The beginning: A group of humans — including two who should not have ended up there, and seem to be (but are they?) furious about the mistake (if it is one) — gather on the planet Dameim to witness the passing of a star whose explosion many years ago destroyed an entire race of aliens. Focused closely on the logistics of such a large group, the three guardians stationed on the planet do not act decisively enough to prevent a murderous plan from being set in motion. Tiptree’s writing is admirably clear and entertaining, considering that so many of the…
12 CommentsCategory: 4 Stars
The beginning: In Life after Life, a woman called Ursula takes out a gun to shoot Hitler. At once we are flashed back to the day of her birth, when she dies from having the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. But Ursula is not a regular child. She gets to try again. The second time around, the doctor arrives in time to save her with a pair of surgical scissors, and she survives to live a regular life. Again and again throughout her childhood, Ursula dies, and dies, and dies again. Always she gets another try at life. She…
21 CommentsAw, y’all, thanks for pointing me in the direction of this book. I would never have known about it if the blogosphere hadn’t all jumped up and down shouting “LOOK HERE AT THIS,” so as ever, I am indebted to you for your bookfinding awesomeness. The beginning: Sophie lives in an occupied French town during World War I, and she and her sister and brother are struggling to get by. When the Kommandant of the German regiment sees a portrait of Sophie, painted by her husband, he begins to take an interest in them, an interest that could prove…
12 CommentsThe beginning: To cheer up his wife Judy, who is saddened by their inability to have children, a man called Walt buys and brings home a baby chimpanzee. Judy and Walt name him Looee and raise him as their own child. The end (no spoilers you couldn’t guess on your own; but still, spoilers): Not very informative. Looee is no longer living with Walt and Judy, a future we all saw coming. He now lives in what seems like qualified contentment with some other chimpanzees. Maybe a refuge? A portion of the sales profits on this book are going…
7 CommentsI love a taxonomy, particularly a philosophical taxonomy, although I am not fond of philosophy. One of my favorite bits of my high school philosophy class was when we talked about Aristotle’s ideas about the four different types of causes (material, efficient, formal, and telic/final). Peter Rabin incorporates and expands upon the Aristotelian model, pulling in ideas about causation from Galileo and Kant and other thinkers from history, to produce a complicated (but well-articulated) set of models for thinking about cause. His thinking accounts for a wide variety of causes, from straightforward, yes/no (what he calls categorical) causes like A…
5 CommentsThe beginning: In Paper Towns (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository), a band kid called Quentin gets summoned in the night to join in an eleven-part revenge crusade by his neighbor, the gorgeous and popular Margo Roth Spiegelman, whose boyfriend (it turns out) has cheated on her with her best friend. The following day, Margo Roth Spiegelman disappears. But she has left clues behind as to her whereabouts, and Q becomes determined to track her down. Is there a term for that phenomenon where someone points out a flaw or irritation in a piece of media you had previously enjoyed,…
24 CommentsVerdict: Odd and good. More of both than I was expecting. Okay okay. I admit that I should have read The Land of Decoration (Amazon, B&N, Book Depository) a while ago, when Mumsy told me to. It’s really quite good. I resisted it because it’s an odd little book. It’s about a little girl called Judith growing up in an unknown period in British history. Richard Dawkins exists but computers don’t seem to, and many of the adult characters work in a factory. Judith and her father are members of a church of Brothers that takes them out to witness…
11 Comments