Bellwether (1996) Connie Willis

Bellwether(1996) Connie Willis

Well this is easy. Connie Willis is one of my very favorite authors.  I stumbled upon her when I found To Say Nothing of The Dog.  It was a real gem.  Full of the fun of time travel and a little bit of a love story.  Then on to the Doomsday Book, Blackout, and All Clear.

Bellwether is not in this time travel series.  Fear not – it is still in the “fun” series.  Dr. Sandra Foster is a researcher for Hi-Tek company where she is studying fads.  She wants to find the origin of fads such as hair bobbing.  The goal is a serious one – if you know what causes fads maybe you go prevent the toxic ones from happening.  The whole thing is a take on Robert Browning’sPippa Passes(Check it out).  The Pippa in this book is a glorified mail clerk named Flip who unconsciously drives the plot.  Meanwhile “Love is in the air” between Dr. Foster and her colleague Dr. Riley and a flock of contrary lambs. I can be pretty cynical but not with Connie Willis who is the real deal.  Very thoughtful, put together stories that combine a bit of sci fi, some great characters, and a lot of fun. Do NOT stop!

Book Review:Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicone Valley Startup (2018) John Carreyrou

Bad Blood:  Secrets and Lies in a Silicone Valley Startup  (2018) John Carreyrou

Thomas Edison must be rolling over in his grave.  Elizabeth Holmes had a lot of hubris to name her miserable lab tester after the great inventor.  Well, turns out she lied about everything else too.  John Carryrou’s book is riveting.   It still does not answer the question of how does a smart Stanford drop out presume to create a start up reinventing the complicated enterprise of laboratory medicine.  When I first heard of Theranos I figured that they had created an algorithm to convert results based on fingerstick to that with venipuncture – two different sorts of solutions.  Turns out they never even considered the differences and just worked on trying to miniaturize the process to create a unity that could be placed in a patient’s home.

Anyway, many people were hurt – patients, employees, investors.   Other than Holmes and her boyfriend others should be accountable - specifically the Board of Directors who were all ignorant of health care and were mostly retired politicians.  Go figure.

Read the book.

Book Review: Reboot (2013) Amy Tintera

Reboot   (2013)   Amy Tintera

Reboot (or is it Reboot 1?) is a variant zombie story.   The virus that brings people back does not necessarily create a zombie however.  In this book, a super human is created.  Stronger, faster, super healing.  The only thing that stops them is a severe brain trauma (like a bullet).  The longer they are dead before they “reboot”  the more powerful and less human they are.  Our hero(ine),  Wren 178, was out 178 minutes before rebooting.  Her paramour, Callum 22,  only 22 minutes.  HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation)  owns the reboots and uses them to police the remaining humans (After the Human vs Reboot war).   HARC is experimenting on the below 60 Reboots essentially turning them into real zombies who want to eat humans.   Callum is one of these so Wren plans an escape…..

Interesting twist on the zombie story that is everywhere right now.  Of course it is the start of a series.  Hopefully,  there will be some surprises – but do not hold your breath.

Only Human (2018) Sylvain Neuvel

Only Human(2018) Sylvain Neuvel

Book three of Neuval’s Themis Files series.  My least favorite. (Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods)  This is basically a family affair with Victor and Eva (and Rose as a surrogate mother) trying to work out what actually happened on the world of Esat Ekt.  Eva’s alien boyfriend, Ekim, becomes a casualty of their escape back to Earth with itself has become a world dominated by the remaining giant robot, Lapetus, which the USA is using to dominate the rest of the world.  When Victor, Rose, and Eva return with Themis it is the Russians that take control of them and it is game on.  Of course Rose figures it out with the help of Mr. Burns who is not in jail for his sin of alien heritage.  

It is an interesting concept but I had hoped for a little more imagination in books two and three rather then just dragging out a really good book one idea.  Of course the is the standard for SF now a days.  Take a good book and stretch it to 3 -  maybe 5 or 6.   Hopefully Sylvain Neuval will come out with something new soon. 

Containment (2010) Christian Cantrell

Containment(2010) Christian Cantrell

Arik awakes from a coma to face a puzzle that he had set for himself.  Solving it will reveal what he was made to forget about their Venus Colony that will rock their world.  He was taught as a child that the Earth had survived many challenges to become a vibrant space-faring community that had started a colony on Venus as their first step to the cosmos.   Not likely!  

A great story with a nice twist.  Arik is nicely developed but none of the other characters are.  Hopefully in future books of this series we can get to know others.  The idea of the “homeless”  is very interesting and lends itself to more explanation.  It has a zombie sense about it.  

Super Sales on Super Heroes - 2 - William D. Brand

Super Sales on Super Heroes -  Book 2(2018)  

William D. Arand

Creative title – “Book 2”.   I liked “Book 1” a lot but had a problem with the slavery theme.  Fortunately Arand goes a long way toward getting rid of that in this book.  A lot of the book is a rehash of the first one.  He develops the Andrea / Myriad character much more in this book. We also learn more about Miu.   She is insane and jealous of anyone who cares for Felix.  She kills Andreas over and over.  Fortunately they have amazing recovery skills.  In this book we see Felix run for governor and we meet Skippy from Skipper City.  

We finally see Felix the CEO thrown into a desperate situation when he must survive without all of his entourage.  I found this the most interesting part.  Of course, there will be a “Book 3” (come on William!).   I will read it whatever it is called.

The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons  (2014) Sam Kean

What happens when you get a rod of iron exploding  through your brain?  Do you believe there are people that can see smells and taste sounds?  What happens when you the corpus callosum is intentionally severed breaking the main connection between the two halves of the brain?

Sam Kean weaves the answers to these questions along with the history of neuroscience and an interesting series of strange cases that illustrate each chapter. 

Same Kean is terrific and bringing dry science to life.  I highly recommend this as well as Caesar’s Last Breath.

Dark Sky (2017). Mike Brooks

Dark Sky(2017)   Mike Brooks

Ichabod Drift and his zany crew of miscreants are back for another story.  They are offered a sum to go to a mining planet and collect information about the productivity and bring it back before the big storm hits the mining planet and seals off all communication.   The client can then make a highly specific investment knowing the data before any one else.  Sounds sort of like Trading Places without the gorilla   (oh wait there is Apriana).   Surprise surprise.  Things do not go as expected.   Not only do they meet their archenemy in port there is the start of a revolution of the workers.   Of all the luck.   Tamara teams up with the revolutionaries and Ichabod with the police.   Jenna plays a key role.   Apriana (A) gets the chance to be integrated into the tech cult but turns them down (why?).   Jenna and A finally start something up.   All in all a fun book.  More please.

Book Review: Dark Run (2015) Mike Brooks

Dark Run (2015)    Mike Brooks

Icabod Drift is a blue-haired Mexican Captain of the Keiko.  His crew of misfits includes Jenna McIllroy, a stow-away-turned-ship computer tech; Apirana Wahawaha, a massive Māori fighter; Micah van Schaken, a former mercenary; Jai and Kuia Chang, respectively the Keiko’s pilot and mechanic; and Tamara Rourke, Drift’s second.

Icabod is blackmailed into dropping off a package at a certain place and certain time that ends up being a nuke.  Then the fun begins.  How does Icabod get revenge for this? This book one of a series.  Book 2 is Dark Sky -  A good sequel and a guilty pleasure.  

Book Review: The Drug Hunters (2017) Donald R. Kirsch and Ogi Ogas

The Drug Hunters(2017)  Donald R. Kirsch and Ogi Ogas

While not quite as exciting as Island of the Lost this book is very interesting in its own way. Have you ever wondered how something as common as an Aspirin was developed?  What about morphine, heroin, penicillin, and quinine?  When did we first start putting people to sleep to do their surgery?  How were treatments for mental health problems like schizophrenia and depression developed?   

There is one chapter dedicated to the development of the oral contraceptive.

A great book if you like this sort of thing -  I do!

Island of the Lost. (2007) Joan Druett

Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World

(2007)  Joan Druett

This book is riveting.  Along the lines of Endurance and the story of Shackleton and his crew.  In 1864 the Grafton and it’s crew of five are returning from a prospecting trip from Australia to Campbell Island in the sub-Antarctic.   They did not find the silver they were looking for so they stopped at Auckland Island to see if there are any seals that could at least come back with something. Unfortunately for them they become shipwrecked on this desolate island with endless freezing rain and wind.  The only food is the seals and some roots.  How do they survive?   Joan Druett would have us believe that it is the teamwork of the group led by Capt. Thomas Musgraves and prospector Francois Raynal.  There seem to be a lot of facts backing this up.  For instance they had a free election to decide their own leader (Musgraves).  The ingenuity of Raynal is amazing.  A true Mcgyver!   Together they rebuild their small boat and save themselves.  Meanwhile there is a group of 19 other sailors who were marooned on the other side of the island who did not fair as well.   All but three died.  Of course they did not have any seals to eat. 

This is a great adventure story!  

Book Review: Eve and Adam (2012). Michael Grand and Katherine Applegate

Eve and Adam (2012)  Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate

I am not really sure why I read this book as it is not usually my taste.  There was some interesting biotech -  Rapid healing and a rapid DNA synthesis system.  Neither one was really developed very well and did not make sense but they were interesting ideas.   The plot itself was pretty cliché.  Daughter blaming tyrannical mother who turns out to be OK.  Girl turns down the perfect boy of her dreams for the not so perfect (but still pretty cute) boy who kisses well. The villain is “Tattoo Tommy – if that gives you an idea about this book. 

Apparently there is a sequel.  Think I will pass.  In fact maybe I will try a little nonfiction as a palette cleanser  - so to speak.

Book Review: Columbus Day: Expeditionary Force, Book 1 (2016) Craig Alanson

Columbus Day:  Expeditionary Force, Book 1  (2016) Craig Alanson 

This book is a guilty pleasure. Joe Bishop is our hero.   He is in main on leave from the Army when first Hamster-like aliens named Ruhar come to Earth and start lighting-up all of the power plants.   Joe captures one using an illegal ice cream truck decorated with Barney (the dinosaur).  Then the lizard-like, Kristang, come to “save” the humans from the Ruhar.   Big surprise!  Turns out that the cute Ruhar are actually the good guys and the blood-thirsty Kristang have become our slave masters.   We have no matching technology of our own and we can eat Ruhar or Kristang food so how do we survive?  Enter alien artificial intelligence invented by the ancients.  Joe gives it the cute nick name of “Skippy”.  Together with Skippy, Joe escapes and rescues Earth.   Obviously, the start of a series.

I like the first person narration of Joe.  The details are believable (except Skippy which makes no sense except as a plot contrivance).  Will I read book two?  Yes – but I will feel a little guilty.     

Book Review: The Perfect Mile (2004). Neal Bascomb. - Bannister, Lady, and Santee and the 4 minute mile

The Perfect Mile (2004) Neal Bascomb

With the passing of the great Sir Roger Bannister I highly recommend this terrific book about the great completion that occurred at that time between Englishman Bannister, Australian John Landy, and American Wes Santee.  They were all amazing, breaking the 4 minute mile on cinder tracks with lousy shoes and antiquated training methods.  Anyone who gripes that they can’t do something because they don’t have a nice enough _______ (fill in the blank) should read this book!   I wonder what these guys would have run with 2018 shoes, tracks, and training. 

Roger Bannister gave up competitive running to had a long esteemed career as a physician.   What an example of a fine human being.

Book Review: Exodus (2017) Alex Lamb

Exodus (2017)  Alex Lamb 

Will Kono-Monet  versus Superior Nada (Sounds like a nightmare Catholic Nun).  Or is it Mark Ruiz and Ann Ludec versus the Photurians (The Borg).   Wait maybe all of the above versus the Transcended.  Be prepared for all of the above.  At the end of Nemesis Will becomes a captive of Snake Pit by the Transcended.   In Exodus it turns out Snake Pit has become “Will World”  with many variants of Will and a meta expression named “Balance” that polices the rest.  Meanwhile, Mark, Ann, and Ira set off with a few expendables to reach Snake Pit and Will through the back door and at the same time lead the Photorian Fleet into dead space.  Oh and they just happen to “find” Rachel cryo-preserved after 40 years.  They did not count on Superior Nada -  a semi-independent Phot who eventually blends the Photorian psyche with that of Will World to form her own collective of Nada clones. 

What kind of deal can Will and / or Mark work out with the Transcended to stop Nada from taking over everyone?   Spoiler Alert -  How can all of the main characters survive in this incredibly hostile galaxy?  Maybe you like fairytale endings but come on…

A nice wrap-up of a very good Sci Fi trilogy.  Alex Lamb does a great job of bringing the characters to life while describing the battle scenes and the virtual worlds with vivid detail.  I’ll take another please.