Voice Of The Whirlwind by Walter Jon Williams

From The Week of October 25, 2009

Some science fiction authors have fascinating ideas but lack the talent or the wherewithal to execute them. No such trouble here. Mr. Williams has all the talent and wherewithal required, and then some, to animate his hyper-technologized world of cloning and megacorps and to fuse it into a labyrinthine tale of espionage and betrayal. What would you do if you woke up one day, knowing that you were only a clone of another master personality? Where would your loyalties lie. Mr. Williams explores this and more in a future Earth enshrouded by gray shadows that leave very little room for idealistic light to shine. Interesting and in the mold of William Gibson, though, different enough to stand on its own. (3/5 Stars)

Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

From The Week of October 25, 2009

If you have ever wondered about the extent to which generations prior to our own were ignorant to the workings of the world around us, then look no further than Ghost Map for answers both amusing and shocking.
Mr. Johnson's work recounts the
last major outbreak of Cholera in London which occurred in 1854 and which claimed the lives of 600 people who used water from a contaminated well. Though Mr. Johnson elucidates the outbreak, explaining Cholera, its symptoms and its treatments both then and now, the true brilliance of this work concerns the incomprehensible theories drawn up by so-called scientists to explain diseases like Cholera which, in the absence of a working theory of germs, was blamed on bad air.

According to leading lights of the time, smelly air heralded contagion. Therefore, the solution was, of course, to take all the human waste ordinarily dumped into the streets and upend it into the Thames instead. Ahhh, nice, clean air in all the city's streets... Nevermind that Cholera is bacteria born in human feces and which thrives in water... Ghost Map is a rich read that follows
one doctor's attempt to understand disease and to actually apply the scientific method to, you know, healing people. Shocking, I know. Completely compelling...

Mr. Johnson concludes Ghost Map with something of an essay on the history of the metropolis, with speculations on its future. Though this feels a bit shoehhorned into the work, it is a thoughtful and myth-busting rumination on the city, its advantages and disadvantages whose quality is worthy of the work. (5/5 Stars)

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds

From The Week of October 25, 2009

This is an entirely forgettable effort by Alastair Reynolds, the justifiably acclaimed author of science fiction. Here, however, he stumbles, transforming a promising premise into a nightmarish novel that essentially boils down to two women fighting over nothing more than stupid pride. Scientifically thoughtful as always, but completely uncompelling in any human sense. However, if you're still interested, Pushing Ice is a near future tale in which an Earth ship harvesting comets notices one of Saturn's moons inexplicably leaving planetary orbit. The Rockhopper pursues at Earth's behest and is drawn into a long, strange conflict involving aliens, mutinies and life lived on the extremes. A solid notion, but not much else here. (1/5 Stars)

The Civil War: A Narrative Vol 3 by Shelby Foote

From The Week of October 25, 2009

It seems the more that an event is written about, the less consensus there is on the happenings at the event, let alone its wider, endogenous consequences. If this is true, there is no event in our history over which there will be less consensus than the American Civil War. In any event, to me, Shelby Foote has, here, captured an important truth of human nature, that we are essentially reflections of our circumstances. and it is this that I take from this final volume.

Throughout this bloody conflict, the South seems to have had the superior generalship; after all, they lead armies suffering a severe disadvantage of men and supplies, backed by a Confederated States of America with no industrial might and with no access to international trade. The North's generals, meanwhile, supported by every advantage of grunts, guns and gold, seem to have been wholly incapable of lacing up their own boots without calamity. Why? Because we are our circumstances. The South had to fight smartly, bravely, heroically; as hamstrung as they were, they couldn't afford to lose. The North, however, had every advantage. And yet their armies mastered the art of running away. The South had to be inventive; it had to be smart; it had to be better every time or else the sheer weight of the North's might would crush it into the dust of history. The North could afford to lose and fight another day which, it turns out, is no way to conduct a war. It leads to battles the likes of
Cold Harbor which Shelby Foote chillingly chronicles in this the third and final volume of his epic on the American Civil War.

Though other battles will claim much higher tolls in blood, they surely can be no more symbolic of failing to understand the human condition than Cold Harbor, a foolish frontal assault by the overconfident Union on a well-entrenched confederate army. The result, the slaughter the likes of which will be long remembered by those who finish this 3,000 page odyssey. It, and the war generally, should be a lesson to all those who bellow for war. For there is only one certainty about war, that its cost is enormous, a cost no human should have to pay unless it is for the most righteous of causes.. The South surrendered, but did the North win? Did anyone win? What, other than the freedom of the slaves, was gained by this conflict which took so many lives and hardened so many hearts?

This has been one of the most difficult and engrossing reads of my life. There are few historians the likes of Mr. Foote. And though he'll have certainly inserted his styles and his biases into this chronicle more than some would like, I imagine the journey would have been simply unbearable without his flair. The battles will fade from my memory, but the belligerents who fought them will not. And for a historian, I can think of no higher compliment than to say that he brought his subjects to life. A necessary read, as much for what it tells us about human nature as for the battles during that great schism when the flame of the American experiment threatened to be snuffed from our world. (5/5 Stars)

The Civil War: A Narrative Vol 2 by Shelby Foote

From The Week of October 18, 2009

Every war seems to spit out some politician, some general, willing to foolishly stick his foot in his own mouth, promising that the war will be swiftly prosecuted, that the bloody struggle will be quickly won with the enemy righteously routed. The American Civil War was no exception and, just as on all previous occasions, the prognosticator was proven to be an idiot. And yet the claim is made because the claimer is convinced of the rightness of their cause, that god and the quality of their men will see justice done. But then is this not just blindness to the universal truths of war? That they are all bloody, that they are all deadly, and that pride fuels their burn long after the ashes should have coldly settled to earth.

The second volume of Mr. Foote's lyrical epic of the American Civil War is an illustration of this ugly truth. It describes in painful detail all the bloody stalemates, all the appeals for more troops, all the recriminations as what was promised to be a swift skirmish devolved into a contest for the future of America. Would that more of the politicians who initiated it were forced to serve. One wonders if then the conflict would've lasted to waste so many lives and change the destiny of the first modern-day republic.

A gory, difficult and sometimes hopeless read, but no less good for it. We are in the darkness before the dawn, when was promised to be swift has dragged on without end. Will the South be starved out? Will the North hold its nerve? Will the president widely thought to be responsible for the war lose the next election to the appeasers, the party of reconciliation? (4/5 Stars)

The Civil War: A Narrative Vol 1 by Shelby Foote

From The Week of October 18, 2009

Taking on the history of the American Civil War is a daunting project, for, surely there has been no other civil war more written about than this epic struggle over slavery, as argued by the North, or freedom, as argued by the South. Shelby Foote's 3,000 page account of this four year conflict that nearly sundered the American experiment covers the politicians, the generals, the battles, the guns and the politics, so exhaustively that one wonders how Mr. Foote ever got this loving labor off the editor's desk and into print. Mr. Foote's thorough account leaves no stone unturned. Is it too long? Yes, but what it lacks in brevity it makes up for in the richness of detail and in the rhythm of the narrative which evokes images of a grandfather, sitting on his porch and, over late-night coffee, imparting the wisdom of his time. A shorter tale would leave out the fascinating insights into the men who claimed the names that history has preserved so well: Lincoln and Davis, Grant and Lee, Sherman and Jackson... All in all, a worthy testament to a gruesome war, a war that had been foolishly building since the founding of the United States, a war whose price was justice in the freeing of the slaves. And yet the cost echoes down to this day in an ever-expanding federal government which is, in part, the legacy of this great American schism.

This is Volume 1, from the opening shots at
Fort Sumter to
Perryville and the battle for Kentucky. (4/5 Stars)

Justice by Michael J. Sandel

From The Week of October 11, 2009


Michael J. Sandel, a professor of public philosophy at Harvard, has generated a charmingly rational work of modern philosophy that is bound to provoke in its readers what philosophy provokes best, argument. From gay marriage, to price gouging in a time of crisis, to the selling of organs, to the ethics of surrogacy, Mr. Sandel engages the reader in a debate not only of the subject, but on why we feel the way we feel about certain subjects.

What is right? How do we define right? Can we know it's right? Are there better ways of being right? Why do we have such strong opinions about certain issues? Mr. Sandel interweaves a short history of philosophy in an effort to remind us of how we arrived in our current world of patchwork moralities. If you enjoy being challenged to think through your position on some fairly provocative issues, look no further. Mr. Sandel is waiting to throw around some enlightenment without being too rough in the process. A thought provoking primer... (3/5 Stars)

Death Of A Dissident by Alexander Goldfarb

From The Week of October 11, 2009

Though
Alexander Goldfarb's account of the
poisoning, in London, of
Alexander Litvinenko, an agent of the Russian security services turned outspoken critic of the regime of Vladimir Putin, can claim little by way of journalistic neutrality -- the book is co-authored with Litvinenko's widow --, Mr. Goldfarb's account of how a loyal soldier in post-Soviet Russia was converted into a man willing to sell his country's secrets to, first, the US and, then, the UK is gripping and chilling. Thanks to Mr. Goldfarb's able writing, Death of a Dissident is more than just a modern spy story, shot through with juicy, clandestine meetings in Turkish and London hotels and consulates. This book is fundamentally about mother Russia, her history, her foibles, her people and her inability to embrace true democracy.

Mr. Goldfarb gives us a crash course on the privatization of Russian businesses after the fall of Communism and how this created uber wealthy
Russian oligarchs who held in their hands the fate of more than 100 million people. He chronicles how the rise of authoritarian capitalism, combined with a bygones-be-bygones approach to the crimes of the Soviet past, created a dangerous culture in which well-networked men, men connected to the Russian Mafia and to the one-time KGB, flourished in the new Russia, grabbing for themselves that piece of the pie not readily accessible to the common man.

While the book hobnobs with billionaires like George Soros and Boris Berezovsky, men who do not lack for opinions on the new Russia, it's little Alexander Litvinenko, a middle man in the security services, who exemplifies Putin's Russia. He is killed in a shockingly unsubtle, shockingly brutal way. Why? To send a message, that the new Russia does not tolerate dissent, that the new Russia does not tolerate treason, and only new Russia is the decider of what is dissent and what is treason. These issues and more are investigated in Death of a dissident. And though we can recognize that the answers may be slanted, Mr. Goldfarb, a trained scientist, lays out his case convincingly and disturbingly. For if he is right, then the world will soon have to confront the fact that Russia is a very new kind of beast with whom we all must soon reckon. (4/5 Stars)

Under The Bridge by Rebecca Godfrey

From The Week of October 11, 2009

Under the Bridge is a devastating retelling of one of the most infamous murders in Canadian history. In 1997, in a small town in coastal British Columbia,
Reena Virk, a socially insecure, 14-year-old girl struggling to fit in at her high school, began a string of antagonistic exchanges with two of her fellow students, altercations which would culminate in her brutal murder some few weeks later. Though Reena Virk, in slandering a notorious female student at her school, initiated the chain of events which lead to her death, hindsight tells us that she was simply posturing for the girl's approval by mimicking her aggressive style. Rather than reacting rationally to Virk's verbal assault, the girl in question -- renamed Janice by the author -- lashed out at Virk, escalating the confrontation and sending it spinning towards its tragic culmination, Kelly Ellard, Janice's best friend, drowning Virk in the ocean on the night of November 14, 1997.


Rebecca Godfrey's efforts in Under the Bridge are a chilling reconstruction of these events, the many colorful characters who played central roles in them, and the three trials of Ellard that would attempt to find justice for Reena Virk. Can adolescents truly be this cruel when nothing more than status and pride are at stake? Or was this just the isolated act of a violent and troubled young woman who killed to feel strong, killed to feel important?

A riveting read and a must for anyone seeking to learn more about the stresses that drive young people to touch powers they do not understand. (5/5 Stars)

Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin

From The Week of October 11, 2009

And it all comes crashing down... I'm sure, given time, the next instalment of Adelia Aguilar will seduce me into consuming it, but Grave Goods is, just now, a grave disappointment whose stink will linger for some time. The mystery here is unengaging. And while there may well be historical support for Henry II's Arthurian fears in this novel, the mysticism of it failed to move my meter. Adelia remains interesting, but a consequence of writing many books about one character is that the hero seems to take on superhuman significance. No one person is so pivotal to so many events, or so successful at thwarting fate, much less the greedy knives of their enemies. Grave Goods is a bridge too far for me. Perhaps others will find something enjoyable that escaped me. (2/5 Stars)

The Serpent's Tail: Adelia Aguilar 02 by Ariana Franklin

From The Week of october 11, 2009

A worthy successor to Mistress of the Art of Death, the Serpent's Tail picks up not long after its progenitor's conclusion, expanding on life in 12th century England. Though this story is also a mystery, Ms. Franklin devotes much more time and energy to the politics of the period, introducing us to fascinating portraits of some of history's most well-known and well-chronicled luminaries. The sketch of Henry II as a rugged king, hungry to stamp his modernizing will England, is hardly new; nor is Ms. Franklin's pridefulEleanor of Aquitaine, who spends most of the book fighting hard to maintain her position. But what Ms. Franklin forgoes in novelty she makes up for with that skill possessed by only the best writers of history and historical fiction, the ability to collect the scant and sometimes contradictory facts about famous figures and, from that, forge realistic, believable humans, with drives and needs and humors.

For all the wintery snow and the political windchill, this effort has a summer-like vitality to it which gives it considerable energy. A good read for those who enjoy romps through the times of yore. (3/5 Stars)

Mistress Of The Art Of Death: Adelia Aguilar 01 by Ariana Franklin

From The Week of October 04, 2009

The literary scene is choked by the bloated corpses of crime procedurals, novels which shamelessly revel in the depravities of those few among us willing and eager to kill. Which is why I'm grateful to Ms. Franklin for delivering a fresh twist on an old theme. Mistress of The Art of Death, the first in a series of books about her 12th century heroine, Adelia Aguilar, is a journey not just into the minds of killers, but killers from another, more brutal time.

Combining historical fiction with procedural mystery, Ms. Franklin introduces the reader to a female doctor in one of the most repressive times for women in human history. Adelia is given instruction at Salerno (present day Italy) which was, at this time, the center of medical learning in the western world, as well as an important port of intellectual exchange between the largely Christian west and the Jewish and Islamic east. Being what amounts to a medieval version of a modern university town, Salerno permitted, or at least did not stamp out, oddities such as female doctors. As such, Adelia has an opportunity to express her talents, talents which deliver her name to the thoughts of Henry II of England who commands her to solve a murder in his kingdom, that cold and faraway isle which, during the time of this tale, is undergoing a period of modernization and upheaval brought about by the king's reforms.

This is a tight tale, told well and with flair. I enjoyed the history more than the crime, but that speaks only to my own preferences. A fan of either will find this offering more than satisfactory. (4/5 Stars)

Touching History by Lynn Spencer

From The Week of October 04, 2009

What happened in the skies and in the airports of the United States on
September 11, 2001? Lynn Spencer, herself a commercial pilot, recounts, in minute-by-minute detail the orders, the planes, the pilots and the circumstances of that fateful morning. She chronicles the chaos and the calmness under fire, in New York City and across the country, all while bringing to light a host of brave Americans who held their nerve in the face of one of the nation's gravest days. Most grippingly, Ms. Spencer chillingly describes the chain of events which caused the
first fighter pilots in US history to be ordered "Weapons Free" over the nation's capital, an order that grants to the pilot permission to fire at any target at their own discretion.

This is one of the most gripping books I've ever picked up and it certainly enlightens us to events and perspectives that have been otherwise overshadowed by the sight of
those falling towers. (5/5 Stars)

Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales

From The Week of October 04, 2009

Experienced sailors become stranded at sea and, even though they possess all the mental and physical tools to survive their ordeal, some succumb to thirst and madness while their fellows keep hold of their faculties and survive.
seventeen year old girl, with no formal training, is the only survivor of a plane crash in the Peruvian jungle. On her own, she executes a ten day hike out to safety in spite of concussion, lacerations to her arms and a broken collarbone.

Why did they survive? Why, in a disaster, do some people make it through, mind and soul intact, while others in identical positions do not? Luck surely plays a role, but luck does not explain why people who are confronting the same problem, and who are equally wounded, have different fates. What is left but some fundamental element of human nature, some trait which blesses some of us while forsaking the rest.
Laurence Gonzales has devoted much of his life to discovering answers to the questions of survival, getting an early start in his crusade when, as a child, he watched his father return home to him from World War II, having improbably survived a horrific crash while in combat. Why did his father come home while the other fathers of other boys did not?

The answer is not an easy one. Certainly, there are commonalities across most successful survivals: calmness in the face of danger, focus on the task at hand. And in any event, the kind of trait is almost secondary to whether or not that trait can be acquired, or whether or not Cool under fire is something with which we are born. In pursuit of his white whale, Mr. Gonzales investigates plane crashes, boats lost at sea, and hikes gone horribly wrong, all in an effort to find an answer to his lifelong quest for the essence of survival. An excellent and memorable book for its thought-provoking premise and its earnest execution. Mr. Gonzales' passion shines through and the interviews he's done with survivors are unforgettable. (4/5 Stars)

Generation Kill by Evan Wright

From The Week of October 04, 2009

As funny as it is bizarre, Generation Kill is
Evan Wright's experiences as an imbedded journalist with the US Marines during the
2003 Iraq War. Though the war splatters this tale with all its customary ugliness, Mr. Wright's account concerns the personalities of the marines more than it does the circumstances of the war they are fighting. Just what kind of warrior is forged by the US military? Is he a terrifying thing, a hound trained to kill? In this generation of video games and surrealistic movies, does he take upon himself the damage of killing? How does he cope with the idea of a war being fought for all the wrong reasons? The answers that come back to Mr. Wright are sometimes stone-cold sobering. Other times, they are laugh-out-loud hilarious, showing again that humor is often the most effective shield against the ever-present grimness of war. Meet the new American warrior. Shake his hand, look into his eyes. What do you see? (4/5 Stars)

Hella Nation by Evan Wright

From The Week of October 04, 2009

A collection of essays
Mr. Wright penned for Rolling Stone Magazine, Hella Nation is a riotous journey of all things fringe and weird in society. One minute, Mr. Wright is imbedded in Afghanistan, chronicling the thoroughly American troops fighting a deeply un-American war; the next he's chronicling a skate boarding sensation whose true sport is drunkenness, the environmental activists who contributed to the
WHO riots in 1999, the revival of the 1920s dance hall with a few twists, and the kinky relationship one upstanding San Francisco couple had with an imprisoned white supremacist whose bestial dog, while in the couple's care, savagely murdered their neighbor. No matter where he is, or who his subject is, the erratic, fascinating, and likely ADD Mr. Wright entertains with his dry style and eye for character which seldom fail him, casting those he portrays in a bizarre but somehow earnest light. (4/5 Stars)

Hotel Babylon by Imogene Edwards-Jones

From The Week of October 04, 2009

The source material for British television series, Hotel Babylon is a delightful work of humor and scandal, the culmination of one man's experiences working in a high end London hotel. His years of toil are crammed down into a clever literary device, a single day in a fictitious Hotel Babylon where everyone has problems: some light, some hilarious and some profoundly sad. Yes, perhaps this is a celebration of capitalistic/commercial excess; perhaps it says something about the extent to which we are all alienated from each other, but damn it, it's so much fun!


Ms. Edwards-Jones, a journalist writing on behalf of her anonymous hotel source, packages this book wonderfully. Light but thoroughly enjoyable. (4/5 Stars)