Past Blogs - Week of February 11 to February 17

Reviewed in 2017

Reviewed in 2016

Reviewed in 2016

Reviewed in 2015

Reviewed in 2014

Reviewed in 2013

The Relive Box by T. C. Boyle

Oh, my. What a good story.

Not because it’s uplifting, it dives deeply into obsession and addiction. 

But it goes to illustrate how any kind of  addictive compulsion can destroy lives. 

A single father is trying to cope with his compulsive use of a technology that allows him to access past memories and relive any moment he chooses.  

The danger with the tech is that people can get sucked in to reliving the past to the exclusion of the here and now. 

The father is deplorable in his struggle with the tech. He was completely unlikeable but the story was so well written I could not put it down. 

Terrific, disturbing stuff. 

T.C. Boyle's website - https://www.tcboyle.com/

TC Boyle

Our Choice by Al Gore - Book Report #218

Finally.  A climate change book with actual hope for the future.

Don't get me wrong, I was still immensely depressed reading the thing.  But with every bad thing Gore talks about he also shows the way out.  The hardest thing to realise is just how entrenched our way of life is.  How our economy is based on extraction, destruction and pollution.

But it can all be fixed.  My god!  The opportunity to reinvent our way of life is right in front of us.  It is all low-hanging fruit.

The book opened my eyes to the difficulties of making change but I can still exert influence in the consumer choices I make every day.  As an example, if people start buying electric cars, manufacturers will begin to build them.   But what of the electricity from the coal-fired power plants?  Well that's another story altogether isn't it?  Those utilities have influence in the government and their profits are based on a pollution model.  That's where putting a price on pollution (a carbon tax) comes into play.  A big reason we pollute is because it is free to do so.

The amount of jobs we could create, building an economy that is in tune with our environment, is staggering to consider.

This was a wonderful book and I am very glad I had the opportunity to engage with it.

Al Gore's website - https://www.algore.com/

Al Gore

Past Blogs - Week of February 4 to February 10

The trouble with blogs is that older posts get buried as new ones are published.  In an effort to keep the reviews relevant I will dig into the past and provide quick links to those reviews that could be forgotten otherwise.  Just click the book covers to be taken to the reviews.

Reviewed in 2012

Reviewed in 2013

Reviewed in 2014

Reviewed in 2015

Reviewed in 2016

Save Me Plz by David Barr Kirtley

This was an alright story. A play on the theory that we are all living inside a simulation.

If that’s true then why should we remain in the “real” world full of dullness, poverty and pain. Why not live in a computer game filled with adventure, mystery and clarity?

Like I said, it was alright. It landed a bit flat but that’s okay too. 

David Barr Kirtley's website - https://davidbarrkirtley.com/

David Barr Kirtley

Alone Against the North by Adam Shoalts - Book Report #217

Oh my goodness, this is the kind of book an armchair traveler enjoys - one that explores lands the reader would never consider exploring.

I kept asking myself what the hell Shoalts was thinking. The crazy muskeg swamps of the James Bay watershed are unexplored for a reason - they are nearly uninhabitable. 

But that’s what makes the book so interesting, Adam Shoalts is driven by a desire to fill in the small parts of the map that are still blank. And God bless him for it. 

But, to be honest, I felt the man needed to get his head examined for all the chances he took by himself.  

I feared for his safety, even though he lived to write the book.   The chances he took could have made his biography end with the scentence, “... never to be seen again.”

It truly was a terrific book that I highly recommend. 

Thanks to Adam for taking the journey - so I don’t have to.

Adam Shoalts' website - http://adamshoalts.com/

Adam Shoalts

< end game > by Chris Avellone

I don't know what to think of this story.

I enjoyed the text-based game play of it.  It read as if the reader is playing the game, typing the commands into the computer.

It soon becomes a game-within-a-game story but somehow the end just was not satisfying for me.  There is something missing and I can't quite put my finger on it.

It was well done but just did not work for me.


Chris Avellone's Wiki page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Avellone

Chris Avellone

Trading In Danger by Elizabeth Moon - Book Report #216

Now this is what I am talking about!

Humans, in space, trying to make a living, making mistakes, dealing with competitors, bureaucrats, the outbreak of war, ship repairs, mercenaries, mutinies, murder, running out of fuel, running out of money ...

Yup.  People being people.  In space.

Ky Vatta is the daughter of a vast family-run interstellar shipping company who breaks with family tradition and joins the military instead of the business.

She is thrown out of her unit and discharged under a cloud of controversy and dishonour.  The family takes her in and givers her a simple job to get out of the limelight and time to recover from the blow.

But the character traits that lead her into the military compel her to deviate from the plan of taking an old freighter to the scrap yard and she tries to use the opportunity to earn enough money to repair the ship and go into business for herself.

But the galaxy of other humans have plans of their own that conflict with hers.

It was terrific fun and I love this kind of SF, where being is space is no different to humans than being at sea. 

Elizabeth Moon has a terrific way of just making the character believable.  Ky Vatta makes all kinds of decisions that just make sense - they are logical.  I especially loved the moment in the book where Ky has an epiphany and decides that doing what is expected is exactly what got her into trouble (Other than the original decision to deviate from the flight path that is.) and starts making decisions instead of following orders from everybody who feels they have the right to tell her what to do.

Terrific.

Elizabeth Moon's website - http://www.elizabethmoon.com/

Elizabeth Moon

Outliers by Nicole Feldringer

I liked this story.

What happens when a smart, dedicated gamer plays a game meant to help crunch data to model global warming weather patterns?

When a flaw in the game is discovered we get to see how game design is affected by political desire.

I believe the story gives us a glimpse into the machinations of political influence of what we hear in the media about the Climate Change.

Nicole Feldringer's webpage - http://www.nicofeld.com/

Nicole Feldringer

PostCapitalism by Paul Mason - Book Report #215

I had a difficult time with this book.

It was mostly me, I just could not penetrate Mason's writing.  I found myself reading a passage and having to re-read it again to understand what he was saying.  It was like that for most of the book.

The subtitle was certainly a bit misleading - A Guide to Our Future it hardly was.  3/4 of the book was spent on describing capitalism's long history.  Over and over again the author would take us on a tour of the past.

Finally, in the last section, he began to apply theory to a new economic model.  It is interesting to contemplate the effect the digital realm is having on the economy.  It was also a challenge to imagine how a society would work without money.  Try it.  Every single aspect of our way of life relies on it.  It's like water.  We need it.

I found the book a difficult read but that has only spurred me on to wanting to learn more about it.  It is a curious notion to think that we are in the first decades of this very transformation.  Like everything else, I believe a solution will be found.  You have to believe that otherwise living is just too bleak.

I am not so sure I would recommend this book as I had such a difficult time with it.  But, without it, I wouldn't know where else to look to try to get a better understanding of a world without money.

I a search for more understanding on the subject I found The Postcapitalist Future website.  Try reading the manifesto first and see if that sparks any new insights.  -  http://postcapfuture.com/manifesto/

Paul Mason's website - http://www.paulmasonnews.com/

Paul Mason

REAL by Django Wexler

This was a cool, dark story.

A mysterious person goes looking for a recluse game designer who helped create one of the most addictive and believable games. 

The game has a deadly quality that the designer investigated and tried to correct. But then other powers worked against him. 

Once the narrator finds the designer the truth is revealed. 

I loved the dark quality of the city and found the writing captivating. 

It was another terrific entry in what is becoming a favourite anthology of mine. 

Django Wexler's website - http://djangowexler.com/

Django Wexler

This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein - Book Report #214

Here is another terrifying book that may well make you throw up your hands in the hopelessness of it all.  Humanity is polluting itself right out of existence and it seems there is no way to stop ourselves.

But Klein pulls back, just in time, at the very end of the book, to show us that there is a way out, that things can be done and there is a strong grass-roots movement underfoot that can lead us out of our mess.

Klein is a heavy-handed author but she does do her job by injecting some balance into her book.  Nothing frustrates me more than an author that will only write about the problems without offering solutions as inspiration to make things better.  Klein at least makes an attempt to show us alternatives.

One thing she touched on that caught my attention is the notion that there is a way of life that does not involve capitalism.  Post-capitalism, because it's such a new idea that capitalism's replacement has no name and barley a framework.  But if you can imagine a society without money, then you can see where this kind of structure could lead us out of our current mindset of resource based extraction economies.

It was one of those moments where an author gave me an entire new avenue of thinking that I find intriguing.

I do recommend the book but, be warned, it can be a bit of a slog.

Naomi Klein's website - http://www.naomiklein.org/main

Survival Horror by Seanan McGuire

At first I groaned when I began the story.  I am no fan of fantasy, magic and weird creatures.  I am never in the mood.  Although I like science fiction, and you can certainly see the parallels, I at least enjoy "plausible" SF.

A couple teenagers are in the basement reading comics and installing a new computer game.  Once loaded all the lights go out and the evil magic begins.  The my groaning began.

But there was always a line of humour in it that kept me reading.

I certainly enjoyed how, when the parents got involved, everything got mundane and still quite funny.

It was a good story because the twist ending worked well for me.

Seanan McGuire's website - http://www.seananmcguire.com/

Happy New Years Resolution

Normally I look at my reading accomplishments and just want to read more.

This year, my challenge to myself is to read books that I actually own.

Most of my reading has been through the Edmonton Public Library.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that but I am, what is charitably called, a bibliophile.  I buy books and simply shelve them.  I love books and want them around me but there is always something I don't own that I am interested in reading and the library enables me to do so.

But I have so many books that I have been forced to box up most of them and store them in the basement, and yet I keep buying more.

So this year the only books I will enjoy from the library are audio books, which I listen to while delivering the mail.

My books deserve my attention and this is the year I will make a dent in them.

Not a bad goal, eh?

My idea of heaven.

Below are pictures from my basement of shelves and boxes packed with books I have not read.  My house should look like the image above but, since it doesn't, I have to start unpacking and read, read, read.

1Up by Holly Black - Short Story Reviw

Oh!  This was terrific fun.

A trio of gammer friends, who have never met in real life, travel together to the funeral of another internet friend.

Proving that friendships can and do form online, the trio go on an adventure to unravel a mystery.  There are clues in the dead boy's room that lead them to a computer game that leads them out into the real world.

This could easily be made into a movie.  It reminded me very much of Ready Player One.

Holly Black's website - http://blackholly.com/

Holly Black

More Fool Me by Stephen Fry - Book Report #213

I love Stephen Fry.  He is such an unusual person and a towering intellect with a complete gift of language.

The book was self-deprecating and read like a conversation with the man.  He played nicely with structure and kept my interest throughout.

But there was so much name-dropping that I was lost on many occasions.  But that is the nature of the business that he is in.  Success and longevity rely on contacts; meeting and knowing lots of people.  Where the book lost my interest was the Dear Diary portion - 143 pages of parties, openings, dinners, cocaine, late nights, writing, voice overs, drinking and plays.  It got to be a bit much.

But, the last few pages brought it all together and made me think, "This is why I love you so much Stephen!"

Sometimes I like an actor instinctively and just don't know why.  I have found that it is because their real character has a way of seeping through, colouring their work and it is that that I connect with.

I came away from reading the book a bigger fan.  No, I don't like that word, let's go with admirer.  He is much more than his acting, which is how he came to my attention in the first place.

Renaissance Man - that is what Stephen Fry is.  What a joy it is to be able to spend some time getting to know such a person, in his own words.

Yes, I admire Fry even more.

Nevertheless by Alec Baldwin - Book Report #212

I have a soft spot for Alec Baldwin.

He seems he could be a gruff person but there is something about him that I find interesting.

I loved that he started the book by stating that he did it for the money.

He then goes on to explain why that is.

Sure I was into the book because I am a fan and I wanted to hear about The Hunt for Red October.  But I also wanted to know what the business of being an actor is about.

What I got was a complex story about the man himself, what motivated him early on and what moves him now.  His struggles with drugs and his marriage to Kim Basinger played enormous roles in who he is today.

I came away from the book feeling that I had a pretty good measure of the man before I started it.  Say what you will about movie stars, their lives are not easy and a regular person can still learn a lot from those willing to lay themselves out there.

I was lucky enough to enjoy the audiobook, which was read by Baldwin himself.  That voice.  Honey and gravel. 

Loved it.

Alec Baldwin - like you needed me to tell you.

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

The Skull by Philip K Dick - Short Story Review

This was a cool time travel story.  One that plays with the grandfather paradox.

A prisoner, his name being Conger, with skills in hunting, tracking and killing is dispatched to the past to prevent the rise of a religion that upsets the status quo.

I liked how so many of the aspects of the story are now hardwired into storytelling today.  Messing with the timeline can have unexpected consequences.

It was well done and terrific to know that Dick helped to lay the foundation in this type of story.

You can read the story online here - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30255/30255-h/30255-h.htm

Philip K Dick

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.