Insane Mode by Hamish Mckenzie - Book Review #322

 

How Elon Musk's Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution to End the Age of Oil

In the fast-paced world of technology, a book like this one can age quickly in so much as knowing that more has progressed since the publication date.  This could easily be updated every couple of years.

Still, it was a terrific read and made me appreciate just how complicated the industry is.

Getting into the automobile industry is hard enough (understatement, it's next to impossible) but to try and change the foundation of that industry is madness. 

Steve Jobs may have wanted to "dent the universe," Elon Musk is taking a crowbar to it.  With his passion and determination, he has managed to create a paradigm shift not only in the automobile industry, but to change how the entire human race operates, which will in turn save us from global climate change.

He is the catalyst to help us enter the electric age.  What?  There is electricity everywhere!  Sure, but it is nearly all powered by the burning of fossil fuels.  We are still very much in the combustion age. 

Honestly, I felt reassured that the electrification of transportation, and how society operates, is now unstoppable.  We will have economic, technical, and social advancements in the next couple of decades much like the post World War Two years.

Reading this book won't bring you up to the current state of the industry, it cannot do that, but it gave me an appreciation of the complexity and the activity that is underway, out of public view and in countries that are not in Europe or North America.

Highly recommended. 

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier - Book Report #318

 I've been reading the book Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier.  In it he made a chilling observation; how the consumption of news is no longer a shared experience.  In the pre-social media times folks would get their news from television, radio or newspapers.  Everybody got the same message.

Picture this, we are in a large room with dozens of people, or a football game, it doesn't matter, if everybody was looking at their phones at the same time, all looking at the news feed on Facebook, not one feed would be the same!  The algorithms choose what is presented to each individual, tailored to their browning history.

You can see how this could cause confusion among folks, because nobody is getting the same story.  Social media, being what it is, is not not held to the same standards as traditional journalism and therefore has the ability to muddy the waters of trust.

The trouble with algorithms is that they are not working for US, they are working for the social media companies.  They are designed to keep us "engaged" and to stay on their platforms for as long as possible.  These algorithms don't care HOW they keep us scrolling and they all eventually learn that negative stories are more powerful "engagement" tools than positive ones.

By law, traditional broadcast media must present fact-checked and balanced stories.  Do they sometimes get it wrong?  Absolutely!  They are run by humans after all.  But humans are guided by a moral imperative (some more than others to be sure) and we have structures of checks and balances to keep people who are reporting and broadcasting the news accountable.   The black boxes that feed us the news on social media platforms have no such morals and have a different goal than the reporting of the best version of the truth available at the time.

Lanier is a compelling writer and has a sense of humor about the predicament we find ourselves in today.  

Recommended.  It'll make you think about what you're doing with your phone. 

The Year of Less by Cait Flanders - Book Report #306

How I stopped shopping, gave away

 my belongings, and discovered life is worth more

 than anything you can buy in a store.

It's a common problem in our cozy First World:  we have too much.

Too much stuff, too much clutter, too many calories and, too many demands on our time.

There are loads of self-help books out there help us to simplify our lives.

This one was a little different.  I was expecting the nuts and bolts of simplifying, hoping to find a few tips and inspiration.  What I got was the struggle the author went through to achieve her goals, not how she did them.  It showed the strategies she employed to keep herself on track and it explored how she motivated herself to continue even when events in her personal life could easily have derailed her.

This was very helpful.  To be shown how the conversations you have with others, how challenges in life, be it professional or personal, have the ability to make your well laid out plans more difficult, was refreshing and familiar.  I did like how she tracked her progress on a calendar, it's something I use everyday; seeing the successful days pile up as I cross them off in bold, black Sharpie is satisfying.

I like to think of the book as a personal growth memoir rather than a self-help book.  Cait Flanders offered plenty of inspiration but she also gave lots of room to make her experience something I could modify and make my own.

It was a warm and charming book.  I was rooting for her the whole time.

Cait Flanders' Website - https://caitflanders.com/

Cait Flanders

Dissapointment River By Brian Castner - Book Report #303

Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage

I love stories like these.  

This is a real-life, modern-day, canoe journey of the Mackenzie River.  The author decided to follow in the footsteps of Alexander Mackenzie who paddled the river in the hopes of finding an inland Northwest Passage.  "The Mackenzie river is the longest river system in Canada, and includes the second largest drainage basin of any North American river after the Mississippi." (Passage from Wikipedia)

From his starting point at Great Slave Lake all the way to the Arctic Ocean Brian Castner weaves his voyage to that of Mackenzie's.  At certain points in the trip Castner and Mackenzie stood on the same spots, on the same dates, 227 yeas apart.   

Blending history to the modern day by replicating an event, is an effective way to bring history alive and to compare the two worlds.  At times, the author is vividly imagining what Mackenzie and his party went through only to be knocked back into the present by the passing of a speedboat or a container ferry.

In many ways, life has not changed at all in the Canadian north in 1779 Mackenzie was trying to find his fortune, the industry of the day were furs.  Today, oil, gas and mining dominate.

I was thankful for the trip Brian Castner took and glad he chose to write about it.  I was thrilled to shoot the rapids with him from the safety of my couch.  I was happy to learn a bit more about Canadian history and to simply answer the question as to how the river got its modern name.  It is traditionally known as the Deh-Cho by the way.  I was also very happy to learn that no way in hell would I want to take a similar trip.

This was a terrific story.

Brian Castner's website - https://briancastner.com/

The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi - Book Report #296

Book 2 of the The Interdependency series

Once again, Scalzi managed to entertain by cutting to the chase expecting his audience to keep up with him and using humor to terrific effect.

I am saddened to know that I have to wait until the spring of 2020 before the third book in the series is published.

In this book we come to learn more about the history of The Flow and of the Interdependency.  On a side mission we get to explore a long-cut-off part of space and human history.  There we meet a new character that I very much enjoyed.

The bigger, political and power-grabbing parts of the story that normally bore me to tears were made much more entertaining by putting Kiva Lagos into the middle of all of it.  Believe me, she is so much fun.

All in all, this was a fun read and I am looking forward to the next one.

~ ~ ~

On a personal note, this book got me through a difficult time in my life.  Our long-lived 16 year old Labrador was terribly sick and we had to put her down while I was reading the final few chapters of the story.  Thank you Mr. Scalzi for providing me with a much needed distraction and for giving me much joy in the story.

John Scalzi

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard - Book Review #286

I have a soft spot for AI’s and especially the one’s the occupy spaceships.  There is something familiar and yet alien about them.  Because I love ships of all kinds, ocean-going or space, I feel protective to them.

The Shadow’s Child was a military transport that suffered a catastrophic ambush in a past war and is currently working from a space station, taking on occasional passengers and brewing drugs to help humans cope and function during FTL flights.

I was taken by the acceptance of the AI as a being with rights and responsibilities.  Perhaps this is because the intelligence itself was first created by human parents before being transferred to the ship’s systems.

I was also taken by the culture, so much of SF seems to be an extension of Western military life but here the culture is overwhelmingly Asian in influence.  I found this refreshing.  So much world-building calls for authors to invent systems that fit their stories but why not use ones that are part of our world today?  If humanity is to expand into space it’s logical that we will take our cultures with us.

The story a pastiche as the two main characters, Long Chau is much like Sherlock Holmes and The Shadow’s Child as Watson.  The characters were engaging and the mystery cloaked in family history.

It was a delight of a book.  Plus, it won the Nebula Award for best Novella in 2018.

Aliette de Boddard’s Website - https://aliettedebodard.com/

Aliette de Bodard

The Court Magician by Sarah Pinsker - A Short Story Review

One can make a case that Fantasy is just the opposite side of the coin where Science Fiction resides.  Technology can be substituted by magic, starships by dragons.

I prefer to imagine my world forward because I am curious.  I want to know what is around the next bend.  When you look far enough back, history becomes legend.  Somehow I don’t find that as satisfying.

This is a fantasy story.  

A young boy is noticed then groomed to become the next court magician.  He is overseen by - a ghost - I guess, but certainly his predecessor.

The child learns everything he is taught and is disappointed that most of the magic he has seen can be explained as slight of hand.  The more he learns the closer he gets to real magic.  Real magic exists but at a cost to the magician.

How much of that cost can the young man bear?

It was a well written story and a good one to boot.  It’s just not the kind of story I am drawn to.

I just wish the Hugos would split the Fantasy from the Science Fiction.  This is something Lightspeed Magazine identifies and I appreciate it very much.

Sarah Pinsker’s website - http://sarahpinsker.com/

Lightspeed Magazine - https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/

Sarah Pinsker

The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat by Brooke Bolander - A Short Story Review

Uncanny Magazine July/August 2018

It’s been a while since I’ve ready some short stories and I wanted some kind of direction.  I turned to the Hugo Awards for that.  I decided the 2019 short list would make for an excellent anthology of sorts.

I started from the bottom of the short story list and I plan to work my way up to the winner.

The story was funny, menacing and a perfect twist on the damsel in distress trope.  The Princess Bride came to my mind, but with dinosaurs and that worked very well for me.

One day the Prince from a nearby kingdom wanders by and is nearly eaten.  Through strange circumstances he manages to bring one of the raptor sisters into his realm and tries to make her the Royal Mount to replace the horse he rode in on.

But the Raptor Sisters and the Princess have other ideas.

It is no wonder this story was short-listed; it was fresh, original and had a rollicking good time flipping genres on their sides.

Brooke Bolander’s website - http://brookebolander.com/

Uncanny Magazine - https://uncannymagazine.com/

Brooke Bolander

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig - Book Report #278

This is a heart-warming and helpful little book.  It is filled with bite-sized essays and random thoughts to help you come to terms with, cope and make a positive influence on a world that has seemingly lost its mind.

Matt Haig is refreshingly candid about his struggles coping in a  modern, connected, fake-news-filled world.  Sharing his discoveries and skills of how he navigates the currents of a nasty time in our “civil” society is a gift to anybody who takes the time to read his book.

One of my favourite thoughts come from the chapter Shock of the News, in an essay called, Shocks to the System he says;

"Change doesn't just happen by focusing on the place you want to escape.  It happens by focusing on where you want to reach.  Boost the good guys, don't just knock the bad guys.  Find the hope that is already here and help it grow."

I loved this book.  It was a positive experience and read like a paper-bound twitter account, only better and more thoughtful.  I could pick it up and read a passage or two or make a cup of tea and settle back and enjoy the warmth of a positive human being finding his way in this world.

Highly recommended.

Matt Haig's website - http://www.matthaig.com/

Matt Haig

Firefly: Big Damn Hero by James Lovegrove and Nancy Holder - Book Review #274

It was a joy to see the crew in the ‘verse once again!

This is the first instalment in a three-book run of tie-in novels in the Firefly universe.

I truly believed these stories were never going to see print.  Joss Whedon has been reluctant to open the universe he created to expansion.  Perhaps he’s come to the conclusion that this is the medium where Malcom Reynolds and the rest of the crew can “keep flying.”

As a story, it was pretty good.  Most of my giddy fan-boy self needed a few chapters to settle down and enjoy the story for what it is - a new adventure!

I do like how the book went back to the TV show’s roots and began the story with Badger consigning a cargo to the crew of Serenity.  It had a nice symmetry.

But things go wrong quickly when Mal is kidnapped, the crew is split up and Zoe must take the ship out to make the time-sensitive delivery.

If you’re a fan of Firefly do not hesitate to buy the book.  It is a lovely thing to hold and will make any Browncoat happy to have it on display.

The author had a perfect grasp of the characters and the universe they inhabit.  It also had fantastic passages that shed light on Mal’s early years.  This is where the book sang for me.  Getting to know these terrific characters a little bit better is welcomed.

Recommended.

James Lovegrove’s website - https://www.jameslovegrove.com/

Nancy Holder’s website - http://nancyholder.com/

James Lovegrove

Nancy Holder

Suicide of the West by Jonah Goldberg - Book Report #270

Wow!

This is a deep, twisting and mind-numbingly complicated topic.

Why does the world seem so angry?  Why are there so many trolls on the internet?  Is our democracy eroding?  Has capitalism reached its end days?

All of these questions and possible paths to take to avoid war and anarchy are addressed.  Yes, I found some of this impossible to follow but I simply allowed the narrative to continue and to glean the broader concepts.

All-in-all, it was a frightening subject to contemplate considering that our economy (meaning money) is completely decoupled from nature, which is where our economy comes from.

Faced with the realities of crushing national & personal debt, climate change, a growing economic gap between the rich & poor and immigration, humanity is swinging back to populism, read tribalism, in order to cope with these overwhelming problems.

I am unable to give the book its just review here because I am simply not as smart as the author.  I can say that I found it to be a well researched and well-argued subject and that I am richer and more informed for having “read” it.  (It was the audiobook version, thanks to the Edmonton Public Library)

Highly recommended.

Jonah Goldberg 

The 5AM Club by Robin Sharma - Book Review #269

Okay, first off let me say that Sharma is not the best writer of narrative fiction.  Which is too bad because the whole book is a story of three unlikely companions who meet at a motivational talk.

Like many self-help books, I found that I could use a few tips but trying to work my life into the suggested format, well ...

I did take to heart and make changes to my digital distractions.  I've turned just about every notification off and I have found that my life is much more peaceful from that single act.  Now I see that Sharma was right; I look around and see everybody staring at screens.  I sometimes find it difficult to hold a conversation with someone because they are constantly checking their phone.

I've also taken a closer look at the quality of my time spent on my devices; I now ask myself,  “am I learning something new or am I being sucked into an Instagram or Twitter vortex?”

Instead of having notifications pushed to me, and distracting me, I pull the information down when I'm ready.

Let me say that reading the book was not a waste of my time.  I learned a lot and I've taken some of its lessons to heart but to live in a prescribed manner?  Well, I am not sold on it.

I do however get up at 5 am, but I was doing so before the book.

Near the end, reading it got a bit tedious as the language kept getting more grandiose.

It’s worth reading, I just don’t think it’s worth buying.  Borrow it from a friend or the library.

Robins Sharma's website - https://www.robinsharma.com/

Robin Sharma

Do You Really Need It? By Pierre-Yves McSween - Book Report #268

The book consists of a list of 41 basic questions anybody, at any time in life, should be asking themselves.

Do you really need a new car, a specific brand, a budget or even ownership?

There is quite a bit of humour spread throughout which helps to explain and shine a light on the pressures we all face to conform with society and how that affects us financially.

I found myself putting the book down often to think about my own choices.  This book is quite illuminating.

It is often helpful to step back and see what we do automatically in our daily lives and to question it.

Recommended.

Pierre-Yves McSween

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

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells - Book Review #262

This is the second book in the Murderbot series and it was a lot of fun.

Our “free,” rogue Murderbot goes back to where it all went wrong.

In this book we explore his ability to move about in free society, keeping to the shadows, and to learn how he came to hack his own governor module and how he became involved in the massacre that has haunted him throughout the last book.

I keep imagining Peter Weller in Robocop.  Our guy is messed up, self-aware, childlike and dangerous as hell.

To investigate his past, he boards a cargo/research ship that is about to depart without a crew.  AI’s are so advanced that, when the ship is not being used by its human crew, it goes off on routine cargo runs to generate revenue.  The AI of this ship is well tuned to interacting with humans and it allows Murderbot aboard so it could have somebody to talk to.

Their interactions are what makes this book work for me.

Lots of fun here.

Martha Wells' website - https://www.marthawells.com/

Martha Wells

The AI Cold War That Threatens Us All by Nicholas Thompson and Ian Bremmer - Wired Magazine article

In the November 2018 issue of Wired magazine, Nicolas Thompson and Ian Bremmer made a compelling case that we could be headed to a new kind of Cold War.

The future of relations between China and the United States revolves around AI, 5G networks, surveillance and intellectual property rights.

I found the whole article chilling and well thought out.  It extrapolates the near future based on today’s headlines and they even offer an alternative to the direction we seem to be on.

That alternative seems, to me at least, a bit optimistic but it is the best possible outcome.

Take the time to dig out the article.  It satisfied the futurist in me.

The article can be found here - https://www.wired.com/story/ai-cold-war-china-could-doom-us-all/

The Code that Crashed the World by Andy Greenberg - An Article Review

First published in Wired magazine’s September 2018 issue, Andy Greenberg shares an excerpt from his book Sandworm, to expose the damage caused by the Russian cyber attack of June 27, 2017.

The author focused on the damage caused to, and effort to recover from, the hack on the Maersk shipping company.

The whole thing read like an action movie and went to expose just how vulnerable the world’s networked computers are.  I found this to be a fantastic read.  It was also very, very scary.  This is not fiction, this happened and can easily happen again.

On the positive side, you can bet that these vulnerabilities are being addressed.  But it all came about because of apathy - since nothing has happened in the past there was no reason to prepare for the future.  Something we are all guilty of, really.

Whey was the last time you changed your passwords?

Link to the Wired article - https://www.wired.com/story/notpetya-cyberattack-ukraine-russia-code-crashed-the-world/

Andy Greenberg's Wired bio - https://www.wired.com/author/andy-greenberg/

Andy Greenberg

The Big Picture by Richard Heinberg - An Essay Review

The subject of this essay is not an easy one to take but it has been all over the news lately.

The polarization of our politics, the ever-increasing wage gap and the threat of global warming are all pointing to a possible collapse of our ways of life.

But what does that really mean?  Are we headed to a Mad Max existence or a post-capitalist utopia as Star Trek depicts?

I have seen many titles, I am currently reading one, that describe a “post” world order; post-oil, post-capitalism, post-consumerism, post-globalization and post-industrialization. Everything seems to be pointing to a new world order.

This can be quite terrifying for a lot of people.  Let’s face it, most people don’t like change.

The Post Carbon Institute is where I found this essay which does not sugar-coat the possibility of a Mad Max future but it equally depicts the path toward a better, more sustainable alternative.

This is a big topic.  This little essay is a great way to start thinking about the changes that are coming and the choices we will have.

Highly recommended.

You can find the essay here - https://www.postcarbon.org/the-big-picture/

Richard Heinberg's website - http://richardheinberg.com/

Richard Heinberg

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 edited by N. K. Jemisin & John Joseph Adams - Book Report #250

I have avoided previous editions of The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy because of the title.  You see, I am not much of a Fantasy fan and I believed I'd only enjoy about half the offerings.  With this opportunity, I was exposed to stories outside my comfort zone.  And isn’t that what reading should be all about?

Many stories in this collection are so broad that, to be squeezed into a Fantasy or Science Fiction label, is a bit constricting.  But then I was left wondering; if the editors wanted to increase awareness of these authors, where else could they have showcased them?  Of all the genres out there F&SF are the most accommodating.

In all cases, the quality of the writing was so good that I found myself transported into the stories.  There is something here to appeal to just about everybody but that doesn't mean I enjoyed each one.  Some genres simply do not appeal to me.  Each story had an interesting twist that pushed the boundaries and created something unexpected and interesting.

The deeper I got into the collection, I began to suspect that the fiction selected was geared more to introducing the curious to genre fiction than to entertaining the entrenched reader.  However, the skill of the editors was evident whenever I found myself sighing, wondering when I would return to a science fiction story.  The pacing and placement of the stories rewarded me for reading through the stuff I found challenging.

Some of the standouts were penned by Charles Payseur, Jaymee Goh, A. Merc Rustad and Rachael K. Jones.

I wouldn't say that the book was an easy read because some stories either frustrated or disturbed me in some way.  I will say that it was a rewarding experience; I did not plow through the anthology but let each story sit with me for a while before moving on to the next one.  Some of the more challenging ones stayed in my mind for days, they gave me something valuable to think about.  There was often more going on between the words than the story that lived on the surface of the text.

And that would be my advice to readers of this book - take your time with it, read only one story a day.  Believe in the editors, they saw something in each tale that was worthy of them being collected here.  I have been constantly impressed with how some stories expanded in my mind over a day or two to make me feel that I had read a novel.

In the coming days and weeks, I will review each story in the collection individually.

Full Disclosure - I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

N. K. Jemisin's website - http://nkjemisin.com/

John Joseph Adams' website - http://www.johnjosephadams.com/

N. K. Jemisin

John Joseph Adams

Normandy Gold story by Megan Abbott & Alison Gaylin art by Steve Scott & Rodney Ramos - A Graphic Novel Review

Once again Hard Case Crime and Titan Comics have published a story that is gritty, violent, scary and just uncomfortable enough to keep the reader engaged.

Normandy is a county sheriff who is a witness, well ear-witness, who hears her troubled sister murdered while on the phone.

Set in the dirty 70's the look and feel of the book drew inspiration from such movies as Taxi Driver and All the Presidents Men.  The murder is largely ignored since Normandy's sister was a prostitute.  So she takes up the investigation.

But in this story she is no cop, she is out for revenge and to hurt as many people as she can along the way.

I liked the story but as I said, it was disturbing too.  The lengths Normandy went to learn the truth made me question her sanity.  But then that edginess kept me reading too.

In the end, I needed to take a walk to get some fresh air and then to take a shower, just to remove the effect the story had on me.

The style of the artwork is a perfect rendering of those times and just like those movies, I did not come away feeling good about humanity.

The ending was satisfying but I came away from it questioning my own sense of justice as much as Normandy Gold's

Read this carefully and do not let children near it.

Megan Abbott's website - https://www.meganabbott.com/

Alison Gaylin's website - https://www.alisongaylin.com/