BooksOfTheMoon

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

By Randall Munroe

Rating: 5 stars

I’m a confirmed fan of XKCD but I’ve never really got into What If. However, I was given the book for Christmas and I’m glad that I was because I really enjoyed it. I love the way that Munroe takes, as it puts it on the cover, absurd hypothetical questions, and answers them in a really methodical way and the gleeful way he adds more power until he gets really big explosions.

I was surprised by just how readable the book was. I fairly flew through it in a couple of days, when I was expecting to read one or two questions a day. Munroe is very good at balancing his answers between science and entertainment (the cartoons, captions and footnotes definitely helping with the latter). The explanations are always clear and delivered with the minimal amount of maths required to make it make sense, although he never shies away from the maths. This is a guy who knows his audience and never talks down to them.

This is a book not just for fans of XKCD, but for anyone who kept (or, indeed, still keeps) asking ‘why’. Anyone who’s spent time mulling over questions that other people think are silly or pointless. Munroe not only takes such questions seriously but he answers them, and will extrapolate it until he can make something explode [Citation needed].

Book details

ISBN: 9781848549579
Publisher: John Murray
Year of publication: 2014

Tooth and Claw

By Jo Walton

Rating: 4 stars

Bon Agornin is dying and his family have gathered for his end. The body is barely cool before it is torn apart and eaten, but then that’s what dragons do. In the aftermath of Bon’s death, his children are split from the family home and each must find their own path to love and happiness.

I had an odd start to this book. The idea of a Victorian romance with dragons is an awesome one, and the first chapter should have been a great introduction to it, with the tension between the style of writing and the subject of what happens to Bon’s remains. And yet, it took an effort of will to come back to the book. I don’t know why, it’s certainly not the book’s fault, but maybe more to do with my state of mind at the time. I’m very definitely glad that I did force myself back because I devoured (heh) the rest of the book in an afternoon.

On the cover, Jane Yolen calls it the “Pride and Prejudice of the dragon world”, and I can’t really disagree with much there. It’s got Jane Austen’s sharp eye for people (even if they are dragons) and satire and some very likeable characters. Walton does a great job of ‘show not tell’ regarding dragon society and the worldbuilding is excellent.

As a confirmed fan of the sorts of Victorian/Regency romances being mimicked, I can certainly see myself coming back to this and hopefully being able to savour the language and writing now that I’m not rushing headlong to discover what happens next.

Book details

ISBN: 9781472100863
Publisher: Corsair
Year of publication: 2003

Returning My Sister’s Face and Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice

By Eugie Foster

Rating: 4 stars

I first encountered Eugie Foster via the Escape Artists podcasts, mostly Podcastle, where I knew that a Foster story was probably one that I was going to enjoy. I was sorry to hear of her death last year and that was one thing that pushed me toward getting this collection, which I’ve finally got around to reading.

It’s a collection of retellings of, or stories inspired by, far-eastern myths, with no other real unifying feature. But the far-eastern link is enough for me, and I enjoyed just about every story in the collection. Stand outs include A Thread of Silk about a woman who vows to kill the man who killed her father; The Tanuki-Kettle, a whimsical fairy tale about a mischievous tanuki spirit who hides in the form of a tea-kettle; and Year of the Fox, telling of a rash promise made in childhood and its consequences.

Foster is a confident storyteller, building great worlds. Her afterwords after each story are a nice way into the author’s mind, telling how each one came about. I’ll definitely be looking out for more of her work.

Book details

ISBN: 9781607620112
Publisher: Eugie Foster
Year of publication: 2009

Y: The Last Man Vol. 1: Unmanned

By Brian K. Vaughan

Rating: 3 stars

I recently got the first four volumes of this series which are short enough to read in quick succession, so I’ll use the same review for all four of them.

The Big Event that drives the story here is that one day every male mammal on Earth dies, except Yorrick Brown and his pet monkey. Yorrick isn’t particularly unique or even interesting. He doesn’t have a job and makes a bit of money as an amateur escape artist. But he eventually finds his (congresswoman) mother and begins a quest across America to try and find someone who can use his genetic material to try and either figure out what happened or help repopulate the species, all the time trying to ward off advances as he tries to stay loyal to his fiancée, not to mention the nutter man-haters and international forces who quickly hear about him and try and kill or capture him.

After four volumes, I’m quite enjoying this, but it’s definitely nowhere near as good as Vaughan’s subsequent project, Saga. Yorrick is an annoying mix of smug, self-satisfied and self-loathing that doesn’t endear him to me, although he does improve over time, as the body count racks up around him.

There’s interesting hints about what caused this “plague”, with a possible magical origin hinted at. Then there’s a secret society and his bodyguard, known only as ‘agent 355’. The sexual and gender politics doesn’t ring that true to me, and the whole ‘Daughters of Amazon’ man-haters seem very odd and hardly something that would come to the fore in the portrayed situation.

Still, there’s lots of interest here and I probably will finish the series. But even if you don’t like this, don’t let it put you off the much better Saga which, in my opinion, handles family, sexuality and politics much better than this.

Book details

ISBN: 9781840237085
Publisher: Titan Books Ltd
Year of publication: 2003

Y: The Last Man Vol. 2: Cycles

By Brian K. Vaughan

Rating: 3 stars

I recently got the first four volumes of this series which are short enough to read in quick succession, so I’ll use the same review for all four of them.

The Big Event that drives the story here is that one day every male mammal on Earth dies, except Yorrick Brown and his pet monkey. Yorrick isn’t particularly unique or even interesting. He doesn’t have a job and makes a bit of money as an amateur escape artist. But he eventually finds his (congresswoman) mother and begins a quest across America to try and find someone who can use his genetic material to try and either figure out what happened or help repopulate the species, all the time trying to ward off advances as he tries to stay loyal to his fiancée, not to mention the nutter man-haters and international forces who quickly hear about him and try and kill or capture him.

After four volumes, I’m quite enjoying this, but it’s definitely nowhere near as good as Vaughan’s subsequent project, Saga. Yorrick is an annoying mix of smug, self-satisfied and self-loathing that doesn’t endear him to me, although he does improve over time, as the body count racks up around him.

There’s interesting hints about what caused this “plague”, with a possible magical origin hinted at. Then there’s a secret society and his bodyguard, known only as ‘agent 355’. The sexual and gender politics doesn’t ring that true to me, and the whole ‘Daughters of Amazon’ man-haters seem very odd and hardly something that would come to the fore in the portrayed situation.

Still, there’s lots of interest here and I probably will finish the series. But even if you don’t like this, don’t let it put you off the much better Saga which, in my opinion, handles family, sexuality and politics much better than this.

Book details

ISBN: 9781840237283
Publisher: Titan Books Ltd
Year of publication: 2003

Y: The Last Man, Vol. 3: One Small Step (Y: The Last Man, #3)

By Brian K. Vaughan

Rating: 3 stars

I recently got the first four volumes of this series which are short enough to read in quick succession, so I’ll use the same review for all four of them.

The Big Event that drives the story here is that one day every male mammal on Earth dies, except Yorrick Brown and his pet monkey. Yorrick isn’t particularly unique or even interesting. He doesn’t have a job and makes a bit of money as an amateur escape artist. But he eventually finds his (congresswoman) mother and begins a quest across America to try and find someone who can use his genetic material to try and either figure out what happened or help repopulate the species, all the time trying to ward off advances as he tries to stay loyal to his fiancée, not to mention the nutter man-haters and international forces who quickly hear about him and try and kill or capture him.

After four volumes, I’m quite enjoying this, but it’s definitely nowhere near as good as Vaughan’s subsequent project, Saga. Yorrick is an annoying mix of smug, self-satisfied and self-loathing that doesn’t endear him to me, although he does improve over time, as the body count racks up around him.

There’s interesting hints about what caused this “plague”, with a possible magical origin hinted at. Then there’s a secret society and his bodyguard, known only as ‘agent 355’. The sexual and gender politics doesn’t ring that true to me, and the whole ‘Daughters of Amazon’ man-haters seem very odd and hardly something that would come to the fore in the portrayed situation.

Still, there’s lots of interest here and I probably will finish the series. But even if you don’t like this, don’t let it put you off the much better Saga which, in my opinion, handles family, sexuality and politics much better than this.

Book details

ISBN: 9781401202019
Publisher: Vertigo
Year of publication: 2004

Y: The Last Man, Vol. 4: Safeword

By Brian K. Vaughan

Rating: 3 stars

I recently got the first four volumes of this series which are short enough to read in quick succession, so I’ll use the same review for all four of them.

The Big Event that drives the story here is that one day every male mammal on Earth dies, except Yorrick Brown and his pet monkey. Yorrick isn’t particularly unique or even interesting. He doesn’t have a job and makes a bit of money as an amateur escape artist. But he eventually finds his (congresswoman) mother and begins a quest across America to try and find someone who can use his genetic material to try and either figure out what happened or help repopulate the species, all the time trying to ward off advances as he tries to stay loyal to his fiancée, not to mention the nutter man-haters and international forces who quickly hear about him and try and kill or capture him.

After four volumes, I’m quite enjoying this, but it’s definitely nowhere near as good as Vaughan’s subsequent project, Saga. Yorrick is an annoying mix of smug, self-satisfied and self-loathing that doesn’t endear him to me, although he does improve over time, as the body count racks up around him.

There’s interesting hints about what caused this “plague”, with a possible magical origin hinted at. Then there’s a secret society and his bodyguard, known only as ‘agent 355’. The sexual and gender politics doesn’t ring that true to me, and the whole ‘Daughters of Amazon’ man-haters seem very odd and hardly something that would come to the fore in the portrayed situation.

Still, there’s lots of interest here and I probably will finish the series. But even if you don’t like this, don’t let it put you off the much better Saga which, in my opinion, handles family, sexuality and politics much better than this.

Book details

ISBN: 9781840239218
Publisher: Titan Publishing Company
Year of publication: 2004

Always Coming Home

By Ursula K. Le Guin

Rating: 3 stars

I very definitely admire and appreciate this book. Unfortunately, I didn’t really enjoy it very much. This isn’t a novel, it’s written like a social science notebook, containing fragments of songs, stories, pictures and maps about a small community in California. What makes this different (possibly unique) is that the community doesn’t exist. It’s all a fragment of Le Guin’s mighty imagination. This is something you have to remind yourself of while reading, as it’s very easy to forget, in amongst the breadth and depth of the book.

Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s really for me. I found the book quite frustrating because of its structure and lack of narrative (even though I knew what to expect going in). I enjoyed Stone Telling’s story (which makes up a significant chunk of the book, split into three sections) but found myself skimming (or even skipping) other bits, especially the poetry.

Le Guin has obviously put so much work into the world, its back story and the people who populate the valley of the Na. Unfortunately, I’ve never been much for poetry, and that (along with ritual song) makes up a significant chunk of the narrative parts of the book (and, now that I come to think about it, the ‘back of the book’ sections as well). Those more appreciative of disjointed narrative, myth and sociology will get much more out of this than I did.

Book details

ISBN: 9780586073834
Publisher: Grafton
Year of publication: 1985

Agatha Heterodyne and the Sleeping City (Girl Genius, #13)

By Phil Foglio

Rating: 4 stars

Goodness me, I think this may be the best Girl Genius volume to date! Agatha has jump-started the castle and as it returns to full power, the full might and power of the fully armed and operational Mechanicsburg is unleashed upon the Wulfenbach hordes. In the middle of all this, the Storm King pretender, Martellus, kidnaps Agatha and teleports her to his refuge, far away. As you’d expect, it all goes horribly wrong.

What with a fully operational (and as twisted as ever) castle, and a full complement of Jagers, this book does not lack for action. The humour knob has also dialled up to 11 and there are many laugh out loud and ‘punch the air’ moments. The story is racing along and getting ever more complex, making these paper collections all the more important for those of us who struggle to remember what happened three hours ago, never mind the days between pages online. That doesn’t stop me from reading them online, but you definitely get more out of it when you can read a whole volume.

The art, as always, is beautiful and the double page spreads definitely make an impact (moreso on paper than online). At the time of writing, this is the last available Girl Genius collected volume. No more binging, I’m going to have to start waiting a year or so between them which is nearly as frustrating as reading the story a page at a time. Ah well, I’m off to go and relieve the frustration by starting again from the start.

Book details

ISBN: 9781890856595
Publisher: Studio Foglio
Year of publication: 2014

Adam Robots

By Adam Roberts

Rating: 3 stars

Adam Roberts is good at short stories. In the introduction, he says that this collection contains his attempts to write a story in each of the myriad genres within SF, and although I haven’t counted, it certainly feels like he’s succeeded. Each story has a new idea, from the Biblical Adam of robots to time travel, space opera, dystopia and more. The only problem, for me, at least, is that eventually it becomes wearing. I found myself longing for a run of a few good, simple, adventure stories. However, I readily accept that this is my failing, not the book’s (nor the author’s). There were a few stories towards the end that I really didn’t like, Wonder: A Story in Two is probably the one that made me want to throw the book across the room the most. This felt very experimental and “New Wave-y”, but since I’ve never really been a fan of the New Wave, it totally left me cold.

There is, however, an awful lot to like. From the very meta Review: Thomas Hodgkin, ‘Denis Bayle: a Life’ (a review of a biography of a fictional SF author) to And Tomorrow And, a very funny retelling of Macbeth. So as I say, there’s an awful lot to enjoy, but it’s probably worth taking your time over.

Book details

ISBN: 9780575130357
Publisher: Gollancz
Year of publication: 2013

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