"In Oceans Deep: Courage, Innovation, and Adventure Beneath the Waves" by Bill Streever

Publisher:New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2019.
Edition:First edition.
ISBN: 9780316551311
Characteristics: xi, 303 pages :,illustrations

I found this book "In Oceans Deep "to be a very interesting read. The author Bill Streever is a former commercial diver, who worked in the Gulf of Mexico amongst other places. When he left commercial diving he took up research biology and now lives with his wife aboard a sailboat (not a bad life).

These experiences have given him knowledge of most if not all the aspects of diving, and humanity's history underwater. In fact, I feel other authors who don't have these skills and experiences, would be hard pressed to write a book such as this.

The whole book is extensively researched, with the first chapter dealing with the accomplishments of the Trieste when it to descended it into the Challenger Deep back in January 1960. The author then examines the sport of free diving (diving to depth on the single breath of air). The author managed to reach a depth of 132 feet after only four weeks of training.

The next topic was developments in technology to allow divers to stay at depth using various diving suits diving Bell's etc. in this section he also gives an overview of decompression science and how it was developed / discovered when they were utilizing caissons for building bridges.

Next comes saturation diving, which means divers stay under pressure for an extended periods of time, breathing exotic gas mixtures to allowing them to work or do research at depth.  This section included discussion of projects such as the U.S. Navy's Sealab I, II, & III.

Other topics that are dealt with in this book are: 1 atmosphere diving in which the diver remains at 1 atmosphere throughout the by using devices such as the Newtsuit, submersibles, etc. The next topic was remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) how they are used, and some of the accomplishments that have been achieved through their use.

The final chapter talks about some of the interviews the author did when writing this book, the ongoing work to preserve the oceans by these advocates, and the difficulties they are having.

This book was extremely interesting to read, and even though I haven't been diving for many years it makes me want to get back into the sport. Mind you the fact that I live in a landlocked part of the country makes this rather difficult, as there isn't much to see in freshwater lakes.

"Asimov on Science Fiction" by Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)

Publisher: Avon Books
Copyright: 1981
ISBN: 0380585111

Generally speaking, for the last little while I have been alternating my fiction reviews, with non-fiction ones. This time I'm going to bend that rather lax rule and review a non-fiction book, about fiction writing.

"Asimov on Science Fiction" is a collection of 55 essays reprinted from the editorials in various main-stream, science, and science fiction magazines throughout Dr. Asimov's long career.

He touches on such topics as science fiction in general, its writing, predictions, its history, science-fiction writers, fans, reviews, and finally his personal relationship with science-fiction.

As this book was released in 1981 it obviously deals with various topics only up to that point. Dr. Asimov discusses movies such as Star Wars, and other media phenomenon from that time, such as televisions short run series "Battlestar Galactica". He thankfully has been spared the recent attempts at what Hollywood is now referring to as science fiction such as the possibly never ending series of superhero movies, and other supposed science-based movies. Most of which I'm assuming would have him shuddering due to their total lack of anything that even faintly resembles science.

There is a wonderful quote in the book with regards to this (from the essay The Reluctant Critic) in which Dr. Asimov tells of when he was invited to watch a preview of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" by Science Digest and was appalled at what he saw (for good reason in my opinion as well):

"... Close Encounters has it uses, too. It is a marvellous demonstration of what happens when the workings of extraterrestrial intelligence are handled without a trace of skill. It makes one feel added wonder and awe at stories in which extraterrestrial intelligence and other subtleties are handled with painstaking skill - as in those written by the best of the real science-fiction writers."

As Dr. Asimov was one of the originators - if I may use that term - of written / real science-fiction as it was brought to the general public in the early part of the 20th century I believe he is more than capable of passing judgement on what is good science-fiction. Unfortunately the vast majority of the so-called science fiction that we have today is simply an excuse for big budget special effects, but which in some cases totally lack a cohesive storyline or plot.

If you like real science-fiction, and what to know more about it's history, development, and such then I would highly recommend this book.

"Samurai: A Concise History" by Michael Wert

Publisher:New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2019]

Copyright Date:©2019

ISBN: 9780190932947 

Characteristics: vii, 118 pages :,illustrations

The history and folklore surrounding the Samurai is fascinating to many people. This likely has to do a lot with the way they have been portrayed in movies and television, and likely to a certain point as well in graphic novels and such however, I am not too familiar with the latter.

Most of what has been shown on the screen either from Hollywood or other sources is typically quite a bit different than what happened in reality (even when allowing a wide range for artistic license). This book goes a long way toward clearing up the confusion by giving a brief history of Japan that details the rise and fall of the Samurai.

If I remember correctly my first exposure to any relatively detailed knowledge of the samurai was through the miniseries "Shogun" by James Clavell, Which I believe came out in the 1980s, and everybody was reading it. This mini-series examined the life of a fictional sailor who is shipwrecked on the shores of Japan, and what he had to go through to live with the people there. The novel by Clavell is the first of a trilogy, but I've only read the first as they are very long novels.

Getting back to "Samurai: A Concise History". This book is extremely well written and extensively researched. It is easy to read and should give any person who is interested in getting their facts straight the real story about how the Samurai lived and how their lives were really different from what has been portrayed in the various media. This book could easily have been many times longer, but this wouldn't have been a burden as the author's style of writing is excellent for understanding by people of all ages.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this facet of Japanese life and history. It would make a great addition to any historical collections.

"Have Space Suit Will Travel" by Robert A. Heinlein (1908-1980)

Publisher: Ace Books
Copyright: 1958

This book is the twelfth in what people refer to as the Heinlein Juveniles and the last one I'll be reviewing at this time (see the postscript below for why). The story is about a young man by the name of Clifford Russell or 'Kip' for short. Kip wants to go to the moon, and while it is a rather lofty goal for a high-school student, it is something that is a regular occurrence when this story is set. Samuel Russell, Kip's father is a well respected, but somewhat unorthodox scientist who gives his permission, but leaves it up to Kip to figure out how to get there. A hinderance to Kip's plans are that his education is somewhat lacking, not due to him, but because the curriculum at his school is somewhat useless (something like what is to be found in certain places even today), luckily for Kip his father gets wind of this, and corrects the problem before he graduates.

Even with his extra knowledge, Kip realizes that his chances of getting to the moon are poor, so on a whim he enters a contest where the first prize is a trip to the moon. He doesn't win, but the consolation prize is a surplus space suit. He takes the prize and that's when his adventures begin. He fixes up the suit, and when he is taking the suit out for one last time before sending it back to the company in return for $500 dollars that he plans on putting towards his education, a spaceship lands next to him with a friendly alien and a young girl called Peewee who are trying to escape kidnappers.

The adventures of the three expand from this point, including visits to the moon, Pluto, Vega, and the Large Magellanic Cloud.

This was a fun book to read, and it had been many years since I had done so. It doesn't comfortably fit within the general universe of some of the other Heinlein Juveniles, but it is well written and even though it was written 61 years ago stands the test of time quite well. It does make me curious why Hollywood never seems to twig into what it takes to make a good movie: a good story. I think these and all the other Heinlein Juveniles would make great movies, especially for children and young adults. As long as they stick to the story that is!

Postscript:

The novel "Starship Troopers" is considered by some to be one of the Heinlein Juveniles, however as it was published by a different house, this is also debated by others. In any case, I already reviewed this book back on November 20, 2017 so please refer to this entry for my views.