Too many robots?

When I read Stories of Your Life and Others in 2017 I was blown away by Ted Chiang's writing. It's unique to find a short story collection where so many of the stories are standouts (and memorable) but his first collection managed to do both. I found it mind-boggling that he hadn't written more so when I heard Exhalation was coming out I added it to my library holds list. With the memory of the stories from the first book still pretty fresh in my mind, I went into Exhalation with high expectations...and was slightly disappointed. This collection veered much more strongly toward artificial intelligence and existentialism while his previous work was varied (and exceptional). The best story from this collection was actually Exhalation which was about robots constructed with artificial lungs (yes, it's creepy). I can't really remember any of the rest except one about a robotic nanny which had a great philosophical bent to it. Quite a few stories were novella length which I think contributed to why it didn't feel as diversified as the first collection since not as many stories could be included. (A/N: Many of the stories were collected from various publications over the years and some are as old as 10 years.) That isn't to say that I didn't still appreciate his artistry as a writer because without a doubt he is a brilliant wordsmith but when you come out of the gate with such a winner like Stories of Your Life and Others it can be difficult to reach that height again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  My overall assessment: 6/10

Source: Amazon

What's Up Next: Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs by Caitlin Doughty

What I'm Currently Reading: Do You Mind if I Cancel? (Things That Still Annoy Me) by Gary Janetti

**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

Triumphs are not always absolute...but sometimes they are

Star Trek Destiny #3: Lost Souls by David Mack concludes the trilogy that began with Gods of Night and continued with Mere Mortals. If you've been following along with my reviews over the last several days you'll recall that I wasn't completely blown away by the last two books and a lot was riding on the final installment. *drumroll* My faith was justified and I was not disappointed! While it did take me ages to read, I definitely enjoyed this one the most. My suspicions about the Borg were confirmed (don't worry no spoilers here!) and all of the loose ends were neatly tied up. (As in any good Star Trek episode!) It's pretty much impossible for me to go into any details about the plot of this book without completely giving away everything from the first two so if you haven't read them read no further. Essentially, Erika Hernandez has essentially joined the crew of the Aventine and the Federation is in a much better position to counteract the Borg attacks since the Caeliar's powers have adapted her to telepathically link to the hive mind and impersonate the Borg Queen. O_O Things get super serious super quick and the puzzle pieces really start to fall into place about the Borg origin. It has it all: tearful farewells, emotional death scenes, close calls, and happy reunions. I personally think this would have worked better with two books instead of the three but if wishes were horses I would definitely never have gone horseback riding. 9/10 for Lost Souls.

PS Picard finally starts to resemble himself and I like him again.

PPS I still haven't watched Nemesis but I know a key plot point and I am not happy.

That floating woman is Erika Hernandez. [Source: Memory Beta]

What's Up Next: Calypso by David Sedaris

What I'm Currently Reading: Tales from the Inner City by Shaun Tan

**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

Subspace tunnel sounds like a euphemism

Star Trek Destiny #2: Mere Mortals by David Mack continues the trilogy that I began discussing on Monday. We find our crews separated across not only vast distances but also by time itself. Hernandez and 3 members of her crew are stranded with the Caeliar in the 1500s trying to find a suitable planet to inhabit without any hope of returning to their lives back on Earth in their time. Riker and the crew of Titan have reached the homeworld of the Caeliar in the present day and things do not go according to plan...in fact events quickly snowball out of Riker's control. Meanwhile, Picard and Dax are going through subspace tunnels in the style of eeny, meeney, miney, moe trying to find the one which will lead them to the Borg's point of origin and hopefully onto a path of defeating them.

The best parts of this installment were those which followed Hernandez's struggles to adjust to her new existence and the glimpses of the Federation President scrabbling to put together a formidable force to defeat the approaching Borg Armada. There are two reasons I think that I preferred these two storylines: I still haven't watched Nemesis and still feel confused by this reality and Mack's depiction of familiar faces did not sit right with me particularly in regards to Picard. Sometimes I find that the best Star Trek novelizations are the ones where the author focuses more on the storyline element and less on the characters which the audience typically knows really well. In this case, Mack's description of the Caeliar race and their culture coupled with the (unknown to me at least) Captain Hernandez and her never-ending quest to escape/understand her captors was exactly what I wanted in a great sci-fi novel. Conversely, the dramatic characterization of Riker's faltering marriage and Picard's inner struggles against the Borg felt stilted and forced.

By this point, I was way too invested not to continue so if you're wondering how I felt about the conclusion you can check back next week for that (although hopefully you're checking every day (-:). 7/10 for book 2 in this trilogy.

Source: Amazon

What's Up Next: The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity by Byron Reese

What I'm Currently Reading: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond and The Science of Supervillains by Lois H. Gresh & Robert Weinberg

**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

I bet the Borg Queen never got invited over for slumber parties

Star Trek Destiny #1: Gods of Night by David Mack is the first part in a trilogy which was a journey from beginning to end. Firstly, let me start by saying that when I initially ordered these I did so not realizing that they were written quite a few years ago which did cause me some confusion early on. (I bought them at a discount rate as an ebook set so I really should have put 2+2 together.) Secondly, let me give you the heads up that I didn't have (because I really went in blind, ya'll) that you need prior knowledge about The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, AND Nemesis (which is the one I had not seen (and still haven't seen)) if you want to have any hope of following along. If you haven't seen these you are going to be 1. lost and 2. very much spoiled for future events.

Now that that's all out of the way let's delve into the meat and potatoes of the plot of this book. Like most books that begin a series Gods of Night really lays down a lot of foundation for future action. And there is a lot of information to get through because there is a mess load of time travel back and forth with many, many different characters. (Hint: I didn't love this.) The reader follows 4 different Starfleet crews through multiple time periods which are denoted at the start of each new chapter. You have to be paying a lot of attention and since I read these as ebooks I found it a bit more challenging. Basically, the Caeliar are chanced upon by the Columbia and her crew and found to be so much more technically advanced that there is no chance of overpowering, negotiating, or escaping. The Borg are back and instead of assimilating they have changed their mission to one of annihilation. The Federation is trying to muster up the forces to stop the Borg without any success and the crew of the Columbia are just trying to get back home. SO many characters and so little time (ha time travel pun). I didn't love this book but I did continue the series because by the time I'd gotten to the end of this segment I was too invested to stop...and I'm glad I kept going because by the third book the action was intense, guys. (Wait til you get to the end!) For Gods of Night a 6/10 but check for the reviews of Mere Mortals and Lost Souls in the coming weeks to see what I thought of those and my overall series rating. ;-)

Quick rundown of details:
The Columbia captained by Erika Hernandez, the Aventine captained by Ezri Dax, the Titan captained by Will Riker, and of course the Enterprise captained by Jean-Luc Picard. The aliens encountered: the Borg and the Caeliar. The times explored: too many to recount.

Source: Amazon

What's Up Next: Robot Dreams by Sara Varon

What I'm Currently Reading: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

When the rubric fails you

The Ghost in the Mirror is another story in the Lewis Barnavelt series by John Bellairs (subsequently completed by Brad Strickland). This is also another story featuring Rose Rita and Mrs. Zimmerman which again begs the question why this was called the Lewis Barnavelt series... At any rate, the reader follows Rose Rita & Mrs. Zimmerman as they travel back in time in the hopes of righting a 'great wrong' and thereby restoring the magical powers that Mrs. Z lost in the previous book (The Figure in the Shadows if you're not caught up). This was a much darker narrative with threatened human sacrifice and something akin to voodoo magic. However, the narrative was just another cookie cutter format with absolutely no surprises. It honestly felt like he had a little rubric that he was following for his stories and he just plugged in details like 'Rose Rita & Mrs. Z main characters' + '19th century era' + 'dark magic' and hoping for a good result. I was disappointed especially as this book didn't even have the benefit of illustrations sprinkled throughout like the other installments in the series. (Yes, this is the last in this series that I'm going to read.) This was lukewarm at best and honestly I'm happy to have finished my time with these characters (especially Rose Rita). 1/10

Source: Amazon

What's Up Next: So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know by Retta

What I'm Currently Reading: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

Invisible food, shadow people, and a door with no obvious purpose

As you know, I haven't been having the best of luck with the books I've picked up this year. I decided the best remedy for this was to pick random books out of the middle grade fiction section of my branch in the hopes of picking some winners. I have to say that so far it's definitely doing the trick.

My first selection was The House of Months and Years by Emma Trevayne. This book follows a little girl named Amelia Howling who is uprooted from her 'perfect' house into the home of her cousins who have just experienced a tragedy. If you're anything like me, you'll have little sympathy for this bratty little know-it-all but that thankfully doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment of this book. There's a mystery enveloping this new house which is strangely put together with doors that lead to nowhere and different climates for each floor (don't go in the basement!). Amelia is stubbornly determined to remain aloof from the rest of her family and instead gets swept up in things far more sinister than she at first realizes (despite her assurances of being so clever). For those who like a bit of darker fantasy now and again then this is sure to hit the spot. I'd say the ideal age range would be anywhere from 10-14 (although this is more of a suggestion instead of a rule). For me, I found the fantasy/mystery elements quite good and the imagery excellent. Amelia was the worst but you can't win them all. A solid 8/10.

This was primarily why I picked up this book. 😍 [Source: Goodreads]
Artist's website: Péah aka Pierre-Antoine Moelo (the artwork is GORGEOUS)

PS I just went to the author's website and I've decide to check out another book that she's written (in the hopefully near future) titled The Cabinet of Curiosities: 36 Tales Brief and Sinister. Stay tuned for further developments. ;-)

**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

Fortunately, I've posted a new review

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman with illustrations by Skottie Young is simply delightful. It's hard for me to decide which was more enjoyable: the writing or the drawings. Honestly, I think that the reason I enjoyed this book so much was that the two of them paired so well together. This is exactly the kind of story that an imaginative parent would tell their child and embellish over time. The main character of this book is a father who is left alone to watch the kids and who goes out to get milk for breakfast and takes forever to get back home.When he finally returns he spins an impossible yarn to explain his tardiness to his extremely skeptical children. Anyone who has read Gaiman's writing knows that he's an absolutely wonderful fantasy author but it's his sense of humor that makes this book unique. Maybe you've heard of 'dad jokes' before? Well, this is basically one big dad joke accompanied by super cute ink illustrations. 10/10 on all fronts.

I absolutely love the illustrations by Skottie Young. This is another one of those books where you want to hang up the illustrations on the wall of your house...at least I do. Here are a few examples so that you can see what I'm raving about. ;-)

Source: boingboing.net

Source: littlekulture.com

**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

Exploring a new universe

Until quite recently, I was very much a Star Trek: The Original Series kinda gal. I never investigated the other realms of the Trek universe and I had no real desire to...and then Netflix recommended I watch Star Trek: The Next Generation. After that it was kind of a given that I was going to fall head over heels in love with that particular cast of characters. (If you're wondering, I'm torn between Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Data as my favorite.) This of course meant that I had never really explored the literature of ST unless it revolved around my boys Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. My first foray into worlds unknown was the movie tie-in for First Contact by J.M. Dillard. I'm going to be up front and tell you that I still haven't seen this film but I'm going to be rectifying this at my earliest opportunity. This book features the ST:TNG cast as they come face-to-face with their old enemies the Borg Collective. dun dun DUN There's a time travel element to this book which I found a bit squidgy but honestly anytime Trek goes down the time travel route it's questionably done. They're not going back to just any era, however. They end up going back to the time of Zefram Cochrane and to Earth's first glimpse of another planet's inhabitants. The Borg aren't just going back to witness history in the making. (Wouldn't that be a funny concept for a movie? And here's the Borg kicking back in recliners with buckets of popcorn to watch the human race exploring the vast unknown for the first time.) So the crew of the Enterprise must pull out all of the stops to try and defeat this formidable foe. This is a Picard/Data heavy storyline so I was definitely on board with it. It wasn't the most fantastically written Trek novel that I've ever read but it was probably the quickest. I read it in between panels at Star Trek: Mission New York to give you an idea of its length (276 pages). If you're a fan of ST:TNG then you've most likely read this before but if you're a Trek noob then you'll most likely find this an interesting tie-in to the film version. If you're not a Trekkie then you're probably going to pass on this one although honestly why isn't everyone a Trekkie at this point? ;-)

**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

Like those nesting dolls but with stories

Some books are so amazing that you feel like you're racing to the finish line because you just can't bear to wait one more moment to find out how it's going to end. Then there are others that must be savored. You need to take your time with these books. In fact, you might even set them to the side for days on end because you want to stretch out your time with the characters. Arcadia by Iain Pears is one of those books. It's truly a story within a story within a story within a story. (I hope I didn't leave any of them out.) It's about time, cause and effect, and above all storytelling. Henry Lytten is a professor, part-time member of the British Intelligence, a wannabe fantasy author, and the owner of a cantankerous fat cat named Mr. Jenkins. (That right there should be the tagline.) It's also about Anterwold and the student Jay who is just trying to understand where the Story began and how he fits into it. Not to mention John More and his quest to find a document buried for hundreds of years which may or may not hold great significance to the human race. Of course, it's also about Angela Meerson and her invention which is most certainly going to change the course of history the future all of time. Do you see what I mean about nesting dolls? In the same way that it's obvious how the nesting dolls have a relation to one another, Arcadia is laid out bit by bit so the reader can discover how each of these seemingly disparate stories and characters are related to one another in a seamless narrative that is mindboggling in its intricacies. What I'm trying to say is that this is a must read for 2016. GO, GO, GO!

Source: amazon.com

**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

Isaac Asimov has done it again

I have to be completely honest about how this particular book came to my notice. I was watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and I got to an episode about a planet where the inhabitants were not allowed to live past a certain age due to resource control (the old people were a drag on the society). I looked at the trivia for this episode (Season 4, Episode 22 "Half a Life" if you're curious) and discovered that the story was inspired by Isaac Asimov's Pebble in the Sky. Naturally, I needed to read this book. Some of you might recall that I reviewed I, Robot two years ago and loved it. I'm sad it's taken me this long to get to reading another book by him honestly... Now without further ado, the review!  I LOVED IT, YA'LL. This book has it all: time travel, space-y drama, and RADIOACTIVITY. Seriously, radioactivity is a major plot device. The time period which this book was written definitely plays a role in the tenor of this book (I'm looking at you, atomic bomb). Asimov blends reality with scientific innovation to create a world where Earth is but one of thousands of planets which comprise the Galactic Empire. (Actually I fell into a trap here because it turns out that Pebble in the Sky is a part of Asimov's Galactic Empire series so...) There's Joseph Schwartz who finds himself taking a giant leap into the future. (This is only funny once you've read the book.) Bel Arvardan is your typical Galactic citizen and archaeologist who wants to uncover the mystery of humanity's beginning...on Earth of all places. Who would have thought that a backwards Earthman like Dr. Shekt could invent a device that could help to thwart a revolt and simultaneously give one man unimaginable powers? In a world where the Earth is seen as 'other' and the Earthman is treated as inferior there is intrigue, burgeoning love, and institutionalized racism. The reader follows multiple storylines that weave together to form a narrative that is compelling, thought provoking, and imaginative. If you haven't ready any of Isaac Asimov's writing and you want to read truly excellent sci-fi then you should start here. 10/10 highly recommend


Let's talk about this iconic cover for a second:



Source: www.idoc.co

And if you're confused about the order of Isaac Asimov's books...you're not alone.



Source: magnificentnose.com

**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

It's time (hardy har) for my review of All Our Yesterdays

If you're a fan of that particular area of sci-fi that focuses on time travel then you're going to enjoy All Our Yesterdays. It jumps between two narrative voices, Marina and Em, but it isn't a jarring transition which leaves the reader confused. There voices are very distinct but the story remains smooth despite the fact that time is not at all a linear concept in the story (or in reality). I'm having a difficult time describing this one without giving away key information... What would happen if you could go back in time and change things to make the world "better"? Do you think you could handle that level of power without letting it change you? What lengths would you go to in order to stop someone from making those changes if you knew they would make things worse not better? This may be a sci-fi novel written for young adults but the themes of the book aren't created with fluff and rainbows. The world is a dark place and a time machine isn't the solution. To know what I'm talking about (sorry it's so cryptic) you'll have to read this book. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Sky Jumpers by Peggy Eddleman is a children's novel about a young girl named Hope that is growing up in a world where green bombs have destroyed pretty much everything. Hope is an anomaly. Her town is full of inventors and she's...not. Because of the green bombs many people have fallen seriously ill but luckily in her small town they have antibiotics. Unfortunately, bandits hear about these antibiotics and they decide to take them for themselves. It's up to Hope and her friend Aaron and Brock (who fall under the 14 year old limit for census counting) to make it to the next town over for help. Will they make it through the Bomb's Breath in time?

I will never look at camping the same way again...

When I started The Troop, I wasn't entirely sure what kind of a horror story it would be. There was mention in the blurb that it was a bit Stephen King-ish (which I must admit is what drew me to it as I'm a huge fan of his). However, what kind of horrendous event could occur to a Boy Scouts troop on an island cut off from the mainland? O_O Let me first say that this is NOT a book for children...unless you want them to have nightmares for the foreseeable future (and you're okay with adult content like coarse language and mild sexual themes). I can't get into a lot of detail about what kind of bioengineered sickness the infectious man who happens on the island has but let me just say that it isn't one I would have ever dreamed up and it was plenty scary. I've been talking about this book all week and every time I mentioned the newest development I got varying degrees of shock and disgust. I LOVED THIS BOOK. If you like horror of the gory kind with a mix of the psychological thriller then you'll enjoy this one.



Next up is a young adult title that I had started a few weeks back but put to the side so I wasn't trying to read two books at once (something I frequently have to stop myself from doing when I get overexcited about a topic). The book is called All Our Yesterdays which was written by Cristin Terrill. Imagine a world where a time machine exists. A working time machine not just some movie prop that you wish worked but is really just a blue box the size of a tiny closet. What kind of havoc would be caused if this machine actually existed? Well, in this story the world is basically destroyed because of this invention and two people travel back to before it was invented with only one goal in mind: kill the guy that did the inventing. However, there's a snag: He's just a teenager. Not only is he just a teenager but he's a teenager with a crush on a girl who likes him back. And it's the like like kind too. ;-) Basically, the story seems to be about one girl's desire to kill who she envisions is the evil villain of her life while another girl just wants to keep the young love of her life safe. I'm up to chapter 5 and so far I'm feeling pretty good about it (not about the murder but you know the arc of the story).



I hope you're all enjoying the lovely fall weather (unless you're somewhere that doesn't have fall then I hope you're enjoying your weather whatever it may be)!!