2001 A Space Odyssey
Author: Arthur C Clarke 1968 236 pp
My rating: 2.5*
Started April 14 2008, Finished April 16 2008
Billed as a novel, but an “explication of some of the less comprehensible elements of the (far, far superior) movie” is a more fitting characterization; what stars I do award this book result from the insight it does add to the movie. Character development is non-existent; this was non a strong suit of the film, but Dave and, particularly, HAL were far more fleshed out and believable there.
There is some fun to be had in assessing the book’s predictions for a future which was 30+ years ahead of its writing and most of a decade behind us now. Clarke gets computers partially right – they are ubiquitous, but typewriters and paper documents are far too prevalent, especially at the moon base. He comically underestimates inflation, most notably when he states the cost of “training, transport and housing for moon base employees” at $100K which he intends to be a vast sum; my wild guess as to a more accurate figure would be 1000 times that, based on a rough idea of what it currently takes to finance a single three day space shuttle mission.
The book is at its best when theorizing on pure SF issues, such as the provocative chapter on the logistics of alien life and travel. However, in addition to its grievous shortcomings in character development, it suffers from some just plain sloppy thinking and writing:
At one point, Clarke describes an EVA tether as a “cord a little thicker than cotton”; I have no idea the standard thickness of cotton is – is he referring to a bail or boll of cotton or perhaps cotton fabric.
Most irksome, he describes the monolith left by aliens on the moon as exactly “11 feet high, and 11/4 by 5 feet” to denote a ration of 9:4:1”. Why would the aliens use even imperial units? The 9:4:1 is good, provoking the sort of awed reaction in the reader that good SF can, but one has to believe the super-advanced aliens would have had their own measuring system 3 million years ago when the monolith was left on the moon and that its size would not evenly conform to human units of measurements.
Returning to the positive, the first section, "The Dawn of Man", while prosaic compared to the movie, was still thought provoking -- Moon Watcher was the man.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Arapiles Selected Climbs - Second Edition
Arapiles Selected Climbs - Second Edition
Authors: Simon Mentz, Glenn Tempest 2008 (hopefully) ~400pp
My Rating 5* (for the genre) / NA (for the non-climber reader)
Read in proofs during March 2008
Promises to be the best of the many rock climbing guide books I've used for the following reasons:
Authors: Simon Mentz, Glenn Tempest 2008 (hopefully) ~400pp
My Rating 5* (for the genre) / NA (for the non-climber reader)
Read in proofs during March 2008
Promises to be the best of the many rock climbing guide books I've used for the following reasons:
- Equal attention paid to routes of all difficulties
- Allows first time visitors to area to easily orient themselves and locate climbs.
- Clarity and accuracy of route descriptions, including solar exposure
- Route locator photographs ("topos"): Photos of extreme clarity with the path of individual routes painstakingly superimposed on top of them
- Ability to humorously and concisely convey what makes a given climb noteworthy as well as the history and lore of the area.
- Sweating the details: many changes were made to route descriptions from the first edition, often even for very obscure climbs
- Captivating action photos that show the allure of Arapiles climbing across the difficulty spectrum
Since the book hasn't been published yet, I do have a couple of caveats:
- The indices were not ready when I proofed it. Though I've been assured that they have been much improved in format and accuracy from the first edition, they were the notable weakness of the predecesor volume.
- The printer could screw things up and fuzzy photo reproduction could greatly detract from the usability of the book.
Monday, April 7, 2008
A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities
Author: Charles Dickens 1859 352 pp
My rating: 2*
Started February 10 2008, Finished March 20 2008
“Second rate Dickens” – Bernard Berkman
Bernard might have been a little overgenerous in this assessment. Would have scored even lower except for a couple of memorable set pieces, particularly the scene early on where the wine cask breaks in the street and the starving local inhabitants lap up the spillage from crannies in the cobblestones and suck it out of the mud. Virtually none of the characters is a believable human being, mostly being so one-dimensional that only three, the Monseigneur, Sidney Carton and Jerry Cruncher, are even interesting. The book’s biggest fault is the non-stop coincidences of propinquity that drive the plot – the ten or so major characters in the book, who hail from divergent social backgrounds and are of mixed nationality, all seem to have had numerous momentous encounters with each other over the years. Furthermore, several filler chapters support the claim of someone who told me that she had heard Dickens was paid by the word.
Author: Charles Dickens 1859 352 pp
My rating: 2*
Started February 10 2008, Finished March 20 2008
“Second rate Dickens” – Bernard Berkman
Bernard might have been a little overgenerous in this assessment. Would have scored even lower except for a couple of memorable set pieces, particularly the scene early on where the wine cask breaks in the street and the starving local inhabitants lap up the spillage from crannies in the cobblestones and suck it out of the mud. Virtually none of the characters is a believable human being, mostly being so one-dimensional that only three, the Monseigneur, Sidney Carton and Jerry Cruncher, are even interesting. The book’s biggest fault is the non-stop coincidences of propinquity that drive the plot – the ten or so major characters in the book, who hail from divergent social backgrounds and are of mixed nationality, all seem to have had numerous momentous encounters with each other over the years. Furthermore, several filler chapters support the claim of someone who told me that she had heard Dickens was paid by the word.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Charlie Wilson’s War
Charlie Wilson’s War
Author: George Crile 2003 523 pp
My rating: 4*
Started February 29 2008, Finished March 8 2008
This book is much better – deeper, extensive and heartfelt – than the entertaining movie inspired by it. The author, a TV producer who first heard about Wilson and his almost single handed funding of the CIA’s covert war against the Soviets in Afghanistan while producing a 60 Minutes feature about it after the Soviets had been improbably routed,, is not a professional writer or historian, which comes through repeatedly in his enthusiastic use of cliché, frequent failure to put people and events in greater historical context and sometimes even in blatant error such as when writing (p441) that the Reagan administration’s Iran-Contra shenanigans of 1985 were motivated by a desire to free the Iran hostages even though they’d been released in 1981; furthermore, the books sources consist almost entirely of interviews with the surviving participants which tends to slightly undermine credibility and make almost everyone look like a hero. But, on the other hand, what a story! The book is filled with larger than life personalities, a different take on Islamist fanaticism and fatalism (“The mujahideen, with their total faith in Allah’s will, acted as if the shells were not bursting by their sides. They just kept walking.”) and most interestingly to me, an inside look at how the US government can work not through open, democratic processes, but by cloakroom deals motivated by horse trading and the politics of personal power – Wilson’s actions resulted in billions of dollars in weaponry being diverted to near medieval Afghan tribesmen over a period of several years without anyone in the press and very few members of the elected government having any idea.
Author: George Crile 2003 523 pp
My rating: 4*
Started February 29 2008, Finished March 8 2008
This book is much better – deeper, extensive and heartfelt – than the entertaining movie inspired by it. The author, a TV producer who first heard about Wilson and his almost single handed funding of the CIA’s covert war against the Soviets in Afghanistan while producing a 60 Minutes feature about it after the Soviets had been improbably routed,, is not a professional writer or historian, which comes through repeatedly in his enthusiastic use of cliché, frequent failure to put people and events in greater historical context and sometimes even in blatant error such as when writing (p441) that the Reagan administration’s Iran-Contra shenanigans of 1985 were motivated by a desire to free the Iran hostages even though they’d been released in 1981; furthermore, the books sources consist almost entirely of interviews with the surviving participants which tends to slightly undermine credibility and make almost everyone look like a hero. But, on the other hand, what a story! The book is filled with larger than life personalities, a different take on Islamist fanaticism and fatalism (“The mujahideen, with their total faith in Allah’s will, acted as if the shells were not bursting by their sides. They just kept walking.”) and most interestingly to me, an inside look at how the US government can work not through open, democratic processes, but by cloakroom deals motivated by horse trading and the politics of personal power – Wilson’s actions resulted in billions of dollars in weaponry being diverted to near medieval Afghan tribesmen over a period of several years without anyone in the press and very few members of the elected government having any idea.
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