Into the Black by Rowland White - Book Report #275

As a fan of all things NASA I am constantly surprised as to how much I do not know.

The length of time it took to decide to build the shuttle, the preliminary work involved before any metal was bent, the different entities within the US government that fought over it, the construction and the testing before it was finally launched was fascinating to me.

The shuttle program was decided to go ahead while men were walking on the moon during the Apollo 16 mission.

In the mid-sixties, reconnaissance satellites were so primitive that images were shot on film and the film parachuted down to earth to be picked up by specially designed aircraft that would pluck them from the sky.  The technology did not exist to wirelessly send images from space, which seems odd since TV signals were being beamed from the moon.  I'm sure it had something to do with encryption.

The thing about NASA and the space program is just how risky everything they do really is.  They just make it look and sound like it’s no big deal.  But all of the hardware is on the absolute bleeding edge of technology and engineering.

Everything about the Shuttle was new and it was BIG compared to anything else NASA had done.  Transporting the Shuttle on a 747 was not a new idea but noting had been tried at that scale.

The fully-assembled launch stack was completely new.

And that heat shield was a nightmare to design, test and fly.

The Shuttle became what NASA had wanted it to be; an everyday thing, routine and boring.  But it was nothing of the kind.

This was a thoroughly engrossing book.

Highly recommended.

Rowland White's website - http://www.rowlandwhite.com/

Rowland White

The Boat by Alistair MacLeod - A Short Story Review

I have never read something so tragic, beautiful, frustrating, and yet, hopeful.

The narrator describes what it was like growing up in a small fishing village in the Canadian Maritimes.  The story is not about himself so much as it is a contemplation of his father's life.  How he became a fisherman, the importance of "the boat" in the family and the relationship he had with his wife.

It was a beautiful story one that implanted itself vividly in my mind and stayed there for weeks.

I came to it in the strange way of "connections,"  I was listening to the CBC when a song was announced as being inspired by this story.  I have known of Macleod for years, I even had the collection, Island on my shelf for years but donated it away unread.

Through the Edmonton Public Library, I downloaded the ebook and was immediately transported to the small home on the rocks.  So far, it is the only story I've read and the book which is due back soon, but I don't want the memory this story to be faded by the others.  At least not for now.

Highly recommended.

Alistair MacLeod

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

Outbound by Brad R Torgersen - Book Review #273

This was a scary then hopeful story of a boy who is caught up in a civilization-ending war.

Why can’t humans get over their Earthbound problems?  Instead, war breaks out, like it always does, but this time the consequences are epically tragic.

Our young narrator survives the attacks and then takes up a quest to find a rumoured race of people living in the Kuiper belt.

I love these kinds of stories that take place on a giant canvas but are intensely personal too.

This was excellent stuff that is rich in possibilities of more stories to be enjoyed.

Seek it out.

Well worth the read.

Brad R Torgersen’s website - http://bradrtorgersen.com/

Brad R Torgersen

Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov - Book Review #272

Apparently, this was Isaac Asimov’s first published novel but certainly not his first published work.

It’s a terrific time travel novel, where an accident at a nuclear research facility sends an unsuspecting, retired tailor into a distant future where Earth is a backwater planet in a galactic empire.

Fish out of water stories are always captivating to me because they are a perfect vehicle for new readers to grasp a world they are unfamiliar with.  Instead of having to read through chapters of exposition the world building is achieved through the eye of a character who is as new to the environment as the reader.

Joseph Schwartz is minding his own business, walking down the streets of Chicago, when he is instantly transported thousands of years into the future.  What transpires next is a story of his wandering the much-changed Earth and how his chance meetings with people change his destiny entirely.

He learns that the Earth is a radioactive wasteland, apparently WWIII did occur but it is never mentioned because it is so far in the past that it is nearly forgotten.  In this time Earth is not alone, it is part of a galaxy-spanning empire which has changed the culture completely.

I found the story held up rather nicely for one published in 1950. In books this old it is often the female characters that make me cringe. They are usually looked down upon, weak, unintelligent, quick to fall in love with a man, or any combination of those traits.

In this book, the woman is a capable person who does fall in love rather quickly but, to be fair, the male character does too, so it’s a wash.

I found the story bogged down in the last quarter where a scene in a prison cell went on far longer than it needed to.  It felt like Asimov was padding his word count, something a lot of authors are forced to do and it drives me crazy.  Publishers need to get over trying to make books a certain length and allow a story to be well told.

Anyway, it was a cozy story and I liked it very much.

Isaac Asimov

Charlie 316 by Colin Conway and Frank Zafiro - Book Report #271

This story crackled from the page.  (I've always wanted to write that.)

I love a good police procedural because I like to see the behind-the-scenes work and influences at play.

Tyler Garrett is an exemplary cop and is often tapped to make public appearances to promote the Spokane Police Department.

One day, while making a routine traffic stop, he is ambushed and shots are exchanged.  By the end of the shoot-out, the man who was pulled over is dead, having been shot in the back by officer Garrett.

What transpires next involves politics, dirty cops, crazy theories and some damn cold decisions.

All of this felt very real and there were many moments where my heart beat just a bit harder.



One of my favourite passages described a bar where the powerful and connected go to have a drink;

Business and politics were discussed at every table.  If those subjects weren't to your liking, you could always move down the street to one of the cheap joints where depression and failure were served on tap.

Zafiro and Conway wrote a crystal-clear story and I found myself thinking how it reminded me of Robert B Parker's Spenser novels.  It was all about asking endless questions and tugging on threads.  You never know which detail will bring the whole mystery apart.

The twist of the story came as a complete surprise to me and I had to put the book down to catch my breath.  After that, the whole story took on a menace and I found myself physically leaning into the book while I read, my nose almost touched the screen.

This was a terrific read.

Highly recommended.

Frank Zafiro's website - http://www.frankzafiro.com/

Colin Conway's website - https://colinconway.com/

Frank Zafiro

Colin Conway

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 

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

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

Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson - Book Report #267

It was fortunate that I listened to the audiobooks of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy.  It allowed me to understand his voice.  KSR takes his time to develop characters pretty much to the exclusion of a plot.  But you have to wade through it before he allows you to experience the actual reason you’re reading the book.

This was the case with Forty Signs of Rain.  I had to wade through a lot of diaper changes and descriptions of how the National Science Foundation funds research.

Thankfully, the author sprinkled some climate change information between chapters.

In the end, and I mean the very end, the environmental troubles begin to happen and this is where Mr. Robinson shines.  Wading through all the exposition brings the enormity of the problem to light.  As a species, we’ve never had to deal with our impact on the world but we are now at the end of this time of innocence.

Fiction can and must play a role in helping us imagine a new future.  This is where KSR’s towering intellect gives us a well thought out, realistic scenario to contemplate.  He takes his role as a person who can imagine possible human futures seriously.  If you read any of the non-fiction out there on the subject you can come away from it more confused than ever and probably feeling helpless too.

Fiction plays a most important role in that it can make sense of the complex and illustrate the situation along with showing us possible paths through challenging times.  For my part, I try to look at things in terms of “what’s next?”  The non-fiction world is usually pretty thin on solutions or alternatives because it steps into the world of speculation and those authors are uncomfortable with that kind of creative thinking.

This is why it is so very important to read both fiction and non-fiction.  Any time a book can make you stop an think then it made an impact and it was good that you read it.

Highly recommended.  Looking forward to reading book two in the trilogy.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Leviathans of Jupiter by Ben Bova - Book Report #266

I always intend to start Bova's Grand Tour from the beginning but have yet to accomplish it.

According to Bova, every book in the series is a stand-alone in its own right.  However, part of the payoff from reading a series is the recurring characters and a sense of understanding of how the world works.

What keeps bringing me back to his work is how plausible his vision of the future is.  Since there is no FTL technology, his stories show just how enormous the Sol system is.

The only complaint I have is something I've found in all the books; his antagonist is always a mustache-twisting egotist who suffers from some kind of mental break.  Oh, and the women.  Yikes!  Why does the author feel that every female must fall in love with one of his male characters?

Okay, that's the complaining.  As a science fiction adventure, it's a pretty darn good read.  It centers around a research station orbiting Jupiter.  Below the clouds, there is an ocean thousands of kilometres deep where life exists.

Robotic probes and lives have been lost in trying to learn about the leviathans that inhabit this strange place.  But now, after a secret project to build a better human-rated ship is completed, the station manager must work against time and his superior to launch the mission before he is ordered to stop.

It is a rather unlikely crew that makes the dangerous trip but that doesn't matter as I was treated to a terrific yarn below the clouds.

After reading the book I still want to experience the series from the beginning.

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

Ben Bova

Curing Affluenza by Richard Denniss - Book Review #265

Like Enough is Enough this book takes a look at our current capitalist system and suggests changes to allow humanity to live in harmony with the Earth's ecosystem.

In both books, it is stressed that it is the ecosystem that has allowed us to create our current economic system.  One of the ideas that really gave me pause was money; it was invented by humans and has no relationship to the environment, it only has value because we've all agreed to it.  If we continue to destroy resources in pursuit of money there will be consequences.  But we already know that.

Curing Affluenza takes a closer look at needed changes to our current capitalist system and points to the benefit of the service industries, how government services are not as bad as the press and private industry claim and how the pursuit of more stuff is part of the problem.

Dennis claims that we must change how we identify ourselves from "consumers" to "citizens" that are part of a larger whole.

Changes are needed and coming but it doesn't mean it's the end of the world.  It has happened many times before, think of how society radically changed after WWII.  The only lingering worry is whether we've done too much damage to our planet already.

I highly recommend this book.

Richard Denniss

\

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

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

Reading Break Over

In the month of April, I took a break from reading books and blogging.

I still read like crazy but I concentrated on long-form journalism which was rewarding in its own way but I found my reading became more frenzied as I chased links to articles and found myself skimming more than reading.

I suffer from the fear of missing out on things, which is why I have so many unread books in my house.  The internet only aggravated this in me.  So I am back to reading books and will return to a steady pace of posting to this blog.

I try to post book reviews on Mondays, Graphic Novels on Saturdays and short stories on the other days.

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/

Identity Theft and other stories by Robert J Sawyer - Book Report #261

I enjoyed this book very much.  Not every story worked for me but that's okay.

The real joy of this anthology was the opportunity to read stories that would be very difficult to find today given the publication history.

Below is a list of links of the stories I reviewed from this book.

Enjoy!

I highly recommend the book, it was one of my reading highlights of 2018.

~~~

Identity Theft - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/identity-theft-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Come All Ye Faithful - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/come-all-ye-faithful-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Immortality - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/immortality-by-robert-j-sawer.html

Shed Skin - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/shed-skin-by-robert-j-sawer.html

The Stanley Cup Caper - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-stanley-cup-caper-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

On The Surface - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/on-surface-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

The Eagle Has Landed - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-eagle-has-landed-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Mikeys - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/mikeys-by-robert-j-sawer.html

The Good Doctor - I didn't review this flash fiction, well, because I just didn't get it.  I read it twice and tried to get the joke but it escaped me completely.

Ineluctable - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/ineluctable-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

The Right's Tough - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-rights-tough-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Kata Bindu - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/kata-bindu-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Driving a Bargain - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/driving-bargain-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Flashes - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/flashes-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Relativity - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/relativity-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Biding Time - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/biding-time-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Postscript: E-Mails from the Future - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/biding-time-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

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

After the Sands by Gordon Laxer - Book Report #260

This is a timely book to consider an Alberta economy beyond oil.

I know, saying things like that are blasphemy in a province so dedicated to an extraction economy.  But, one of the things the author promotes is Canadian energy independence by stopping the export of our resources.  This would mean constructing the Energy East pipeline, something Quebec blocked, instead of expanding the Keystone XL line.

East of Ottawa oil products are imported from the Middle East.  This makes for a vulnerable situation if some kind of interruption in supply should happen.

All countries will ultimately protect their own citizens first, but Canada is unprepared to do so.  It would be better to set the stage now instead of waiting for a crisis to force our hand.

It is astonishing to learn how little proven reserves remain of Alberta’s natural gas.  I for one think of this when my furnace kicks in on a cold February morning.

This book is largely a big-picture, government-programs exploration on how to first, secure our current energy supply and then to transition off of carbon fuels to do our part in addressing climate change.

The last three chapters dig into a possible path for Canada.  It points to many other books and groups who are doing a lot of thinking on the subject.  Nothing will change overnight but it is important to explore the ways available to us.

Change is coming.  Will it be a disaster or a new era for humanity?

It’s scary and exciting to contemplate.

Highly recommended.

Gordon Laxer's website - https://www.gordonlaxer.com/

Gordon Laxer

Black Powder by Maria Dahvana Headley

It was a strange and interesting story that had the mood of something that Stephen King and Quentin Tarantino could have co-written.

It had s foreboding heaviness of ancient curses, threatening wildlife, abandoned places and unstoppable violence.  I loved the style of the narration and the character of The Hunter.

Sadly, the story fell apart somewhere and I found myself wishing the story would just end.  I felt it suffered from too many world-building elements.

It was that world-building that grabbed me at the start.


This needs to be a novel with room to breath.

Maria Dahvana Headley's website - https://www.mariadahvanaheadley.com/

Maria Dahvana Headley

Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance by Tobias S Buckell

Gotta love that title.

I had a bit of trouble understanding the world Buckell created but, once I did, it was wholly original and terrific.

It's a morality tale that involves uploaded consciousness, near-immortality and the idea of the singularity that went way past anything I have imagined so far.

That said, it was a pure story of humanity, morality, justice and greed.

It was strange.

It was familiar.

I loved it.



Tobias S Buckell's website - https://tobiasbuckell.com/

Tobias S Buckell

Cannibal Acts by Maureen McHugh

If you can get past the first scene you’ll be okay.

It’s the end of the world and humanity is dying out.

In a secluded town on the Alaskan coast, a small group of people are trying to survive while “at war” with a neighbouring group of survivors.

The scariest part of the author’s story is the realization that society is a very fragile thing.  We can only be “American,” “Japanese” or whatever if all of our systems function properly if we can be kept healthy and fed.

This was a chilling story mostly because the apocalypse is only a year or two in the past. What is normal for us is gone so quickly.

I think this story might keep me up tonight.

Well told.

Maureen McHugh