The New Northern Rambler

2022-02-28

"The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times" by Adrienne Mayor

Publisher: Princeton University Press

ISBN: 9780691150130

This was without a doubt one of the better books on the history of palaeontology I have read recently. I came across this pretty much by accident as I was looking for some reference material that would give me insight into where the origins of the mythology of dragons might have come from as at the time I was writing an article on the subject. I'm not exactly sure as I write this exactly what got me interested in the topic to begin with, but then again that was a few years ago, but it likely could have been something one of the school children asked me while I was touring them through the our lab. Prior to finding this book, I was getting rather frustrated as there didn't seem to be much material on the subject - which was rather annoying to say the least.

After finding this resource things began to click into place, as there really isn't a whole lot of information on the topic. As I learned from this book there is a great deal of fossil evidence in the Mediterranean basin with regard to palaeomammalogy, but very little prior to this as the area was quite geologically active. It also didn't help that many palaeontologists weren't overly interested in the topic, which was a shame.

This book has given me sufficient that I believe the mythological Griffin could easily have been influenced by the discovery of either Protoceratops, or Psittacosaurus, both of whom are from the Cretaceous period. But this still didn't satisfy my curiosity about dragons, after all they supposedly looked quite a bit different. As I moven through the text I feel it is rather likely that "dragons" were possibly influenced by prehistoric mammals such as Samotherium a giant Miocene giraffe found as the name suggests in Samos Greece - at least the skull sure looks like the head of a classical dragon, and with a long neck I feel it's a pretty good candidate.

Dr. Mayor has done a fantastic amount of valuable research on this topic, and this book is well worth reading and would make a great addition to any library. I would also recommend it as reference material to any Classics, Archaeology, or Palaeontology professors as a great resource. I look forward to reading her other work.

2022-02-21

"Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir

Publisher: Ballantine Books

ISBN: 9780593135204

A fantastic story. Mr. Weir once again takes on the world of science fiction, and scores another hit by putting the science back in science fiction. Odd as it sounds, having a science based theme in the science fiction genre is something that has been sorely lacking for many years, it is great to see an author that cares about doing their research.

This story tells the tale of an Earth in what we assume is the not too distant future, when the environment is pretty much the same state as ours is in today - lousy and getting worse. Then a new threat is discovered - one that will essentially eliminate over half the life on the planet as it is having a direct and very detrimental affect on the sun itself.

Ryland Grace - a science teacher - is drafted to assist in solving the problem as when he was a former PhD student, he published a paper that was dismissed by the scientific community, as it went against the status quo. However it turned out to be a partial solution to their new problem. Grace ends up going on a mission to find the ultimate solution to Earth's problem, but without any memory of who he is, or how he got there - definitely a bit of a problem.

I don't want to give away anything else in this story as is was such a great read. But I will say that just like he did in his best seller "The Martin" he explains the scientific concepts behind what goes on so that virtually anybody can understand them, just like a good teacher should. The ending was a bit of a surprise, but it was so well integrated into the storyline that it made complete sense. This was one of those books that was extremely difficult to put down (luckily, I have a job where a little less sleep doesn't matter very much).

With two hits in a row I'm definitely looking forward to whatever he does next as I'm sure it will once again be both entertaining and and educational.

2022-02-14

"The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World" by Virginia Postrel

Publisher: Basic Books

ISBN: 97815416117605

This book is without a doubt absolutely fascinating, it takes you on a guided tour through history of how textiles of all kinds were discovered, and developed.

The first three chapters look at how fibres were developed, how the spinning industry made these into threads, then goes on to how cloth was made and how it developed throughout history.

After we humans had cloth Ms. Postrel goes on to examine the process of dyeing and the methods that were used historically, and then right up to modern day. She then moves on to looking at trading and how that affected the world over. This is a topic which is frequently and unfortunately glossed over in school as they typically mention only "The Silk Road", but trade was widespread throughout the world, and it is a shame that students aren't taught this type of thing, as maybe then they would have more of an appreciation of how the world works.

After trade her next focus is on consumers and how they see fabrics, how they guide the industry and influence changes in the market (and vice versa as well).

The last chapter deals with the innovators that are currently developing new and what I consider to be amazing fabrics. Such as ones that will allow sweat to easily evaporate from your skin thereby keeping your cool, but will also protect you from UV radiation. New fabrics, and new techniques that will result in a revolution in the fashion industry and the environment (for the better, I'm glad to note) when some of these hit the market.

An excellent book, highly recommended.

2022-02-07

"Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Publisher: Syracuse University Press

ISBN: 9780815633112

This is one of the very first vampire stories ever written, and is credited with having influenced Bram Stoker in the writing of "Dracula" in 1897.

Carmilla was originally serialized in 1871 through 1872 in The Dark Blue, and then went on to be published in its entirety in J. S. Le Fanu's 1872 collection "In A Glass Darkly". It isn't a long story, and today would likely be classified as a novelette, but it is well written and a very enjoyable read.

The Carmilla of the story is a vampire, however we don't learn this until the end. Throughout most of the story she is simply a rather sickly young lady who befriends Laura the daughter of widower, after a chance meeting outside their estate following an accident with their coach. Leading up to this time the reader learns a mysterious illness is present in the land and a number of young women have succumbed to it, but no explanation for it can be found. Readers of Dracula will likely be able at this point to see the connections, however this story was written twenty-six years before, so in some respected was responsible for introducing the general public to the vampire.

The influences on Stoker's Dracula are fairly obvious but he took the concept of the vampire and embellished it to a much greater degree than Le Fanu. I don't know which is the more accurate based on the folklore, as for example Carmilla doesn't change into a bat, or wolf. In fact we only see her referred to in a couple of scenes as "a dark shape". On the other hand, like in "Dracula" she is immensely strong. There is also no mention of silver, crosses, or garlic so this too might have been added by Stoker, or it possibly represents a different source of vampire lore.

Well written, and interesting to read.

2022-01-31

"Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law" by Mary Roach

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

ISBN: 9781324001843

This book is Ms. Roach's seventh, and it is just as delightfully informative and fun to read as all the others.

In Fuzz she investigates the world of interactions between humans and nature. Some of these are extremely funny, while others are rather tragic, and unfortunately it's usually nature that gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop, but not always.

She investigates human interactions with bears, elephants, leopards, macaques, cougars, trees, beans, birds and then goes on to look at what the human animal does to prevent their cousins from doing what they do naturally by digging into how to scare animals away, pest removal, and also gene manipulation.

Like her other books (Grunt, Gulp, Packing for Mars, Bonk, Spook, and Stiff - I'll leave it to you to figure out what they are about), the amount of research she does is absolutely incredible, and the detail that this produces on the page is astounding.

Looking forward to book #8!

2022-01-24

"Dome" by Michael Reeves and Steve Perry

Publisher: Berkley Books

ISBN: 0425095606

Dome is an extremely well written, and well plotted out novel. That tells the tale of a massive, mostly completed, mobile underwater city and it's inhabitants. Now while this might not seem too exciting, things do become very interesting early on in the book when a nuclear detonation/test is conducted in Asia that triggers a number of volcanic events throughout the world.

These "natural"" disasters trigger a number of political events that lead to a limited nuclear war between Vietnam and Laos, and when one shot misses its intended target and ends up in Cambodia they retaliate with banned bacteriological weapons, that have mutated and these spread to devastate the surface of the earth.

The characters in this novel are quite memorable, and you really get a feeling that they could be actual people, which at least in my books, is an excellent way of doing characterization.

The action is fast-paced, and the writing style very concise. The story is told from multiple perspectives at one time and this leads the reader to be even more involved in the actual story. Even though it was written 34 years ago the technology is not dated, and the science itself is sound. I was some somewhat sceptical with regard to the genetics / biological part of the science, but it sounded good, and this is not something I have studied my so it may very well be perfectly legitimate but I don't know.

Well worth the read, highly recommended.

2022-01-17

"Gender: Your Guide" by Lee Airton

Publisher: Adams Media

ISBN: 9781507209004

This was a very interesting book, that gave me a lot of useful information and explained a number of concepts that were to be honest a little confusing to me. In my own defence however a number of the ideas and concepts (for lack of a better word) that were presented in this book were ones that I have never been faced with, and therefore had never considered.

The writing was clear, but at times did tend to be a little too much to absorb at one time, so I believe this book could easily be expanded with more examples both of the difficulties the LGBTQ community comes across as well as solutions to those difficulties.

Highly recommended, especially to anyone who finds themselves dealing with young people and the struggles they have encountered, or possibly may encounter in the future.

2022-01-10

"The Bayern Agenda" by Dan Moren

Publisher: Angry Robot

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.