They were instrumental in the progression of aviation.  All were heroes.

Each man should and actually have had books written about them individually. What made this book so compelling was how intertwined their lives were.

Coming into this book I only knew one name, Lindbergh and only for his trans-Atlantic flight ("Only," let's not belittle what he did here.)

I felt rather lucky that I had only vague notions of these three men, which made the book so fascinating and entertaining.  Really, these guys lead the kinds of lives that are works of fiction today.

There is no way I can sketch a brief bio of each man and I won't try.

Let me just say that if you are even the slightest bit interested in the the history of flight and the history of World War Two then this is the book for you.  Not only will it entertain and inform but it will leave you wanting to learn more.

The period from World War One to the end of World War Two changed everything about life.  It created the lifestyle we have today.

I highly recommend this book.

I enjoyed it as an audio book but I have already placed my order for the physical book as I can't imagine not having it on my bookshelf.

Winston Groom

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

Drone Warfare by Medea Benjamin - Book Report #172

This book tied in nicely with The Next 100 Years and Wikileaks.

It was also just as depressing.

Drones, also called UAVs are remotely controlled pilot-less aircraft.  For the most part they are used for surveillance and intelligence gathering.  But they are becoming more common as hunter-killer, weaponized platforms.

It was a well-researched book and touched many aspects of their development, their use and the effects on the people in the gun sights as well as those pulling the triggers thousands of miles away.

Some of it can be quite horrifying; not only for the targeted but for the innocents that happen to be nearby to a strike. Collateral damage is much more common than we are lead to believe.

But what really strikes the heart cold is how many international laws the use of this technology breaks.  The Obama government cared little of the many extra-judicial killings it sanctioned.  With seemingly indifferent disregard to sovereign air space and laws of the domestic country it goes about targeting and killing people with impunity.  When does protection of domestic security become state sponsored assassination and, in turn, become murder?

The United States used to stand for adherence to the rules of law.

There is no doubt that the people being chased and killed are bad people and need to be stopped.  But mistakes are happening and innocent people are being killed through bad or weak intelligence and by the excessive use of force. Missiles are not bullets, they are not as precise and therefore many non-combatants are left killed, injured or maimed by being in proximity of a target.

I found the book to be one-sided.  Even though you cannot argue with the research and the facts that were revealed, the author's ultimate goal is to get UAVs banned.  The argument being that they are just like land mines, cluster bombs and poison gas; far too many innocent non-combatants are killed by their use.  I agree completely.  That said, I would like to be allowed the chance to make up my own mind on the subject.

If you're going to report on something let it be balanced.  My complaint is more about the construction of the book rather than it's content.  But Benjamin is not a reporter.

Google the author and you cannot be surprised that she spends a lot of time promoting activist groups that are campaigning against the use of UAVs.  Had she been a reporter these groups would certainly have been written about in a dedicated chapter but it would have been presented as just another aspect of the subject.

Do I recommend the book?

Absolutely.

There are so many details revealed that were surprising and frightening that I am thankful for being made aware of it. The next time I cross a border I will be sure to look up to see what is looking down on me.

Medea Benjamin - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medea_Benjamin

Medea Benjamin co-founded the anti-war group Code Pink: Women for Peace - http://www.codepink.org/

Medea Benjamin

Red Rover by Roger Wiens - Book Report #161

13/15/2016

This a a fascinating story of how one particular science package, ChemCam, came to be built and installed on the Mars Curiosity rover.

What you will come away with is the incredible journey an instrument takes from concept, approval, build, installation and operation.  I was impressed at the dedication and effort that goes into such a project.  For years prior to launch there is a constant struggle for funding and crating the best possible science instrument that can be made.

Don't think for one minute that instruments are built from off the shelf components.  Everything is on the bleeding edge of engineering.  There is nothing about Curiosity that is ordinary.

When you consider the efforts of the ChemCam team is repeated by every other team that has an instrument on the rover AND the team that built the rover itself AND all the components it took to get it to Mars, I was left wondering how anything actually gets built, flown and operated at all.

Usually the public is let in on the launch and landing days, but there is about a decade of work that has happened before the rocket is launched.

Roger Wiens

 

The Human Division/Episode 2 - Walk The Plank by John Scalzi

31/100

Yikes! What a gritty story.

Unlike Episode 1 we are presented here with an audio transcript of an interview from a dying man who survived an attack by pirates. (yes! space pirates! cool.)

The poor survivor thinks he made it to safety but he, quite literately, dropped from one dangerous situation into another.

I was hoping we'd pick the story up with the same cast of characters from Episode 1 but instead I found the universe Scalzi has created expanded before me.  I loved the grittiness of it.  Space is hard and it takes tough people to occupy it.

I am now a giant fan of Scalzi.  This guy can write in any style he wants and make the story a pleasure to read.

John Scalzi's website is here:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/

John Scalzi

The Human Division/Episode 1 - The B-Team by John Scalzi

30/100

Scalzi is a fantastic writer.  In no time at all he can build a believable world filled with likable characters.  The disadvantage I had with this story is that it is deep into the Old Man's War series.  But even by dropping into the middle of the story The B-Team was a small enough that I could grab on to the plot points of this particular mission and enjoy it thoroughly.

I really enjoyed this one; the dialog was crisp and fun and I particularly liked that these people were not considered the best-of-the-best which made the whole thing sing for me.  But there is a lot of information to gather to fully understand what is going on in this little adventure.  There are enormous political divisions that gives the whole thing more meaning.  Space opera is like that and space opera is good, it's just a bit intimidating knowing there are many books that I missed.

The trick is to whet a reader's appetite to dive into the world that was created.  Scalzi did a fantastic job in getting me interested in the story as a whole without taking anything away from the short story I was reading at the time.  It did it's job; it entertained me and got me hooked on the back list as well.  I will read one more from the Human Division then put it down to read the first books of the Old Man's War series.

John Scalzi's website is here:

 http://whatever.scalzi.com/

John Scalzi

Silent Night by Robert B. Parker and Helen Brann - Book Review #136

Don't let the title fool you, this novel is all Spenser and should be read by anybody who is a fan of the series.  The story only takes place during the Christmas season.

Slide, a street-kid staying at Street Business, a local shelter that tries to offers a safe place to stay and help the kids get jobs, comes to Spenser looking for his support.  Street Business is being threatend and may close, throwing all the kids back on the street.

Once Spenser and Hawk start poking around they discover that things are not as they seem and the problem is much more complicated than first suspected.

This was the book Parker was working on when he passed away.  His long-time literary agent was given permission to complete his work.  She did a wonderful job of it too.  Although the book was shorter than most of his previous novels Brann was able to channel Parker's economy of words into a fine addition to the cannon of Spenser stories.

Perhaps the only part of the story that was a bit too easy to come by was how quickly and readily Spenser was able to enlist the help of Quirk and Belson.  But, they all go back a long way and perhaps the spirit of the season made them more agreeable and willing to help.  This is a small complaint and I have no idea if that was part of the original manuscript or what Brann brought to the table.

I am still grateful that Spenser has been able to continue without Parker, he is in good hands with Helen Brann and Ace Atkins.

Robert B Parker's website is where is work is continued.

http://www.robertbparker.net/

Robert B Parker

Helen Brann

Star Trek: The Original Seires: From History's Shadow by Dayton Ward - Book Report #134

Holy throwback Thursday, Batman!

Some of my favourite episodes of any Star Trek series are when they go back to a past era of Earth.

In this book Ward takes aspects of DS9's Little Green Men plus Carbon Creek from Enterprise and made it his own by following the lives of two human investigators searching for proof of alien contact on behalf of the US government.  They work from the first days of the Majestic 12 organization and through Project Blue Book.

I'd never heard of Majestic 12 (also know as MJ-12) and that's because it lives in the world of conspiracy theorists but Project Blue Book was real.  I also remember watching a TV show called Project U.F.O that followed two Project Blue Book investigators.  I was always disappointed that swamp gas seemed to be the answer behind most of the UFO sightings.  To be fair, Blue Book debunked most sightings it investigated.  Nine-year-old me really, really wanted to meet an alien.  In any case, you gotta love an author that can seamlessly blend fact and fiction to create, well, better fiction.

The story did bounce back and forth between Kirk's Enterprise and the Earth from the 40's to the 60's and made my head swim a bit.  Time travel stories have a way of spinning out of control if the author is not careful.  I did appreciate some of Kirk's musings on how time travel gave him a headache.

All in all the book was very entertaining and I highly recommend it.  As long as you have a passing knowledge of Star Trek you'll be fine.

Dayton Ward

Book Review #116 - Black Code by Ronald J. Deibert

Book 40 of 52

Page count - 312

The author tackles a very large and very complex subject here.  On-line security means something different depending on who you are addressing.  Individuals may not want to use their credit cards on dodgy websites; national leaders may want to protect military secrets; criminals may be looking for ways to exploit vulnerabilities.

Since the world is largely migrating to the internet the subject of security needs to be studied very seriously.  We are living in the cave-man days of the internet and it's very important to remember that and to understand just how vulnerable things really are.

Black Code is a scary book.

My blood was chilled after reading Chapter 3 about big data and how all these cherished free services (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) are just sucking up so much information about us, individually.  What we choose to share on-line can go further than we know;  upload a picture and all the meta data goes up with it.  This includes the date the photo was taken, the GPS information, the type of device used to take the picture.  Facial recognition software can work to identify everyone in the photo ... and on it goes.

It's not just what were posting but many mobile apps are also uploading our contact lists, our movements in and out of cell towers and WiFi hotspots. 

It truly feels like an invasion of my privacy when my whole day can be reconstructed from where my phone has been and how I've used it.

The book continues to expand on the subject by moving into the world of governments, hackers, military espionage, organized crime and oppression.

The subject is so large I found myself starting to gloss over what I was reading.  But I believe it to be a very important book if you are interested in the subject.  What it will do is change how you look at what you are doing with your cell phone or computer.  It will also point you in directions for further reading.

Here are some websites I visited after reading this book.

The Citizen Lab

Canada Centre for Global Security Studies

National Cyber Security Awareness Month. 

Ronald J. Deibert

Paperback cover