"End Times: A Brief Guide t the End of the World" by Bryan Walsh

 

Publisher: Hachete Books

Copyright: 2019

ISBN: 9780316449601

This books was an extremely interesting read, that covered a lot of territory and gives the reader a lot to think about. The author is a former correspondents, reporter and editor for Time Magazine. He reported on from over 20 countries on science and environmentally focused stories such as SARS, global warming, extinction and other topics.

The book itself takes a look at eight different scenarios that could end the world, or at least the world as we know it. The first is an asteroid collision such as what wiped out the dinosaurs, and which will happen again eventually. The second is the supereruption of a volcano such as the explosion of what is now the island of Sumatra when the mountain called Toba exploded some 74 thousand years ago and essentially turned day into night for many parts of the world. The ash of Toba was found in areas such as the Indian Ocean, China Sea, Arabian Sea, Lake Malawi in Africa.

The third potential disaster is from nuclear armaments and how some rather unstable world leaders could easily be poised to commit horrendous acts. (Looking at you Putin!) Climate change is the next topic discussed, and even though a significant number of people in the world turn a blind-eye towards the facts, it seems pretty obvious to most that it is. Disease is the next topic, and discusses world-wide epidemics. It seems rather ominous that when this book predicts an epidemic of some kind in the near future when it was written, and that the world is now recovering from one. This topic merges quite well into the next one which is biotechnology, and discusses the possibility that a disease could actually be engineered.

Chapter five deals with Artificial Intelligence and what we could experience in the future if we keep increasing our computer capacity etc. at its current rates. It speculates on what would need to happen, and what the consequences might be, even though it likely won't be anything like "The Terminator" franchise. Personally I believe a better comparison would be the 1970 movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project".

Chapter six deals with Aliens, and while it doesn't deal too much with what might happen if they were to show up, it does go into a fair amount of detail with regard to our searching for them, including the history of SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) and it's off-shoot METI (Messaging Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). 

The final chapter deals with the aftermath of a potential catastrophe and how we might recover. It too goes into a fair bit of detail with regard to how people believe things will unfold and the measures they take to prepare for them. I (and most others) have heard about the survivalist movement, but I wasn't aware there was such a thing as "Doomsday Preppers" who actively plan their lives around the end of the world.

This book, while it was somewhat depressing a couple of times, is a definite eye-opener to how fragile the existence of humans, and all other life on Earth actually is. The fact that asteroids have collided with this planet, super eruptions have occurred, that we have been close to a possible nuclear confrontation in the past and might be again if certain world leaders don't wake up. That we are going through climate change right now, and are hopefully coming close to the end of a world-wide epidemic doesn't bode too well for the survival of our species. After all this only leaves AI and Aliens, which is kind of worrisome.

This is the type of book we need to see more of. Highly recommended.

"The Bayern Agenda" by Dan Moren

 

Publisher: Angry Robot

Copyright: 2019

ISBN: 9780857668202

It's been along time since I read a good spy novel, but this definitely made up for it. As Anthony Johnson commented on the cover "like John le Carré meets The Stainless Steel Rat ...", which aptly he describes this novel. For those not in the know John le Carré is the author of "Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy" which is a novel about British intelligence. On the other hand "The Stainless Steel Rat" is a series by the late Harry Harrison that deals with the life of a professional criminal in the far future. Both are excellent authors and these series are definitely worth reading too.

However, back to the Bayern Agenda which deals with a cold war a few hundred years  in the future and the clandestine operations of agents on both sides. So far there are only two books in the series, and I'm looking forward to reading the second one.

There is some political intrigue, some clandestine operations, a fair bit of humor which always makes for a good story. The world building seems to be very well taken care of, and even though  the standard tropes of faster than light travel (via wormhole), anti-gravity generators etc. are used Mr. Moran's universe is consistent, and believable.

Looking forward to reading the second book in the series.

"The End is Always Near: Apocalyptic moments, From the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses" by Dan Carlin

 

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Copyright Date:©2019

ISBN: 9780062868046 

Dan Carlin for those of you who don't know is the host of the "Hardcore History" Podcast which has been running for close to 15 years if I'm not mistaken. Mr. Carlin is a fantastic storyteller who blends real history, but not always the way you were told into both his podcasts, and now his first book. The podcast and now this book invites the listener and reader to think about what really happened in history, what people were thinking, and where we as supposedly rational humans might be headed.

"The End is Always Near" takes the reader on a journey that examines the Bronze Age collapse, the way children were raised historically, the fall of the Assyrian Empire, the Roman Empire vs. the Barbarians (everyone who wasn't Roman), the various epidemics and pandemics that have scourged the world over time (which as I am writing this we are in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic is rather frightening), the nuclear age and the attacks on Japan in 1945, the horrors of the wars in Europe and how they can be compared to what happened in Japan.

This book is absolutely full of fascinating information, but the information may at times be a little shocking, especially to people who have gone through the school system in the last 30 years when the material being taught has been sanitized.

This would make a fantastic text book for a high school or a 1st year University history class.

"The Questor Tapes" by Dorothy C. Fontana

Publisher: Ballantine Books
Copyright: 1974
ISBN: 0-345-28024-5

The Questor Tapes tells the story of an android that is constructed by a five-nation team of scientists that have been given the task by a somewhat mysterious scientist named Emil Vaslovik, who then disappeared. Since his disappearance the team has worked diligently at creating his invention, but they made the mistake of trying to decode the activation tape that Vaslovik supplied, which therefore caused the android to be incomplete.

One of the team who constructed the android is Jerry Robinson, the only one who actually worked from Vaslovik and who therefore is under some suspicion as to how he fits in, and what Vaslovik's real plan for the android is.

When the awakes he realises he is incomplete, and therefore makes it a priority to find Vaslovik, he does this by escaping from the laboratory where he was constructed, and enlisted the help of Robinson. Jerry agrees albeit reluctantly to help him and that when their adventures begin.

This book a good example of what science-fiction can be when it is handled by an experienced writer. The story itself is an adaption from a made for television movie by the same name which was create by Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon.

The only thing I wasn't too comfortable with in this book are the religious overtones (although they are subtle). But this doesn't detract too much from the book or the movie as it is only within the last chapter or so / few minutes that it becomes apparent as to what they are referring to.

All other things considered, it is a good light read.

"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!

"A Legacy of Spies" by John Le Carré

Publisher: [Toronto] Viking, 2017
ISBN: 9780735234529
Characteristics:  264 pages

Once again Mr. Le Carré has written a superb novel. This story once again revolves around the the actions of the Circus and George Smiley, and fills in a portion of the back story that fans have likely been curious about for many years. While Mr. Le Carré hasn't written a Smiley novel in 25 years, the same panache and expert storytelling hasn't gone away in this page turner.

If you have never read any of the George Smiley novels - "Call for the Dead" (1961); "A Murder of Quality" (1962); "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" (1963); "The Looking Glass War" (1965); "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" (1974); "The Honourable Schoolboy" (1977); "Smiley's People" (1979); and "The Secret Pilgrim" (1990) - then you might want to tackle them first however this means you'll have to put off reading "A Legacy of Spies" until much later, which would be a shame. If however you want to read "A Legacy" right away then read "Tinker, Tailor Soldier, Spy" and you'll be in the groove.

While the Cold War subject matter is based of factual events and the world of George Smiley and his fellow clandestine operatives is fictional, I am in awe at the amount of research that Mr. Le Carré had to have done to make these novels seem so realistic is astounding. If on the other hand he did minimal research then it is even more amazing as this and the other novels in the series are so well crafted that they are very difficult to put down even for short breaks.

After reading this novel, I plan to go back and reread all the other George Smiley novels to refresh my memory of all the details. This will however take some considerable time. However seeing as there are likely numerous reviews of these great stories already it is unlikely that I'll review them on this blog.

I hope you enjoy this novel as much as I did!

Publisher: [Toronto] Viking, 2017
ISBN: 9780735234529
Characteristics:  264 pages