All Systems Red by Martha Wells – Doherty Assoc. publishing 2017 - Take a standard old school sci-fi setting and add robots that have human components. If you remember the Asimov ‘rules’ about robots, you’ll be expecting something in the circuitry that prevents them from running amok and killing all the ‘lesser’ beings that cross …
HOUNDED BY KEVIN NEARNE
Hounded by Kevin Nearne (The Iron Druid Chronicles), Del Ray, 2011 - I am now nearing the end of my Christmas gift reading and have drifted back into the third of my DDD’s fantasy book gifts. It’s interesting to compare older fantasy to the contemporary scene. Older fantasy classics often had ‘normal’ people encountering magical …
THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, Random House 2010 - It’s odd how the differences between one’s children manifest themselves. Each Christmas, for instance, I receive books from my DDD (dearest darling daughter) and my NOS (number one son). My DDD is attracted to fiction, especially fantasy, while my NOS is clearly …
PIRANESI BY SUSANNA CLARKE
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke – Bloomsbury publishing, 2020 - Piranesi is the second in my Dearest Darling Daughter’s (DDD) choices, and by far the oddest and most interesting of the Christmas gift books this year. CBS says it’s ‘Destined to become a work of classic fantasy’ and it was given glowing praise by sources as …
THE EMPEROR OF ALL MALADIES
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee – Scribners, 2010 - For those who prefer non-fiction, this book is a winner. Described as a ‘biography of cancer’ it is, indeed, a history of the disease and a chronicle of those who have worked to cure the world of this scourge. References to the disease …
THE BEEKEEPER OF ALLEPO
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri, Ballantine Books, 2020 - Ms. Lefteri is currently a lecturer in creative writing at Brunel University in the UK. Her parents fled Cyprus during the 1974 Turkish invasion of the island and, during a period in 2016, she became a volunteer worker at a UNICEF-supported refugee center in …
THE U-CRANE – AN ENDLESS BLEAK WINTER AHEAD
Seems as if the longer Vlad (the impaler) Pootine rules Rooskie, the more he acts like his hero, good ol’ Joe S. And hot dog, hasn’t Vlad been some busy this past week? Somehow those two hundred thousand ballet dancers that he’d brought to the border of Russkie have high stepped their way into the …
Continue reading THE U-CRANE – AN ENDLESS BLEAK WINTER AHEAD
TROUBLE IN THE U-CRANE – THANK THE GHIT
Thank goodness we’ve spent trillions of dollars on nuclear weapons as a deterrent to war. That pretty much leaves our current crop of megalomaniacs with nothing but ‘conventional’ weapons to throw around in their quest to conquer the world. Yes, here we are, well into the 21st century, and we can still enjoy the antics …
THE UNCIVIL SOCIETY
“Bring it on.” That’s one Freedom Fascist’s response to the Ontario provincial government’s announcement that they’re going to end the Ottawa occupation. Not only is their ‘freedom’ is more important than your freedom and their HONK louder than your combined voices, they’re thirsting for a fight. Well, most people will agree that democracy can be …
PANDEMIC POINTS TO PONDER
Search as I might, I just can’t seem to find the place in the Bible that says ‘Thou shalt not get vaccinated’. It wasn’t hard to find the one that says, ‘Thou shalt not kill’, so I’m wondering why so many of the FW (‘freedom wimps’ - Honk! Honk!) insist that vaccination is against their …
Richard's Left Bank 