Honor's Knight is the second book in the Paradox series by Rachel Bach; the first was Fortune's Pawn (link goes to my review).
Honor's Knight continues the adventures of mercenary extraordinaire Deviana Morris. It has its good points and it has a few problems. It's at its best when it is a straight up adventure SF novel. Bach is good at writing battle scenes and spices it up with an occasional romantic scene and that's fun. But there are two sorts of problems. The first is that, in this book much more than the first, Bach adds moral issues. They don't fit well with the rest of the book and they are not Bach's strength. The second is that there is too much "hand waving" - that is, things we have to believe without any reason and that seem contrary to the way the universe works
(Minor spoilers follow).
The first two are common to many SF novels: We have to believe that faster than light travel is possible and we have to believe that we will meet aliens who are close enough to us that we can have wars that are not utterly one sided. Fine. I'll give her those. You can't really have this sort of book without those assumptions.
But then we are asked to believe that there is something called Plasmex that is part of all living things, including us and aliens from different planets. This seems fundamentally wrong. Then we are asked to believe that there are entities that have almost no physical reality but that can easily destroy planets. Then we are asked to believe that one way of stopping them involves the torture of children. And, finally, that our hero has some capacity to stop these entities.
If you can ignore all these hand waves and just enjoy the fighting, it's a good book. But it's a lot to ignore.
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Monday, July 9, 2018
Book review: Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach
Fortune's Pawn is the first in the Paradox series by Rachel Bach (Paradox is the name of a planet). This is good military science fiction with an interesting female protagonist. It's set in the distant future, there are four known intelligent species in the universe, humans are divided into two big groups (Terrans and Paradoxians).
While this isn't great literature, Bach does a few things well. For one thing, the plot zips right along. That's important in this sort of novel. Another is that she makes future technology believable and makes the battle scenes realistic. Finally, the characters are fairly interesting. The main one is Deviana Moris, a mercenary who gets hired aboard a spaceship that is full of unusual people. Part of the fun here is finding out about those other people.
I'll be reading the rest of the series.
While this isn't great literature, Bach does a few things well. For one thing, the plot zips right along. That's important in this sort of novel. Another is that she makes future technology believable and makes the battle scenes realistic. Finally, the characters are fairly interesting. The main one is Deviana Moris, a mercenary who gets hired aboard a spaceship that is full of unusual people. Part of the fun here is finding out about those other people.
I'll be reading the rest of the series.
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Book review: There Was and There Was Not by Meline Toumani
Meline Toumani is an American of Armenian extraction who was born in Iran. All her life, whenever she is with other Armenians, there is conversation about the genocide of the Armenians by the Turks in 1918. She decides to visit Turkey to help herself puzzle out the implications of this and of the Turkish refusal to admit or even acknowledge the genocide. The result is a remarkable memoir: There Was and There Was Not: A Journey through Hate and Possibility in Turkey, Armenia and Beyond.
During her stay in Turkey, she comes to like the city of Istanbul and to make Turkish friends, but her Armenian heritage is always lurking in the background, both in her mind and her attitudes towards the Turks and in their attitude towards her. The Turkish attitude toward the genocide is absolutely uncompromising: It is a crime to discuss it in Turkey. But the Armenian attitude, at least as described by Toumani, is also uncompromising. The genocide - and getting it recognized as a genocide - informs a huge portion of what it means to be Armenian.
In addition to being very thoughtful and brave, this book is very well written and a pleasure to read. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the topics it touches on.
During her stay in Turkey, she comes to like the city of Istanbul and to make Turkish friends, but her Armenian heritage is always lurking in the background, both in her mind and her attitudes towards the Turks and in their attitude towards her. The Turkish attitude toward the genocide is absolutely uncompromising: It is a crime to discuss it in Turkey. But the Armenian attitude, at least as described by Toumani, is also uncompromising. The genocide - and getting it recognized as a genocide - informs a huge portion of what it means to be Armenian.
In addition to being very thoughtful and brave, this book is very well written and a pleasure to read. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the topics it touches on.
Sunday, June 10, 2018
Book review: The Empty Quarter by David Robbins
The heroes of this book are the members of the Special Ops US Air Force pararescue jumpers, known as PJs. In The Empty Quarter, the second book in a series about them, they are working to rescue a Saudi princess in Yemen and in the Empty Quarter region of Saudi Arabia. But there are all sorts of competing factions. The princess' husband is in conflict with her father; there are various groups of bandits who show up; there are terrorists and brigands.
I thought the best part of this was the portrayal of how the PJs work and what they do. I hadn't even heard of them before this, but they are apparently the elite of the elite (e.g. their members are all former Rangers or Seals or similar) and they devote their expertise to rescuing people, including American troops of various kinds.
It was also interesting to read more about the conflicts in this part of the world.
I thought the best part of this was the portrayal of how the PJs work and what they do. I hadn't even heard of them before this, but they are apparently the elite of the elite (e.g. their members are all former Rangers or Seals or similar) and they devote their expertise to rescuing people, including American troops of various kinds.
It was also interesting to read more about the conflicts in this part of the world.
Friday, June 8, 2018
Book Review: Earthman's Burden by Gordon R. Dickson and Poul Anderson
I found this old book in my local used bookstore. It was published in 1957, but is a compilation of even older stories.
This is the story of a diplomat from Earth in the far future. He is assigned to the planet Toka, home of the Hoka. They are shaped like large teddy bears. They are bright and enthusiastic. Rather overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Indeed, they adapt (with a vengeance) each Earth fashion that they are introduced to.
It's reasonably amusing, but it does wear thin after a while. It spoofs various genres, but the spoofing is kind of old because the book is old.
This is the story of a diplomat from Earth in the far future. He is assigned to the planet Toka, home of the Hoka. They are shaped like large teddy bears. They are bright and enthusiastic. Rather overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Indeed, they adapt (with a vengeance) each Earth fashion that they are introduced to.
It's reasonably amusing, but it does wear thin after a while. It spoofs various genres, but the spoofing is kind of old because the book is old.
Monday, May 28, 2018
Book review: Significant figures by Ian Stewart
Significant Figures: The Lives and Works of Great Mathematicians does what it attempts to do about as well as it could. Whether that is "good enough" depends on what you want.
Stewart's goal here was to briefly cover what the subtitle says about a range of mathematicians from various eras. He does not include anyone who is still alive and does not claim to cover the greatest mathematicians - this precludes a lot of arguments about who is included and not. He ranges from Archimedes to William Thurston.
In each short chapter, Stewart summarizes what is known about the life of the person and tries to give a sense of the contribution that he or she made to mathematics. The problem, especially in some of the later chapters, is that understanding the contributions requires a lot of background math. Stewart is writing for a lay audience - people who may have taken some math in college, but not professional mathematicians He has a lot of experience doing this and he is reasonably successful, but if you are expecting a lot of deep mathematical results, you may be disappointed.
Stewart's goal here was to briefly cover what the subtitle says about a range of mathematicians from various eras. He does not include anyone who is still alive and does not claim to cover the greatest mathematicians - this precludes a lot of arguments about who is included and not. He ranges from Archimedes to William Thurston.
In each short chapter, Stewart summarizes what is known about the life of the person and tries to give a sense of the contribution that he or she made to mathematics. The problem, especially in some of the later chapters, is that understanding the contributions requires a lot of background math. Stewart is writing for a lay audience - people who may have taken some math in college, but not professional mathematicians He has a lot of experience doing this and he is reasonably successful, but if you are expecting a lot of deep mathematical results, you may be disappointed.
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Book review: The Last Queen of England by Steve Robinson
Queen Anne (b. 1665, d. 1714) was the "Last Queen of England" because the act of union occurred in her reign. She was pregnant many times, but none of her children survived. Or did they?
Genealogist Jefferson Tayte is at a conference in England when his friend and colleague dies in his arms. Tayte and Prof. Jean Summer take on the job that his colleague was working on, which involves the long-ago execution of five members of the Royal Society and a possible heir to the throne via Anne's line of descent.
Soon, though, it also involves murder in the present day, motivated by both politics and greed.
This is the third book in the Jefferson Tayte series, but I don't think you need to read the others first.
Genealogist Jefferson Tayte is at a conference in England when his friend and colleague dies in his arms. Tayte and Prof. Jean Summer take on the job that his colleague was working on, which involves the long-ago execution of five members of the Royal Society and a possible heir to the throne via Anne's line of descent.
Soon, though, it also involves murder in the present day, motivated by both politics and greed.
This is the third book in the Jefferson Tayte series, but I don't think you need to read the others first.
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Book Review: Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper
- How do dictionaries get written?
- What is it like to be a lexicographer at a major dictionary?
- What word took Kory Stamper the longest to define?
- What word brought her death threats?
- Should dictionaries be descriptive or prescriptive?
- Why don't dictionaries use the international phonetic alphabet?
If these sort of questions interest you, then Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries is your sort of book. Kory Stamper writes well, with humor mixed in with the description of working at a dictionary. I found it fascinating.
Friday, May 4, 2018
Book review: Mercy by Victor Methos
Mercy is the second book in the Neon Lawyer series by Victor Methos. Methos knows how to keep the pages turning and writes with a nice, unobtrusive style, but, in Mercy I think he throws in one plot twist too many, with a resolution that isn't completely worked out.
In Mercy Brigham Theodore is hired to represent a man who is accused of murdering his wife; one twist is that it's a "mercy killing" - his wife was in horrible pain and about to die from pancreatic cancer. This raises some very interesting and tricky ethical questions but the mystery/trial format of this novel isn't that well suited to dealing with them. And Theodore himself is conflicted about the case. Then Methos adds the sort of plot twists that are typical of a trial novel; he does a good job of this, but that detracts from the other aspects.
In short, I think there's a conflict about what this novel is about:
In Mercy Brigham Theodore is hired to represent a man who is accused of murdering his wife; one twist is that it's a "mercy killing" - his wife was in horrible pain and about to die from pancreatic cancer. This raises some very interesting and tricky ethical questions but the mystery/trial format of this novel isn't that well suited to dealing with them. And Theodore himself is conflicted about the case. Then Methos adds the sort of plot twists that are typical of a trial novel; he does a good job of this, but that detracts from the other aspects.
In short, I think there's a conflict about what this novel is about:
- A trial novel about who did what and whether they will be found guilty
- A novel about the ethics of killing someone who is dying and the ramifications of such killing
Thursday, April 26, 2018
Book Review: Dark Lanterns by Aaron Solomon
Dark Lanterns is a first novel by Aaron Solomon. (Disclosure: Aaron is my nephew).
I really liked this book. It's got an unusual setting and a very interesting protagonist. The setting is 16/17th century France (the era of Cardinal Richelieu and also the Three Musketeers). I found this interesting because it is an era I didn't know that much about - and one that is very different in all sorts of ways from the modern world.
The protagonist is a young woman named Sacha. She was orphaned as a child and made her way to Paris where she became a sort of employee of Richelieu - but her jobs are unusual, often dangerous and usually illegal. And she has to pretend to be a man to do them. She's utterly devoted to the Cardinal because without him she probably would have starved on the streets of Paris. She's devoutly religious but conflicted because her jobs (although done in the service of a cardinal) often involve violating the law or one of the ten commandments. She breaks into buildings, she steals, she fights. But she's also very clever.
I hope this is the start of a series!
I really liked this book. It's got an unusual setting and a very interesting protagonist. The setting is 16/17th century France (the era of Cardinal Richelieu and also the Three Musketeers). I found this interesting because it is an era I didn't know that much about - and one that is very different in all sorts of ways from the modern world.
The protagonist is a young woman named Sacha. She was orphaned as a child and made her way to Paris where she became a sort of employee of Richelieu - but her jobs are unusual, often dangerous and usually illegal. And she has to pretend to be a man to do them. She's utterly devoted to the Cardinal because without him she probably would have starved on the streets of Paris. She's devoutly religious but conflicted because her jobs (although done in the service of a cardinal) often involve violating the law or one of the ten commandments. She breaks into buildings, she steals, she fights. But she's also very clever.
I hope this is the start of a series!
Friday, April 6, 2018
Book Review: Expert Hand Evaluation by Augie Boehm
Expert Hand Evaluation is a good short (141 pages) book on evaluating the worth of your hand in contract bridge. Beginners learn to count high card points (ace = 4, king = 3, queen = 2, jack = 1) and may learn about adding points for length or shortness of suits. But how does the value of your hand change as the auction progresses?
Expert Hand Evaluation is composed of 29 short chapters. There's some repetition across chapters and it reads a bit like a collection of columns. That's fine and doesn't detract from the book's usefulness, but the book would have been even better with some more general principles propounded.
Recommended for a wide range of intermediate players who want to bid better.
August (Augie) Boehm is a bridge player and teacher in New York City. He has decades of experience and has written numerous bridge columns and books.
Expert Hand Evaluation is composed of 29 short chapters. There's some repetition across chapters and it reads a bit like a collection of columns. That's fine and doesn't detract from the book's usefulness, but the book would have been even better with some more general principles propounded.
Recommended for a wide range of intermediate players who want to bid better.
August (Augie) Boehm is a bridge player and teacher in New York City. He has decades of experience and has written numerous bridge columns and books.
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Book review: Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon
Engaging the Enemy (link to purchase) is the third volume in the Vatta's war series. The first two were Trading in Danger and Marque and Reprisal (links go to my reviews).
Ky Vatta continues to be utterly amazing while irritating all sorts of people. In this one, she gets into fights with bureaucrats and with her family. Also, many Vatta family secrets are revealed and the start of a force to fight pirates is recounted. All this is good fun and Moon writes well and keeps the pages turning.
There's some interesting cultural differences across planets, including one where sexism has not died out and much depends on "honor", defined in ways that most 21st century Americans would find a bit odd.
Ky Vatta continues to be utterly amazing while irritating all sorts of people. In this one, she gets into fights with bureaucrats and with her family. Also, many Vatta family secrets are revealed and the start of a force to fight pirates is recounted. All this is good fun and Moon writes well and keeps the pages turning.
There's some interesting cultural differences across planets, including one where sexism has not died out and much depends on "honor", defined in ways that most 21st century Americans would find a bit odd.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Book review: Marque and Reprisal by Elizabeth Moon
Book: Marque and Reprisal
Author: Elizabeth Moon
Year published: 2005
Review: This is the second book in the Vatta's War series (the first is Trading in Danger (link goes to my review). At the start of Marques and Reprisal most of Ky Vatta's family has been killed. Most of their fleet is destroyed. It seems most of the universe is out to get her and them. That might stop an ordinary human, but it isn't going to stop Ky Vatta! Or it might make an ordinary person consider another line of work. Not Ky Vatta!
She sets out to rebuild Vatta and punish her enemies. She'll use whatever it takes (including her own body as a weapon).
This is all kind of silly, but it's a very good silly. Moon is a very good writer and this book is a lot of fun and has lots of action. Moon manages to make all sorts of new technology seem believable in battle (that's not easy) and keeps the pages turning.
Author: Elizabeth Moon
Year published: 2005
Review: This is the second book in the Vatta's War series (the first is Trading in Danger (link goes to my review). At the start of Marques and Reprisal most of Ky Vatta's family has been killed. Most of their fleet is destroyed. It seems most of the universe is out to get her and them. That might stop an ordinary human, but it isn't going to stop Ky Vatta! Or it might make an ordinary person consider another line of work. Not Ky Vatta!
She sets out to rebuild Vatta and punish her enemies. She'll use whatever it takes (including her own body as a weapon).
This is all kind of silly, but it's a very good silly. Moon is a very good writer and this book is a lot of fun and has lots of action. Moon manages to make all sorts of new technology seem believable in battle (that's not easy) and keeps the pages turning.
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Book review: Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon
Book: Trading in Danger
Author: Elizabeth Moon
Year published: 2004
Review: Good, fun military/adventure SF. Kylara Vatta is the daughter of the chief financial officer of a large corporation. She's just been dismissed from the military academy and is assigned to pilot an old spaceship to the scrapyard on a distant planet. But things don't go as planned and lots of adventure ensues, which I won't spoil for you.
This is old-fashioned stuff, but it's good old-fashioned stuff. It's well-written and the plot keeps the pages turning. I stayed up late to finish. But, unlike the author's Speed of Dark, this book has nothing really profound in it that I could see. That's OK, and this sort of book is fine with me, it's just a little unexpected since I just finished Speed of Dark a few days ago.
I'll be reading the rest of the Vatta's War series, of which Trading in Danger is the first.
Author: Elizabeth Moon
Year published: 2004
Review: Good, fun military/adventure SF. Kylara Vatta is the daughter of the chief financial officer of a large corporation. She's just been dismissed from the military academy and is assigned to pilot an old spaceship to the scrapyard on a distant planet. But things don't go as planned and lots of adventure ensues, which I won't spoil for you.
This is old-fashioned stuff, but it's good old-fashioned stuff. It's well-written and the plot keeps the pages turning. I stayed up late to finish. But, unlike the author's Speed of Dark, this book has nothing really profound in it that I could see. That's OK, and this sort of book is fine with me, it's just a little unexpected since I just finished Speed of Dark a few days ago.
I'll be reading the rest of the Vatta's War series, of which Trading in Danger is the first.
Monday, March 12, 2018
Book review: Dodger by Terry Pratchett
Book: Dodger
Author: Terry Pratchett
Year published: 2012
Dodger is quite a departure from Pratchett's beloved Discworld series, but it is a very good book.
The title derives from the Artful Dodger of Dickens' Oliver Twis. This Dodger does share some characteristics of that one: Both live in London in early Victorian times. Both live with elderly Jews. Both are somewhat shady characters not averse to a little petty theivery, yet with a good heart underneath it all. But there are many differences as well:
At the start of Dodger, our hero sees a woman being beaten. He jumps into the fray, chases off the bullis, and thinks that is the end of it. But it isn't. Because this young woman is very special indeed. Thus, the adventure begins. The tale is fast-moving and well-plotted; anyone who has read books by Terry Pratchett will know that the man is a great storyteller. Along the way, there are major appearances by Charles Dickens (as a young author and journalist, not yet famous); Henry Mayhew (who chronicled the life of London's poor) and Robert Peel (founder of the "peelers" - a new London police force). There is also a brief appearance by Queen Victoria (she is amused).
About the author: Terry Pratchett was most famous as the author of the Discworld series. His books have sold tens of millions of copies and been translated into many languages. He lived in London.
Author: Terry Pratchett
Year published: 2012
Dodger is quite a departure from Pratchett's beloved Discworld series, but it is a very good book.
The title derives from the Artful Dodger of Dickens' Oliver Twis. This Dodger does share some characteristics of that one: Both live in London in early Victorian times. Both live with elderly Jews. Both are somewhat shady characters not averse to a little petty theivery, yet with a good heart underneath it all. But there are many differences as well:
- The person this Dodger lives with is a watchmaker and does not run a criminal operation; in fact, he disapproves of Dodger's thievery.
- In this book, Dodger and Solomon (not Fagin) live alone
- In this book, Dodger's main source of income is not picking pockets but "toshing" - that is, digging through London's sewers looking for coins or other items of value.
- In this book, Dodger rescues not Oliver Twist, but a beautiful young woman who is being beaten.
- In this book, Charles Dickens is a character, not the author
At the start of Dodger, our hero sees a woman being beaten. He jumps into the fray, chases off the bullis, and thinks that is the end of it. But it isn't. Because this young woman is very special indeed. Thus, the adventure begins. The tale is fast-moving and well-plotted; anyone who has read books by Terry Pratchett will know that the man is a great storyteller. Along the way, there are major appearances by Charles Dickens (as a young author and journalist, not yet famous); Henry Mayhew (who chronicled the life of London's poor) and Robert Peel (founder of the "peelers" - a new London police force). There is also a brief appearance by Queen Victoria (she is amused).
About the author: Terry Pratchett was most famous as the author of the Discworld series. His books have sold tens of millions of copies and been translated into many languages. He lived in London.
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Book review: The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
The Speed of Dark is a science fiction novel first published in 2002. It is astonishingly good. The main reason it is so good is the voice of the protagonist.
In the novel, therapies for autism that treat it in early childhood have been found. However, the protagonist, Tom, is too old for them. He is definitely autistic and he also has a great many abilities. In particular, he has an extreme ability to see patterns. This serves him well in his job (which is never specified too exactly, but involves some sort of high level pattern matching) and in his hobby of fencing, where he picks up on the patterns of his opponents.
Tom lives an ordinary life in extraordinary ways. He has a job, he has attractions to a woman and worries if she reciprocates, he has a hobby, he has friends - some of them autistic and some not. At his job, he has a sympathetic boss but that boss's boss is very unsympathetic boss.
Moon, who has an autistic son, manages to show all this through Tom's eyes while using that to make us see Tom very vividly. She also puts in some plot twists which I will not detail in order to avoid spoiling the novel for you.
In the novel, therapies for autism that treat it in early childhood have been found. However, the protagonist, Tom, is too old for them. He is definitely autistic and he also has a great many abilities. In particular, he has an extreme ability to see patterns. This serves him well in his job (which is never specified too exactly, but involves some sort of high level pattern matching) and in his hobby of fencing, where he picks up on the patterns of his opponents.
Tom lives an ordinary life in extraordinary ways. He has a job, he has attractions to a woman and worries if she reciprocates, he has a hobby, he has friends - some of them autistic and some not. At his job, he has a sympathetic boss but that boss's boss is very unsympathetic boss.
Moon, who has an autistic son, manages to show all this through Tom's eyes while using that to make us see Tom very vividly. She also puts in some plot twists which I will not detail in order to avoid spoiling the novel for you.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Book review: Distraction by Bruce Sterling
It's 2045. The United States is on the ropes. The government is completely dysfunctional, the armed forces are committing robbery to support themselves, there is a new cold war between Holland and the United States, and there are 16 political parties with seats in Congress. Louisiana is under the control of "Green Huey", a populist with a personality cult. Things are looking pretty grim.
Enter Oscar Valaparaiso, political spin doctor extraordinaire, and chief strategist for Alcott Bambakias, billionaire architect and candidate for senate from Massachusetts. Valapariso has a "personal background problem" (he's not exactly human) but he doesn't let that stop him.
Soon, Valaparaiso is off to Louisiana, where he falls in love with a genius neurologist named Greta Penninger. Together, they need to derail Huey, channel the neural revolution into more benign paths, rescue American science, restore the country and stop a war. And they are up to it.
Distraction by Bruce Sterling is a brilliant book. Distraction portrays a dystopian near future that nevertheless has room for hope. The extrapolation of the current political and scientific milieus is fascinating, and Sterling is up on his science. The ideas just keep coming; one example is smart building material, where each brick and pipe is programmed to tell the builder where it should go. Another is the existence of gangs of people who have dropped out of society completely. Another is neural modification that allows people to think of multiple things at once.
Distraction reminds me, in some ways, of The Grapes of Wrath another novel set in a dystopian America (although one that didn't need to be imagined), but Sterling's style is nothing like Steinbeck's. And "Green Huey" is obviously reminiscent of Huey Long, who also governed Louisiana during bleak economic times. Strengthening that analogy, the president in <i>Distraction</i> (an American Indian known as Two Feathers) unites the country, engages in a war, and has revolutionary ideas.
In short, if you like well-written science fiction that throws ideas at you at lightning speed, Distraction is for you.
Enter Oscar Valaparaiso, political spin doctor extraordinaire, and chief strategist for Alcott Bambakias, billionaire architect and candidate for senate from Massachusetts. Valapariso has a "personal background problem" (he's not exactly human) but he doesn't let that stop him.
Soon, Valaparaiso is off to Louisiana, where he falls in love with a genius neurologist named Greta Penninger. Together, they need to derail Huey, channel the neural revolution into more benign paths, rescue American science, restore the country and stop a war. And they are up to it.
Distraction by Bruce Sterling is a brilliant book. Distraction portrays a dystopian near future that nevertheless has room for hope. The extrapolation of the current political and scientific milieus is fascinating, and Sterling is up on his science. The ideas just keep coming; one example is smart building material, where each brick and pipe is programmed to tell the builder where it should go. Another is the existence of gangs of people who have dropped out of society completely. Another is neural modification that allows people to think of multiple things at once.
Distraction reminds me, in some ways, of The Grapes of Wrath another novel set in a dystopian America (although one that didn't need to be imagined), but Sterling's style is nothing like Steinbeck's. And "Green Huey" is obviously reminiscent of Huey Long, who also governed Louisiana during bleak economic times. Strengthening that analogy, the president in <i>Distraction</i> (an American Indian known as Two Feathers) unites the country, engages in a war, and has revolutionary ideas.
In short, if you like well-written science fiction that throws ideas at you at lightning speed, Distraction is for you.
Friday, February 23, 2018
Book review: Dead Souls by Ian Rankin
John Rebus drinks too much. He smokes too much. He has trouble with authority figures and his relationships with his peers aren't the greatest, either. For fans of this series by Ian Rankin, none of this is news. Nor is it news that Rebus is an excellent detective and a likable figure.
Dead Souls is the 10th novel in the John Rebus series and one of the best. This is Scottish noir at its darkest. Here, Rebus is dealing with a colleague's seemingly senseless suicide, child abuse and its cover-up, a missing child and a serial killer. All these plots intertwine, involving Rebus and those closest to him in their web.
Dead Souls features all the things that Rankin does best: A labyrinthine plot, excellent dialogue and socially troubling and confusing issues. John Rebus is out to solve crimes but he is also out to right wrongs. But the best intentions can go astray when dealing with the darkest aspects of the human soul; in the real world, as in <i>Dead Souls,</i> criminal guilt and innocence are easier to establish than their moral analogues, and many villains were themselves victims at some point. Rankin deals with this well, letting Rebus see the moral ambiguities of life without ever sliding into the sort of relativism that says no one is guilty of anything.
If that isn't enough, Rankin continues to portray John Rebus' native Edinburgh at its best and worst. Although I am not familiar with the city in real life, I am growing familiar with it through this series of books.
Ian Rankin was born in Fife in 1960. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982. He began writing novels while working on a PhD (not completed) and his first Rebus novel was published in 1987.
Dead Souls is the 10th novel in the John Rebus series and one of the best. This is Scottish noir at its darkest. Here, Rebus is dealing with a colleague's seemingly senseless suicide, child abuse and its cover-up, a missing child and a serial killer. All these plots intertwine, involving Rebus and those closest to him in their web.
Dead Souls features all the things that Rankin does best: A labyrinthine plot, excellent dialogue and socially troubling and confusing issues. John Rebus is out to solve crimes but he is also out to right wrongs. But the best intentions can go astray when dealing with the darkest aspects of the human soul; in the real world, as in <i>Dead Souls,</i> criminal guilt and innocence are easier to establish than their moral analogues, and many villains were themselves victims at some point. Rankin deals with this well, letting Rebus see the moral ambiguities of life without ever sliding into the sort of relativism that says no one is guilty of anything.
If that isn't enough, Rankin continues to portray John Rebus' native Edinburgh at its best and worst. Although I am not familiar with the city in real life, I am growing familiar with it through this series of books.
Ian Rankin was born in Fife in 1960. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982. He began writing novels while working on a PhD (not completed) and his first Rebus novel was published in 1987.
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Book Review: Cows in the Maze by Ian Stewart
Author: Ian Stewart
Year Published: 2010
Review: Cows in the Maze is the third collection of Ian Stewart's contributions to the Mathematical Explorations column of <i>Scientific American.</i> This is a book of recreational math, and the requisite level of math is, for the most part, quite low.. That is, you do not need anything more than high school math - for most of the columns, grade school math will be enough. But you do need mathematical curiosity. If you have even a little of this, then this book will likely give you more. Even though the mathematical level is low in terms of formal requirements, the mathematical sophistication level is high - there are no "If a train leaves Boston at 5 AM and another train leaves NY at 6 AM" type of problems here. This is math.
Cows in the Maze is divided into 21 chapters, most of which can be read independently and in any order. Each is about 10 to 15 pages long. They are:
1. The lore and lure of dice - about some aspects of the probability of dice (see below)
2. Pursuing polygonal privacy - about how to fence off a yard with the minimum amount of fence
3. Making winning connections, about the game of Hex, which has very simple rules, but a lot of strategic depth, and which is a favorite on math campuses around the world
4. Jumping champions - about patterns in the prime numbers (that is, integers greater than 1 that are divisible only by themselves and 1)
5. Walking with quadrupeds - about the gaits of different 4 legged animals
6. Tiling space with knots - about some very odd ways of tiling a floor, or a volume of space
7. Forward to the future I
8 Forward to the future 2
9 Forward to the future 3 - which are, as you might guess, the exception to the "stand alone" rule I mentioned above, and are about the possibility of time travel.
10. Cone with a twist - about sphericons, which are unusually shaped objects with some odd properties
11. What shape is a teardrop? - The classic shape of a teardrop, used in countless illustrations, is wrong.
12. The interrogator's fallacy - about some problems in probability (see below)
13 Cows in the maze - about mazes that are actually puzzles in logic
14. Knight's tours on rectangle - the title says it
15. Cat's cradle calculus challenge - about the mathematics of the string game cat's cradle
16. Glass Klein bottles - Klein bottles are sort of 3 dimensional version of Mobius strips
17. Cementing relationships - about some connections between math and art
18. Knotting ventured, knotting gained - about knot theory with real string
19. Most-perfect magic squares - about some special magic squares (see below)
20.. It can't be done! - about mathematical impossibility (see below)
21. Dances with dodecahedra - about some connections between mathematics and dance
Each chapter ends with a summary of reader feedback, websites for more information, and articles and books for further reading
Some of my favorite parts of Cows in the Maze
First, I'll note that these are entirely personal. These are chapters that interested me most - the others aren't of lower quality - indeed, the quality is uniformly high.
In chapter 1, Ian Stewart covers some curious aspects of dice. Here's one that I liked. The notion of transitivity is basic in math. The relation "is greater than" is transitive on the real numbers. That is, if A is greater than B and B is greater than C, then A is greater than C. If we take ordinary six-sided dice and paint different numbers on different faces, we can sum the totals of the faces, and those totals will be transitive. But if we were to roll dice, and bet on which die will have a bigger number, that is NOT transitive. That is, it's possible for die B to be better than A, and C better than B, but A better than C. How is this possible? That would be telling. But it's true, and it's very counter-intuitive.
In Chapter 12 Ian Stewart discusses probability. I am a statistician by trade, so this is near and dear to me. Two of the conundrums he covers are these:
A. The Smiths have two children. One of them is a girl. What is the probability that the other is a girl? Again, telling you the answer would be telling. But it is NOT 50% (even if we ignore the fact that boys and girls are not exactly equally likely to be born, and ignore issues such as identical twins).
B. It's clear that some confessions to crimes may be false - for all sorts of reasons. But might it be that a person who confesses to a crime is LESS likely to be guilty than one who does not? Here, I won't spoil it if I tell you that the answer is "yes".
In Chapter 19 Ian Stewart covers some very special magic squares. A magic square, as you probably know, is a square array of numbers where each row, column and diagonal adds up to the same number. But here are magic squares with a great many more qualities. He also shows how some very big numbers get into math. For instance, if the square is 12x12, then there are about 2.22953*10^10 different "most perfect magic squares". The exact number is known, but, of course, no one will ever list them all.
In Chapter 20 of Ian Stewart discusses the notion of mathematical impossibility, and how it is possible for mathematicians to know that something doesn't exist.
If the above review piques your interest at all, you will probably really enjoy this book. For people who like math, this is a treasure trove. It could also be very useful for math teachers, who want to spice up their lessons with some really interesting ideas.
About the author: Ian Stewart may be best known to the general public as the current contributor of the Mathematical Explorations column in Scientific American. But he started writing books about popular math long before he joined Scientific American, and he also writes novels (three are listed in the frontispiece) and books about Discworld (another three). This is his 29th book. He's also a research mathematician and a professor of mathematics at Warwick University.
Year Published: 2010
Review: Cows in the Maze is the third collection of Ian Stewart's contributions to the Mathematical Explorations column of <i>Scientific American.</i> This is a book of recreational math, and the requisite level of math is, for the most part, quite low.. That is, you do not need anything more than high school math - for most of the columns, grade school math will be enough. But you do need mathematical curiosity. If you have even a little of this, then this book will likely give you more. Even though the mathematical level is low in terms of formal requirements, the mathematical sophistication level is high - there are no "If a train leaves Boston at 5 AM and another train leaves NY at 6 AM" type of problems here. This is math.
Cows in the Maze is divided into 21 chapters, most of which can be read independently and in any order. Each is about 10 to 15 pages long. They are:
1. The lore and lure of dice - about some aspects of the probability of dice (see below)
2. Pursuing polygonal privacy - about how to fence off a yard with the minimum amount of fence
3. Making winning connections, about the game of Hex, which has very simple rules, but a lot of strategic depth, and which is a favorite on math campuses around the world
4. Jumping champions - about patterns in the prime numbers (that is, integers greater than 1 that are divisible only by themselves and 1)
5. Walking with quadrupeds - about the gaits of different 4 legged animals
6. Tiling space with knots - about some very odd ways of tiling a floor, or a volume of space
7. Forward to the future I
8 Forward to the future 2
9 Forward to the future 3 - which are, as you might guess, the exception to the "stand alone" rule I mentioned above, and are about the possibility of time travel.
10. Cone with a twist - about sphericons, which are unusually shaped objects with some odd properties
11. What shape is a teardrop? - The classic shape of a teardrop, used in countless illustrations, is wrong.
12. The interrogator's fallacy - about some problems in probability (see below)
13 Cows in the maze - about mazes that are actually puzzles in logic
14. Knight's tours on rectangle - the title says it
15. Cat's cradle calculus challenge - about the mathematics of the string game cat's cradle
16. Glass Klein bottles - Klein bottles are sort of 3 dimensional version of Mobius strips
17. Cementing relationships - about some connections between math and art
18. Knotting ventured, knotting gained - about knot theory with real string
19. Most-perfect magic squares - about some special magic squares (see below)
20.. It can't be done! - about mathematical impossibility (see below)
21. Dances with dodecahedra - about some connections between mathematics and dance
Each chapter ends with a summary of reader feedback, websites for more information, and articles and books for further reading
Some of my favorite parts of Cows in the Maze
First, I'll note that these are entirely personal. These are chapters that interested me most - the others aren't of lower quality - indeed, the quality is uniformly high.
In chapter 1, Ian Stewart covers some curious aspects of dice. Here's one that I liked. The notion of transitivity is basic in math. The relation "is greater than" is transitive on the real numbers. That is, if A is greater than B and B is greater than C, then A is greater than C. If we take ordinary six-sided dice and paint different numbers on different faces, we can sum the totals of the faces, and those totals will be transitive. But if we were to roll dice, and bet on which die will have a bigger number, that is NOT transitive. That is, it's possible for die B to be better than A, and C better than B, but A better than C. How is this possible? That would be telling. But it's true, and it's very counter-intuitive.
In Chapter 12 Ian Stewart discusses probability. I am a statistician by trade, so this is near and dear to me. Two of the conundrums he covers are these:
A. The Smiths have two children. One of them is a girl. What is the probability that the other is a girl? Again, telling you the answer would be telling. But it is NOT 50% (even if we ignore the fact that boys and girls are not exactly equally likely to be born, and ignore issues such as identical twins).
B. It's clear that some confessions to crimes may be false - for all sorts of reasons. But might it be that a person who confesses to a crime is LESS likely to be guilty than one who does not? Here, I won't spoil it if I tell you that the answer is "yes".
In Chapter 19 Ian Stewart covers some very special magic squares. A magic square, as you probably know, is a square array of numbers where each row, column and diagonal adds up to the same number. But here are magic squares with a great many more qualities. He also shows how some very big numbers get into math. For instance, if the square is 12x12, then there are about 2.22953*10^10 different "most perfect magic squares". The exact number is known, but, of course, no one will ever list them all.
In Chapter 20 of Ian Stewart discusses the notion of mathematical impossibility, and how it is possible for mathematicians to know that something doesn't exist.
If the above review piques your interest at all, you will probably really enjoy this book. For people who like math, this is a treasure trove. It could also be very useful for math teachers, who want to spice up their lessons with some really interesting ideas.
About the author: Ian Stewart may be best known to the general public as the current contributor of the Mathematical Explorations column in Scientific American. But he started writing books about popular math long before he joined Scientific American, and he also writes novels (three are listed in the frontispiece) and books about Discworld (another three). This is his 29th book. He's also a research mathematician and a professor of mathematics at Warwick University.
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Book review: The Infidel and the Professor: David Hum, Adam Smith and the Friendship that Shaped Modern Thought by Dennis C. Rasmussen
Book: The Infidel and the Professor: David Hum, Adam Smith and the Friendship that Shaped Modern Thought
Author: Dennis C. Rasmussen
Year published: 2017
Review: David Hume and Adam Smith were two pillars of the Scottish enlightenment. They were also great friends from their first meeting in 1749 until Hume's death in 1776. Much has been written about each of them, but Rasmussen has taken on the task of writing specifically about their friendship. He succeeds pretty well, but has the problem that, good friends though they were, there simply isn't that much evidence of what their friendship was about. Neither was a tremendous letter-writer by the standards of the day - although Hume wrote far more than Smith - and when they saw each other in person they did not record what happened in great detail.
Fortuitously, Rasmussen also doesn't not assume a huge amount of knowledge of Hume or Smith on the part of his readers. He is very good at explicating their thought. One gets a good sense of what each of them thought on a variety of issues. Rasmussen also covers what they said about each other (nearly all complimentary), how Smith reacted to Hume's conflict with Rousseau (Rousseau appears to be the only person who made Hume really angry), and how Smith's desire to avoid "clamor" led him to be more circumspect about his own views on religion.
A book with a title like this might be a specialist tome for scholars of one or both men; this is not. It is a work for a general audience and it's quite well done.
About the Author: Dennis C. Rasmussen is a professor of political science at Tufts University.
Author: Dennis C. Rasmussen
Year published: 2017
Review: David Hume and Adam Smith were two pillars of the Scottish enlightenment. They were also great friends from their first meeting in 1749 until Hume's death in 1776. Much has been written about each of them, but Rasmussen has taken on the task of writing specifically about their friendship. He succeeds pretty well, but has the problem that, good friends though they were, there simply isn't that much evidence of what their friendship was about. Neither was a tremendous letter-writer by the standards of the day - although Hume wrote far more than Smith - and when they saw each other in person they did not record what happened in great detail.
Fortuitously, Rasmussen also doesn't not assume a huge amount of knowledge of Hume or Smith on the part of his readers. He is very good at explicating their thought. One gets a good sense of what each of them thought on a variety of issues. Rasmussen also covers what they said about each other (nearly all complimentary), how Smith reacted to Hume's conflict with Rousseau (Rousseau appears to be the only person who made Hume really angry), and how Smith's desire to avoid "clamor" led him to be more circumspect about his own views on religion.
A book with a title like this might be a specialist tome for scholars of one or both men; this is not. It is a work for a general audience and it's quite well done.
About the Author: Dennis C. Rasmussen is a professor of political science at Tufts University.
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