"Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology" by Dr. John Long PhD.

Publisher:New York : Basic Books, [2012]
Copyright Date:©2012
ISBN: 9780465021413
Characteristics: 273 pages :,illustrations ;,25 cm

This book is a fascinating look into the life of what a not so typical researcher into the biological sciences has to go through both to prove their hypotheses and both learn from their mistakes and their successes at the same time.

I first came across Dr. Long's work when watching The Teaching Company's series called "Robotics", in which he is the presenter. For those people interested in robotics this series is well worth viewing as it gives a lot of information to the viewer. This series led me to his book.

Dr. Long's basic research is the study of evolution, and the book explains how he has chosen to do this with the help of robots. He tells the detailed story of his experiments in both robotics and evolution. He describes how he came to choose to use robots in the first place, the various stages he had to go through with regard to designing the robots in the first place, plus both his successes and failures.

Even though his robots were simple, they adequately approved through his experiments their ability to illustrate the power of evolution to solve difficult technological challenges autonomously.

Darwin’s Devices is without a doubt a heavy duty look at the world of robotics, the concepts and theories behind how they work, and in some cases why they don't work. It is definitely not light reading, but is well worth reading if you have any interest in electronics, robotics, the biological sciences, and likely a host of other pursuits.

"The Cuckoo's Calling" by Robert Galbraith

Publisher: Little, Brown and Co.

Copyright: 2013

ISBN: 9780316206846 

I found this book to be an absolutely fantastic mystery novel, that follows the investigation of the apparent suicide of a high fashion model. Her brother however doesn't believe it was a suicide and hires a private detective to investigate and find out what really happened.

The detective is one Cormoran Strike, a former member of the British Army who left the service after being severely wounded in Afghanistan. His assistant Robin Ellacott is a young lady from a Temp Agency, who essentially falls in love with the detective business, and helps Strike with the case, while at the same time looking for a permanent job and fending off her Temp Agency.

There is a whole boatload of red herrings (I couldn't resist the pun), that will keep the reader reading and intrigued and the final solution will likely surprise them.

This novel has all the key elements of a classic hard-boiled detective novel. The characters in this novel are a given to the reader in amazing detail, that makes you know them right away. This is evidence that the author has a great deal of experience in writing, character design, plotting and research. For those who are unaware Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling, but this book is definitely not anything like the Harry Potter series, so you may be somewhat shocked by the language and certain scenes if that's what you were expecting.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book, and can't wait to read the second in the series.

"Dollars and Sex: How Economics Influences Sex and Love" by Dr. Marina Adshade

Publisher:San Francisco : Chronicle Books
Copyright Date:©2013
ISBN: 9781452109220

I wasn't too sure what to expect, or how I would relate to this book when I started reading it, but it turned out to be extremely well written, and full of interesting facts and information regarding love and sex. Two things that the human species seems to spend a lot of time on.

I never took any economics courses when I was in university, but after reading this book I'm kind of sorry that I didn't as I find that the topic is quite interesting, especially the way it was presented in this book.

Dr. Adshade (an economics professor at UBC) deals with topics such as love in cyberspace (online dating), the institution of marriage in general, how the genders react to different influences, and love in the senior years, amongst others. Dr. Adshade deals with sensitive issues, with a sense of humour and quite a few years experience in researching and teaching a course on this topic. One that is very popular as you might well expect.

I found this to be an extremely interesting and informative book and would highly recommend it to all.

"A Midsummer Tempest" by Poul Anderson

Publisher: Doubleday

Copyright: 1974

This book is the second in the Holger Dansk series, The first of which I reviewed two weeks ago.

Both of these books are essentially about parallel universes that coexist with ours. In the first, as you may recall, Dansk is involuntarily swept away to a different universe in which he plays a fairly important role in the overall outcome of the story.

However, in this book he's only a secondary character in a relatively brief bar room scene in the middle of the book. This makes me somewhat curious to as to why Mr. Anderson would classify this as part of  the Holger Dansk when he's really not in the story to any degree. But seeing as there are only these two books in the series I don't suppose that makes much difference.

In this book the entire story revolves around a universe in which Cromwell is at war with Charles II in England, however this time it is an England that already has steam trains and other comparable technology (approximately 200 years ahead of when it did). The lead character in this book is Prince Rupert, nephew of the king, Who is captured and briefly held prisoner by Sir Malachi Shellgrave a loyal follower of Cromwell.

Rupert falls in love with Shellgrave's neice, and with the aid of one of Ruperts Lieutenant's they enlist the help of the fairy folk in this war.

This was a fun book to read, but somewhat disappointing in that I was expecting more of the adventures of Holger Dansk and not a totally different world.

"The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life " by Mark Manson

Publisher: Harper Collins

Copyright: 2016

ISBN: 9780062457714

Not only does this book have a somewhat unique title, but the advice it shares is equally unique. It allows you to be wrong, to stop believing yourself, not be special, ignore emotions that do not serve any purpose, etc.

It teaches you how to respond to tragedy, how to make yourself the creator of your own beliefs, it cautions you on what you should believe in, and addresses the failure success paradox (which is a real big deal in today’s society).

While many readers may be offended by the title, and therefore wouldn’t want to be caught reading this book I think that it is a book pretty much everyone should read. I say this because in society today we are inundated by information that we should care about this, or that, that all children are special, and therefore should be protected from ever having to think they have failed at something. Well this might be good advice if the child is still in diapers, but when they get into the real world if this same attitude is shown them, then they will be subject to a real shock, as nobody is that special. Not you, nor me, or anyone else on the planet.

Definitely worth the read!

"Three Hearts and Three Lions" by Poul Anderson (1926-2001)

Publisher: Avon books

Copyright: ~1953

This book tells a modern version of the story of Holger Carlsen, an engineer, who is slightly wounded, and passes out while fighting with the Danish underground, during the Second World War. He awakes naked in another time, and seemingly in another place. But what place, or rather what a place?

He is provided with a full suit of mail armour, clothes, weapons, and a huge black stallion. Thus begins his quest to find out where he is, and why he's here.

This novel is the first of two books  known as the Holger Dansk series. For those of you unfamiliar with Danish folklore (which is likely most of you), he is the legendary Prince of Denmark who in his cradle was given strength, luck, and love by the fairie folk who wish men well. According to legend he sleeps beneath Kronberg Castle, and will awaken in the hour of Denmark's need.

Poul Anderson has crafted a great story that meshes the folklore / legend of this famous man, with the events of the period when it was written. In this book the reader is treated to a general overview of Celtic mythology, and it is done very well. One thing I particularly liked was that one of the characters spoke with a very distinctive accent, and Mr. Anderson wrote it in dialect which gave it a wonderful flavour.

There is a second book in the series which I'll be reviewing in  two weeks.

"My Planet: Finding Humour in the Oddest Places" by Mary Roach

Publisher: Reader's Digest

Copyright: 2013

ISBN: 9781621450719

Mary Roach is to say the least of very interesting writer. The topics she chooses are some would say off-the-wall, but all are extremely informative and very well written. Her other books all focus on a specific topic, and all are well worth a read for both the style of writing, the humour, as well as the wonderful and in-depth research that she does.

"My Planet" is a collection of Mary Roach's essays and looks at 62 facets of normal life (albeit from an American viewpoint) with uncanny wit and wisdom. The jacket blurb states:

"These essays, which found a well-deserved home within the pages of Reader's Digest as the column 'My Planet' detail the inner workings of hypochondriacs, hoarders, and compulsive cheapskates."

This Book would make a wonderful addition to anybody who is looking for a light read, but one that gives you insight into human interaction, and life in general - especially one where you want to look at the funny side of life.

"Genus Homo" by L. Sprague de Camp (1907-2000) and P. Schuyler Miller (1912-1974)

Publisher: Berkley Books
Copyright: 1950

What happens when a group of 25 men and women who are on their way to a scientific conference are waylaid due to an accident, and wake up in the world so changed they don't realize where they are?

The story itself deals with a group of humans that are in advertently put in suspended animation following a bus crash, and the subsequent collapse of a highway tunnel. When they awaken they eventually realise that at least a million years have passed on earth and human civilization has ended. The way they discovered this is very well presented by the author as he does it through discussions between the characters with regard to changes in the constellations, the growth of trees and other plants, how animals have evolved,  and more.

Approximately the first half of this book is a story of how they survive, the interactions between the various members of the of the group, and so on. It does go into a fair bit of detail with regard to group psychology, group organization, survival, and so on and this is explored as the group learns how to live by themselves.

Depending on how much science-fiction you have read in your life this could lead you to see similarities with ither stories.  Probably the most obvious or possibly well known would be the book "Planet of the Apes" by Pierre Boulle, which was published in 1965. Genus Homo however was published in 1950, so is it possible M. Boulle was influenced by genus Homo? It's true there are a lot of similarities, but being that M. Boulle wrote his story originally in French I somehow doubt that this book influenced his work. In addition, while apes in Genus Homo are one of the dominant species on the earth, there aren't many other similarities, in they become good friends with the few remaining humans and welcome them into their community.

I found this to be a very good story, with a wonderful message. Highly recommended, however possibly difficult to find.