Folly of the Faithful Canine

Book Review: The Cosmic Computer

2026-02-18T21:23:01Z

I had not read any of H. Beam Piper before, nor do I remember who recommended this title to me. It's not significant enough for its own Wikipedia page, so I have to rely on my memory more than usual to review it.

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I was about to read a book set in Finland, but I'm saving it for a hot month. For now, I'll try Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans.

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Book Review: N-Space

2025-12-05T21:19:02Z

When I pulled this off my shelf, I had forgotten, if I ever knew, that it was not a novel. It is an incomplete collection of Larry Niven's short stories, excerpts from novels, essays, and (in larger print) commentary thereon. I figured that this would be enough to scratch my sci-fi itch.

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Now reading The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty. Back to a Middle Eastern flavor.

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Book Review: The Blood Trials

2025-07-15T22:11:23Z

When I picked up N.E. Davenport's 2022 novel, it reminded me a bit of Dragon Pearl: a sci-fi/fantasy combo featuring a young, non-White, female first-person narrator. I wouldn't count it as YA, tho, because it includes a sex scene, gore, and a lot of swearing. Good thing my previous read was so tame.

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Believe it or not, I still have an appetite for long, dark fantasy. Next up is Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch.

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Book Review: Dragon Pearl

2025-05-01T02:19:44Z

It's easy to tell from the cover that Yoon Ha Lee's 2019 novel is written with younger readers in mind. For starters, the top reads "Rick Riordan Presents," and Riordan is best known for the Percy Jackson series. (Further reading tells me that Disney publishes all books with that header.) Second, the one illustration is a little more cartoony than usual, albeit not to the point of evoking comedy. I knew I'd finish before long.

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It's been almost a year since my last pre-1900 novel. I think I'll try Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe.

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Book Review: Darwin's Radio

2025-01-11T23:06:42Z

Sorry, I gave up after reading 100 pages of The Fifth Season. The story is both bizarre and bleak, a deadly combination to my mind. Half the chapters feature second-person narration, which feels condescending to the point of grating, particularly outside of Choose Your Own Adventure, role-playing games, and other activities where the addressee retains some agency. And I got tired of turning to the incomplete glossary.

With that, I decided it was time for another sci-fi novel. I'd heard of Greg Bear but never read anything by him. I also wanted to take one of the thicker volumes off my shelf in preparation for Christmas gifts.

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Since a DR conversation brings up Jean M. Auel, I am now reading The Clan of the Cave Bear. Not the first I'd heard of it.

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Book Review: Gateway

2024-09-03T23:08:55Z

This was my first taste of Frederick Pohl in nearly five years. It was also more promising than the previous, partly because it kicked off a longer series. The two were published in consecutive years, so it's not like he had time for dramatic change.

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Now I'm knocking off a short book so I can pick up a new one around the beginning of my vacation. My current selection: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi.

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Book Review: Metabarons

2024-05-31T23:40:42Z

Months ago, I was hanging around a comic book store because a friend worked there. Another employee talked me into buying this immense graphic novel compilation. It cost as much as a college textbook, so I knew I'd have to get around to it eventually.

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Now reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. There's a tome I won't finish within a month, let alone a week.

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Feels Like a Long Time Ago

2024-05-05T00:24:44Z

The guy who gave us THX 1138,
Along with several shorts that evidently weren’t so great,
Was crashing on the sofa of another young auteur,
Then working on The Godfather, their reps still immature.

His prospects in L.A. all gone, he’d moved to New York City
To meet with folk in cinema who’d show him any pity.
His greatest longshot chance: United Artists’ David Picker,
Who blew him off until he laid it on a little thicker.

The two would meet again soon at the festival in Cannes,
Where something made the CEO a more obliging man.
He paid the guy a bit to write American Graffiti
But didn’t like the script that came. So much for that entreaty.

When Universal made the film, the budget sure was low.
The buzz got bad, so Picker let his backup story go,
But one exec enjoyed the film: the son of Alan Ladd,
Creative head at Fox, who sought to know what else he had.

The young director’s father wished he’d join the same career
Of selling desk equipment, but the thought made Junior sneer.
Perhaps this had an influence upon a certain villain
He’d write for his next film (for whom the actor had no billin’).

Most everyone involved assumed the film would not succeed.
The Jaws director differed, but the rest would not take heed.
Imagine their surprise when it became an instant smash.
From that point on, George Lucas never would be strapped for cash.

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Book Review: The Mimicking of Known Successes

2024-04-06T02:09:43Z

This novella came out only last year. Unsurprisingly, it does not have its own Wikipedia entry, nor does the entry for author Malka Older give details on it. I find too little information to supplement what I read.

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My next read is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Time for a time-tested classic.

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Book Review: Second Foundation

2024-03-06T04:42:43Z

I had been misled by the back cover of this early edition, which indicated that this would be the end of the series. Isaac Asimov published his fourth entry nearly 30 years later. Since the third one ends less than halfway through the Foundation's projected thousand-year timeline, I'm kinda glad he didn't stop there for good.

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My next read is Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. I've had enough short books in a row.

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Book Review: The Goblin Emperor

2024-02-15T02:53:31Z

No, this first entry in a series has nothing to do with the Goblin King from Labyrinth. It's set in a world where the only mentioned sapient races are goblins and elves. We get the occasional spell, especially for communication with the dead, along with a few steampunk trappings, yet the important aspects of the story could easily have been told with humans and real past tech. As far as I can tell, Sarah Monette (under pen name Katherine Addison for some reason) chose the genre just to avoid biases associated with history and geography.

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My next read is Isaac Asimov's Second Foundation. It's been a while since I last finished a trilogy.

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Book Review: Superfolks

2024-01-10T00:01:40Z

That didn't take me long, did it? Robert Mayer's first novel, while not a graphic novel as it appears from the outside, nonetheless has fairly few words per page on average, particularly since there are 37 chapters in 231 pages. I don't remember where I heard of it, but it sounded kind of like Watchmen with a lot more laughs. Whether or not it inspired Alan Moore, it was certainly a predecessor, from 1977.

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I have now picked up another fairly short read, Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. The Newbery Medal tells me it's not even YA, and right now, I could use the assurance of cleanliness.

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Book Review: All the Birds in the Sky

2023-11-27T03:45:21Z

From the front cover, you would have no idea that Charlie Jane Anders' debut novel was speculative fiction. Indeed, various reviewers discuss how it doesn't fit neatly into one category. Even the summary on the back gave me little idea of what I was getting into.

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Wanting a break from both sci-fi and fantasy, I have picked up Uncle Tom's Cabin. If nothing else, it'll give me an informed opinion.

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Book Review: Falling Free

2023-09-12T22:49:57Z

I was under the impression that this Lois McMaster Bujold work lay outside the Vorkosigan saga, but a timeline at the back tells me it's set about 200 years before Barrayar. I see no further connections yet. Maybe it's like how the Foundation series follows the Robot series but feels different enough not to be bunched together. At any rate, no other volumes are set before this 1988 one, so you don't need to know anything in particular going in. And Bujold wastes little time getting to the key premises.

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Feeling ready for another tome, I have selected A Game of Thrones, which I'm sure already means something to you.

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Book Review: Recursion

2023-06-08T02:20:32Z

No, it has nothing to do with the webcomic of the same title, tho I probably would read that in novel form. Blake Crouch says in the acknowledgments that this was easily his hardest book to write. Whether he still says so in the wake of Upgrade, I don't know, but I suspect so.

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In the interest of sticking with shortish reads a while longer, I've picked up another new present, Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah. At least it should have a lot less swearing as a YA novel.

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Book Review: Lady Slings the Booze

2023-03-15T02:00:23Z

I understood this to be a sequel to Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, but it bears no more resemblance to its predecessor than That Hideous Strength bears to the rest of the Space Trilogy. For starters, while set in New York City, it makes no mention of the saloon. Mike Callahan gets only occasional scenes and doesn't really affect the plot. It's not even a series of short stories; it's a novel.

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Without meaning to, I've begun another partly comedic book, Spindle's End by Robin McKinley. Heh, from Robinson to Robin.

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Book Review: Upgrade

2023-02-11T03:34:20Z

Two friends of the family recommended Blake Crouch's recent book to my parents, who then read it and passed it on to me. They don't normally read much sci-fi, but if all four liked it, who was I to say no?

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For now, I'm starting Lady Slings the Booze by Spider Robinson. That promises to be amusing.

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Book Review: Snow Crash

2022-10-22T05:13:25Z

I may have given up on William Gibson, but I wasn't turned off from all cyberpunk literature. After all, I've enjoyed the genre on screen many times. Surely there would be a suitable book for me. So I took a chance on my first Neal Stephenson novel.

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My next read is Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It's been praised by other minority female fantasy authors.

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How to Be Super

2022-07-11T03:30:03Z

You wish to have some superpowers? Here’s what you can do.
Unless you’re born an alien or mutant, they’ll be new.
You could receive a serum as a subject in a lab.
Perhaps you’d drink a potion if you couldn’t stand a jab.
You might get struck by lightning or exposed to radiation
Or splashed with special chemicals without deliberation.
If someone mighty notices your deeds and is impressed,
They may just share some power, tho it wouldn’t be the best.
If lucky, you will come across an artifact or jewel
That rapidly bestows on you abilities quite cool.
What doesn’t seem as lucky is returning from the dead.
I’d rather work with magic or technology instead.
If all else fails, you always can improve your bod and brain
By exercise and learning. Just be careful not to strain.

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Book Review: The Sparrow

2022-05-28T04:35:42Z

Mary Doria Russell is the only sci-fi author I know to have been an anthropologist by trade. After pitching a story idea and getting no takers, she opted to try her hand at a different kind of writing. This may explain why her 1996 novel does a few things not advised by seasoned authors.

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Next up is a recent birthday present, Naomi Novik's Black Powder War. Given the previous Temeraire entries, I call it a safe bet not to be depressing.

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UFOs

2021-10-24T21:15:35Z

Do I believe in UFOs?
Of course, for why would I suppose
That every flying object is
Identified by now? Gee whiz!
You’ll notice that I didn’t say
They’re ships from many worlds away.
One could be just a stray balloon
Or something else that’s that jejune.
A meteor is not unheard
Of; neither is a soaring bird.
A military satellite?
Now that’s a better cause for fright.
Just don’t assume the term applies
To ET saucers in the skies.

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Book Review: The Violent Century

2021-07-10T22:24:40Z

Judging from Netflix, capepunk is all the rage. It makes sense that all the superhero fare should lead to something deconstructive about it. Rather than take a chance on another ugly-looking TV series, I decided to try this 2013 Lavie Tidhar novel, which has been described, among similar ways, as "like Watchmen on crack."

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To cleanse my palate, I picked up the immediate sequel to a more youth-oriented novel I enjoyed. It's Catherynne M. Valente's The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There. Best to have waited less than a year so my memory isn't too bad.

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Past Wish

2021-05-30T02:14:17Z

I used to wish that we could have a “window on the past”
To let us solve the mysteries of history at last.
I’m speaking of a time machine that doesn’t let us change
Events already over with. It also can’t arrange
A preview of the future, whether mutable or not.
There wouldn’t be a paradox, just lessons to be taught.
(In case you’re having trouble understanding what I mean,
Compare A Christmas Carol when they walk the past unseen.)
But then I thought it over, and an issue crossed my mind:
Technology that’s widely used can hardly be confined
To proper use, and certain folk would like to go and see
A lot of things that don’t get shown on regular TV
Because they’re hardly tasteful. For example, one might watch
Real violence more heinous than a football to the crotch.
It isn’t kind to ancients to reduce their woes to fun.
(Some movies do, but they don’t show true deaths of anyone.)
What’s more, one might not ogle just significant events.
A random person naked in a home has no defense
Against the peeping eyes of any number of voyeurs
Who use the window later. Only absence can ensure
The window’s lack of wrongful use by any future pervs.
I’m finished with this fantasy; it’s gotten on my nerves.

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Book Review: Dune Messiah

2021-04-15T02:30:43Z

At the end of my copy of Frank Herbert's Dune, I read an essay mentioning that protagonist Paul Atreides, a.k.a. Muad'Dib, would go on to be quite the tyrannical antihero. This seemed a little odd given all his setup as a messianic figure, which was clear even before I knew the next title in the series. But then, we are talking about a messiah brought about by human rather than divine intervention. No matter what powers he attains or what he does with them, no matter how many prophecies he fulfills, the guiding hands are hardly perfect.

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Wanting a break from books about threats to a whole world, I have picked up Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. It'll take till after my birthday to finish, but I'm liking the style so far.

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