Stars, Won’t You Hide Me? by Ben Bova

For a last installment in a very good collection this one was mind-blowing in its scale.

Holman wakes with the ship's computer AI asking for instructions.  Where should we go?  The ship has been damaged in an attack but it is repairing itself.

Humanity has been at war with The Others and they have come back to exterminate every last person left alive.

Not only did the include faster-than-light travel but  it is an intergalactic chace story.  Humanity has been judged as unworthy to continue existing.

This was a terrific epic that could easily have been made into a complete series of novels.  Bova did a great job of succinctly telling a giant story by showing us what happened to one single man.

The 50-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years, Book Two by Mark A. Altman & Edward Gross - Book Review #231

This was a giant addition to the previous book.

Once again it is just packed with insights some readily known others scathing.  But it still manages to make me wonder how the shows ever made it to the screen.  There was so much interference by the creators, studios, networks that all managed to dumb down the product.

What rally made me unhappy was how the powers that be consistently underestimated the audience.

As I've mentioned before, I love the DVD extras that are part of most movies you can buy.  This filled that desire so very well.

I've enjoyed these volumes as audiobooks and I must say that the productions was very well thought out.  It was not just read by one person.  Since the books is nothing more interviews thoughtfully laid out to make a cohesive narrative, the producers of the audiobook hired a cast of narrators which made following along that much easier.  It would have been very easy to lose track of who was doing the talking had it been read by only one person.

I had no idea how scripts were written for the show, when you have that many people writing and making changes along the way to production, the original idea of an episod was often completely lost in the process.  How I would love to read the originally intended stories in book form, just to get an idea of what could have been.

The only example of that is Harlan Ellison's City on the Edge of Forever, which has been made into a comic book and released as a novela under his own name.  What was intended and what was delivered is actually quite disappointing in comparison.

I loved this series of books.  If you like knowing what happened on the set an in the writers room, then you'll love these books.

Highly recommended.

A Long Way Back by Ben Bova

I found this story less plausible, so I had trouble getting behind the premise.

In America, after a nuclear exchange, society has devolved as you might expect - into tribal behavior.  One enclave is formed where the leadership decides to rebuild society by first scavenging rocket parts and then sending one volunteer into orbit to assemble a power satellite that has been parked there since before the war.

He has been trained by hypnosis (really?) and barely has enough oxygen to get the job done (odd).

Once the true nature of the mission is discovered, and the manipulations that took place to get it done, our poor hypnotized astronaut changes the rules.

There was something that could have worked in the story but placing it in a post-apocalypse setting threw the whole thing off balance .  At least for me.

Star Wars: Aftermath, Book One by Chuck Wendig - Book Report #230

This is an interesting series.  In the run up to the much-anticipated release of the new Star Wars movie The Force Awakens Chuck Wendig wrote a trilogy that bridges the time between since Return of the Jedi.  32 years is a lot of time to play with.

The only downside to the story is the filler.  There are so many action sequences, that felt unnecessary, it quickly became boring.

But it was the narration, done by Mark Thompson, that kept the story lively.  He is a terrific voice actor with a complete command of accents.  This was impressive considering how many characters the author used.

It should also be said that the music and sound effects were amazing.  It was a complete experience.  It is unusual to hear a full audio drama.

There was a lot of exposition to cover, but since the leadership of the Empire is dead, Wendig chose to focus on one splinter group which control three capital ships.  During a secret meeting with this group of Empeirals an unlikely group of people come together to thwart their plans.

I loved the formation of that rebel team.

Chuck Wendig's website:  http://terribleminds.com/ramble/

Chuck Wendig

Sword Play by Ben Bova

This was not a SF story but more a coming of age one.

Luckily Bova writes an introduction to each story in this collection. Otherwise, I would have been left wondering why it was included. 

It deals with boys coming to terms with things they don't currently understand, about being open to others and willing to learn.

It was a warm story.

Count Backwards To Zero by Brett Halliday - Book Report #229

I must admit that I spent a lot of time rolling my eyes while reading this book.

Sure it's a hard-boiled detective story, which is something I love, but I couldn't help thinking about how it just did not stand up to what transpires today.  Okay, I know it's not fair, it was written in 1971 and things were different.

I may also have suffered by the fact that this is the 62nd volume in the series so there are many relationships in the book that seem so very convenient that they took me out of the story.

Here's the premise: an British scientist, suicidally depressed, is convinced to smuggle plutonium into the US on board the RMS Queen Mary.  Mike Shayne boards the ship in Bermuda and immediately becomes entangled in the conspiracy.

The moment the story had Shayne doing some pretty heroic automobile maintenance in the hold of the ship, I was out.  There is no way one man could do what he did, and talk about a dangerous job to boot!

Once he is on his home turf of Miami the level of suspension of disbelief I needed was too much.  It started with his personal car, which had a car phone - in 1971!  I had to Google when car phones first made it to market.  Yup, that fit reality, but it must have been incredibly expensive.  This Mike Shayne guy must be very successful and have tons of money.

This was further proven out when his car is shown to have a booby trap right out of James Bond.

It goes on - his reputation is so good that the local police allow him to investigate the conspiracy.  When the FBI become involved the local cops convince the feds to let Shayne continue.

The sex was unbelievable, the relationships and deals Shayne creates out of nothing were also impossible to buy.

In short, this book is terrible because it was written straight.  Today, with only a little bit of rewriting, it would make a terrific comedy.

Funny how nearly 50 years can change a story.

Brett Halliday

The Shining Ones by Ben Bova

This could be shot as a movie by Steven Spielberg.

It has all the elements; a troubled youngster, a small town, local police, the army and an alien encounter. 

Johnny has run away from home and discovered a UFO landing site.  While he hides out he watches the affairs around the craft. 

Forced by curiosity, his own personal need and hunger he sneaks into the camp the military have built around the UFO. 

The story was charming and warm. 

A treat.

Ben Bova's website:  http://benbova.com/

The 50 Year Mission - Book One by Edward Gross & Mark A. Altman - Book Report #228

Simply terrific stuff.

I am a person who LOVES DVD extras; this is over 400 pages (25 hours of listening) of unedited, unauthorized and unapologetic behind-the-scenes stories of the first 25 years of Star Trek creativity. 

The stories contained are fearless in exposing the warts, egos and political maneuvers that created this thing. 

My god, I would have thrown my hands up and gone on to something else if I had to work in such an environment. 

It is shocking that anything made it to television, never mind the movies.

All-in-all it was terrific fun.

Highly recommended - if you're a fan.

Past Blogs - May 6 to May 12

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The Next Logical Step by Ben Bova

Wow!

THIS is what great science fiction is all about. 

It is just as timely and important today as it was back in 1962.

A top secret computer model predicts the likely scenario of a world after a nuclear exchange. 

This should be required reading to those in power and to every high school student. 

Chilling. 

To me this is the best story in the collection. 

Ben Bova's website:  http://benbova.com/

Artemis by Andy Weir - Book Report #227

This was just the kind of science fiction I crave.

Jazz Bashara is a 20-something resident of the moon colony, Artemis.  She isn't a scientist or an engineer, no she is a smuggler.  Working as a courier between the bubbles of the colony she manages to eke out a living.  Which is why she brings in some contraband to supplement her income

When one of her customers, a very wealthy business man, offers her a lucrative payoff for doing a crime outside her usual realm, she takes the job.

Of course, things don't go quite as planned, there would be no story if it did.

For me, it's not the caper itself that drove me to turn the pages.  It was the setting.  Artemis is essentially a frontier town set on the Sea of Tranquility, 40 kilometers away from the Apollo 11 landing site.  The colony survives on tourism (a visitor centre is built at Tranquility Base) and by producing oxygen and aluminum from the regolith.

The place is populated with people who are making a living keeping the base operating and expanding.  It has its own economy, even it's own currency.

What I like in the story is how Weir answers the question; "What would it be like to live on the moon permanently?"  Well, you'd need to make it a place people would want to go - hence the tourism aspect, it brings in much needed money to build infrastructure. 

In order to build all of that you'll need trades people, who will bring their families or create them as relationships are formed.  This is how our character, Jazz has come to Artemis, she was born there. 

Back to the story.  All the stuff that makes humans so darn messy and interesting is on the moon too.  Greed, ambition and deception are all present during and especially after the caper is done.

There is an aspect of Weir's previous book, The Martian, here too.  When things go wrong, and lots of things do, the problems need to be solved one at a time.  Sometimes fixing one thing breaks another.  Which was almost comical but the stakes were too high for it be so.  Solving the problems required skills, knowledge and teamwork.

And ultimately the story was about people rising above their current situations. 

The dialogue was smart and sassy.

Artemis proves that Andy Weir will be with us for a long time, writing adventures and inspiring people to work toward a bigger future.

Andy Weir's website: http://www.andyweirauthor.com/

Andy Weir

Past Blogs - April 29 to May 5

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Blood of Tyrants by Ben Bova

A sequel of sorts to Escape!

Bova took the main character of Danny and put him in a far-different rehabilitation program. 

It was an interesting story where Danny takes everything he’s learned about how re-enter society and puts his own twist on things when he’s released. 

I’ve got to say this is the weakest story so far.  It relied too much on my willingness to suspend disbelief. 

Star Trek: Envoy, a Captain Sulu Adventure by L. A. Graf - Book Report #226

At first I was disappointing by the short, one hour, run time of the audio book.

But it was well produced and narrated by none other than George Takei.  So I was in.

The story is set in the time period of Captain Sulu's command of the USS Excelsior.

Starfleet Command orders Sulu to board a shuttle and travel to a nearby starbase to assist in the final stages of a peace treaty between the Krikiki and the Den-Kai races who have been at war for decades.

When he finds out what his part in the peace process entails, Sulu finds himself in a battle between his personal morals and the greater good. 

This is the kind of subject matter that makes Star Trek so very special.

I enjoyed the story very much and found the one hour duration similar to watching an episode of the TV series.

Past Blogs - April 22 to April 28

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Men of Good Will by Ben Bova

An interesting treat of a story.

What happens when you use weapons, designed on Earth, and fire them on the moon?

A funny and sobering look at orbital mechanics. 

Fast Food Genocide by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. - Book Report #225

This was a fascinating exploration of the modern diet, it's effects on our bodies and on our society.

Dr. Fuhrman explains that the phenomenon of fast food and highly processed foods are really a product from the end of World War II.  It was the military that encouraged and funded the push to create shelf-stable, packaged foods so they could feed the troops.

With that newly created technology the food we ate was forever changed and our way of life along with it.  Convenience foods, by their very nature, has kept us from thinking about what we are eating.

The medical community has been focused on drugs to treat the symptoms instead of superior diet to prevent the conditions.

The good news is that all the healthy alternatives are pretty easy to come by.

In my experience, to eat healthy, you really have to work at it.  It's not just about reading labels, which is a good first step, but you have to cook your own food.  That's the bottom line - you are going to spend a lot of time in front of a cutting board.  Get yourself some good knives because they are essential for making the journey from opening a package to preparing food from scratch.

All that work is worth it though.  I have lost 25 pounds, my cholesterol is now normal and my blood pressure has also come down.  I feel better and have more energy at the end of the day.

In the book Dr. Fuhrman explains how and why our cities are built the way they are and the political influence the large food manufacturers, cattle associations, dairy boards and fertilizer companies have.  This all plays against us in facilitating a change in diet.  Nobody is evil in this, but the evidence is growing that proves the "frankenfoods" described are killing us slowly.

Instead of finding this all depressing, which it is, it has served to light a fire in my wish to improve my health by making the effort to improve what I put in my shopping cart.  When I put my weekly shopping on the belt, at the checkout, I am impressed by how much of it is alive and green.  I look back to how I used to shop, even five years ago, and the experience is completely different.

Books like this one can change lives.

Highly recommended.

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

Joel Fuhrman, MD

Past Blogs - April 15 to April 21

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The Last Decision by Ben Bova

Space Opera!

The Emporer of the Hundred Worlds is faced with a daunting and risky decision. 

Should he save the Earth from the sun?  The sun is dying and will burn the planet to ash if interventions are not made to stabilize it. 

The Emporer hears arguments from his advisors and those from his inner circle. 

The implications of the task are deep and far-reaching. 

There was a gentleness in the story that I enjoyed very much. It was a political story at its core but it had all kinds of technology in the background to make it fun.  This one story feels as though it occupies a small corner of a vast canvas. 

I liked the size of it.  I would be happy to revisit this place again. 

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

Past Blogs - April 8 to April 14

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