As a teenage reader, my book choices broke down into two categories: Tolkien and everybody else. (Yes, there was also required reading for school, but books like The Scarlet Letter and The Mill on the Floss had their own place, and it certainly wasn’t among the books I would ever read if given the choice as a 15-year old. But […]
Review | Calculating God by Robert J Sawyer
2013-01-07 · by ·
I lucked out when I found Calculating God. It was one of those I’m-bored-and-I-have-nothing-to-read-so-I’ll-browse-the-shelves-and-randomly-pick-something finds. I was in for a treat. Winner of the Nebula Award, Robert Sawyer presents an interesting thought experiment: what if Earth were discovered by an alien race, or rather, TWO alien races, and they informed us that, contrary to popular […]
Review | Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 by Charles Murray
2013-01-04 · by ·
I have friends who remind me, regularly, that wealth is becoming more and more concentrated among the wealthy. Further, the “not rich” are making less than they used to, relative to the wealthy. In other words, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. There is a divide growing in America, argues Charles […]
Review | World War Z by Max Brooks
2013-01-03 · by ·
I am not a zombie lit fan. Not at all. But it’s getting hard not to turn around without running into it. With The Walking Dead an evening drama on AMC, blockbuster movie star Brad Pitt taking the lead role in a movie based on World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, […]
Daniel’s Favorite Non-Fiction Reads of 2012
2013-01-02 · by ·
Last year was a great year for good books, and with Britt’s example (check her favorites last year here), here are a few of my favorite non-fiction reads. I tend to prefer history over other topics, but this year’s non-fiction picks included sociology, economics, and literature…but all, still, with a link to history. In […]
Review | On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers
2012-12-31 · by ·
A while back I picked up On Stranger Tides. I had heard that it would be the template for the next installment in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (#4) and because I’m such a huge fan (not, really). It was a whim, one I thought that would pass after just a few pages, as whims […]
Review | The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
2012-12-28 · by ·
The Stars My Destination is one of the more memorable books I’ve read in recent years, as well as one of my favorites. Written by Hugo winner Alfred Bester in the mid-1950s, the short novel, stays away from the technobabble and neologisms that might date it and as a result it retains potency decades after […]
Review | The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaniemi
2012-12-24 · by ·
One of the reasons I read non-fiction and classics is that they tend to challenge me more than the books I enjoy reading the most. I’ll pick up science-fiction or fantasy because I want to escape, relax, and take a break. But too much, and I get bored. I did not have that problem when […]
Review | The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
2012-12-21 · by ·
What happens when man finally finds sentient life on another planet, but that civilization cyclically destroys itself under overpopulation pressures cyclically? When man finds the Moties, not only are the Moties more intelligent and technologically adept than us, but they are faster and the breed at rabbit-like speeds. Unfortunately, the breeding is necessary to stay […]
Review | Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia
2012-12-20 · by ·
And now for something completely different: Monster Hunter International. Though it could probably be classified as horror (ater all, it’s about werewolves, zombies, ghosts, and other monsters) pick up Monster Hunter International, and you’re going to to find something akin to fantasy (or maybe science fiction?), if it was written by a Second Amendment and gun […]
