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Book Review: The Weapon Makers by A.E. Van Vogt

A.E. Van Vogt - The Weapon MakersTwo thousand years in the future, the solar system is united under the monarchy of the Isher family. To keep the government in check and ensure against tyranny, a guild known as the Weapon Shops has for generations provided technologically advanced arms to the citizens and maintained a close watch on imperial affairs. Naturally, this arrangement often sets guild and government at odds with one another.

The situation reaches a boiling point when Empress Innelda learns of a Weapon Shop spy among her court in the form of Captain Robert Hedrock. When the captain learns that Innelda plans to execute him, Hedrock mounts a bold and public defense, which results in his temporary expulsion from the palace. However, Hedrock learns that Innelda is concealing the existence of an interstellar drive from the Weapons Shops and the public in the hopes of bolstering Isher supremacy.

On this way out of the palace, Hedrock is arrested by officers of the Weapons Shops on the charge of subterfuge against the guild! He is brought before the council and interrogated about his mysterious background. When his answers fail to satisfy them, the councilmen order his execution. After mounting yet another daring escape, Hedrock sets out to reveal Innelda’s clandestine project to the world—an adventure which pits him against criminal elements on Earth and bizarre telepathic aliens in interstellar space…

A sequel to The Weapon Shops of Isher, The Weapon Makers begins as a fast-paced tale of intrigue that occasionally waxes melodramatic and, late in the plot, veers off course into ethereal concepts and bombastic language that feel contrived, especially during Hedrock’s encounters with the telepathic aliens. The story is a mélange of fantasy and science fiction that doesn’t always mesh well. Nevertheless, Van Vogt’s reputation as a master of imaginative fiction remains intact.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot

Carl Sagan - Pale Blue DotIn this sequel to the original Cosmos, Carl Sagan again reminds us of the intrinsic human desire to wander, and expands on many of the social and scientific topics discussed in the 1980 television series and accompanying book. Here, Sagan begins with primitive humans migrating across the planet for survival as much as to push the boundaries of a given frontier. From there, Sagan offers a personal anecdote, describing the hardships of his grandparents’ life in Eastern Europe and their fretful immigration to the United States.

A full chapter details the conflicts between science and religion in the early Catholic church and argues that the human race gained a measure of humility after reluctantly accepting the fact that we are not at the center of the universe.  As he did often in Cosmos, Sagan delves into the history of astronomical advancements including early discoveries of the larger moons around Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus by Galileo, Huygens, Cassini, Kuiper, and Lassell as well as the naming (and renaming) of the first seven planets by the ancients—Earth, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn—and how this inspired the development of the seven-day calendar week.

Readers are also treated to rich scientific detail about the planets and 60 plus natural satellites in our solar system based on data from the Viking, Galileo, Cassini-Huygens, Pioneers 10 and 11, and Voyager 1 and 2 probes. Further chapters delve into the atmospheric and surface compositions of the worlds, asteroids, and moons before Sagan goes on to expound three major threats to Earth’s environment—ozone depletion, global warming, and nuclear winter.

Sagan’s hopes and visions for the future of manned space exploration through international cooperation are inspiring for all their possibilities, but he is also pragmatic and laments the financial erosion and bureaucratic ossification of the space program over the past three decades and an unfortunate public shift in focus away from planetary exploration. However, in 1994, when Pale Blue Dot was published, it’s difficult to say whether Sagan predicted the dawn of private space agencies—such as SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and others—that would fill the void left by the government.

As always, Carl Sagan makes it clear that by exploring other worlds, we open our minds to possibilities far beyond the scope of our limited knowledge and experience bound up on this insignificant pale blue dot situated on the outer edge of a spiral arm lost among billions of stars and planets in the Milky Way.

“We’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” – Carl Sagan, Cosmos. 

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Colorado Kid by Stephen King

The Colorado Kid by Stephen KingOn Moose-Lookit Island off the coast of Maine, a reporter from The Boston Globe fails in his attempt to elicit any undocumented tales of the bizarre from Vince Teague and Dave Bowie, owners and editors of The Weekly Islander newspaper. This later sparks a conversation between the two elderly men and their lovely young intern, Stephanie McCann.

After recounting all of the local, tired chestnuts—including among others the mass poisoning of attendees at a church picnic, the appearance of a ship with a dead man on deck and the rest of the crew missing—Vince and Dave regale “Steffi” with the mystery of the Colorado Kid.

In 1981, two high school students discovered the body of an unidentified middle-aged man on Hammock Beach. After a brief in situ examination by the coroner, a piece of meat was found lodged in the man’s throat. It was then concluded that he merely choked to death.

Yet, other clues left Vince to wonder if the cause of death was truly that simple. His overwhelming curiosity prompts him and Dave Bowie to begin an investigation, aided by an unexpected phone call almost two years later from former forensics student Paul Devane, who had helped collect evidence on the day the dead man was found.

Devane’s recollection lead Vince and Dave to uncover John Doe’s identity—but also served to evoke more questions than answers as to what motivated the Colorado Kid to travel halfway across the country on an apparent whim to a remote island town in Maine…

I picked up a paperback copy of The Colorado Kid from a used book dealer at one of the many SF conventions I attend each year. I might have passed it over had it not been for the spectacular television series, Haven, which was loosely based on King’s novel but expanded the storyline in wildly different directions. The only common characters between novel and series were Vince and Dave, though in Haven, the two were written as brothers and the actors (Richard Donat and John Dunsworth, respectively) did not at all correspond to Stephen King’s original description. Police chief Wuornos is briefly mentioned in the novel, but was a main character in the first season of Haven and portrayed by Nicholas Campbell.

Thanks to the show, I was curious about the novel. I finally got around to reading it this past week. While the writing is not particularly sophisticated, the story is a quick and delightfully lighthearted read, told from the point of view of the intern, Steffi, who makes several deductions of her own as she absorbs the tale of the Colorado Kid imparted by the two ancient news hounds.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: From the Darkness by Dawn Sooy

From the Darkness-Front CoverIn April 2004, during a family fishing trip, Lizbeth’s temper abruptly explodes, alarming her husband and children and revealing the first signs of her burgeoning depression. Over the next eight years, with the support of her loving and patient husband Noah, Lizbeth battles a swarm of personal demons including self-loathing, rage, doubt, fear, apathy, and lethargy that not only leave her unable to function, but push her to such destructive behaviors as self-mutilation and attempted suicide.

Although a novel, From the Darkness is written as an intimate first-person memoir that follows Lizbeth along her arduous journey back to manageable health through multiple hospital visits, therapy sessions, a myriad of medications, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) visits, gambling and spending addiction, and at least two failed attempts to return to full time employment.

All the while, Lizbeth is haunted by a scornful, threatening voice in her head designated “Pita” (aka Pain in the Ass) that relentlessly urges her to take the easy way out. Yet even during the worst of her tribulations, Lizbeth manages to hold her own, drawing strength and encouragement from family, doctors, therapists—and the smallest of life’s victories—to bear the crushing burden of depression and find her way out of the darkness.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Michael Critzer’s Heroic Inspirations

By referencing the backstories and motivations of thirty comic book superheroes, Michael Critzer offers life lessons ranging from overcoming the pain of abuse to conquering self-doubt, from finding the strength to forgive to searching one’s soul for one’s true identity.

Do not mistake such comparisons between fantasy and reality as trivial. I was surprised by how many of them struck a chord in my own life and forced me to pause and consider not only how I managed to survive the darkness of my past tribulations and ordeals, but the scars those experiences inflicted on my conscience and personality.

Yet while the weight of our emotional baggage might always remain with us, we find ourselves becoming stronger when we learn to control and use our pain as a source of wisdom and compassion rather than as an excuse for bitterness, rage, and selfishness. We can rise above.

Such are the lessons taught by the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Daredevil, Spider Man, Vixen, X-Men, Green Arrow, and so many more. Heroic Inspirations is not only an edifying and joyful read, but obvious proof of Michael Critzer’s expertise on the mythology of superheroes and his ability to translate them into practical moral instruction.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Night and the Enemy by Harlan Ellison

Published by Comico in 1987, Night and the Enemy is a graphic anthology consisting of five military SF tales written by Harlan Ellison and illustrated by Ken Steacy. Each story takes place during the two hundred-year-long interstellar war between Earth and golden-skinned aliens known as the Kyben.

“Run for the Stars” – Petty criminal and drug addict Benno Tallant is abducted by Earth resistance forces and implanted with a bomb to destroy the Kyben, but Tallant finds a way to gain the upper hand against both the Kyben forces and ultimately, Earth.

“Life Hutch” – After crash landing on a small planet during a space battle, a pilot named Terrance locates a life hutch—one of many small survival facilities constructed on planets across the galaxy in the event of an emergency. However, the robot programmed to maintain the life hutch malfunctions and attacks Terrance, leaving him severely wounded. Terrance soon realizes that he must remain immobile lest he trigger the robot again… but for how long?

“The Untouchable Adolescents” – Captain Luther Shreve offers assistance to the juvenile inhabitants of the planet Diamore, which will soon suffer a devastating natural catastrophe unless machines can be deployed to direct the shockwave to the planet’s oceans. However, the telepathic inhabitants do not trust the humans after their world was already plundered by the Kyben months before. They warn the humans to leave, yet Shreve insists on helping them—resulting in the deaths of six crew members. Finally, Shreve relents, but what price will the Diamore pay for their decision?

“Trojan Hearse” – The Kyba construct a metal ring called the Orifice through which vessels can travel at the speed of light to another ring elsewhere across the galaxy. In this case, to a ring hidden on Earth. Shortly after a human spy escapes Kyba with schematics to the Orifice, the Kyben decide to invade, confident that Earth could not have developed a defense in such a short time…

“Sleeping Dogs” – On Epsilon Indy IV, ambassador LynnFerraro attempts to stop warmongering Commander Drabix from destroying a series of what he believes are Kyben strongholds scattered across the planet. However, it is soon discovered that their weapons are incapable of penetrating these featureless black cubes. Finally, Drabix orders his ship in orbit to open fire on one of them— which he soon regrets.

All told, Night and the Enemy is a quick and engrossing read by one of the masters of the short story and beautifully illustrated by Steacy.