"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.

"Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World" by Tim Whitmarsh

Publisher:New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2015.
Edition:First edition.
ISBN: 9780307958327
Characteristics: viii, 290 pages

This is a scholarly publication that looks in depth at the relationship of what we refer to as religion and Greek mythology. 

It examines the philosophies and writings of a number of different Greek philosophers who wrote on the subjects of atheism or at the very least the concepts that the gods may not exist. I say it this way, as in many context now-a-days atheism is automatically thought to be the non-belief in one of Abrahamic religions. However this took place many hundreds of year before any of that was thought up.

For the most the book it concerns itself that what is commonly referred to as Greek mythology but is in actual fact more of a system of folklore and folktales rather than an actual religion. The reason for this is because for the most part the religious figures that were present in Greece at the time we're not comparable in anyway to what we currently see as priests and clerics as they were more there to aid the populace and provide comfort as opposed to guiding them towards certain  deities.

This book is an excellent read however some readers may find it somewhat daunting due to the number of references made to the various Greek historical figures, playwrights and philosophers. I think it would make an excellent text for a class in comparative religions, classics, or cultural anthropology. 

"Poisoned Jungle" by James Ballard

Publisher:  Koehler Books
Copyright: 2020
ISBN: 9781646633111

I had the good fortune to read the advance copy of this book. Many reviewers will say things like "Couldn't put it down" and such, but in my case it actually was close to being the truth. Thanks to this silly virus that's messing up everyone lives I got to stay up late and keep reading, as we we're still not allowed to return to full time hours.

The novel itself is definitely engrossing, and brings you right into the life of a combatant during the Vietnam War. You get to experience the horrors of war, and the frustration the soldiers themselves experienced had having to be there. While I've never experienced anything like this myself (and hope I never do) I'm sure their one year tour of duty, likely seemed almost never-ending. When you add to this the way they were treated by their government, and others when they returned it makes you very sympathetic to their plight.

The story takes you through the life of Andy Parks starting in 1969 when he was the medic in the Mekong Delta, and his dream that the seemingly endless war he was living thorough would be over for him when he returned home, but not realising that it would continue for many years afterward. We meet the various members of this unit, and watch as their lives unfold. We get a glimpse of what Andy experienced during his time there, and I'm fairly sure this was somewhat scaled back.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to find out what the life of a veteran is/was like for those who returned from Vietnam. I'm looking forward to James' next book which I've been told is in the works.

"Earth: The Operators' Manual" by Richard B. Alley

Publisher:New York : W.W. Norton & Co., [2011]
Edition:First edition.
Copyright Date:©2011
ISBN: 9780393081091
Characteristics: x, 479 pages :,illustrations ;,25 cm

This is a companion book to the PBS television series, unfortunately I have not been able to get my hands on a copy of the video to compare the two, but in any case while the video would undoubtedly enhance the book, I'm fairly sure it wouldn't detract as this book is very well researched and written.

The amount of detail in this book is amasing, and the information should be indispensible to anyone doing research on the effects of climate change both historically and in modern times. The book takes the reader a journey via a series of stories that does delve into the scientific end of things, but it is kept to a basic level so it should be understandable to readers of a Junior High School level or higher.

Dr. Alley, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, takes on topics such as how did we get fossil fuels to begin with, the establishment of the American National Academy of Science, glaciation and the ice ages. He then delves into how humans can help be looking at solutions based on human waste, the wind, geothermal energy, nuclear, and solar energy.

Highly recommended to anybody who is interested in the future (or the past for that matter) of this rock we live on.

"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.