"Saucer" by Stephen Coonts

 

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffen

Copyright: 2002

ISBN: 0312283423

Saucer tells the tale of a seismic survey team in the central Sahara who find an actual flying saucer entombed in the side of a sandstone cliff. 

The story's protagonist is Rip Cantrell an engineering student who is working on the team as part of a summer job, when he first spots a bright flash of light being reflected off the skin of the saucer which had become slightly uncovered. After uncovering the saucer over a number of days, they engage the services of an archaeologist who is at a dig a short distance away. They determine that it had been there for some 140,000 years, and this is just the beginning of their adventures.

Much to their dismay their discovery is soon found out by the United States Airforce, an Australian billionaire, and the Libyan military. All of whom claim ownership, or at least intend on keeping the saucer for their own.

This book is a fast paced read, that is written as if it could really have happened (at least when you ignore the anti-gravity technology, and a couple of other science fiction tropes). There is significant amount of political intrigue and corruption, that sets the stage for an interesting story, and gives it the link to world events in the first part of the 21st century.

A good read. There is a sequel to this book which I will review in the future.

"The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design" by Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Copyright: 2020
ISBN: 9780358126607

    This is an extremely interesting book that examines the hidden stories behind some rather common things that are found in your typical city. The format of the book divides the topic into six areas focusing on inconspicuous, conspicuous, infrastructure, architecture, geography and urbanism. Within each of the larger topics there are discussion on a number of different subjects. Some of these are utility codes, wireless towers, love locks, civic monuments, traffic lights, inflatable figures, roadways, technology, modern elevators, door locks, the layout of streets and roads, street trees, and grassroots gardening to name but a few of the over 125 topics.
 

   I picked this book up after watching Mars' TED Talk primarily out of curiosity, but found it to be a very interesting read. The majority of his examples come from the United States, but he does look at things in other countries as well. For people who like trivia, or compete in quiz tournaments this could be an interesting book to read. As a writer, I found it quite interesting, and think it would make wonderful source material especially for those who write mysteries and need a source of information they can use for obscure clues.

   Roman Mars is the host of 99% Invisible a popular podcast that explores these same types of things. While Kurt Kohlstedt is the digital director of the podcast and an architect.
   

 An excellent book.

"Barefoot in Baker Street" by Charlotte Anne Walters

 

Publisher: MX Publishing

Copyright: 2011

ISBN: 9781780920139

Barefoot on Baker Street tells the story of a young girl by the name of Red who escapes from a London workhouse at 13. She is forced into a life of crime as a means of survival. The story follows her life journey, and is written as a memoir that is found a number of years after she dies.

The story takes place at the same time as the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories, and includes events from a number of the publish canon. Including "The Blue Carbuncle", "The Empty House", "The Sign of Four", "The Final Solution",  "The Man with the Twisted Lip", and glimpses of a number of others.

I found it be an enjoyable read, and one that I think fills in a lot of the backstory to Sherlock Holmes that has never been mentioned (to the best of my knowledge) but is very much in tune with what I believe Conan Doyle would've written.

I found Ms. Walters' Moriarity to be quite interesting, and unlike what a number of other writers have done by portraying him as essentially a sociopath or worse. Her portrayal of him as an autistic savant I found to be very interesting and believable. We also learned a great deal about Dr. John Watson, and his private life that I believe once again Conan Doyle would approve of.

Highly recommended, but it can be rather hard to find.

"Putting the Science in Fiction: Expert Advice for Writing With Authenticity in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Other Genres" by Dan Koboldt

 

Publisher: Writer's Dugest Books

Copyright: 2018

ISBN: 9781440353383

This is an excellent book that if properly consulted by authors will go a long way towards correcting the numerous errors present in fictional work, which are primarily due to either the authors reluctance to do basic research, or their belief that the crap that comes out of Hollywood is even close to kindergarten school science.

The various contributors, all of whom are specialists in their field, give great examples of what is typically done wrong, and then explain why it's wrong, and how to correct it.

The materials in this book are applicable to authors writing in pretty much all genres, even those without a major science component as humans have lived in complex cultures since we started walking on two legs (and likely even before this) and science has a tendency to crop up when least expected, even if it is not recognized as science.

A book such as this should be expanded on, and could even be taken to the lengths of dedicating volumes to specific areas of science.

Highly recommended.

"Timescape" by Gregory Benford

 

Publisher: Bantam Books

Copyright: 1992

ISBN: 9780553297096

Timescape is an engrossing novel, that won the Nebula Award, and it isn't hard to see why. Mr. Benford, a "hard" science fiction author, who also happens to be a physicist, has written a tale that is immersed deep within this subject. It is true that my knowledge of physics is somewhat limited, but even so it was a fascinating story.

The world of the story is in deep environmental trouble, and a few scientists attempt to send a signal back through time to the early 1960s in hopes of correcting the problems they are now facing.

I've always found the idea of time travel, or in this case time communications, to be fascinating even though I know it'll likely never happen. But Mr. Benford explains the concepts in his book well enough that you will believe.

I reviewed another of Mr. Benford's books a couple of weeks ago, and I am looking forward to reading more of his work.

Highly recommended.

"The Flooded Earth" by Peter D. Ward

 

Publisher: Basic Books, New York

Copyright: 2010

ISBN: 9780465009497

I'm relatively sure that most rational people by now realize the climate change is something we will have to contend with in the future. There will of course be those hold out who refuse to acknowledge this, or chalk it up to a distrust in science etc. But hopefully these people make up a very small minority.

This book takes the reader through a number of scenarios that deal with the possible consequences of inevitable global warming. Each chapter begins with a fictional depiction (at least I sure hope so) of what life could be like in the future if nothing is done.

As the title suggests one of the major outcomes of the warming will be the rising of the mean sea level. Whether it rises just a metre or so, or up to the 200+ metres that are possible humanity is essentially in deep trouble. However most people seem unlikely aware of what this could actually mean to people's everyday lives - in many cases the term disaster is a gross understatement as it will change the way people live, work, how they commute, how energy is generated, and many more factors.

Highly recommended, especially for those who don't believe climate change is real.

"Artifact" by Gregory Benford

 

Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

Copyright: 1985

ISBN: 0312930488

Artifact tells the tale of an archeological find in Greece that is not expected or understood. The excavation and examination of the artefact becomes an issue of Greek heritage, and when the basic principles of archeological research conflict directly with of an overzealous ex-archeologist who is now a member of the military, and also part of a junta that is trying to overthrow the government.

The lead archeologists is Dr. Claire Anderson, and she along with her crew foreman discover the artifact, just in time to be interrupted by Kontos the military / ex-archeologist who becomes the ever demanding bureaucrat, and who always wants his own way. Claire recruits another academic Dr. John Bishop to assist her in discovering what the specimen is, and this leads the story in a whole new direction. 

The characters in the story are very well written, and represented. I found the story to be very interesting, and there was actually science in the story, and as all science-fiction should have (but that is usually lacking).

Excellent read.

"Space at the Speed of Light: The History of 14 Billion Years for People Short on Time" by Becky Smethurst

 

Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Copyright: 2020
ISBN: 9781984858696

Dr. Smethurst examines and number of fundamental questions, that I'm fairly sure many astrophysicists get asked many times during their career. Some of these questions are why does gravity matter, what was around in the beginning, a history of black holes (her speciality), the overall size of the universe, alien existence, and why is the sky dark to name but a few. The chapters are well written, and give good explanations, and would be suitable to inclusion in any grade school library.

In addition of this book Dr. Smethurst is a popular YouTube personality who examines unsolved cosmological mysteries, space news in general. She also contributes videos to other YouTube channels such as Sixty Symbols, and astronomy videos to Deep Sky Videos.

"Ariadne" by Jennifer Saint

 

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Copyright: 2021

ISBN: 9781250773586

Ariadne retells the Greek myth of Princess Ariadne of Crete, her sister Phaedra, their mother and father Pasiphae, and King  Minos, and her brother Asterion who is otherwise known as the Minotaur.

Within this story are the tales of how Daedalus and Icarus escaped from the island of Crete, how Ariadne assisted Theseus in his killing of the Minotaur, and his ultimate betrayal and abandonment of her on the island of Naxos.

The story also tells of the life of Phaedra who thinking Ariadne is dead marries Theseus, The revenge of Daedalus on Minos, some history and further stories about Dionysus, the rivalry between Dionysus and Perseus, and so much more.

This is an excellent retelling of the Greek classical myths, and Ms. Saint has obviously done extensive research to support her backstory. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I'm looking forward to all future books she might decide to write.

"How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need" by Bill Gates

Publisher:
Copyright:
ISBN:

This book is well written, easy to understand, and laid out in a format that should make it easily accessible to all readers. I found this to be an extremely interesting book to read, and Mr. Gates has definitely done a lot of research to support his proposed solutions.

A lot of his facts and figures are drawn from the United States, but Mr. Gates has used a number of other countries as examples of what the United States and other rich countries can and should do to alleviate the climate problems the world is currently facing.

It was nice to see that the opinions and actions of climate change deniers we're ignored, as not only was thus outside the scope of the book, but it would simply have derailed a very important discussion.

An excellent book, highly recommended.

"Ready Player Two" by Ernest Cline

 

Publisher:  Ballantine Books

Copyright: 2020

ISBN: 9781524761332

While I really enjoyed "Ready Player One", I found this sequel to be extremely hard to get into. One reason for this was the gigantic information dump that is essentially the first two chapters. Most authors have heard the phrase "Show Don't Tell", but unfortunately this essential rule of thumb for writing wasn't followed in this sequel to the first book.

The story takes off directly after Ready Player One ends, but as mentioned above the seemingly endless backstory of what happened over the next few years to the various winners of the game completely caused me to lose interest in the book.

The premise seemed good, but ...

"The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood" by James Gleick

 

Publisher: Pantheon Books

Copyright: 2011

ISBN: 9780375423727

This is a very interesting book that takes a in-depth look at the history of information from the very beginning of humankinds existence to the modern day (or at least 2011 when it was published).

Mr. Gleick looks at such topics as drum speaking, cryptography, the telegraph and development of morse code etc., modern day communications using things such as memes, and much more.

There is so much information in this book that a times it is rather daunting to read, but at the same time the amount of research the author has done to support his conclusions is amazing. A book such as this could easily (at least in my humble opinion) form a good portion of a master's thesis.

Admittedly, it did take me some time to read this book but a lot of that was due to the fact that not only was I reading other books at the same time, but the majority of the world at the time was trying to get things back to normal after the Covid outbreak.

Overall, and extremely well written and researched book that is recommended for anybody who is studying communications theory, and do some sand anthropology as well.

"Hench" by Natalie Zina Walschots

 

Publisher: William Morrow

Copyright: 2020

ISBN: 9780062978578

Hench is a delightful book that tells the tale of a temp agency worker who works for the criminal establishment, as the blurb says "even criminals need office help..."

The protagonist Anna is working though a temp agency for criminals in a place where people are tested at puberty to see if they have any super abilities. If you do then you get to be either a super-hero or a super-criminal, if you are neither then you are a regular person which typically seems to mean you are either a target or will end up as collateral damage when the former two groups fight. At the beginning of the story gets a job with an up-and-coming criminal. But then she gets injured by a so-called hero and while she is recovering she begin researching things and it turns out when she compares injuries that she's the lucky one. The story itself from that point on revolves around her essentially getting revenge on this supposed "hero" after assessing all the damage that he is actually done in the name of justice.

This is a very interesting take on the super-hero / villain genre as the effects of their epic battles are never looked at. Don't believe me, just think of any Marvel comic book, movie (and DC for that matter too). The heroes and villains are fighting each other, buildings are falling down (and you'd expect there to be people in these buildings right, after all that what buildings are built for), cities are being destroyed, etc. etc. ad nauseam but who cleans it all up, pays for it etc.

This is the authors first novel, and it is a wonderful debut. I am definitely looking forward to any future novels, as she leaves us with an interesting cliff-hanger.

"What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions" by Randall Munroe

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Copyright: 2014
ISBN: 9780544272996

    This book was an absolute delight to read, however I'm still having issues even after finishing it three days ago with regard to some of the weird questions people will ask.

    Randall Monroe is the creator of the xkcd web comic, and its associated what if blog. The questions range from the relatively normal to some that are so far out in left field that it's hard to believe people would actually think of things like this. However Mr. Munro does a wonderful job i'm explaining how things work in the real world.

    Some of the topics covered are global wind storms, the risks of swimming in a nuclear  spent fuel pond, using machine guns as a jet pack, how a submarine would fair in orbit, the effects of hitting a speed bump at ridiculous speeds, building a bridge from London to New York with Lego, printing out Wikipedia, the odds of guessing all question right on the SAT exams, and many more.

    Some these questions may sound a little odd and off the wall (and some are really odd and there are no walls anywhere near), all are answered honestly but with a good deal of humour.

    There are hints in the book that additional volumes might be coming out, and if so I will definitely be looking for them. I'll also be signing onto xkcd.com and checking this out. After all I've got some weird questions too.

Highly recommended.

"Myth Adventures" by Robert Lynn Asprin (1946-2008)

 

Publisher: Nelson Doubleday

Copyright: 1985

It's been many years since I first began reading this series, and it was a lot of fun to take a break from the more serious books I've been reading and indulge myself in this one. Myth Adventures is a compilation of the first four books in the myth series, namely "Another Fine Myth", "Myth Conceptions", "Myth Directions", and "Hit or Myth". As you can probably appreciate from the title it is humorous (the titles being puns), and from the cover its in a fantasy world. I typically do not read a lot of fantasy, but this series is definitely one of my favorites.

The series begins with "Another Fine Myth" and tells the tale of Skeve, a rather lacklustre apprentice to the magician Garkin. In an offhand demonstration of power Garkin summons a demon named Aahz, and then gets himself killed by an assassin. This has the unfortunate result of trapping Aahz with Skeve in the dimension he was summoned to.

Because it seems assassins typically travel in groups to ensure the success of their missions Aahz and Skeve are now on the run, as Garkin had been able to kill his assassin, who therefore couldn't return to his partners and divide up the loot. Other characters from future novels in the myth series are also introduced.

In the second book "Myth Conceptions" the dynamic duo of Skeeve and Aahz have to defeat a huge invading army, that is camped on the border of their kingdom, and preparing to cross. A project such as this will surely test Steve's limited magical abilities, but with the assistance of a few friends some of whom we met in the first book they concoct a rather interesting response.

"Myth Directions" has Skeve, Tananda, and a number of others trying to find Aahz a birthday present and that was the easy part.

"Hit or Myth" has Skeve's boss King Roderick skipping town in order to avoid getting married, and forcing Skeve to take his place with the use of his trusty disguise spell, and that's just the beginning/

This first four books in this series are extremely funny, and the entire Myth series has acquired a significant following in fandom. The numerous jokes, puns, word play, and odd situations the group find themselves in make the story worth reading.

Highly recommended.

"The Goddess and the Bull Çatalhöyük: An Archaeological Journey to the Dawn of Civilization" by Michael Balter

 

Publisher: Free Press

Copyright: 2005

ISBN: 0743243609

I stumbled across this book while snooping through the shelves on Anthropology, and thought that it looked interesting. I was soon to be pleasantly surprised as it was much more than that, in fact it was extremely hard to put down even when I knew I had to get up for work the next morning. Having a degree in Anthropology explains why I was snooping in the above set of shelves, but having graduated close to 30 years ago I had never been exposed to the work at Çatalhöyük, much to my regret.

This book details the many years spent at the Çatalhöyük dig, and gives fascinating insights into the various people who worked there, their theories, and the amasing discoveries they found. Mr. Balter's book will I'm certain appeal to many readers both those in the field fo archaeology as well as regular citizens who are simply interested in prehistory.

While I have no influence at all in choosing books, I would highly recommend this book be used in an introductory archaeology course to give the students a taste of what a real archaeological dig can be like (especially one that spans multiple decades). 

I'm definitely going to look for any other books Mr. Balter has written, as his writing style is captivating and very informative.

"The Genesis Machine" by James P. Hogan (1941-2010)

 

Publisher: Del Rey

Copyright: 1978
ISBN: 0345305760

    This book was the very first one of James P. Hogan's that I ever read, and that was many years ago so I can't really tell why I was attracted to it in the first place, but it turned out to be an excellent story that I have read numerous times since then.

    The tale revolves around a independent scientist, Bradley Clifford, who feels constrained by the rules and regulations that are being forced upon him by the government institution he is working at. The world at this time is on the brink of a major international conflict / World War III, which would essentially be an all out nuclear exchange.

    Clifford is a theoretical physicist who develops/discovers a brand new branch of physics that has the potential to revolutionize virtually every facet of physics. He attempts to publish his findings but is prevented from doing so, so does an end run around his institution. This of course leads to major conflicts and the overall premise of the story which is that science should be allowed to pursue its own course of action for the sake of science. He teams up with another rogue scientist Aubrey Phillips and they go on to pursue science their way and shock the world.

    Mr. Hogan is an excellent author, however he does have the habit of going into exorbitant detail, and subjecting the reader to large amounts of information / backstory. This is typically something that is discouraged in writing as many readers simply will not read it, and this therefore causes them to miss a lot of what the author is trying to get across. However the way it is written in this, and Hogan's other books is very well handled and you don't really notice it as much as you do in others.

    Mr. Hogan has written a number of other books, at present I've only ever reviewed one other which is a trilogy entitled "The Minervan Experiment".

    I would recommend this book to any hard science fiction readers, even though it is out of date with current world events by a long way it is well worth reading

"How We'll Live on Mars" by Stephen L. Petranek

 

Publisher: TED Books
Copyright: 2015
ISBN: 9781476784762

This book is extremely informative and provided the source material for the docu-drama "Mars" which gives a fictional review of what might be encountered by astronauts going to the Red planet, interspersed with an examination of the current rather sad state of the space program.

Mr. Petranek begins with a basic overview of the space program from its impetus to approximately the 1980s. He deals a fair bit of time with Werner von Braun’s proposal “Das Marsprojekt” for missions to Mars that he began promoting in 1948 (I’ll be looking for a copy of this book as it sounds fascinating). After this he goes on to outline a very logical and in my opinion workable method of how we might actually make it there, and  why we should go.

A portion of the main narrative revolves around the work of Elon Musk and his Space Exploration Corporation aka SpaceX, but Mr. Petranek also looks into the various big questions such as will a small group of people be able to get along with each other, is anybody willing to pay for the project, the safety of the project, effects of prolonged exposure to micro-gravity, medical issues that might come about, and lastly the radiation the astronauts will be exposed to.

He then goes on to look at the economics of the project, the factors that will have to be taken into account if astronauts actually want to live on Mars, terra-forming, and other topics.

The only thing in this book that I found detracted from the overall plan is that it was written in 2015, and in the 6 years since then a number of major advances have been made, so it is hoped that the author will consider writing an updated second edition.

"The Andromeda Strain" by Michael Crichton (1942-2008)

 

Publisher: Dell
Copyright: 1969

    The Andromeda Strain is a book I haven't read for many decades, but I can distinctly remember the first time I read it when I was in junior high school (about 1973 or so), and poring over maps of Nevada to see if a place like Wildfire was on them. The ultimate test of an author is if they can make you believe that the story they are presenting is true, and Mr. Crichton definitely does that with this novel. This puts it in the techno-thriller genre, but most people likely consider it to be hard science fiction.

    The story for those of you who have never heard of it revolves around a satellite that returns to earth a couple of days after being launched, bearing an organism that kills almost all the people in a small Arizona town. There are only two survivors an old man and a 2 month-old baby. The satellite and the survivors are taken to a secret laboratory in Nevada so a top team of scientists can determine what happened. The way this books is presented is in the form of a report that describes the events as they happened over a 4-day period.

    A movie was made of this book in 1971 directed by Robert Wise, and starring Arthur Hill, James Olson, David Wayne, and Kate Reid and it is a movie you must see if you like quality science fiction that deals with an actual story rather than relying on special effects. There was also a four episode mini-series made of it in 2008, however I haven't seen it.

    A fantastic story, highly recommended.

"Time Travel" by James Gleick

 

Publisher: Pantheon Books
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9780307908797

    This was an extremely interesting book to read, as it began with an examination of the phenomena created by H. G. Wells when in wrote "The Time Machine" in 1895, and then went on to look at how it has been treated in other stories. Mr. Gleick also reviews the science behind time travel, as well as the philosophy of it as well.

    To say that the concept of time travel is a staple of science fiction as some authors have said is, I believe, an exaggeration as Wells was the originator of the concept, and science fiction itself existed for a considerable time before he came on the scene, even though it went by other names. Mr. Gleick looks at a number of different topics related to time travel such as: the concept of time itself, paradoxes, how time flows, etc.

    Mr. Gleick's research on this topic was extensive, and I am looking forward to reading some of his other books, as if they are even half as good as this one they should be well worth it.

"Limitless" by Alan Glynn

 

Publisher: Picador
Copyright: 2001 (Originally published as "The Dark Fields"
ISBN: 9780312428877

I was drawn to this book after watching the 2011 movie (Bradley Cooper, Abbe Cornish, Robert De Niro) by the same name, and while the movie is quite different in some aspects I was quite impressed Hollywood didn't mess it up too bad. The book is much darker than the movie, but to a certain point this is to be expected considering the topic. The ending of the book is not what I expected, and this was the biggest change that was made. The movie in contrast to the book has a very positive / uplifting conclusion.

The story tells a tale of a down and out writer (Eddie), who is introduced to a mind enhancing drug by his former brother-in-law (Vernon), and is hooked after just one pill. The drug works absolute wonders with his memory, research skills, work ethics, he doesn’t have to sleep or eat as much, you name it. But when Vernon is killed, Eddie has in his hands the only supply of the drug that exists, and he uses it to his advantage..

Unfortunately this drug is also extremely addictive, and has some very detrimental side effects such as blackout, migraines, and violent outbursts, and when you try to stop taking it the withdrawal effects can kill you.

An excellent book, highly recommended. But watch the movie too so you can enjoy the differences.

"The Art of Taking It Easy: How To Cope With Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors" by Dr. Brian King

 

Publisher: Apollo Publishers
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9781948062466

This is a very interesting book to read, and Dr. King's sense of humour is great. His methods for relieving stress are easy to follow, and make so much sense that I'm quite surprised a book of this sort didn't come out many years ago. His method of expressing his ideas is straight forward, and the stories he tells to illustrate the concepts are excellent. He does who into some detail about how the brain works, and some might anticipate this would be a little hard to understand, however he does it in such a way that it is easy to comprehend.

Here's hoping that he continues writing books of this kind, and while I've never seen him perform I am sure his stage show would be extremely entertaining.

Highly recommended.

"Deception Point" by Dan Brown

 

Publisher: Pocket Books

Copyright: 2001

ISBN: 9781416524809

I reviewed Mr. Brown’s book Digital Fortress a couple of weeks ago, and he is back with another great story that will keep you turning the pages. This time he takes on the entire political structure of the US Government, and it’s relationship with NASA and a number of other factors. It is an election year, and the president is  vying for a second term in office. His opponent is a ruthless senator who will stop at nothing to ensure he is elected instead, no matter what it costs.

The story revolves around the locating of a meteorite that was determined to have fell to the Earth in the early 1700s, and has been buried in the Arctic ice ever since. A team of civilian personnel are sent to investigate the meteorite, and discover some absolutely startling information. What this information is I’m not going to tell you, but if it is true then the whole world will be changed.

Once again the lead character in this novel (as in Digital Fortress) is female, which definitely adds (in my humble opinion) to the overall story as these types of novels have been dominated from the beginning by males. In many cases these males were also portrayed as essentially being super-humans, with a few minor flaws which makes them almost laughable in many cases.

Another great story, looking forward to the next book.

"Relax, Dammit: A User's Guide to the Age of Anxiety" by Timothy Caulfield.

Publisher: Allen Lane

Copyright: 2020

ISBN: 9780735236325

This book takes the reader on an interesting journey though a single day, and highlights the myriad of different things that humans (yes, you!) typically worry about during that time, in the order you normally will encounter them. Most of these things were ones I'd personally never given any thought to, but upon reading about it realized that they are part of my life as well (except for the coffee part).

The book is split into three main sections Morning, Afternoon & Evening, and within each of these Dr. Caulfield examines the various things that are part of our lives. There are of course certain things that are present in all areas, such as our fascination and slavery to our cell phones, but like he says "Relax, Dammit!" Each of the topics he surveys are very informative, and for the most part addressed from a rather unique point of view, which is both enlightening, and at times quite humorous.

I don't want to spoil the read for you, but as a bit of a teaser he examines such things as waking up, weighing yourself, vitamins, parking, hand washing (something we are, or should be quite aware of in today's world), public toilet seats, coffee (yuck!), stand-up desks, soap, water drinking, the ubiquitous five-second rule, napping, hugging, television, and much more.

Dr. Timothy Caulfield is the Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, as well as a Professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton. He has written a two other books "The Curefor Everything: Untangling the Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness, and Happiness" and  "The Science of Celebrity ... or is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?"

An excellent read that will definitely open your eyes. Highly recommended. If you ever get a chance to hear Dr. Caulfield speak, take the time out of your busy schedule and do so. Also don't forget to Relax!

"Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown

 

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Copyright: 1998.

ISBN: 9780312263126

This is the second book of Dan Brown’s that I’ve read (I read The Da Vinci Code first, not realising that it was the second book in a series). This story however is a stand-alone novel that concerns the American National Security Agency (NSA), and its cryptographic division who have a sophisticated computer program that can decode anything in a matter of minutes, until it comes across a code written by a former employee.

A high level cryptographer in the NSA is called in to solve the riddle of this new code when the agency is essentially held hostage by a code system that threatens to put put them out of business, and ensure 100% privacy to everyone in the world - something no security agency would want.

Unlike numerous thriller novels there isn’t tonnes of violence, with everybody armed to the teeth, etc. This novel is could easily be considered a classic as it requires the reader to think, and understand rather than just experience the visceral pleasure.

It is great to see the emergence of strong female characters in Brown's books, as the spy/thriller genre has been centred almost solely on males for decades. An excellent novel, looking forward to reading more of his work.

"Hoax, A History of Deception: 5000 Years f Fakes, Forgeries and Fallacies" by Ian Tattersall & Peter Nevraumont

 

Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9780316503723

Hoax takes the reader on a very interesting journey through the minds of perpetrators, as well as others who have had something to do with hoaxes, cons, etc. It is an extremely interesting read that will surprise you. In all the authors examine 50 hoaxes starting in 2800 BCE and going through to present day, dealing with such topics as The End of the Word, the myth of Noah's ark, Gladiators vs. Professional Wrestlers, various religious topics such as sacred relics, the Shroud of Turin, Priory of Sion, etc. They also cover the typical ones such as the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, and Piltdown Man. But in case you might think this is mainly about things that happened many years ago, they also looks at the vaccination debate, homeopathy, race, fake memoirs, fake bomb detectors, and much more..

I found this book to be quite informative, and even though I had heard of some of these topics before, others were brand new to me. The chapters are rather long, but do present the information in a well written and concise format. I can see this book being valuable to students in junior and senior high school especially considering the amount of misinformation that is present in the world today via the internet.

Well worth the read! I hope the authors consider doing a second volume as there has to be more hoaxes they didn't have a chance to cover.

"Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown

Publisher: Doubleday
Copyright: 2003
ISBN: 9780385504201
 

This is the first book of Mr. Brown's that I've read, and to say the least I was very impressed. The plotting, characterizations, research were fantastic. Unfortunately (at least for me) it is the second book in the Robert Langdon series, which I didn't know, so now that's I'm hooked I've got to go read Angels and Demons.

The lead character is Robert Langdon, a symbologist is summoned to the Louvre in the middle of the night as the curator has been murdered. Unbeknownst to Langdon he is the chief suspect, but with the help of the police's cryptologist he begins to uncover a evidence the leads him to the discovery of a shocking historical fact, one certain people groups will do anything to keep a secret.

A number of christian sects, most notably the catholic church were quite upset as the book supposedly misrepresented their rituals, and beliefs, however as Mr. Brown stated in an interview with Martin Savidge "99 percent of it is true. All of the architecture, the art, the secret rituals, the history, all of that is true, the Gnostic gospels."

In any case it is an absolutely great story, and I'm looking forward to his other novels.

"The Time Traveler's Guide to Restoration Britain: A Handbook for Visitors to The Seventeenth Century 1660-1700" by Ian Mortimer

Publisher: Pegasus Books

Copyright: 2017

ISBN: 9781681773544

The Time Traveler's Guide to Restoration Britain is a fascinating look into what life was like in the mid to late 17th century in Britain (in particular 1660 to 1700). This was a time that has been portrayed in a number of movies, and books, but there were many details that the film makers got wrong. Whether this was due to lack of research, or they just didn't think anybody would notice is questionable, but Mr. Mortimer's book should hopefully eliminate any future errors, assuming that the movie types bother to read it.

This book is Mr. Mortimer's 8th dealing with history, which is where his expertise is as he is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and has been described by the London Times as "the most remarkable medieval history of out time." He has two other books in the Time-traveller's series one on Medieval England, and another of Elizabethan England, both of which are fascinating as well.

"Restoration Britain" delves deeply into a wide range of topics such as living in London, as well as outside it ad the differences can be quite startling to say the least. He also discusses the people themselves, their character, the basic essentials of life, the colette they wore, travelling, where it is possible to stay when travelling, what you as a traveller could eat, drink and smoke, the health and hygiene of the peoples, the law, and entertainment.

This book as well as the two others in the series would be priceless resources for any author writing historical fiction set in Britain in any one of the three eras. I hope Mr. Mortimer will consider expanding this series with other books as well.

Highly recommended.

"Cibola Burn" by James S. A. Corey

Publisher: Orbit
Copyright: 2014
ISBN: 9780316217620

Cibola Burn is the fourth book in the Expanse series and carries the storyline into the far reaches of space.

The Ring Gate has opened access to thousands of new worlds, but this has caused some problems in that some people decide to stake a claim on an unoccupied planet. Seeing nothing wrong with this they choose one, after all there were thousands to choose from, however it turns out the planet they chose was rich in Lithium, and they didn't consider the fact that a major corporation might want it instead.

These two opposing views end up in violence, as can be expected. Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are dispatched by Chrisjen Avasarala and Fred Johnston to act as mediators in the dispute. As expected though it turns out to be more than a simple mediation trip however, as many other factors come into play the least of which is the Holden soon comes to suspect that maybe his mission was meant to fail.

An excellent continuation of the series, I found the 4th season to parallel the book quite well, but as expected there were some changes, but none that seriously detracted from the storyline. As so far they have done a very good job of adapting these books into the series.

"How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution" by Lee Alan Dugatkin & Lyudmila Trut

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Copyright: 2017

ISBN: 9780226444185

This book is a detailed and fascinating account of the experiments undertaken to determine if it was domesticate the silver fox in Russia, in the early to mid 20th century, under the guidance of the Russian geneticist Dimitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut.

It also details a lot of the political intrigue that had to be dealt with in the early years due to the way the communist system at the time worked, or rather didn't work due to the overbearing hatred of genetics and science in general by Stalin and Trofim Lysenko. Luckily for science shortly after Nikita Kruschiev came to power in 1953, Lysenko was sacked.

Due to Lysenko’s influence / over bearing hatred of science the experiments had to be disguised as breeding experiments to increase the fox population for the production of furs.  

When the news got out of what they were really doing and the fantastic benefits to science that they were discovering the entire scientific community got behind the project.

The fox farm project continues to this day, and the advances and discoveries they have made continue to astound those in the field of animal research.

This book would be a great read for anybody who is interested in seeing how science actually works, and some of the pitfalls they have to deal with.

Highly recommended.

"Clockwork Angels: The Novel" by Kevin J. Anderson

 

Publisher: ECW Press
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9781770903371

This is a rather unique book in that it is the novelization of the song lyrics written by the late Neil Peart who was the drummer for the iconic Canadian rock group Rush. The story is essentially a coming of age story of a young man Owen Hardy or as he is primarily known in the book Owenhardy, an assistant orchard master from the village of Barrel Arbour in the land of Albion.

Albion is ruled by the supposedly benevolent Watchmaker who controls the entire culture with clockwork precision. Young Owen is soon to become an adult, and he is then elected to marry the love of his life, and then take over the orchard from his father, etc. The Watchmaker knows about Owen, and is watching him, however, so is the Anarchist who is the Watchmaker's opponent who wants to disrupt the society and allow people to think for themselves.

The book is set in a "steampunk" style world and Owen is exposed to the reality of world he has always believed in and accepted as normal when various circumstances force his hand.

This is an excellent book, and highly recommended.

"Venus and Aphrodite: A Biography of Desire" by Bettany Hughes

Publisher: Basic Books, New York

Copyright: 2020

ISBN: 9781541674233

This is the marvellous biography of the goddess Aphrodite, that takes the reader from her origins – which predates her appearance in classical mythology - right through to the present day.

Ms. Hughes examines the history of Aphrodite, as well as her links to the various cultures she was worshipped in. Although Aphrodite is typically considered to be a Greek goddess, who was then adopted by the Romans to become Venus her origins are much earlier than the classical Greek civilization many people are familiar with. Such as "Lady of Lemba" a statue found on the island of Cyprus and dated to approximately 5000 years ago. As most people know the history of Aphrodite revolves around sex, procreation, love, and other forms of spirituality. Therefore this book does focus on that a fair bit, but in an extremely informative and fascinating way.

Since the time of Greek and Roman dominance in the world she has been transformed, and excepted in numerous other cultures up to and including modern day. Is the fantastic book with lots of information, and Ms. Hughes obviously did a fantastic amount of research to put this together.

Highly recommended.

 

"Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang

Publisher: Vintage Books

Copyright: 2002

ISBN: 9781101972120

My primary reason for picking up this book of short stories was after seeing the 2017 movie "Arrival" by director Denis Villeneuve, which was based on the short story "Story of Your Life", and which follows the plot fairly well. Yes, I realize I am totally destroying my record of slamming Hollywood, but in this case they did a good job. Prior to this I hadn't read anything by Mr. Chiang at all, much to my dismay.

This book is a collection of eight short stories: the Tower of Babylon, Understand, Division by Zero, Story of Your Life, Seventy-two Letters, The Evolution of Human Science, Hell is the Absence of God, and finally Liking What You See: A Documentary".

All of the stories are very well written and quite thought-provoking. Of the eight stories though the first four are definitely my favorites. I'm not sure if I can say why they are my favourites, but I think it's possibly due to the fact that the characters and the storyline are very well developed and quite interesting.

Mr. Chiang has written the second book entitled "Exhalation", which I'll definitely be looking to get my hands on to read in the near future.

Definitely recommend it.

"Outlaws of the Atlantic: Sailors, Pirates and Motley Crews in the Age of Sail" by Marcus Rediker

Publisher: Beacon Press

Copyright: 2014

ISBN: 9780807033098

This book gives a well researched introduction to the various pirate groups that operated in the Atlantic during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most people know some of characters due to the various pirate movies that have been released over the years, but for the most part these movies deal strictly with what is known as "The Golden Age of Piracy" and focuses on the Caribbean. The range of piratical activities however extends for many centuries prior to this.

Mr. Rediker also gives a great deal of information on what life was likely like onboard a pirate ship (not as bad as typically portrayed in the movies) vs. what life warlike in the Royal Navy (much worse than what is typically portrayed in the movies) - which in a number of cases led to common sailors becoming pirates.

Two examples of this are Edward Barlow and Henry Pitman. The first chose a life at sea at the tender age of 13, while Pitman was transported to Barbados as punishment. Other men were pressed into service, and never saw their families again.

A very good read.

"Neuromancer" by William Gibson

 

Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group

Copyright: 1984

ISBN: 9780441012039

Neuromancer was William Gibson's first novel, and it took the science fiction world by storm due to its realism, interesting characters, and well thought out plot.

The story tells the adventures of Case, a hacker that is being forced to complete a mission to stay alive. In his bloodstream is a toxin that will release after a certain amount of time if there's no antidote given to him. He teams up with an agent (for lack of a better term) named Molly Millions. A lady with Mirror shade implants in her eyes, and 4 cm retractable razors in her fingertips (I haven’t quite figured out how this would work, as the first knuckle on most people is an average of 1.5 cm behind the finger tip).

The story revolves around two artificial intelligences named Wintermute, and Neuromancer. The two AIs, along with Case, Molly and the rest of the crew are also up against the Turing Police, who keep an eye on the doings of AIs, and those that try to hack into them. There isn’t a lot of background information given on why the Turing Police exist, or why they have to watch the AIs, so I found this to be a little off-putting as I happen to like these world-building details.

Molly is a character that also appears in Gibson's short story Johnny Mnemonic, which takes place before Neuromancer, but was written a few years afterwards.

Gibson has also written two more novels set in the same universe entitled Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. However, I haven't read either of these yet.

This is an excellent book with great characterization, that makes you think and feel with the characters. The plotting is also very tight and well done, and the world building excellent. It however hasn’t quite kept up with the way technology has actually developed and changes since 1984, so I think it might have been better to set it further into the future - but that just my opinion.

Highly recommended to anybody who enjoys good science fiction.

"Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas" by Laura Sook Duncombe

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Copyright: 2017

ISBN: 9781613736012

This is an fascinating book filled with great information on the women who were or at the very least contributed to piracy throughout history. The vast majority of works about piracy never mention but a few women, when it seems rather obvious (at least to me) that there must have been a significant number of them. Unfortunately due to the patriarchy most women have been pushed to the side and therefore written out of history. Even more unfortunately is that this is a common occurrence in virtually all aspects of historical writing, unless of course the author is 1) a woman, or 2) cares about representing history truthfully.

I 'met' for the first time in this book many women pirates whom I'd never heard of before. Most people have I'm sure heard of Anne Bonny, and Mary Reed. But the adventures of women pirates started many centuries before these two ladies came on the scene.

Other notable women pirates included in this volume come from many ages throughout history. Some were forced into piracy due to their circumstances, other chose the life for themselves. Some of the women pirates are fictional, but others were real. Some only aided the pirates in their lifestyle while others were actually crew members. The majority of the ones who were actual crew members dressed as men, in some circumstances this was for disguise, while in a number of cases I'm relatively sure it was for practicality.

This was a very well researched and informative book. As for as I can tell Ms. Duncombe hasn't written any others to date but I would watch out for anything she produces in the future.

Highly recommended.

"The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick (1928-1982)

 

Publisher: Penguin
Copyright: 1962
ISBN: 978-0241246108

"The Man in the High Castle" is set an alternate United States in 1962. The premise behind the story is the United States stayed out of World War II, and because of this Nazi Germany won the war as did Japan, and what we now know as the United States was carved up between these two nations. There is a buffer zone between the two powers, and within that zone lives a man who wrote an underground bestseller, which describes the world in which we live in.

In addition to this rewrite of history things like slavery are once again legal, persons of Jewish descent are hunted down -- but are able to live under assumed names -- however if they are caught they are automatically transported to Nazi Germany and executed.

This book was recommended to me as a great story that demonstrated the fusion between science-fiction and the contemporary novel. I'm not exactly sure how the person that recommended this could possibly have come up with that evaluation but it definitely did not live up to that in my opinion.

I found the blatant racism, and anti-Semitism in this book extremely disturbing, and even though these things are explained within the context of the plot, there was so much of it that I found it overwhelming, and extremely distracting from the story itself. In addition, the plot itself was very disjointed. However, even with these drawbacks it managed to somehow win the 1963 Hugo Award.

According to the website Fantastic Fiction this story has now been made into an Amazon series. It will be interesting to see how they treat the anti-Semitism and racism, as I believe this could turn off a great number of people in the world, however as racism and anti-Semitism are still alive and thriving in certain parts of the world I'm sure those folks will love it.

Due to the content of this book I believe it suitable for adult readers or mature readers only.

"Greek Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook" by Liv Albert

 

Publisher: Adams Media (Simon & Schuster)

Copyright: 2021

ISBN: 9781507215494

Liv Albert is the creator, host and producer of the podcast "Let's Talk About Myths, baby!" which has been running now since July 2017. It is one of the most popular podcasts in Canada, as she tells it like it is, and doesn't mince words.

"Greek Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook" is written in the same style, and portrays the Greek and Roman myths in an honest, but humourous way that acts as an excellent introduction for those people who have not taken or at least not referenced the myths for sometime.

The first part is a basic introduction to Greek mythology and the creation mythos that surrounds it. The second part deals with biographies of the Olympians themselves, e.g. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, Here, Athena, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Area, Hermes, Dionysus, and Hestia. Some of these are more important than others, but for the most part these are the ones that most people have learned about in school. There are also related stores about Persephone, Hectate, and Cerebus.

The third part deals with the deities Prometheus, Leto, Daphna, and Erosalong with related stores dealing with Pandora, Echo & Narcissus and Typhon & Echidna. The fourth part is the largest and deals with a number of the Heroes and Mortals, such as Heracles, Perseus, Jason, Medea, Daedalus, Oedipus, and more. Once again there are accompanying stories about the Minotaur, Icarus, Medusa, and more.

Overall this is a great review of classical Greek mythology, with the twist of relating it to the many modern interpretations of the myths.

The artwork in this book is by Sara Richard, and is quite stunning in its styling, and I hope that prints of these panels will eventually be available on her site www.sararichard.com

Highly recommended. Looking forward the the second volume (Yes, Simon & Schuster, this is a hint).

"The Magic Labyrinth" by Philip José Farmer (1918-2009)

 

 

Publisher: Berkley Medallion
Copyright: 1980
ISBN: None listed

The Magic Labyrinth is the fourth book in the Riverworld series, and like the previous instalments: "To Your Scattered Bodies Go", "The Fabulous Riverboat", and "The Dark Design" the story revolves around getting the source of the river. The original characters of Richard Francis Burton, Samuel Clements, Hermann Goering, and many others make return appearances, and most of them end up dying in one way or another.

I personally found this book to not be as well written as the others, but rather than harp on the fact that I had some trouble believing the various developments the Riverworld residents made. I will this say that while the concepts good, the multi-chapter detailed review of how a war is fought between two river boats just way too long to be worth reading. The characters that we'd met before (at least those who were still alive) were written well, but some of the new ones weren't as well developed, and in some cases they played what I felt were significant parts.

This fourth book overall was in my opinion the poorest of the four. This was mainly due to the points mentioned above, but also because of the rather long passages of exposition to I assume explain who certain characters were for those who couldn't be bothered to read the first books or utterly failed history class in school. I still believe the amount of potential the initial premise had it could have been much better exploited in a myriad of ways rather than as a goal to see who could reach the polar sea first, no matter who suffered.

This book concludes the series or so we are led to believe by the book jacket, however it turns out there is another in the series entitled "The Gods of Riverworld" but at this time I don't think I'll be reading it any time soon.