This is a series of unrelated cartoons, mostly about science. Some basic understanding of science is helpful to understand some of them, but anyone can enjoy the book. It is a pretty fast read, worth a few giggles, but not much more. It is a different way of looking at science.
I did find it curious that a science-oriented book would neglect to include page numbers.
Dracula is well known, I found some of the differences between movies, common myth, and the book of interest. He isn’t quite as fearsome in this version. I think a lot of the issue is the dating of the book. A lot of what Bram Stoker does serves to reduce the horror. An example is the early introduction by watching him scale a castle. His behavior wasn’t consistent with his abilities.
Next is the structure of the book. It is told as a series of diary entries with the addition of a few letters. These come from several people, yet they are all told in the same voice with similar types of content and style. Each person has recorded dialog verbatim, even to the point of the awkward working and spelling of people of different cultures and backgrounds. It felt very unnatural.
Abraham Van Helsing seemed over the top. He has all the answers, he’s encountered vampires before, but his background isn’t adequately explained. He is overly secretive for a matter as grave as this, and parcels out information only sparingly.
The story, itself, could be brought up-to-date. For instance, instead of starting in Romania, I would have started in England with the arrival of the boat whose crew was dead. It could have started by taking the form of an investigation. There were some interesting events early in the book, intrigue around Harker’s apparent imprisonment, his interaction with the other vampires. This could be updated by introducing another victim, probably replacing Harker, and another plot thread in England.
Overall, the book fell short of my expectations. I felt no horror, and felt that Dracula didn’t present himself well. Coupled with the overburdened dialog of the stereotypical Victorian dialog made it slow at times and difficult to accept when belittling women or other minorities. The climax came a bit suddenly and was too abrupt. A rewrite could do wonders for the book, it is a good story.
The plot is the exploration of the relationship between a small human society and a new life form. The author seems to have envisioned a new idea for a new life form and used the book as a device to explore it. That said, the book is enjoyable.
Olmy is sent by the Hexamon to spy on the humans on Lamarckia, a planet with a unique life form that was to be left alone. As soon as he arrives, the focus turns to an exploration of the life, itself.
There is almost nothing that is really explored. Although Olmy sets out on a travel, which did not seem to fit with his mission, almost everything we learn about the life is provided by other characters. As the story progresses, the reader encounters characters more and more knowledgable.
Another plot line involves the relation of two factions on the planet. We open with outright warring, and eventually learn the underlying history behind the war, and the people leading it. We also learn a little about the cultures involved in this war. Personally, I found this more interesting than the life exploration.
Besides Lamarkia, referring to the planet and the Lamarkian-style evolution that seems to predominate its life forms, the author has thrown in references to mythologies. Other than just names dropped, there isn’t really a clue that there is a reference. I suspect I missed most of them, if there were more than a couple.
Early on, the book dragged. I really couldn’t identify with any of the characters in the book, the main character seemed to make some very odd decisions. The book really picked up in the second half. If the first half were just a little better, I would rate the book much better.
This is the second Gideon Oliver mystery by Aaron Elkins. The dark place is the Olympic National Park in Washington, here the dense canopy hides the sun from most of the forest floor. A few bones in a basket are found by a hiker, and a large footprint is found nearby.
John Lau asks Gideon to provide whatever information he can determine. These are the bones of several people and dead by a number of years, it could be an indian burial site, but there are no Indians in the park. Another sign points to big foot, so the crazies are about.
The story is well-told and a good mystery, throw in a love interest with a park ranger and you have an enjoyable story.
This book tells the story of a West Virginia mining town being transported into the year 1632. The story is about the clash of cultures, mostly in how the locals react to the American philosophy and technology.
The Americans immediately decide to impose democratic and egalitarian philosophies on the locals, who take to it rapidly.
This should make for a great story. But there are many shortcomings.
First, the writing is fairly weak. The author has no idea how to tell a backstory. I almost gave up on the book within the first 20 pages. For example, when he introduced one of the characters early in the book, he provides a decent description, then provides the backstory in a short paragraph:
"So, Doc. Did the judge give you a choice? Between the Army and the Marines, I mean."
Most of that was never explained in the book.
Often, when describing an action, he’ll switch between describing events in process and describing them after the fact. It is somewhat unsettling, and would be more interesting if he stuck with the present.
His segues often consist of a comment by one of the characters that is extremely out of place. A lot of the dialog feels awkward or forced.
The locals are far too accepting of the Americans and the Americans are far too ready to come to consensus in their decisions. There is almost no internal conflict. Their skill set is far too broad for a mining town and they seem to figure things out too quickly. Some of the characters are a bit over the top.
Generally, all conflicts in the book are resolved within a few pages, except for military conflicts which can carry out for a while. He misses numerous opportunities to have issues build tension and develop characters. He introduces major characters in the book who take on backstage roles. Some could have been major characters providing a lot of tension and interest.
The pacing of the book is fairly fast. It is more of an action book than science fiction. But the pacing doesn’t vary enough. Almost the entire book runs at this same pace.
On the positive side, the pacing is good, not too fast, and the story is interesting.
The history is good. This is an interesting and pivotal time in history, one we should know more about. With the inquisitions going across Europe and the thirty-years war, there is a lot to be involved in. These are some of the events that led people to cross the Atlantic for the Americas, now the Americas have come to Europe.
I did enjoy the book, but was sorely disappointed because it could easily have been so much more. If you enjoy alternate history and can put up with the weak writing style, you will probably enjoy this book.
I was disappointed in this book, it seemed to have promise. It approached reading in a dictatorial style, there are things you must do or you don’t have a right to judge the book. It feels pedagogic and somewhat demeaning, like a teacher instructing young kids. There is no discussion of alternative opinions or ideas, very little argument even in support of its positions.
Most of the book is just common sense. It is slow, the writing is tedious. I won’t say its advice is bad, but if you’ve read much, you already know it.
Will you enjoy it? Many comments are quite favorable, people seem to like it or hate it. I think if you’ve read much, you probably won’t get anything from the book. If you don’t read, why would you be interested?
Although Gregory Maguire has written interesting stories around Oz, this isn’t one of them. The cowardly lion seems to have some potential, but it just isn’t met. He wanders through the story passively reacting to everything around him and not learning from his experiences. The author seems to recognize this shortcoming and suggests some growth in the last chapter, but it was too little and too late to save the story.
Much of the story is spent exchanging stories with Mother Yackle, who is a much more interesting character than Sir Brrr, the Cowardly Lion. He was doing some investigation for the wizard, and spends much of the book with her, recanting his stories in exchange for information.
The first two books in the series are worth reading, but stop there.
This is another science fiction novel set in Known Space. It takes place in a fleet of Puppeteer worlds, this novel delves deeper into the Puppeteer society and psychology than any previous novel, at least that I’ve read.
The story involves a small band of Humans among the Puppeteers who take on the risky tasks that the Puppeteers shun. They uncover a dark secret that the Puppeteers have kept, and wonder where that information will lead.
Although the story is interesting, it has a different feel from the other stories set in Known Space. It is darker. It shows a darker side of Puppeteer involvement in Human affairs, although this has been suggested, it is now part of the story.
Some of the characters seemed poorly developed. A relationship developed between two main Humans, Kirsten and Omar. Although Kirsten had rebuffed Omar’s advances, there wasn’t an adequate explanation of her change of heart. Other than that, there wasn’t really any character development. There were social changes at the end of the story, but the characters didn’t seem to change.
Although I did enjoy the story, I feel that the character flaws will keep me from recommending it. There isn’t much character development in Niven’s stories in general, and the stories are good. Perhaps the co-author introduced them, but they are inadequate and I feel they detract from the story due to their inadequacy.
This is a lecture series on three wars that shaped the world’s history. We are familiar with them, but few know much about them. These are the Persian Wars, the Peloponnesian War, and the Punic Wars.
Professor Shutt goes into the events leading to each war, motivations and politics, then discusses details of a few select battles. He covers the ongoing politics during the wars to give you a feeling of what was going on off the battlefields.
I can’t say that Prof. Shutt is the best of lectors, but the information is very interesting and I enjoyed the series.
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