"The Fall of Colossus" by D. F. Jones (1915-1981)

Published: New York: Berkley Pub. Corp
Year: 1975
ISBN: 9780425027608
Other Physical Details: 188 p. ; 18 cm

This novel is a continuation of the D. F. Jones' first instalment in the series entitle "Colossus", which was made into the movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project" and reviewed last week.

It takes place five years after the first novel, and by this time two of the character Charles & Cleo are married and have a child. Colossus during this time has grown, and essentially controls the world. There is no more disease, starvation, or war etc. The world is essentially at peace. Around Colossus a cult has arisen that essentially worships him or rather it as a god, and consequently Forbin as pseudo Pope.

The majority of the book revolves around the struggles Forbin has against Colossus, his personal Life, and how to make the two mesh. Another parallel storyline deals with an underground organization that wants to destroy Colossus and return the world to it's previous state as in their opinion there has been no creative thought in the world since the take over.

This book makes a good follow-up to the original, and even though it still has the general mindset prevalent in the mid-70's with regard to women's rights and other such things it is a good read.

"Colossus" by D. F. Jones (1915-1981)

Publisher: Berkley [United States]: 1976
Edition:Unabridged.
Characteristics:246 pages

I first read this book may years ago, and was fascinated by it and the implications that it mentioned. Since then, some 40 years later a lot of what is mentioned in this novel has come true although not with the sinister implications that the book foretold. Today humans rely on computers to a great extent, and when you consider that this book was written some 20 year before the internet came to be that is pretty good.

The book itself is a good story, and delves a fair bit into human psychology, emotions, etc. It is the first in a trilogy, and I'll be reviewing the other two books in the near future.

This book was made into a movie in 1970 starring Eric Braeden, Susan Clark & Gordon Pinsent. The director Joseph Sargent was quite true to the book, and captured a great deal of the suspense, which makes the movie worth watching as well. The movie is somewhat dated in it's attitudes towards women, etc. but this is the way things were done in the 70's so unless Hollywood decides to remake this movie were are forced to put up with it. This however, is not a plea for Hollywood to remake another movie - please get some original ideas!

While I have no evidence of this I would venture to guess that this book may likely have influenced some screen writers in Hollywood as shows like the Terminator franchise, West World (original movie and series), to name just a few have technology as one of the protagonists in a classic struggle with humankind.

"Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail" by Cheryl Strayed

Publisher:New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2012.
Edition:First edition.
ISBN:9780307592736
Characteristics: 315 pages :,map ;,25 cm

An amazing book that details the trials of a young woman who hikes the Pacific Crest Trail (Mojave, California to The Bridge of the Gods, Oregon) alone. It details the problems she had, what made her attempt such a trek--and win, and the people she met.

This book is written in a way that grips the reader, and forces them to keep turning those pages. From the first few right through to the end. You hike the trail with her through scorching heat, snow, rain, and in one case a whole lot of frogs. She met quite a few people, some bears, a deer, fox, and a few rattlesnakes but survived her ordeal and was a different person at the end.

This was an excellent read, and I would encourage anybody who is interested in hiking the Pacific Crest Trail to definitely read it before they leave, along with the various guide books on the trail: "The Pacific Crest Trail, Volume 1: California" & "The Pacific Crest Trail, Volume 2: Oregon and Washington". Come to think of it, I think it would be a good book for everyone to read, as it gives a person insight into a whole new world.

"Hunt for Red October" by Tom Clancy (1947-2013)

Publisher:Annapolis, Md. : Naval Institute Press, [1984]
Copyright Date:©1984
ISBN: 9780425240335
Characteristics: 387 pages ;,23 cm

This was Tom Clancey's first novel and as such was well written. He did an extensive amount of research, and developed an interesting plot that keeps the reader in suspense. For those people who have watched the movie, it is quite different as it seems to be typical that Hollywood feels the need to dumb things down for their audiences, as well as eliminate and change others things for no apparent reason.

With that being said this is really the only novel by this author that I have ever really enjoyed, as in later books he tends to get a little preachy on how wonderful the United States is. In this book that works well as it deals to defectors the United States, but in others of the series it simply gets to be too much.

The one thing that tended to irk me a fair bit in the book is that nowhere in it is Canada mentioned. Now considering that the majority of the action takes place off our Eastern coast you'd think that we would at least get a mention, but this doesn't happen. Mind you I wouldn't have expected the author to fabricate facts about our submarine fleet, as we don't really have one, but we could have been mentioned with regard to the Atlantic surface fleet. But, I guess you can't have everything, as I've seen American school textbooks, and Canada is primarily depicted as a barren wasteland north of the 49th parallel. Yes, I'll stop whining now!