"Race Against Time" by Piers Anthony

 

Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates 

Copyright: 1973

ISBN: 0812531108

It's 1960, in a typical American town. Or is it? John Smith is your typical high school aged teenager, but he's discovered some things about his life are a little odd. For instance, he has a dog that can climb trees, he has a girlfriend he's never met but whom he is required to write to each week, and has been told that he has to marry. To top this all off his parents always seem to be taking notes about what he's doing.

The above is generally what is on the back of the book, and what got me interested in this story when I first bought it many years ago. The story follows John Smith's explorations into why his life is a little odd, after all even he knows dogs shouldn't be able to climb trees. Is it ventures lead him to meet other people who are in the same situation as him, and what they discover is rather startling.

I had read some of Piers Anthony's stories before, and always found them to be quite intriguing as he definitely likes his plot twists. He likely is best known for his Xanth series of 44 books (which I haven't read), but he has many other novels and series in genres such as fantasy, thriller, urban fantasy, and children's fiction.

It was a very good book, that is well-suited for teens, young adults and so on.

Enjoy.

"Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000" by L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986)

 

Publisher: Bridge Publications, Inc.

Copyright: 1982

ISBN: 0884041557

There's absolutely no doubt that this book is a saga, as it is 1066 pages long. But even though it is extremely long the story is quite interesting, thorough and well written. It is also the only book of Mr. Hubbard's that I have ever finished.

My apologies to all the L. Ron Hubbard fans out there, but I honestly did try to read the "Mission Earth" series a long time ago, but didn't even make it through the first quarter of the first book which if I remember correctly was called "The Invaders Plan" (there are 10 in the series) but it was so mind numbingly boring I gave up. I have however not read any of his other works.

In any case "Battlefield Earth" is not like that series as it is a very good story that definitely keeps you in suspense with some very good twists and turns in the plotting. The characters themselves are memorable, some of them are very good people and a couple are really despicable. The culture of the Psychlos, is well portrayed and detailed which makes it quite interesting to read. In addition the Psychlos themselves seem to be quite well designed as well.

The story itself revolves around a small band of humans, led by Jonnie Goodboy Tyler. Legends tell of monsters who live on the plains, and following the death of his father, Johnnie decides to investigate if the rumours are true, in hopes that he can move the people of his village to someplace healthier, as they are slowly wasting away.

The monsters however turn out to be true, and Johnny is captured by one of them, an alien by the name of Terl. Later after learning more about Terl's plans Jonni, and another band of humans decide to fight back and retake the planet from the Psychlos.

While it is a long book, it is well worth the read, especially for the well developed world building, and characters.

On the other hand, they made a movie of this book in 2000 that was produced and starred John Travolta. It had the honour of being one of the worst movies that Hollywood has ever produced and was given such bad reviews by virtually every critic that is even hard to find the DVD in a library. The estimated budget was $73 million, and it made $8.25 Million, but who knows where it went?

While I've never actually seen the movie (something which I'm grateful for) after seeing some of the stills on IMDb, and reading some of the information on that same service it is obvious that good ol' Hollywood once again goofed, which seems pretty typical.

"To Sail Beyond the Sunset: The Life and Loves of Maureen Johnson (Being the Memoirs of a Somewhat Irregular Lady)" by Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988)

Publisher: Ace Books, New York
Copyright: 1988
ISBN: 0441748600

"To Sail Beyond the Sunset" is the fifth and last book in the world as myth series. It is written in the style of a memoir of Maureen Johnson who is one of the members of the Howard Families, and Lazarus Long's mother.

If you haven't read the other four books in the series then seriously consider picking them up and reading them in order otherwise this book will not make a whole lot of sense, as it builds directly on the last book "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls", and before that “The Number of the Beast", "Time Enough for Love", and “Methuselah's Children". Pixel (the Cat) however is better featured in this book even though he is the title character of "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls".

As mentioned this book is written in the format of a memoir dictated by Maureen Johnson/Smith while she is in jail awaiting trial and possible execution by a rather mysterious group of people, after waking up in a strange hotel room with a corpse beside her.

Outside of this, this novel is primarily about sex. There is no other real theme to the book as it details Maureen's life, her loves, her children, their lives, and fills in a whole lot of the backstory of the Howard families. Which is a good thing because the previous books do leave a number of questions unanswered.

This was also to the best of my knowledge Robert Heinlein's last novel, as he died in 1988. Mr. Heinlein's views on gender relations, sex, religion, marriage, and many other social topics come through very clearly. But this is not necessarily a bad thing (even though it will likely offend some of the more puritanical readers-Mind you they probably wouldn't be reading this book anyways), as the rather odd relationship that various cultures today have towards these topics can easily be accounted for as the characters live some 2000 years in our future, and the chances of our customs not changing in that time is zero.

All in all it was a very good series, but you do have to read it in order for it to make sense. 

Happy reading.

Wizard by John Varley

Publisher:    Berkley

Copyright:   1981 

ISBN:           9780441900671 

Wizard is the second book in the Gaea series, and takes place some 75 years after Titan. Chirocco "Rocky" Jones is the Wizard in the title and is essentially the Lieutenant (for lack of a better term) of Gaea, however over the years their relationship has become quite strained. Rocky has been given extended life because she is the wizard, and because of some of the limitations / requirement Gaea has forced upon her she has become a raging alcoholic. Gaby who was also in "Titan", as Rocky's friend/lover also reappears and has been granted long life, but only as long as she's useful to Gaea, so she therefore has to keep her self in Gaea's good graces.

In the last 75 years a lot as happened aboard the Gaea, such as some Titanades (Centaur like beings) have immigrated to earth and serve as ambassadors between Gaea and Earth for those wishing to visit Gaea. In addition more humans are visiting the station, mostly to see if Gaea can help them. It is not really explained what other have come for, but it is noted that Gaea herself likes to test them, and frequently play tricks on them.

For the most part this book is a bit of a travelogue of the adventures encountered by Rocky, Gaby, a bunch of Titanades, and two people (Robin, and Chris) who are visiting from earth to be cured of their afflictions. We meet a few more of the inhabitants of Gaea, but outside of this the story completely revolves around Rocky's group who are trying to circumnavigate Gaea.

This was a good book, but not nearly as interesting as the first one, and if you plan to read it, be sure to read Titan first.

"World Building From the Inside Out" by Janeen Ippolito

Publisher: Independently Published

Copyright: 2018

ISBN: 9781983788321

This is the third book on world building that I’ll be reviewing, as I am currently doing research on the various methods authors use to do their work, and see if there are any major similarities and/or differences.

This book for the most part serves as a relatively handy reference on world building. Ms. Ippolito wrote this book because of a mistake she says in the introduction. She had a lot of experience in world building due to a background in anthropology and teaching, but neglected the plot and characters. She concluded that she was “missing the cultural worldview”. Which in my opinion is something that is very important, as that is what motivates characters, gives them a reason for what they do, etc.

The book is short at only 60 pages, and Ms. Ippolito describes it as “a quick primer to get you to the core of your story world’s cultures”.

She briefly talks about such things as religion, government, societal structure, technology, health medicine, the military and education to name a few. However, as of these topics are addressed within approximately five pages, the text resembles a list of semi-detailed definitions. But having said that the definitions are extremely useful, and likely not something most writers think about. The author’s experience in anthropology is quite evident, and this is where most of her sources seem to be based, which is a good plan as it is the study of humans, and until we meet some aliens that is what we have to base things on.

A very handy reference to get an author thinking outside of the box with regard to their world building activities.

"The A-Zs of Worldbuilding: Building a Fictional World From Scratch" by Rebekah Loper

Publisher: Tulsa, Oklahoma: Fantasia Hearth Press

Copyright: 2017

ISBN: 9780692850558

This is the second book on world building that I’ll be reviewing, as I am currently doing research on the various methods authors use to do their work, and see if there are any major similarities and/or differences.

As the title indicates this book deals with 26 topics on the subject of world building. I felt some of the choices of topics assigned to the various letters were a little odd, and some readers may not know what the terms she uses mean until they look them up, but the author does give very good information in all the sections.

Some of the topics covered include architecture, birth, clothing, death, economy, geography, and history. One nice feature about all these various topics is the author gives exercises composed of a series of questions / prompts at the end of each chapter as an assist for writers in building their worlds.

In some cases their are significant areas of crossover such as M is for Military, and W is for Weapons and Warfare, and I feel these two sections could easily have been combined. This also goes for A is for Architecture, and I is for Interior Design.

None of the chapters in this book are overly long, with the average being 3 to 4 pages, with generally more pages in the exercises section mentioned above (as it is laid out workbook style with room for writing). I believe it would have given potential authors more information if Ms. Loper had gone into more detail in the various sections, but for a quick reference guide, or for a novice author that is just getting into world building it is adequate.

I found this book to be quite helpful in my research, and would recommend it to anyone interested in world building.

"The Cat Who Walks Through Walls" by Robert A.Heinlein (1907-1988)

Publisher: New York: Berkley Books
Copyright: 1986
ISBN: 0425093328

"The Cat Who Walks Through Walls” (whose name happens to be Pixel) is the fifth book in the World as Myth series by Heinlein. It starts out as a mystery with a murder, but gets quite involved from that point on.

The murder itself take place in a restaurant, across the table from Dr. Richard Ames, who was waiting for his wife to come back to the table. The soon-to-corpse had sat down at the table uninvited to ask Ames if he would murder somebody for him. What follows is a chase that essentially takes up 2/3 of the book, as everybody it seems wants to kill Ames, but nobody knows why-especially Ames. Ames also doesn’t know why the man was killed at his table, why the body was disposed of so quickly, and a host of other questions.

While Ames and his wife are busy trying to escape a few more attempts are made on their lives, and this deepens the mystery even more, to make an interesting tale that will easily entertain.

As was the case in “The Number of the Beast" we are introduced to the world of as myth scenario approximately 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through the book, and this is where things get slightly confusing as the whole storyline behind the world is myth system is the time travel works, and you can visit alternate universes at the same time. This is something that those of you who read “The Number of the Beast” would have been introduced to.

When reading the series it is best to start with “Methuselah's Children" then go onto "Time Enough for Love", and finally “The Number of the Beast" before tackling this book or a lot of the references will not make any sense whatsoever as a lot of the characters in the other books appear in this novel, and they help to explain things. In addition scenarios that previously encountered in the other novels appear in this one as well to form part of the backstory.

Surprisingly though Pixel himself or herself (I don't believe it says) doesn’t play a big role in this novel, but still it’s a good linking feature.

"On Writing and Worldbuilding: Volume 1" by Timothy Hickson

Publisher: Independently Published

Copyright: 2019

ISBN: 9781798967652

The next three non-fiction reviews that I'll be doing are all going to be dealing with the subject of world building, which is something that all writers working in the various fiction genres have to deal with one extent or another (or at least they should). I am currently doing research on the various methods authors use to do their work, and see if there are any major similarities and/or differences.

Some readers and writers may disagree with the above statement, as world building has typically been defined as a staple of science fiction and fantasy. For other fiction genres it sometimes goes by such open-ended terms such as research, back story, plotting etc. rather than world building. However, I define world building very broadly and consider it to be anything an author has to do to make their story plausible to a reader, and allow the author to create consistent content for their stories.

In the first half of this book Mr. Hixson deals primarily with the techniques of writing rather than world building. In the second half he deals with the world building aspect of the title, and goes into some detail and discusses magic systems, polytheistic religions, hidden magical worlds, and then does three chapters on politics namely how empires rise, work, and fall.

I'm not going to deal much with the writing advice itself primarily because I picked this book up while I was researching world building techniques. However to give a fair review, I will say that the first part of the book gives the novice writer extremely good advice on writing in general, and especially character creation, exposition, character motivation and character interrelationships.

Moving on to world building, the first section is all about magic and he gives extremely good information on various types of magic systems, which are based on a system set up by Brandon Sanderson (author of the Elantis, and Mistborn series amongst others). In which magic is separated into two classes: hard and soft magic. He goes into a fair bit of detail concerning both these systems and gives good examples, as well as dealing with how magic should be written about.

When dealing with the polytheistic religions section he goes into detail here as well regarding the various religions themselves and how they might or should interact with the other parts of the society. Examples of this interaction would be variations in beliefs, the culture and its influences, economic influences, and how religions spread, to name a few.

He then tackles hidden magical worlds, which are a staple of the Percy Jackson series, Harry Potter series, Black Panther, and Wonder Woman, to name but a few of a large selection. He discusses things such as why is the world hidden? What technology is required to keep it hidden? How would the hidden society as well as the outside world deal with its discovery, as well as normal things such as economics, politics, and society in general.

Likely the best sections are with regard to how empires rise, work, and fall. And he goes into good detail with regard to these three topics.

All in all, I found this to be a very good book, but was a little disappointed in some of the examples he used, as a lot of them are very new and it seems as if he either ignored or didn't know about world building that had gone on in classic science fiction, and fantasy. One thing I did find useful was that in the section on empires he did use a history consultant to give it more accuracy.

"Abaddon's Gate" by James S. A. Corey

Publisher:New York : Hachette Book Group, 2013.
ISBN: 9780316129077
Characteristics: 566 pages

This is the third book in the Expanse series. I previously reviewed the first two books "Levithan Wakes" & "Caliban's War" sometime ago and you could read these reviews by clicking on the titles.

As you are likely aware this series is being made into a television series as well and I originally watched the first three seasons, then read the two first books but unfortunately had to wait due to COVID-19 to catch up with the third book. So far I am extremely impressed by the closeness that the directors have been staying to the books. There are of course some differences but these are easily overlooked.

I am eagerly waiting the release of the fourth season, but once again due to this pesky virus I have no idea when it's going to be available. Because of this I am somewhat hesitant to start the fourth book as I would prefer to read it after I watch the shows.

It would be very difficult to describe all the ins and outs of the plot in a review such as this, because it is so detailed, and I would be afraid of missing something.

This book takes place a few years after Caliban's War, and the entity that crashed into Venus, has since launched itself outward into the solar system, and constructed a huge torus shaped object known as "The Ring". The crew of the Rocinante along with ships from the Belt, Mars and Earth are on their way to investigate the phenomenon but other people have plans that don't exactly mesh with those of James Holden or most others for that matter. For example the Martain Navy would really like to get their ship back, which all happens to by the Rocinante. Julie Mao's sister is out to get Holden, and doesn't really care who gets in the way. The Belters aren't to crazy about him either, so he has a rather full plate to deal with.

A very good read, but definitely read this series in order or you will miss something.

"The Number of the Beast" by Robert A. Heinlein(1907-1988)

Publisher: Fawcett Gold Medal

Copyright: 1980

ISBN: 0449144763

This book is considered be part of the World as Myth series, but while reading it there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of reasons for this inclusion. In fact you don’t really even get what the “World as Myth” is all about until you are at least three quarters of the way through the book. No, I’m not going to tell you why!

This story tends to be somewhat tedious to read because for the most part the text is almost completely dialogue. In addition to this the main characters - all four of them – are constantly arguing with each other throughout the middle third to half of the story. These two reasons force me to put this novel into my “not so favourite” category, which for something by Heinlein is rather strange (at least for me).

Other than the above issues the story is relatively interesting, especially in the first and last quarters, as it deals with a first contact scenario. In this case however the aliens, which come from an alternate universe have been on earth for some time, but have now become hostile because humans have discovered how to travel between the universes. In addition there are numerous references to the old pulp fiction stories, which are fun to encounter.

The person who discovered the method of travel, is targeted by the aliens, and is forced to flee along with three rather unlikely companions. As is the case with a number of Heinlein’s later novels a good deal of the storyline revolves around social issues, politics, culture, gender relations, sex, etc. I don’t find this too be bad, but some might.

In order to truly appreciate this book, I believe you first need to read Methuselah's Children & Time Enough For Love.

All things considered this is a fairly good read, but not nearly as good as some of his other stuff.

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

Publisher: Avon Books
Copyright: 1981
ISBN: 0380585111

This book is a collection of 55 essays that were taken from the editorials published in "Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine", and many other publications, such as Parade magazine. The range of topics is very large even though they are all concerned with some aspect of science fiction.

The majority of these essays deal with the writing of science fiction, the history of s-f, and to an extent the history of pulp fiction in general. When Science Fiction first became a literary genre (even though it was nowhere near official) virtually the only place that authors could have their stores published was in what was then known as the pulps (so named because they were printed on cheap pulp paper). VP the author is virtually nothing, one of the highest was 1 cent a word, but most much less than that. Nevertheless, this is were the majority of classic science fiction writers cut their teeth. Authors such as Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, E. E. "Doc" Smith, and many more.

While I had not been born when the pulps were in their heyday, I'm not sure what the current state of science fiction would be today if they hadn't existed, in fact it's possible that the genre might not even exist as we know it.

Any person who is interested in the history of science fiction, the history of the authors of the genre, or just reading some very good essays on the topic of science fiction would find this book very interesting I think.

"Caliban's War" by James S. A. Corey

Publisher:New York : Orbit, [2012]
Edition:First edition.
Copyright Date:©2012
ISBN: 9780316129060
Characteristics: 611 pages ;,24 cm

"Caliban's War" is the second book in The Expanse series. It takes place approximately one year after "Leviathan Wakes" which I reviewed a few weeks ago.

During that year the phenomenon on Venus has grown considerably and is under investigation by a number of ships from Mars and Earth. As yet they have not been able to ascertain what it is though.

The characters in this novel are once again very well drawn out and developed. We meet a few new characters, two which stand out are Marine Sergeant Bobbie Draper, the U.N's. Assistant to the Undersecretary of Executive Administration Chrisjen Avasarala, and Botanist Praxidike Meng, amongst others.

The television series in its second season follows the events in this book quite well however there are some differences as to be expected, but for the most part they are very minor. For those of you who have read my column before you know that I tend to dump on Hollywood pretty good, but in this case I am still quite impressed with the job they are doing. Mind you at this point in time it isn't actually Hollywood that's wholly responsible for the series, it is the SyFy Channel, and I'm not certain how they are connected to Hollywood.

I am definitely looking forward to reading the third book in the series, however with the ongoing COVID-19 issues that may have to wait for a while as quite a number of book stores are closed as well as the library system. If however it proves to be as good as the first two books, then it will be well worth the wait.

"The Fresco" by Sheri S. Tepper (1929-2016)

Publisher:  Harper Collins
Edition:     First edition.
Copyright: 2000
ISBN:        9780380978792

This is I believe the first book of Ms. Tepper's that I read, and it's been a number of years since I read it the first time. With every subsequent reading it gives you a new insight on how today's world actually works. Her characterization is absolutely wonderful, the interplay between the various characters is also the sign of an excellent writer.

The story tells the tale of first contact with an advanced civilization who have come to Earth to give us the opportunity to join their confederation. To be eligible for a membership however, humans must conform to certain rules the major one being that we have to be able to get along with each other.

Unfortunately humans are an odd species of mammal. I say this because we humans seem to like to fight one another for no apparent reason, we also like to kill each other, and for the most simply cause trouble for each other. The majority of this conflict has had and continues to have its basis in politics, religion, and ethnicity.

Ms. Tepper's book brings a lot of these typically taboo subjects to light, and I believe if only we had the technology to do the things her alien emissaries did, along with the wherewithal to do it, we would probably be able to solve a lot if not all of our world's problems.

I would definitely recommend this book to any person who is looking for not only a feel good book, but one that actually portrays first contact in a positive manner.

"Leviathian Wakes" by James S. A. Corey

Publisher:New York : Orbit, 2011.
Edition:First edition.
Copyright Date:©2011
ISBN: 9780316129084
Characteristics: 582 pages ;,24 cm.

The review this week is one of those rare book & television show combinations. This is something quite rare for me, as readers of this blog typically notice that for the most part I dump on Hollywood a fair bit. Not that I really ever expect someone from Hollywood to ever read this blog, but who knows maybe they will and realise that the public at large  is able to read, and when they buy the rights to a book that they kinda sort of expect that the screen writer is also able to read, and will translate the author's ideas faithfully. Unfortunately this rarely happens, hence my dumping on them.

In this case however, I want to congratulate the screen writers of the SyFy series "The Expanse" for doing an absolutely wonderful job of translating Corey's novel to the screen. For those people who have not had the opportunity to watch "The Expanse" it is a great adaption, and well worth the time. It doesn't really matter if you want to read the book first, or watch the show, as it is that faithful.

This story is the first in the series, and revolves around two characters James Holden the executive officer of a ship that mines the rings of Saturn bringing loads of ice to mining colonies in the Asteroid Belt. Holden and his crew receive a distress call from a ship called "The Scopuli", and when they go to investigate they get more than they bargained for.

The second character is a police officer - Detective Miller who is searching for a missing girl. His assignment is to find the girl, and when his trail leads to "The Scopuli" too, then things get interesting.

The science in this series is well researched, and while there are some things that defy our current understanding of how things work, they are explained well.

Both the book and series are highly recommended. I'll be reviewing the others in the series as I get a chance to read them, but this could take a while as this book was 582 pages.

"Ocean-Space" by Allen M. Steele

Publisher: Ace Books, New York, 2000
ISBN: 044100850X

Ocean Space is a book that deals with life in an undersea research facility, and the everyday things they have to put up with in order to survive in this element. The first good thing about this book is that Mr. Steele, gets the science right. He takes things like the requirements for the divers to decompress, the use of special gas mixtures to allow for saturation diving, and even the required close living quarters into account. As a former diver these details were extremely refreshing to see.

In many science-fiction books, the science components such as this are ignored by the authors. Why they do this is anybody's guess. It could be something as simple as them not understanding the concepts (and refusing to do research), or possibly even assuming that their audience won't notice and therefore it won't matter if they skimp on the research. Both are unforgivable in my opinion.

The story opens when one of the characters (in a manned submersible mining manganese nodules on the ocean floor) gets into trouble following an unexplained encounter in the deep ocean. This sets the pace of this novel which is quite fast. The pace gets pushed even higher when a second plot line is introduced about the exploration of deeps hydrothermal vents.

For the younger readers who read this there is a young lady who is on her first visit to the installation, although this isn't where she thought she was heading too, as they just said a vacation in Florida. This adds a fair bit of conflict, and humour to the narration. When you add to this a good dose of espionage, some personal conflicts, and stir you have a first rate story that will keep you reading.

"Wizards, Aliens, and Starships: Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction" by Charles L. Adler

Publisher: Princeton University Press
Copyright: 2014
ISBN: 9780691147154

I came across this book when I was perusing the stacks at the University of Alberta, in their creative writing section. Why I was there was to find information on world-building, what I found was this.

As anyone who has read a fair bit of science-fiction and/or fantasy will appreciate certain authors tend to make up rules for their universes that at times don't make a lot of sense. No I'm not picking solely on the fantasy authors, as with the exception of those authors who write hard science-fiction the vast majority of writers play rather loose with the rules of physics, and math. This is, in my opinion, a bit of a shame but not because they do it, but because they don't explain it well enough to make it acceptable to the reader. The reader is simply supposed to take what the author says at face value, and not question them. This in my not-so-humble opinion borders on sloppy writing & plotting.

This book looks at a number of different concepts that have been, and continue to be mainstays of typical science-fiction and fantasy and puts them under the scientific microscope to show what is wrong with them based on our current level of scientific knowledge, but the author also takes an open-ended approach to see what would have to change to allow this too happen.

Once example is teleportation which was a main plot point in Star Trek, the Harry Potter series, and many others. He examines why it won't work the way it is described (or more frequently not described) in many works, and why.  The first section looks at basic concepts such as giants, transfiguration, dragon and other beasties in the fantasy realm, primarily from a Harry Potter standpoint as that is what a lot of people use for a reference today. He then goes on in the rest of the book to look at the future of transportation, space travel, computers, space colonies, propulsion systems, faster-that-light travel, and much more.

This would be a great resource for any science-fiction or fantasy writer, as well as anyone to is into debunking various offbeat pseudo-scientific concepts. The sections on the space sciences would also be quite useful to anyone beginning to study astronomy or astrophysics as the concepts are presented clearly and concisely.

WARNING: There is math involved, but it is fairly basic, so most people shouldn't have too much trouble with it.

"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.

"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.

"Physics of the Impossible" by Michio Kaku

Publisher:New York : Doubleday, [2008]

Edition:First edition.

Copyright Date:2008

ISBN:9780385520690

This book was an extremely interesting read, and one I wish I had read sometime ago. I believe it would be very useful for any budding science-fiction writers as it it explains in general terms whether certain topics commonly found in science-fiction stories are actually possible based on real world physics. 

Dr. Kaku divides things that are typically considered impossible into three categories. In Class I are things that are impossible today but don't violate the known laws of physics. Surprisingly some of these items are force fields, invisibility, phasers and death stars, starships, antimatter.

Class II are those at the very edge of our understanding of physics, but still conceivably possible if we gain further knowledge of the physical world. These are such things as faster than light travel, time travel, and parallel universes.

Finally in Class III are things that violate the known laws of physics, such as perpetual motion machines, and precognition, so it's unlikely we'll have to worry about these, nor are they likely to be of much use to writers as they are on the edge of science-fantasy.

Dr. Kaku goes into a lot of detail to explain each of these items and why he is placed them in the categories he has. In addition he examines the history of physics as well as where it is currently headed to back up his classifications.

Even though there is a lot of detail in this book, it is easy to read and there are only one or two formulas to deal with. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is writing science-fiction and wants to get a good handle on the science as we know it today, and how they could change things to fit their stories.

"Star Talk" with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Publisher:Washington, D.C. : National Geographic, [2016]
Copyright Date:©2016
ISBN: 9781426217272
Characteristics: 302 pages :,colour illustrations

"StarTalk" is the companion book to the radio show and television program. It is hosted by Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson of the Hayden Planetarium in New York.

The book itself is not a transcript of what took place on the radio or television program. It is more of a coffee table style of book that touches on numerous subjects and gives very concise explanations with regard to why they are true or untrue, work or don't work, and it debunks a number of myths as a bonus.

It is separated into four major sections space, planet earth, being human, futures imagined. It each of these there are 5 to 6 different sub-topics. For example in the space section there are discussions entitled: What do I pack for Mars? What do I eat in space? Can we use wormholes to travel? Who goes there? And are we there yet?

Each of these subtopics is then broken down into smaller discussions with contributions from authors, experts in the field, celebrities and so on.

This is an extremely good book, that is designed to answer questions that a teenager or younger child will have about various topics related to science. It would also be a great resource for students up to high school to stimulate their curiosity, or give them ideas for research paper topics.

I personally have not listened to the radio program but the television program which is produced by National Geographic is extremely interesting and quite humourous at times as well.