Reviews and Comments

The fourth book originally published in the Stainless Steel Rat series, this one has plenty of humor and a plot that bounces around a bit.

Angela is kidnapped by the galactic IRS, then rescued by the Rat and their sons, James and Bolivar. Then Slippery Jim is waylaid into finding out why a satellite full of admirals disappeared, and uses time travel (again) to help. This takes our heroes across the galaxy and eventually to the home world of the evil Gray Men, Kekkonshiki. Whew!

In this tale we consider Moral Philosophy, male chauvinism, parallel dimensions and three overarching control groups (the IRS, the Morality Police and the Time Cops). Most characters are fairly flat, and while the story isn't predictable, it is pretty quick. The time travel gimmick is now officially overused, and I hope that the sole responsible scientist manages to escape for a long vacation. I prefer my capers to stay local and current.

Did Harrison have an agenda with the Japanese connections in this book? If so, it wasn't obvious to me.

Worth reading, but not quite as good as the previous book. 3½ stars.

All You Need Is Kill is a very short book. Though military in nature, the actual battle scenes are not as frequent. The story is mostly told from the point of view of Keiji, starting at the end of his first loop. I quite like his description of the memories built up as the OS for his brain. His growth in understanding of the time loops is also well done.

The beginning portion of a chapter is from the viewpoint of Rita Vrataski, American special forces soldier and previous time looper. I like her description of what the time loops mean and how they work. She is the end result of 200 earlier loops, a killing machine. In this chapter we also get an omnipotent back story of how and why the aliens arrived.

When the perspective shifts back to Keiji, the story starts to break down. The last chapter is all in a rush. The time loops is radically altered, throwing poor Keiji off balance. These radical changes in the first day can't really result in the major changes of the second day, and a lot of that really doesn't make sense. Without spoiling anything, I am left wondering if the two characters have different solutions (and only one is right), if the author wanted to make a point about Japanese vs American politics, or if he was just in a hurry to finish.

It has been a while since I saw the movie, but I recall the ending was different than this and not particularly good either. Will have to check it out soon to compare, though.

This book posits knowledge as an island, with the shore representing the edge of our understanding and the ocean beyond as what we do not (or can not) know. Over the years, our island has gotten bigger, but so has the amount of shoreline.

The first part does a really excellent job of describing how science has expanded the shores of the island, leading right up to strings and quantum theories. In the second part, the author takes a step back and works from atoms up through quantum mechanics. While this section has fewer pages than the first, the text and ideas are considerably more dense - a thorough reading was required. The third part is very brief, and returns to the idea of the island and whether there are parts of the ocean that we can not know - and whether or not this is a worrisome thing. I believe one could read the first and third sections only to obtain a complete picture.

If you are interested in the aims of science and the big questions of the universe, and you aren't put off by decoherence, nonlocality and quantum weirdness, then by all means read this book.

Zoë's Tale retells the story of the previous book from a different point of view. The first of these types of stories I read was Bully on Barkham Street, a retelling of A Dog on Barkham Street. In both Scalzi's and Mary Stoltz's tales, I found the second book better than the original.

In the case of Zoë's Tale, the author has had a chance to clean up some of the plot points not made terribly clear in the previous story. He also uses a completely different voice, this one a teenage girl. While not one myself, I found this point of view quite interesting to read and the story really worked for me.

I doubt this would work as a standalone book - we are too far into the major political machinations at this point. Also, events of battle and other plot points are only briefly mentioned. I think a standalone reader would be lost.

All that said, I found this a better book than it's predecessor. John Scalzi went out on a limb and tried something difficult, and succeeded in spades.

Going to rate this book based on three factors, then summarize.

As Courtroom Murder Mystery, it felt like Snow Falling on Cedars. Suspense was well maintained, with facts dolloped out as needed. There was even some intrigue from the police department side.

As Primer on Quantum Mechanics, this book works well. In the guise of explaining to the lawyer, jurors, and other non-scientific types, some good analogies are used and Quantum Physics gets a good break down.

As Thriller, this short novel is excellent. I read it in four very busy days, and could have easily finished in an evening.

As a whole, it was quite good, but for me there were rough patches. I had a tough time suspending disbelief in the use of physics, and found some of the character interactions stilted. Plenty of positives though - it is a relatively short and accessible mystery utilizing Quantum physics set in an interesting near-future (smart paper, the large company named towards the end). Creative and definitely recommended.

Emma is a strong girl character, focused on the sorts of things that all children love to read about - adventure. Joining her are a cast of characters and caricatures, whose interactions are fun (if a bit predictable). The hotel that rises from the sand and it's time distorting history are pure fantasy, and the later guests layer that on even deeper.

While the message was strong, the story wasn't as solid. The ending comes quickly, the resolution mostly in the background. Perhaps this was because she was considering a sequel, perhaps it was an artifact of how the book was written.

This book was written for Kage Baker's niece and delivered to her, a chapter a week. In an interview, the author revealed that her niece had undergone some personal tragedies, and this book was written to help her get through that. This same interview said that the proceeds from the book would go to this girl's college fund.

So great characters and setting, a decent story, and fast-paced fun. Well worth 4 stars!

This is Isaac Asimov's first novel, expanded from an unpublished novella titled "Grow Old Along With Me" at the request of Doubleday. He had been writing short stories for more than a decade, mostly for Astounding - including most of what would become the Foundation novels.

Like the Foundation stories, these have an allegory to the Roman Empire - in this case, the Jewish revolt of 66 CE. At one point, the main character (Schwartz) is described as a Zealot, and in another section where the Earth people are described as oppressed, he sympathizes. I found the time traveling Schwartz a very believable character, frustrated and depressed and yet coping with his situation.

The other main character, archaeologist Bel Arvardan, was constantly angry and fairly flat. Another bizarre future name goes to the doctor's daughter, Pola Shekt. Her character had moments of strength but was primarily weak - unfortunately standard for the time. As likeable as these two are, the villain is equally disreputable; you can almost hear the hiss from the audience when he is on screen.

The first third of the story dances around the characters and introduces this future world. After that, the real plot gets rolling - including the classic plot and counter-plot, subterfuge and revelations. The ending feels a bit quick but wraps things up well (to the cheers of the audience).

While not "amazing", this is a really good book. I am reading one book for each of the years in the 1950s, and this is a very good place to start.

Like the first two novels, a quick read. It's good to get back to John Perry! The parts of this story feel separated - colonists; colonizing a new world; dealing with problems introduced in the first two parts.

Yes, problems. This book has wheels within wheels - a feature of more than one of my recent reads. Like assuming certain science-fiction truths, I assume the conspiracies here are feasible, even if they wouldn't be in real life.

Our protagonist, John Perry, ends up a bit like Clancy's Jack Ryan - he is really lucky and has just the right responses. That said, I like him as a character (a lot more than Ryan) and really enjoyed this particular romp.

Very much looking forward to reading the same story from Zoe's point of view, which is the next book in the series. In the meantime, I have two of the short stories which fit in between books to zip through.

This short is between books 2 and 3, and is told from the perspective of Jane Sagan. I downloaded it from whatever.scalzi.com/2007/02/05/the-sagan-diary-the-audio-version/

I am reminded of a few things here
1) Most stream-of-consciousness stories or chapters just aren't that enjoyable to me. I like this character; I didn't like this story.
2) Not all authors have pleasing reading voices.

Some of the female point of view comes out, but doesn't quite ring true to me. I miss the description and yes, the action. Another point, touched on briefly here - these special forces soldiers have lightning fast internal communication and monologue. They almost resent having to actually speak and wait for ordinary soldiers. This was a cool aspect and definitely came out in book 2. So why in book 3 does Jane mostly seem like just an ordinary person? Diving into book 4 next, which may provide some answers...

This was on my reading list because of the author's take on the 'mastery in 10,000 hours' meme. This itch was satisfyingly scratched, and the rest of the book was just so-so.

Several examples and anecdotes show that 10,000 hours of practice is most effective in situations where the rules are mostly fixed or the outcome predictable. Chance situations usually foil this.

The rest of the book focuses on these chance situations and suggestions for making yourself (or your business) available for them. This section is filled with anecdotes and stories, which confuse the issue somewhat. A leaner book would be the more accessible result.

While it wasn't my reason for seeking this out, this book is more of a business strategy book than anything with hard science. The author's writing, when not drawn down by anecdotes, is decent enough. I may track down his other book ([b:The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation|255132|The Medici Effect What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation|Frans Johansson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400955561s/255132.jpg|247259]) for future reading.

This sequel to The Sparrow wasn't required, but sums things up nicely and overall is a better book than its predecessor.

The characters in this novel felt more fleshed out, and this was a welcome change. Those brought forward were also more rounded, except John Candotti, who took a back seat role here.

The initial reveal, while basically required by the original story, was less than pleasing. It is hard to believe that a renowned linguist could make that big a mistake, or indeed suffer so much because of it. This was a minor point compared to the rest of the story.

Sofia returns to play a major role, and no Prime Directive holds her back. Comparisons to her background are also well done - this is an excellent character. The resolution of her situation works nicely.

It did take me a month to work through this book, with many interruptions. The text never kept me from putting it down, nor called out to me to finish. Likewise, I didn't spend hours pondering what I had read.

These two books were the first published by Mary Doria Russell, and the second shows a more polished writer. Looking forward to reading some of her more recent work - I have Doc on hold at the library.