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This timely book is basically an extended magazine article, and not in a good way. That said, it does focus on the important aspects of this - the economic devastation that caused this situation in the first place, and the reduction of civil rights "in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state."

As that magazine article, it is thorough, but wanders some - 4 stars. Unfortunately, the author extended his word count by flashing back to the past (Buck Showalter played in a league basketball game in a closed gym - only players, coaches and referees present) and then flashing back even further (in this case, to Bill Showalter, Buck's father, who... was blue collar?). By page 100, he is including the backstory of everyone in the press box - the only crowded location within the confines of Camden Yards.

Neither the ending nor the decent epilogue (was justice served? How did the teams fare in the season?) exactly describe how this game "gave a broken city hope". I was just happy to put the book down. The only good message was that delivered by John Angelos, whose tweet I quoted above. My favorite reference in the book was one seen often recently - the Griswold family arriving at a closed Wally World. While I can heartily recommend National Lampoon's Vacation, I can't recommend this book.

I read this in just over 3½ hours on a flight from Seattle to Germany, the home of the Grand Prix Nürburgring that Bond drives in the early part of this novel. This is just one of many aspects that helped this novel come alive, and to date it is the best post-Fleming Bond book I have read.

Perhaps part of this is because Ian Fleming wrote most of the Grand Prix section for a Bond television series, never produced. The estate allowed Horowitz to expand on this treatment for the novel, and in his author's note he credits this with helping it have the right Bond "voice". The setting is also unusual - immediately subsequent to Goldfinger - and this adds a character, the wonderful Pussy Galore. I couldn't read that section without picturing Honor Blackman, and naturally Sean Connery. The Bond here doesn't feel as much like Connery, though, and I agree with my friend's suggestion of Roger Moore for this Bond.

Back to the plot. While the Grand Prix was authentic Fleming, it also felt the most out of place. The idea of Bond just jumping into a major circuit race seemed a little far-fetched. Getting past that, the rest of the novel flows beautifully, with never a dull moment and an exciting race to the finish. All of the big James Bond elements are there. Highly recommended, and I look forward to Horowitz' next Bond novel.

Written nearly 60 years ago, it is encouraging to see just how much this spurred change, and depressing to think how obvious this stuff should have been - or rather, how much big business and government thought they could get away with, in the name of profit.

Each chapter delves into a different story of attempted control gone wrong, whether for plants, animals, or humans - or all three. Our attempt to completely control nature inevitably fails - though at the end of the book, she points out some of the new techniques showing promise - sterilized males, for instance. As biologist Edward O Wilson points out in his afterward to this 50th anniversary edition, "We are still poisoning the air and water and eroding the biosphere, albeit less so than if Rachel Carson had not written."

A lot of similarities between the resistance and denial she encountered and the current reaction to global warming and radical climate change. After her book was published, a groundswell of public reaction led to biological conservation, a reduction in toxic pollution, and eventually the Environmental Protection Agency. While the current administration is undercutting all three of these, I have hope that people will soon drive legislation the proper direction before the damage gets much worse.

The cast of characters grows only a little, as this novel was clearly meant to be read in series with the first. Interesting adventures with both suspense and humor, along with creative magic. Also, another planet (dimension?) expands the world even more.

It has been 6 years since I read the first, and the people mentioned in the beginning were a bit confusing. The story wasn't - the tale of the cursed green pearl, causing trouble and mischief wherever it lands. That little pearl shows up throughout the story, trapped at the end - but what will book three bring?

As to that, I will dive straight into it. This is good for my goal of finishing series, and so far this one is worthy of a reread, maybe a decade hence. A company called The Design Mechanism announced a role playing game based on Lyonesse, probably tied in to their Mythic Britain and others using Runequest. That is also quite interesting - though it isn't available yet.

Back to this book (and series), so far it has been very good, and recommended. I look forward to reading more Jack Vance after I finish this series - whether Dying Earth or another is still undecided.

Very much hard SF; Chrichton listed the various papers and journals he quoted from in the reference section. This was the first novel published under his own name, and according to the author was inspired by [b:The Ipcress File|171624|The Ipcress File (Secret File, #1)|Len Deighton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1295903974l/171624.SY75.jpg|2155765]. I finished this while home sick from work.

The main characters are scientists, and make very human mistakes. It was refreshing to see them struggle to figure out the problem. What they think combined with the additional things we know make for very effective tension - the world may end in pandemic at any moment. Quite believable, especially in current circumstances.

Many novels from 50 years ago with a scientific focus can feel dated. This one doesn't (though the 1971 movie will probably feel so). The combination of jargon and suspense make for great tension, but the info dumps here are a bit overwhelming. The author refined this technique in later novels, with [b:Jurassic Park|40604658|Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1)|Michael Crichton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1529604411l/40604658.SY75.jpg|3376836] as an excellent example of success. The ending also felt quite sudden.

This 50th anniversary edition also has a plug for Daniel H Wilson's sequel, [b:The Andromeda Evolution|44148860|The Andromeda Evolution (Andromeda #2)|Daniel H. Wilson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551326815l/44148860.SY75.jpg|68660248]. I do enjoy him as an author, and will probably read this in the near future. I also want to re-watch the original film, and perhaps the 2008 miniseries as well.

This novel deals with time travel, but only of information. Mostly hard science, it also has a decent plot, good characters, and some humor. Though the author's vision of 2009 is a bit off (and check that cover computer!), it was still an enjoyable read - and a good fit for Leap Day.

I liked the characters; both male and female were different and solid. The mystery aspects of the plot were well done, though that takes a while to get rolling. The subsequent mystery felt tacked on, but the pandemic aspects ended up a good fit - and relevant today.

The author makes his case for information passing through time, though in a bit too much detail and for a few too many pages. The plot allows for it - characters explain to scientists, doctors, then government officials - but an infodump is still an infodump. Other aspects are left as just a mention - autonomous vehicles and vertical hop planes.

I would recommend this book. I believe I read one other James P Hogan book as a kid; will find out when I read it in the next few years.

The Call of the Wild is a good story, though violent at the start. White Fang is violent through most of it, and ends up with an okay story. Both have much analysis and themes, but really both are about survival.

Pretty sure I read Call when younger, didn't read Fang. This renewed reading confirms my hunch - both of these stories would be unfilmable for a modern audience. Way too much violence against animals. That is a large reason why White Fang is so difficult to read for more than half the story, especially the dog fighter.

Without considering Primitivism and the other analysis heaped on these stories, and without knowing how much of it Jack London meant, The Call of the Wild is a good story. I'll see the new film, if only to know about all the pieces that were left out and all the nonsense added. Aggregate rating - 3 stars.

Written shortly after the incident, this is a fairly technical timeline of the challenges faced by the crew and ground controllers. The recent Tom Hanks movie educated a new generation about this event, but didn't do as good a job of explaining the solutions and the teamwork involved.

Author Henry S.F. Cooper, a descendant of James Fennimore Cooper, was a prolific science writer. I read his account of the Magellan spacecraft ([b:The Evening Star|1911358|The Evening Star Venus Observed|Henry S.F. Cooper Jr.|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1266924830l/1911358.SY75.jpg|1913297]) and rated it 5 stars - it also focused on problem solving and teamwork.

This book is comparable to [b:Mars Rover Curiosity|32686049|Mars Rover Curiosity An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer|Rob Manning|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1479729368l/32686049.SY75.jpg|40017017] and the fictional [b:The Martian|18007564|The Martian|Andy Weir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413706054l/18007564.SY75.jpg|21825181], in that each introduces problem, thought process, then resolution. That is definitely a niche I enjoy reading, and if you do also, I would recommend this fairly short book. Now it's time to re-watch the movie :)

This time travel book was published by Galaxy Science Fiction in 1932, and may have been serialized before that. It features a strong female lead character and lacks the sexism of most books of that era. No method is given for time travel - and it is more a soapbox anyways.

Our protagonists are travelling via airship across the Atlantic. The crossing is marred by a major event, leaving them with no radio connection and ultimately crashing into a mountain in the middle of the ocean - or what we later find out is Atlantis. The surviving three passengers quickly leave the area of the wreck and get on with interacting with their surroundings - beasts, starvation, and weather.

These, and the humanoids introduced later, seem more a means for the author to focus on his philosophy on the nature of humanity. This is done through character discussion primarily, and those chapters drag a bit. I found it good, not great, and the ending was most irritating of all.

The book is out of copyright and freely available, through archive.org and project Gutenberg. It is a quick read, and I probably put it on my reading list because of the time travel aspects - one of a handful of early 20th century books in this genre.

A short story with a Romulan (excuse me: Rihannsu) civics and history lesson added in, this sequel to [b:My Enemy, My Ally|176543|My Enemy, My Ally (Star Trek Rihannsu, #1)|Diane Duane|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328050705l/176543.SY75.jpg|74442] is more of an epilog to that story. Ms. Duane was also working on [b:Spock's World|176544|Spock's World|Diane Duane|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1172442848l/176544.SY75.jpg|1471332] (released the following year), so the Vulcan/Romulan history was getting double duty. I just wish the story were better.

I can say with certainty that I haven't read this before, though I did purchase it for a complete collection of the Star Trek Pocket Books. It is followed by three more sequels in the Rihannsu series, and now I see the significance of the titles of those books. This was also a time when Star Trek the Next Generation was spinning up, and their take on Romulans was very likely influenced by these two books. Since this one is roughly half history, it makes sense.

That said, I would have hated rereading this as much as retaking a history course from the same professor in school. Cutting out the civics lesson, the remaining novella is just not that great, though the ending is fun to read. That said, I will very likely read the final three books.

This swords and sorcery adventure tale was written as a tribute to the Dying Earth books of Jack Vance. It was nominated for a Hugo and a Locus award, and was originally serialized in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It is primarily a tale of revenge, with the main character decapitated in the first chapter!

The world is somehow fixed in place, with the light side having all the science and the dark side the magic. Jack is from the dark, and cannot die - so decapitation leaves him alive and helpless at the dark edge of the world, where he fights his way back to society and his eventual revenge. This adventure and the ending are the strongest parts of the story. Once his initial revenge is enacted, the story slows considerably. Jack also becomes considerably more evil (black instead of the dark gray he had been earlier). Some of that maybe due to the serialization also.

Zelazny's descriptions of the world are well done, and the dialog is excellent. At times, Jack's words and thoughts connect to philosophy. Jack muses on the value of a soul, of consciousness, and obeying societal norms in a world that doesn't agree with him. Shadow Jack doesn't always play by the rules, and sometimes that comes back to bite him.

In addition to its merits of the time, this story was included in Appendix N, the list of inspirations for D&D. Both the thought of adventure and some of the prowess of a thief can be found here. There is also information in the game about character retirement, and Jack's actions post-revenge match that quite closely. I can't say how good an homage it was to Dying Earth, which I haven't read yet.

This is a slim volume, and might only be considered a novella today. It is worth seeking out for a quick read, and maybe a bit of philosophy. "I wonder as to the value of consciousness," said Jack, "if it does not change the nature of a beast."