I ready Into the Forest for the Goodreads Apocalypse Whenever group Book Club. Being a huge fan of the dystopian genre I'm surprised I haven't read thI ready Into the Forest for the Goodreads Apocalypse Whenever group Book Club. Being a huge fan of the dystopian genre I'm surprised I haven't read this one yet, but glad I finally did. It was on sale on Audible for a low, low price so I didn't blow a credit on it. It was expertly narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan, who was an excellent choice as the novel was told entirely from the point of view of one of the main characters, Nell, a woman in her late teens to early twenties though the events of the book.
The novel is set in a forested, sparsely populated area in the San Francisco area. The two main characters are sisters Eva and Nell who are living in the family home in the woods after the death of their mother from cancer and the death of her father from an accident at the home. They live 30 miles from the nearest city. One day the electricity goes out and on trips into town they hear rumors of a war and the collapse of the US government. Resources slowly start to dwindle and eventually there is no gas left to even leave their home in the woods. Basically, the sisters are on their own and have to learn to survive.
While listening along, this novel reminded me of John Wyndham's "soft apocalypse" novels. The tone of the prose was thoughtful and full of feeling and emotion - and more focused on the relationship between the two main character sisters, Eva and Nell, than the state of the world at large or specifics about the fall of civilization. There are no roving bands of zombies or gun slinging bad guys running through the woods. Most of the threats are natural, a part of their Northern California environment. There are some encounters with strangers, and one particularly horrible one, but mostly the plot focuses on the sisters' life on their own in the woods.
The novel veers in some directions I didn't see coming and the ending was a bit of a surprise for me but otherwise there was nothing too jarring, unbelievable, or over-the-top. This is just a really well-written character-centric dystopian novel. I think fans of dystopian science fiction would really like this.
I was surprised to learn that this novel was made in to a major motion picture released in 2015 starring (then) Ellen Page as Nell and Evan Rachel Wood as Eva. It appears to have had only a limited release but I'm going to look for it on the interwebs. ...more
North Woods is actually a series of stories, centered around a house located in a western Massachusetts forest, which take place from the 17th centuryNorth Woods is actually a series of stories, centered around a house located in a western Massachusetts forest, which take place from the 17th century through to the present. The house starts out as a small, crude, stone affair in the Puritan times and over the centuries becomes a modern home of today. Each story features the exploits of the house's inhabitant(s) of the particular era, and their stories are interwoven and linked in some way through the years. Some of the house’s occupants maintain their residency and make appearances even after their death. To add to the experience, the author adds short interludes in between some of the main chapters. They feature poetry, wildlife stories, and house-related information. And chapters and interludes are written in many different styles. I enjoyed listening to the Audible version which featured an ensemble of ten narrators which made each of the human characters stand out and the experience of each chapter/interlude unique.
In each chapter, we meet and get to know the new inhabitants and the are treated to some fantastic nature writing as the occupant(s) and Mother Nature herself change the flora and fauna of the grounds and surrounding forest through time. I was intrigued by the lives of the human characters in the stories and found the nature writing to be amazing. There were beautifully detailed descriptions of the local animals, bugs, and especially trees. And particularly interesting was the author’s description of the spread of the 20th century diseases that brought the east-to-west downfall of the great American trees the chestnut and elm, and the currently in-process downfall of the ash tree. (side note: we have six mature ash trees on our lot and the first emerald ash borer detected in our town was discovered last spring about three blocks away – kind of depressing after living through the fall of the chestnut and elm in the 1970s and 1980s in my area).
I’m not a fan of fantasy or ghost stories but, like some David Mitchell’s books, the writing and storytelling in North Woods is so good that I let it go and rode the wave. The re-appearance of former inhabitants eventually becomes a recurring theme and there are even some strange interactions between the living in the dead, not just footsteps in a hallway or creaking doors.
The chapters are not long but the characters felt adequately fleshed out and were memorable. Their personas are easy to recall if / when they turn up later in the house's history.
The tone of the novel is melancholic, it seems like most of the house’s inhabitants are downcast or dealing with some major personal trial, and their happiness is fleeting. I love the overall theme of how we humans come and go and our houses hold memories that pre-date us and will host lives long after we are gone; and, and trees also live on and we are often just merely a short chapter in their lives. It makes one wonder who has passed through your own house and what significant events took place there? And what will life be like in my house for the people who follow me? In my case we were lucky to have a senior citizen living next door when we bought our house in 1991 who told us all kinds of stories of our turn-of-the century abode.
I was hooked from the first short chapter and loved this book right through to the end. I’m not surprised by its award nominations. It is one of my top five reads of the year. Tremendous. Phenomenal....more
I burned through my Audible credit so I hit LibriVox in search of something in the public domain to listen to. I had heard of Notes from the UndergrouI burned through my Audible credit so I hit LibriVox in search of something in the public domain to listen to. I had heard of Notes from the Underground and was looking for something dark so I thought this would fit the bill, and I rather liked it. LibriVox narrators are hit and miss but Bob Neufeld was excellent narrating this one, his voice matched what I would think main character's, the Underground Man's, would sound like. Bravo.
This is an odd little Russian novella. It is essentially a two-part first-person rant by an unnamed Russian fellow referred to as the Underground Man. The Man is a bitter and crabby retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg Russia around the same time as the author Dostoevsky.
The first part is essentially just a long litany of complaints about big high-level societal issues such as morality, determinism, and suffering and pain. Some of this was funny, some depressing, and some of it reminded me of The Simpsons' cartoon "old man yelling at the cloud".
The second part was structured more conventionally, and consisted of the Man recounting several of his life experiences. Spoiler alert: the experiences were unsurprisingly pretty dour. He tells us about getting revenge on a fellow who insulted him at a pub, arguing with friends, and a an odd short relationship he had with a prostitute. The Man just can't seem to get out of his own way.
I did like it but there were times I tuned out as you would in real life if you were listening to long rants from an unpleasant person. In my opinion the first half warranted two stars, the second half four stars....more
Living in Minnesota, I’ve heard of the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 and the subsequent mass execution of 38 Dakota Indians in Mankato. I had no idea iLiving in Minnesota, I’ve heard of the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 and the subsequent mass execution of 38 Dakota Indians in Mankato. I had no idea it had been a full-blown war with the hundreds of settlers killed, and the Mankato hangings were the largest mass execution in US history. This disaster went right to the highest office - President Lincoln had the final say as to which Indians were executed, he stayed death sentences for most of the 303 Indian prisoners, ordering the death of the 38 who survivors’ testimonies stated were the murders and rapists. Then Governor Ramsey stated that the Dakota "be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the State". The Dakota were indeed banished to what is now South Dakota. This was the ugliest chapter in Minnesota history and I’m shocked and disappointed that this isn’t more well known here.
I thought the book was excellent. It was terribly sad, horribly brutal and violent, and often hard to read. The author lays it all out there. It was well-researched, with six pages of chapter notes, a bibliography, and an index. I especially appreciated the way the author told the story from both the Indian and white settler’s side. He did not leave out the gruesome details of the brutal killings and torture of the white settlers – men women, and children alike. Atrocities as bad as any I’ve ever read. He also details the well-known wrongdoings committed to the Indians by traders and the US government. Already pushed in to a narrow reservation along the Minnesota River and subject to broken treaties, bad deals from European traders, and late annuity payments by the US government, the Indians were affected by a harsh winter which caused crop failures and the loss of game. When they asked for help the were told by a governmental trading representative to "eat grass or your own dung". They Dakota were pushed to the brink and after the murder of a white family on a dare which went too far by young Dakotas under Chief Little Crow started the war for the most part as Little Crow was desperate, and he knew that the US Army was stressed and undermanned in Minnesota due to the ongoing US Civil War which was not going well for the North at the time. He knew that this was his chance to wipe out the white settlers in the Minnesota River Valley of western MN and perhaps this would lead to the whites permanently abandoning their occupation of Indian lands for a long time.
Over 38 days, the Dakota warrior led by Little Crow killed over 450 whites and took a couple hundred more as prisoners. The US forts in the area were undermanned and under armed due to the stresses of the war and Minnesota and Washington’s response was slow. Towns such as New Ulm and Hutchinson had to fend for themselves against hundreds of Dakota warriors. Settlers on the prairie were approached by Indians who they recognized personally as they had been friendly to them and who they shared food with only to be murdered and dismembered. Even weeks after the war, the US soldiers who did finally arrive to defeat the Dakota found starving and badly injured settlers laying in houses or wandering around in shock. The eyewitness testimonies recounted are as horrible as in any war book I’ve read.
The book doesn't finish with the end of the war and the hanging of the Dakota warriors. The author details how the rest of the non-combatant Dakotas were rounded up and brought to basically a concentration camp at Fort Snelling (where the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers join) via a miles long wagon train by the military. It was consistently attacked by angry whites. The survivors of this long trip were eventually put on steamboats and then in box cars and shipped to Crow Creek Reservation, regarded as poor land in South Dakota which featured limited agricultural land and little game. The book begins with a detailed narrative of the hangings and ends with this depressing episode.
I’m looking forward to visiting some of the memorials and sites which the events of the book took place, I have been to some of the towns attacked (~50 miles away) and through battle areas but never knew they harbored such a horrific past. I drove right by the Chief Little Crow statue in Hutchinson on work trips to western MN, not knowing its significance in MN history - totally unaware of the lengths he went through to rally his people against the wave of settlement and injustices. This should be required reading in Minnesota schools.
This is one of the shorter Robert J Sawyer novels I've read which resulted in the characters not being as fleshed out but the premise was really interThis is one of the shorter Robert J Sawyer novels I've read which resulted in the characters not being as fleshed out but the premise was really interesting and I'm always interested in a good post-apocalyptic book. And Sawyer's prose is always smooth and easy to digest. I think he's one of the top science fiction writers currently.
This was a freebie on Audible, and was a full-cast production complete with background sound effects. Brendan Fraser was the main narrator and he was fantastic. Overall, I liked it, and give it 3.5 stars. The ending felt a little hand-waving to me and some of the bad-guy characters seemed a bit over the top. It seemed like they were always swearing in the background which got old. The paperback isn't out yet, but it might be interesting to read it and compare how the story feels on paper rather than a full cast production. And what's with future people and their fascination with movies that were popular in my time? The beginning of this novel was set in 2059 and the people 36 years in the future are still fascinated in the same classic movies and pop culture as me? Wasn't there anything super popular with catchy quotes made in their lifetimes?
The gist of the novel: In 2059 two groups of people are put in to cryonic suspension in a facility in Canada. One group are astronauts who are about to leave Earth on a mission to colonize another planet and the second group are a bunch of convicted murders who volunteer to serve their time virtually to shorten their physical sentences. While they are "asleep" a cataclysmic event occurs and the astronauts never leave Earth, and they and the criminals in cryosleep are frozen for an additional 500 years. They all wake up at the same time and you can imagine the conflict and drama which unfolds between the highly educated and trained astronauts and knuckle-dragging (some psychotic) murderers. To top it off, there is another earthly crisis forthcoming and the twenty-first century humans have some interesting visitors.
The novel is told through a series of interviews with a number major characters which I thought worked well. The reader doesn't find out who the interviewee is until late in the novel. Good stuff. Robert Sawyer fans will enjoy this but maybe wish it was a 500 pager. ...more
I think this may be one of the worst science fiction book I've ever read/ listened to.
"The Man" referenced in the title is Douglas Garnett a young 30I think this may be one of the worst science fiction book I've ever read/ listened to.
"The Man" referenced in the title is Douglas Garnett a young 30-something neuroscientist who finds out he has terminal cancer so he and his team decide to transplant his brain in to the body of a white (Douglas is black) high school football star named Sammy Sturgeon who is brain dead. So they convince Sammy's parents to let them take the body for "tests" (no permission asked to remove his brain) and find and old hospital which is about to be razed to perform the brain transfer at. What? There are fully functional abandoned hospitals out there that a person can break in to? The surgery is successful of course and Douglas begins to live his life as a high school football player with the Sturgeon family.
The white football player is a no-good racist bully who is dating the most beautiful girl in the high school who already aborted two of Sammy's babies. The Sturgeon family is a bunch of racists and the dad is richer than rich due to illegal gun sales to blacks. The racist local cop is a best friend who comes over for dinner and spews racist comments. Every single scenario in this book has racial overtones to it and is over-the-top unbelievable. The characters are cardboard thin and are all cartoonish stereotypes. Even Garnett's family is unpleasant. There wasn't a likeable person in this thing. I guess the point of this was that we were suppose to root for Sammy as Garnett changes him from the inside. This whole thing was so implausible - even for science fiction.
The aforementioned story was about two-thirds of this. The other thirds consisted of monologues spouted by the various characters about things having to do with racism: the treatment of Kaepernick, death of George Floyd, the racist "Star Spangled Banner" and its racist author Francis Scott Key, gentrification, white violence against asians, racist police, CRT, COVID and race, and other topics having to do with race relations I can't remember.
I've giving this one star because of the quality of the science fiction story....more
I read all things Howey. This is a short novella which was on sale for $0.99 on Kindle.
The plagiarist is a fellow named Adam whose day job is literatI read all things Howey. This is a short novella which was on sale for $0.99 on Kindle.
The plagiarist is a fellow named Adam whose day job is literature teacher and on the side he plagiarizes stories which he reads in a virtual world he visits. He has an incredible memory and "writes" and publishes the stories in his world to make money. It would be like monetizing ChatGPT if it produced masterpieces.
Everything is rolling along for Adam until he falls in love with a woman named Bellatrix in the virtual world and ends up neglecting his real life obligations and on-line girlfriend (who wants to meet him in person) to spend more time as his cyberself with Bellatrix. The setting bounces between his sims and the real world and the plot takes some twists and turns. The ending is poignant and makes one think.
Howey is an excellent science fiction writer - Wool has become a successful series on Apple TV and Beacon 23 will soon be coming to TV screens as well - his star is definitely on the rise and stories like this are a good example of his entertaining storytelling. ...more
Earthfall the fourth installment of the five book series called Homecoming. The series is originally set on the planet Harmony, which inhabited by humEarthfall the fourth installment of the five book series called Homecoming. The series is originally set on the planet Harmony, which inhabited by humans who are the descendants of people who fled a ruined earth a long time ago, all of whom are monitored by an orbiting satellite called the Oversoul. Somehow, all the people of Harmony are genetically altered so that the Oversoul can speak to their minds and influence their thoughts and actions. This was all set up by original settlers so that the Oversoul could maintain peace on the planet, and prevent the invention of certain technologies which would lead to weaponry, etc., which lead to the downfall of Earth. Well, the Oversoul is getting old and worn down and it is losing its ability to perform its duties, and things are starting to unravel on Harmony.
The Oversoul recruits a family from Harmony to make the trek from their homes across a desert to Vusadka to where the ships from Earth used to carry humans to Harmony are hidden. In Earthfall the group makes the to Earth with their portable Oversoul called the Index to obtain hardware and software upgrades from the Earth's governing intelligence, the Keeper of the Earth, necessary to save the aging Oversoul and re-establish harmony on Harmony. Or so I thought. The main characters are the same as the prior three novels plus their offspring, so the cast of characters really grew and with all the nicknames my old brain became confused at times and I was often flipping back to the family trees which were included in the beginning of the book.
When the Oversoul chose who would make the journey back to Earth she included a lot of folks who didn't like each other. So the long trip back included a lot of arguing and fighting which led to physical violence, and I wondered who would make it alive. Because of the long trip, the space travelers had to take turns going into suspended animation and who went when and for how long was also a source of conflict. Nobody trusted each other. Eventually, they made it to the future Earth and the hatred and fighting amongst the new settlers from Harmony continued. The future Earth was occupied by two sentient races, a giant flying intelligent bat-like creature and an intelligent subterranean digging creature and of course, it didn't take long for the humans to learn to communicate with them and involve them in their in-fighting.
Card is really good at character development and world building. It give him props for doing a great job at both in this series. Some things continue to grate on me, though. Why would an intelligent entity choose to include people that hated each other on a mission to essentially save itself? Would you put mortal enemies on the ISS? Also, I thought the point of the mission was to contact the Keeper of the Earth and get the upgrades for Harmony's Oversoul. All that happened on Earth after first contact was fighting, learning the ways and language of the two intelligent species, and more fighting.
I've got the fifth and final installment and will be reading that. I don't think any of the first four installments were great, but they were just interesting enough to make me keep turning the pages and want me to pick up the next book. I do think Earthfall was my favorite of the series so far. ...more
This is one of nine books in the "Books That Changed the World" series, and the second one I've read after Hitchens' Thomas Paine book Declaration of This is one of nine books in the "Books That Changed the World" series, and the second one I've read after Hitchens' Thomas Paine book Declaration of the Rights of Man. These short books are great introductions to the books they cover and the circumstances resulting in to them being penned, but maybe a bit of a review if one is already familiar with them.
Being a Darwin devotee (made the pilgrimage and spent a day at the Down House in southern England and visited his grave at Westminster Abbey in 2018) I found Janet Browne's take on On the Origin of Species mostly review but for the most part it was well done and she touched on most of the key points of what led up to the publishing of Darwin's book and the after effects such as push back from creationists (still an issue to this day - 74 years later!).
This was really well written and researched and is fully notated, and contains a nice long list of sources and suggestions for further reading (including three more of the author's books) along with full index. That being said, I was surprised to read an error in the second sentence. She got Darwin's birthday wrong, stating he was born in "April 1809" when his birthday was February 12th, 1809. How did this error make it through to the final edition? Another complaint I have is I thought relatively too much ink was devoted to social Darwinism and Eugenics.
Especially good was the author's portrayal of Darwin the man - his personality, relationships with fellow scientist friends, and health problems. Also excellent was the long final chapter "Legacy" in which the author explains how scientific advancements since On the Origin of Species was published support what Darwin theorized in the mid-19th century: discovery of DNA and understanding what drives heredity, advances in molecular biology and chemistry, better understanding of human behavior, etc. Evolution is now a scientific fact, bolstered by scientific knowledge Darwin had no way of knowing.
Browne's book was published in 2006 and unfortunately there is still push back against evolution from creationists, maybe even more now 17 years later, due to the current rise of anti-intellectualism in the United States. I happen to know a middle school science teacher in a conservative district who gets push back from parents when they learn that their students are being taught evolution. The same parents who believe the supernatural, laws of physics-violating tales in their holy books at the drop of a hate but reject modern scientific facts.
I would recommend this to anyone not that familiar with Darwin's ideas and his journey in writing On the Origin of Species as well as it's repercussions. It's a quick read and is a good high level introduction to the greatest book ever written....more
I picked up this collection of dog stories by classic authors for cheap on the Chirp app. What a neat collection of stories this was. Some (dog lives I picked up this collection of dog stories by classic authors for cheap on the Chirp app. What a neat collection of stories this was. Some (dog lives happily ever after) were more appealing that others (dog abused). Chirp did not list the names of each story with the chapters so I looked them up on Google Books only to find out that version had seven more stories than the ten in the Chirp version.
The collection starts out with the biggest bummer of them all - "A Dog's Tale" by Mark Twain. It was not a pleasant read for a dog lover. Most of the subsequent stories were lighter or at least a bit more enjoyable and there are some great writers in this collection: Twain, London, Kipling, Bronte, Chekhov, and Muir.
My favorites in of the bunch:
"Brown Wolf" by Jack London - a lost Klondike sled dog has to choose between his current and past lives.
"Little Girl Afraid of a Dog" by Mary E Wilkins Freeman - a young girl is constantly harassed by her neighbor's little yip-yip dog and decides to do something about it.
"Kashtanka" by Anton Chekhov - a little lost dog is adopted in to a circus family.
"The Black Poodle" by F. Anstey - a fellow with a crush on the neighbor lady accidently kills her family's dog. No one else witnesses. Hijinks ensue.
"Stickeen" by John Muir - the explorer of an icy region of Alaska in 1879 reluctantly lets a dog tag along on a dangerous trip and they eventually develop a deep bond.
I have an illustrated paper copy of "Stickeen" which I read a while back and it was fun to revisit this neat little story. Five stars for the five stories I mentioned and 4.5 stars for the whole collection. I'd highly recommend to any dog lover, and it's probably available pretty cheap out in the interwebs somewhere.
In a time when works of art are destroyed, banned, and altered I especially liked this closing statement from Macmillan Publishers International Limited: the text of this book remains true to the original in every way. Some stories may appear out of date to modern day readers but are reflective of the language and period in which there were originally written. MacMillan believes changing the content to reflect today's world would undermine the authenticity of the original, so has chosen to leave the text in it entirety. This does not, however constitute an endorsement of characterization and content....more
I got this audiobook on sale for a buck on Chirp and it was worth it, although one could probably get the same information reading Robert the Bruce's I got this audiobook on sale for a buck on Chirp and it was worth it, although one could probably get the same information reading Robert the Bruce's Wikipedia page. The narrator Theodore Zephyr had quite the deep and almost intimidating expressive voice, perfect for such a tale. I would've loved having someone with a Scottish accent do it, though.
This short little book covers the life and times of the great Scottish king Robert the Bruce, from birth in 1274 CE to his death in 1329 CE. He lived a fascinating life and oddly enough the strange circumstances surrounding his death and what happened to his body and heart (separated at death) were maybe the most interesting parts of this.
I knew of the great king through displays in museums and saw statures of him in Edinburgh and Stirling castles in Scotland, and learned of his battlefield exploits from our tour guide at Stirling Castle. The entrance of Edinburgh Castle is flanked by two impressive statures of Robert the Bruce and William Wallace, it's a neat sight. While I knew of his battlefield victories and his kinship with William Wallace's during the fight against England, I knew not of his childhood years or later years. Being a child of royalty he was raised with the best tutors and battle training (by a well-regarded knight) one could possibly have at the time. Kings in this era were right down in the meat grinder during battles and the fierceness, strength, and bravery of Robert were legendary.
This second volume of short stories by master storyteller Ursula K Le Guin was much more enjoyable to my ears that the first volume as it featured priThis second volume of short stories by master storyteller Ursula K Le Guin was much more enjoyable to my ears that the first volume as it featured primarily science fiction and fantasy. I'm not a big fan of fantasy but the storytelling kept me absorbed. If you are familiar with Le Guin's Hainish Cycle of science fiction novel you'll get more out of this collection as a number of the stories are set in this universe.
Audible improved their game from the absolute disastrous formatting of the first volume but there was still a chapter with no announced title and the order was off a little from the paper copy order.
There were some some real gems in this collection. A few of my favorites were:
"Semley's Necklace" - set in the Hainish universe, a woman sets out to track down a family heirloom in a story featuring themes of time dilation and interaction amongst civilizations with different technological levels.
"First Contact with the Gorgonids" - the story of an abusive ass of a husband and his and his wife's first contact experience. I laughed on my way to work listening to this one.
"The Matter of Seggri" - interesting what-if tale which takes place on a matriarchal planet in which genetic engineering has resulted in only one in six (I think) births being male. How would such a society even operate?
"The Fliers of Gy" - takes place on a planet where a small number of people grow wings, and instead of flying being something wonderful and appreciated it is thought by many to be a negative attribute. It's a sad tale.
"The Wife's Story" and "Small Change" - two surreal fantasy stories about a beloved family member. Spellbinding story telling.
"She Unnames Them" - the collection's finale. What if animals were unnamed? Sounds pretty straightforward but develops in to a short and poignant tale.
Most of the stories in this collection of twenty-two were hits for me, with a few misses which is to be expected. If you enjoy Le Guin and/or fantasy/science fiction I would recommend, even if you are unfamiliar with her Hainish works. She does not disappoint. ...more
This is a solid collection of short fiction muddied by Audible's terrible job aligning chapter breaks with the actual beginning and ending of the shorThis is a solid collection of short fiction muddied by Audible's terrible job aligning chapter breaks with the actual beginning and ending of the short stories. How can a company like that botch something so basic? The first several stories lined up with a the audiobook chapter breaks but later on the breaks seemingly became random. Making this worse was the fact that a few of the stories had their own breaks and jumped around a bit character-wise, so when Audible added its random breaks I didn't know if I was starting a new story or a separate chapter some of the time. The narrator's voice wore on me after a while as well. And I see she's also narrating the Volume Two which I will be starting now. I would've been better off with a paper copy.
This first volume contains standard literary fiction and fantasy stories in a number of different styles, whereas the second volume is science fiction. Overall, I thought the stories in the first volume were good, with a few that were outstanding. I didn't care for the fantasy stories. The book contained a delightful introduction by the author in which she talks about her process for picking the stories, how she chose their order, and some background of several of them.
My favorites of this collection were:
"The Diary of the Rose" - this was a sad story about a psychotherapist and a patient
"Directions of the Road" - this was an interesting story of a tree commenting about the changes in its surroundings over a long period of time.
"Half Past Four" - a collection of eight interrelated melancholy stories.
Giving this three stars for the stories I really enjoyed less the fantasy which I endured less the confusion I felt trying to navigate the terrible Audible formatting.
Rocannon's World is my fourth read of Le Guin's Hainish Cyle series of books. For some reason I'm reading them in random order, which isn't that big oRocannon's World is my fourth read of Le Guin's Hainish Cyle series of books. For some reason I'm reading them in random order, which isn't that big of a deal as they all stand alone on their own. I listened to this one now because it is currently free on Audible. I was pleased to hear the familiar pleasing and distinctive voice of Stefan Rudnicki. He has narrated a number of science fiction books I've listened to and his performance always adds to the experience.
Rocannon's World is the first of book in the Hainish Cycle, and probably my least favorite so far. The action centers around a scientist named Gaverel Rocannon who goes to study life on a planet called Fomalhaut II which he later is able to have placed off-limits to others in order to protect the native primitive intelligent life on it. Unfortunately there is already a secret base of nefarious interstellar scoundrels on the planet and Rocannon's ship is destroyed along with his fellow scientists, leaving him stranded on the planet having to survive amongst the flora and fauna without technology.
Like the other first few books of the Hainish Cycle, this one is relatively short and while I thought overall it was interesting and engaging, the plot seemed to get a little muddy and drag at times. Le Guin is great at world building and this one was no exception. She also writes some great loss and redemption stories and this one falls in to that category as well.
Next up for me is book four, The Left Hand of Darkness....more
Wow. This was the most violent and disturbing fiction book I've ever read. I've read violent books before but nothing like this. Human depravity was tWow. This was the most violent and disturbing fiction book I've ever read. I've read violent books before but nothing like this. Human depravity was the constant thread in this book, and it was all described so thoroughly and completely with McCarthy's fantastic prose that it was hard for me to not look away (or hit the "stop" button) despite it being so often dark and disgusting.
Set in the 1840s in Texas, Mexico, the American Southwest, and California, the story follows the main character, a fourteen year-old boy referred to as the "Kid" who flees his troubled life in Tennessee and ends up with joining some bounty hunters in Texas who collect Indian scalps. Basically, they ride through the desert and ruthlessly slaughter anyone they come across - Indians, settlers, other wanderers. Scalps are collected and ears are collected and displayed on necklaces. Villages are burned. Scalps are turned in for money in towns, and the group enjoys a drunken (often violent visit) for a few days in these towns before setting off again. On their rides no life is spared - innocent men, women and children and butchered without a second thought, and animals are stolen or killed to be eaten, or sometimes tortured or just shot and left to die. There was even a scene where one of the gang grabbed two babies and violently killed them in a disgusting fashion. And all of this is described in great detail. It was shocking. I almost drove off the road a few times.
The antagonist (the worst of the antagonists I should say) is a fellow named the Judge. Described as giant bald hulk, this guy is a psychotic murderer and rapist; however, he is also highly educated and extremely intelligent and teaches the gang of knuckle-draggers about the Bible, astronomy, evolution, the natural world, and general philosophy. He takes notes and draws things he finds interesting in a notebook. While he and the Kid often separate and go their own ways, sometimes fleeing from Indian attacks, he always seems to find his way back to the kid and in the middle of the plot.
Also described in great detail were the Mexican and American Southwestern settings and the brutal climate, and these seemed like characters themselves. There was never enough water and day-to-day survival was sometimes difficult especially after suffering wounds during attacks or being attacked by Indians.
There is a lot of Spanish spoken in this novel and I think I missed out on a lot because I didn't understand any of it.
This is certainly a Western, but spends it's time on the dark side of life in the West. The gang is ruthless, viscous, and covered in dust and dried blood most of the time, and on the verge of starvation and dehydration regularly. All the dark facets of humanity are display in this well-written but disturbing novel.
I'm going to give this four stars. It's like nothing I've ever read and is so well written that it will live in your head but at times too over the top for me. There is a part at the end about a family and their pet dancing bear that almost did me in.
I've got some more McCarthy on my shelves and I can't wait to read it....more
This collection of short stories by Chuck Palahniuk is aptly named. There were times I laughed out loud and times I was disgusted and wished I hadn't This collection of short stories by Chuck Palahniuk is aptly named. There were times I laughed out loud and times I was disgusted and wished I hadn't read what I had just read. Palahniuk is probably one of the most creative and clever writers I've read, and I like a number of his novels, but this collection of stories seems to push the envelope more than I remember his novels pushing. Maybe I just remember them differently.
There is some bizarre, shocking, and horrifying stuff in many of these short stories. How does he come up with some of this stuff? I mean the main character of one of the stories is a placenta.
I'm giving this three stars as I liked it overall, but there were times I just had to put it down and call a mental time out.
Some of the standout stories for me were:
Knock-knock - "laughter is the best medicine" taken too far.
Eleanor - a malapropism-fest starring a knucklehead named Randy and his pitbull Eleanor
Zombies - young people are starting a new fad - using those wall-mounted defibrillators on themselves.
Red Sultan's Big Boy - super clever story with a twisted reveal about a newly adopted horse with a checkered past.
Phoenix - wife gets back at husband in a unique way. Great dark reveal. Meow!
Fetch - a horror/fantasy story about a fellow's adventure with a haunted tennis ball
Inclinations - teenagers whose parents think they are sexually deviant are sent to an expensive secure rehab facility - hijinks ensue. This is the longest and most fleshed out story of the bunch.
How a Jew Saved Christmas - a sometimes hilarious, sometimes sad tale of an office secret Santa that takes a weird turn.
A Gentleman In Moscow follows about 30 years of the life of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, a former Russian aristocrat with ties to the Tsar, who is tA Gentleman In Moscow follows about 30 years of the life of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, a former Russian aristocrat with ties to the Tsar, who is taken in to custody and tried in court after the Bolshevik Revolution. His life is spared but he is sentenced to live out the rest of his life under house arrest in the swanky Hotel Metropol in Moscow. He is given an attic room which was formerly used by staff and for storage, but he fixes it up the best he can and still lives in relative comfort dining on great food and enjoying the finest wines.
While at the Metropol, the Count develops a close group of friends and interacts with a plethora of hotel workers and guests. Some of which become important characters in this novel. I think one of the strengths of this novel is the character development as you really get to know a number of the minor characters, not just the Count himself. The interesting characters are always coming and going, there is never a dull moment. And there is a wonderfully sinister antagonist thrown in to the mix to create some conflict and tension.
The plot sails along smoothly and with ease. There are only a few hectic moments that would spike a reader's blood pressure, until the wonderful and somewhat exciting finale. But overall this was an interesting read full of engaging characters and humanity.
I really liked this novel a lot. I listened to it on Audible and narration by Nicholas Guy Smith was wonderful. He was a great choice - he brought the Count to life. The novel started slow for me and initially I wondered if I would even like it at all but as the story developed and I got to know what the Count was like through his interactions with others at the Metropol it became easier for me to listen on. Plus, the Russian history unfolding in the background of the novel was really interesting - the timeline starts with the revolution and ends with Khrushchev. In the latter chapters the plot thickens and a sort of crescendo is reached, and I thought the ending was very satisfying and not at all what I expected.
My only complaint: Anna Karenina spoilers! I have that novel earmarked for my annual chunky book winter read and a major plot point was revealed. Oh well. I guess I should've read it by now....more
I know Brian Greene from is guest appearances on the Star Talk podcast. He comes across as interesting and affable and I really enjoyed his latest booI know Brian Greene from is guest appearances on the Star Talk podcast. He comes across as interesting and affable and I really enjoyed his latest book.
Greene touches on a plethora of science topics in this book and crams a whole lot in to the 325 pages of text. The book also contains 57 pages of notes if you really want to take a deep dive in to some of the subjects he covers. There is also an extensive bibliography, the author really did his research for this book.
This is sort of a high-level history of the universe, from the big bang to the nuances of the modern human condition, and is written in a more accessible manner than comparable books written by other scientists I've read. Greene has a way of explaining complex hard science topics to common folks like myself without hurting our brains too much, in most cases anyway. He throws some anecdotes in here and there so further explain and illustrate some of his points as well.
The chapters that stood out me were Brains and Belief, and Instinct and Creativity. The former was about how and why humanity developed certain beliefs such as religion and the latter was about the development of the arts and I really related to the music parts. I also liked his take on free will. although I've read deeper explanations from Dan Barker and Sam Harris, his concise explanation against free will made its point.
Some of the deeper cosmological and quantum mechanical ideas went in to my brain and didn't quite register. It's just hard for me to grasp the complexity of these subjects, I'm glad there are smart people out there who understand how the universe works fundamentally.
Overall, I thought this was a good read. Very interesting, not too long, and not too hard to understand, most of it anyway. ...more
I always find comfort in reading my favorite atheist and science authors but come from a Catholic and Catholic School background and I like to occasioI always find comfort in reading my favorite atheist and science authors but come from a Catholic and Catholic School background and I like to occasionally check in and see what popular literature has popped up on the religious best seller lists. With its provocative title and it’s free price tag in Audible I couldn’t resist trying out Eric Metaxas’s Is Atheism Dead?. Being an atheist and a member of a number of atheist organizations I already know the answer to this question but it never hurts, and is sometimes entertaining, to hear an opposing viewpoint and what a true believer has to say about my ilk. This book is seventeen hours long. I listened to much of it at a higher playback speed on a road trip so I couldn’t take notes but it had me talking to myself and shaking my had constantly. But it wasn’t all bad, even though it was pretty insulting to us heathens.
To begin, one has to understand that the author is a Christian and creationist, so not only are atheists misguided (he actually uses stronger words to describe us) but so are all the other many religions in the world. Christianity is the only true way and the Bible is the only true account of what happened. So when he is describing in detail complex scientific principals and cosmic truths, like how our solar system is in the exact only place in the galaxy which could support life, he believes that the god from the Old and New Testaments put it there. Right off the bat I had a problem with this. So the infallible superintelligence that created the entire unimaginably huge and complex universe (and possibly multiverses) is the same guy who inspired that holy book and showed up in the Middle East 2,000 years ago to die to free humans from original sin, and then become the hide and seek champion until today?
Basically, this book is broken down in to three parts with an appendix that ties everything together and seemingly proves the point that everything was created by the supernatural Christian god. Part One is the authors attempt to prove creationism. He attempts to explain how the everything right down to the cell was intricately fine-tuned for the god’s people to be in existence, and there is no way any of this could’ve come about naturally. I’m just some guy with an interest in science and could see through some of his arguments. This section reminded me of that meme in which a water puddle in a pot hole states “look at how perfect I fit in this pothole, it was created just for me”. The author is looking at this exactly backward. We evolved the way we are because of our living conditions. Life is a product of its environment, and if you want to claim it was designed than you must realize that it was designed by nature and not by the guiding hand of a supernatural being. He brings up the tired old irreducible complexity argument relating to cells. Cosmologically speaking, he claims that the size of the sun and size of the moon are perfect for life, and Saturn and Jupiter have saved the Earth from killer asteroids – and this is all proof that the solar system was designed. Did you know that the god designed eclipses, too? Read the book to find out why. And because we have no other signals from other civilizations in the cosmos this is proof that we are the god’s only creation. What about the billions and billions and billions of other galaxies out there? We have no idea what is out there. The magnitude of the universe is almost unimaginable. Furthermore, he argues that scientific discoveries like the big bang and relatively have proven the truths of the Bible and disproven atheism. He uses quotes from a number of cherry-picked Christian scientists to support his claims that religion is more compatible with science than atheism. I can see why this part of the book would appeal to people who want to believe that the Bible is a science book and didn’t pay attention in biology or astronomy class, or had a Catholic education and were not taught proper science. It’s as if the author didn’t read a word of scientists such as Stephen Hawking or Carl Sagan (he quotes Sagan from the 1960s, c’mon), contemporary physicists like Laurence Krauss, Sean Carroll, or Brian Greene; or contemporary cosmologists like Janna Levin or Roger Penrose. Any one of these people could shoot Part One full of holes.
In the same vein, I don’t believe the author read any of the works of preeminent authors in biological sciences (well, he read Richard Dawkins’s atheist-themed books, but not his biology-themed books). He refers over and over to the famous 1952 experiment to create life from organic molecules but neglects to talk about current research. Other claims: panspermia is a “crackpot theory” (recent space missions found water and organic molecules on other bodies moving about the solar system) and the water molecule is miracle created for us as it is necessary for life (there is water all over the solar system, and it’s basic chemistry). In summary, the chapters in Part One intend to show that there is no way life came about naturally. If there is something science can’t explain then it must have a supernatural cause (the ol' “god of the gaps”). EVERYTING after the big bang was carefully orchestrated by the invisible hand of a superintelligence right up until this very second. And guess who this superintelligence is?
Part Two is biblical archeology. I found this part to be very interesting and I learned a lot actually. I have always found archeology interesting and it’s intriguing that many of the biblical settings have been found. He does make some definitive claims linking biblical events which may or may not happened to some of the discoveries which cannot be proven and may never be. He claims that Jesus’ childhood home and a number of other Jesus-related locations have been identified. The information regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls and other relics and writings was interesting, some of this I remembered from parochial school. This all being said, the author goes off the deep end and claims that the discovery of ancient locations the Bible was set in proves that Jesus existed, rose from the dead, and ascended in to heaven. “There is too much evidence (of the resurrection) for us to ignore it”, he states. Checkmate, atheists! What evidence? Some rocks? A foundation? That’s quite a leap of faith. That’s like saying the existence of King’s Cross Station in London proves the existence of Harry Potter.
Part Three was hard to get through. It was basically an all-out bash fest of the concept of atheism, past and present. This was followed by more science-proves-religion arguments. Basically, you either follow the Bible or are one of “them’, along with Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, (insert horrible historical figure here), etc. He claims atheists have no inherent morality and since we reject the afterlife really nothing to live for and no motivation to be inherently good. Wow. Predictably, he points out how horrible past godless countries have been and the shortcomings of current godless countries such as China. But according to the recent book Beyond Doubt: The Secularization of Society by Zuckerman, Kasselstrand, and Cragun there are seven democratic countries in the world today with over 50% non-believers: Czech Republic (62%), South Korea (59%), the Netherlands (56%), Estonia (54%), Norway (53%), and the UK (52%). None of these countries are mentioned though when he is making his point about countries with a lack of moral compass without a god. Most atheists I know are guided by the golden rule and commit no crimes, and try to life our one life to the fullest. It’s sad that the author and others think less of atheists because they are not “god fearing”.
As this part of the book goes on he rages and uses ad-hominem attacks against his hated “four horsemen” of new atheism – Hitchens, Dawkins, Dennett, and Harris – and particularly rips on Hitchens for his anti-theist writings. You can hear the contempt in his voice as he hurls insults towards these guys. It felt personal. Richard Dawkins is one of the the world’s preeminent evolutionary biologists and the author trashes him over and over. He went on to rip Neil deGrasse Tyson and Carl Sagan for their Cosmos series, which he said mislead millions of people as creationism wasn’t even addressed. On the contrary, the author states that the similarity of the color of the start in our galaxy proves the uniformity of matter and their common source of creation. And did you know that Christianity gave birth to science? A Google search of the history of science is all you need to be set straight on the origins of scientific thinking. It’s ironic how the author continues to bring up the shortcomings of science and how there are so many things that can’t be observed and which science can’t yet explain (but very well may in the future) and therefore magic did it. He also claims that atheists are hypocrites for enjoying art and music even though we don’t understand the mechanisms for their appeal. I don’t know either but I sure am not going to credit some invisible being. This is just another example of shoehorning the supernatural in to something that happens in our brain.
I could go on and on. This book is full of outdated scientific information and logical fallacies including special pleading and ad-hominem attacks. But based on its ratings it has successfully won over most of its intended audience. It’s just sad that he has to bash atheism and those who “reject god”. What?! That’s like saying people reject leprechauns, bigfoot, or the tooth fairy. Is it so hard to fathom that there is a growing number of humans who refuse to believe in the supernatural? I’m happy to report that atheism is nowhere near dead....more
The Ships of Earth is the third installment of the five book series called Homecoming. The planet Harmony is inhabited by humans who are the descendanThe Ships of Earth is the third installment of the five book series called Homecoming. The planet Harmony is inhabited by humans who are the descendants of people who fled a ruined earth a long time ago, and which is monitored by an orbiting satellite / master computer called the Oversoul. Somehow, all the people of Harmony are genetically altered so that the Oversoul can speak to their minds and influence their thoughts and actions. This was all set up by original settlers so that the Oversoul could maintain peace on the planet, and prevent the invention of certain technologies which would lead to weaponry, etc., which lead to the downfall of Earth. Well, the Oversoul is getting old and worn down and it is losing its ability to perform its duties, and things are starting to unravel on Harmony.
In The Ships of Earth, the Oversoul puts its plan in to place to have a selected group leave the main city of Basilica and make a years-long perilous journey to Vusadka to where the ships from Earth used to carry humans to Harmony are hidden away in the desert. The group would then make a trip to Earth with their portable Oversoul called the Index to obtain hardware and software upgrades necessary to save the aging Oversoul and re-establish harmony on Harmony. The main characters are the same as the prior two novels with some other peripheral characters thrown in to round out the cast and add conflict and tension to the group, and to provide enough people for paring up and reproducing as additional generations would be essential for the long trip to be successful.
Unlike the first two novels, this one really seemed to drag about a third of the way through all the way to the last few chapters, when the trek was finally completed. It was a slog. There was a lot of dawdling in the desert and the plot moved at a snails pace, I suppose in part to flesh out the new characters and also to establish new conflicts and crises. But the ending saved it for me - the tension peaked just as the Earth ships were discovered and I welcomed the novel's return to science fiction from desert drudgery. It was a little bit Dune (although I shudder to reference that absolute masterpiece in this review) and a lot Book of Mormon as this this series is typically compared to. It entertained me enough to go out and grab the fourth of the five installments. So I'll trudge on and see what happens next....more
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