Sept.18, 2009

Her's some more books I finished since the last post. Actually, I forgot one I finished earlier this week, so I'll do it first:

Steal Across the Sky, by Nancy Kress: This is SF, by an author who always writes a good book, in my experience. Her Probability series is excellent; everything I've read of hers is good. I imagine I've read 5-10 books by her over the years. She also writes some non-fiction "writer's aid" books, which I need to try sometime. Well, after all that, you can probably guess I liked this one also. The concept is this: an alien race shows up in the near future, announces itself, says the alien race (which calls itself the Atoners) did something unspecified to the human race in the distant pre-historical past which was wrong, and it needs to atone for that. So it asks for volunteers to be a "Witness" to other planets where humans were settled by this race long ago. Then things proceed from there. The concept is interesting, and although Kress skips around to various protagonists at different stages in the book, she keeps the story tight, and as always she combines an interesting plot with good characterization. It was good, but not her best. I rate it a 3.

UFOS-The Great Debate: An objective look at extraterrestrials, government cover-ups, and the prospect of first contact, by J. Allen Danelek: Non-fiction. A supposedly unbiased, objective look at the main topics in the UFO field. I am always interested in anything to do with UFOs, the paranormal, and (especially) cryptozoology. That doesn't mean I buy all (or even any) of it, but I find the subject fascinating. Usually. This guy could bore a crystal-meth using, hyperactive rhino to death in about 3 minutes. His points are pretty good, but there is nothing new in this book. He, like far too many on both sides of this field, seems to have first decided where he wants to come down, and then uses the "data" to show how his view is the ONLY logical one. Please. I read all the way through it, although usually as I get older I bail on this kind of crap so as not to waste any more of my time, worthless as it might be. I rate this a 2. If you're interested, skip to the conclusions.

In Defense of Dolphins: The new moral frontier, by Thomas I. White, 2009: Non-fiction. Philosophy professor contending that dolphins are "non-human persons", and setting out to prove it. I actually think this guys' premise, which is that dolphin's are intelligent and should be treated as such (I would include whales in there as well)(in case you didn't already know, calling them "dolphins" is kind of like calling us "primates"; there are a lot of different species). He tries to prove that they are intelligent, have emotions, etc. I have to say that the book, which I really wanted to like, is kind of poorly written, and that his arguments are not that well articulated, especially from a scientific point of view. But, I have sympathy for his main point, so I guess the book ends up somewhere in the middle. I rate it a 3.

Night of Knives: A novel of the Malazan Empire, by Ian C. Esslemont: Fantasy, set in a world that was apparently created by this guy and Stephen Erickson, who has written all the other, earlier books in this series (I think 8 so far). All the books by Erickson, one of my favorites, are great. THIS one sucked really bad. I couldn't get past the first few chapters. Mother of god, what a cluster fuck. What can I say? A chimp on crack cocaine could do better. I'm sure this guy is a very imaginative person, as the world of the Malazan Empire that he and Erickson have created is one of the most intricate, fascinating worlds I've even read about, with a deep, complex history. But the book's still bad. So, I rate it a 1. Instead of trying to read this, just do something more fun. Like, say, jabbing yourself with sharp sticks.

I also read the 9th and 10th Graphic Novel collections from the Fables comic series: #9- The Good Prince, and #10- Sons of Empire. They were outstanding (rating on each a 5), as is all the Fables series. If you like Graphic Novels/comic books, this series is one of the best I've ever read, up there with classics like Watchmen, The Sandman series, and The Dark Knight Returns. Do yourself a favor and read it. I might not always bother to rate GNs because if the series is still ongoing, the overall body of work can change, but this is an excellent series.