Murder At The ABA: A puzzle in four days and sixty scenes" by Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)

Publisher: Doubleday & Company

Copyright: 1976

ISBN: 0385113056

This is a very interesting book that is well written, that I enjoyed a lot. It is a first person account of a semi-successful writer attending the 75th ABA (American Booksellers Association) Conference in 1975. He, Darius Just, discovers the body of another writer whom he knows very well. Just is convinced that his friend was murdered, and to assuage his guilty conscience as he failed to do something for him he makes it his goal to prove it, when nobody else believes him.

Darius Just is the narrator, and we are taken on a journey as we discover through his thoughts and actions how he determines who killed his friend. We meet a number of other people at the conference, including Isaac Asimov, (who was actually there) and get a bit of a taste of what a booksellers conference might be like.

While it isn't a long novel, the plot is very well thought out--as is typical with all of Dr. Asimov's novels--and it keeps you in suspense to the very end.

One interesting little fact is that Isaac Asimov was actually contracted to write a story by his publisher entitled "Murder At The ABA", and while all the characters (except himself) and actions in the novel are fictitious it is an enjoyable to read.

"T-Rex and the Crater of Doom" by Walter Alvarez

 

Publisher: Princeton University press

Copyright: 1997

ISBN: 9780691169668

I have been working in the field of palaeontology for 10 years now, and even prior to that likely since I first heard about it in the 1980s, I have always excepted the fact that a meteor or a comet had spelled the end of the era of dinosaurs (otherwise known as the Cretaceous), and that it had hit on what we now know as the Yucatán Peninsula.

I was unaware however of all the research, and the years it took for Walter Alvarez, his father Luis Alvarez, and scores of other scientists to prove that this had actually occurred. This book takes you on an absolutely enthralling journey of how the discovery was made.

The first chapter takes you back to a world 65 Million years ago, just before the Cretaceous era was about to abruptly end. It describes in detail what must have happened on that fateful day when either a comet or meteor approximately 10 kilometres across slammed into the Yucatán Peninsula. There was no warning as it was travelling at an estimated 30 kilometres per second (about 150 times faster than your typical airliner).

Between the time it first touched the Earth's atmosphere and it hit the ground, only 1 second had elapsed.

Dr. Alvarez'sstyle of writing makes this a very easy book to read, and provides the reader with a close look at exactly how the scientific method works, and should be required reading for anyone interested in the scientific method regardless of their discipline, as a great many people don't really seem to realize all the work that has to go in to actually examining a hypothesis, and subsequently proving a theory, or the amount of time it can take to do it.

A great book, I'm kind of sorry it took me so long to getting around to reading it.

"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.

"Don't Swallow You Gum: Myths, half-truths, and out right lies about your body and health" by Dr. Aaron E. Carroll and Dr. Rachel C. Vreeman

Publishers: St. Martin’s Griffin

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 9780312533878

This is the second book of Dr. Carroll's I've reviewed. The first "Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully" was very good as well.

In this book he is joined by Dr. Rachel Vreeman, and it is a collection that reviews 62 health related myths about your body. It is separated into six sections entitled: Myths About Your Body, Myths About How We Contract and Treat Diseases, Myths About Sex and Pregnancy, Myths About Babies and Children, Myths About What We Eat and Drink, and finally Myths That Sparked Controversy and Debate.

The book itself is very well written and should be easy to understand for people of any educational background. Both the authors are practising paediatricians, and did extensive literature based research in working on this book. All of the 62 myths that are debunked are nice and short and to the point.

Some of the myths that are debunked include: only using 10% of your brain, ruining your eyesight if you read in the dark, you can beat a breathalyzer test, Cold and wet weather making you sick, a dogs mouth is cleaner than humans, flu shots can cause the flu, losing most of your body heat through your head, singles having better sex than marry people, not being able to get pregnant using the withdrawal method, prediction of gender, baby Einstein making your baby smarter, alcohol consumption by breast-feeding women, sugar making kids hyper, the good old five second rule, chewing gum is better than brushing your teeth, double dipping, poisoning and Hallowe'en candy, newer drugs are always better, and vaccines causing autism. All of which were debunked!

This book also has extensive citations, and references for those who want to check up and read more about the various subjects.

Highly recommended as a very good book, looking forward to reading Drs. Carroll and Vreeman's next book.

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 Minervan Experiment" by James P. Hogan (1940-2010)

Publisher:   Garden City, N.Y. : Nelson Doubleday
Copyright:  1981

The Minervan Experiment is the collective title of a trilogy consisting of "Inherit the Stars", "The Gentle Giants of Ganymede", and "Giants' Star".

The first of the three novels revolves around a first contact situation, however with a bit of a twist. The first contact occurs on the moon, during a surveying expedition, when the work crew finds the mummified remains of an astronaut from 50,000 years ago. The first book in the series takes this as its starting point how goes on to explain the methods used to determine how the astronaut got there, where he came from, and why he looks so human.

The second book in the series follows directly from the first, and mainly concerns itself with the discovery on Jupiter's moon Ganymede of a crashed alien spacecraft that has been trapped in the ice for 25 million years. The investigation of this craft occupies approximate the first third of the book, but things take an unexpected turn when a ship full of the same aliens whose skeletal remains were found on Ganymede show up. The remainder of the book goes on to give a fairly good examination of how humans might actually interact with aliens (it does however involve humans that have evolved beyond the petty jealousies, political rivalries, and military stupidity that is present in the world today). Towards the end of this book the aliens, leave earth bound for what they hope is the new world where their descendants now live.

The third book is a little harder to briefly sum up, as it looks at the ramifications of how humans, and the aliens from book two interact with each other when a third party which is hostile to earth makes itself known (this isn't the best way to describe what happens, but I don't want to give away too much). This book does show that Mr. Hogan has done his research on politics and the military and I feel gives a good representation of how these groups might actually think.

I've read this trilogy quite a few times, and find it to be very enjoyable. The characters are very well written, and you can easily identify with the types of people they are. Good characterization is definitely the sign of an accomplished writer. I can remember what attracted me to this series originally when I first bought "Inherit the Stars" way back when, and that was the cover art which showed two astronauts digging up a skeleton in a space suit. I'd read some of Mr. Hogan work before but not much as this was one of his early books.

One anachronism that I found rather interesting in the series is that virtually everybody drinks and smokes. But when you take into account that the stories were written in the late 70s and early 80s, when smoking was more prevalent than it is today this is understandable, but still it does tend to stand out, at least in my mind.

Recommended to those readers who like science in their science fiction, as well as a good mystery as well.

"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.