Book Reviews IV

Being a review of books read while travelling, rather than a review of travel books, in less than more than around 100 150 words.


The Game-Players of Titan - Philip K. Dick


Dick's penchant for the mind-fuck is on full display throughout this novel, as the plot twists and turns, never really allowing you to see the main players, determine the goal or central conflict, or even identify what the staked of the game are. Not at least, until the very end, and even then only if you have been playing very close attention.

At turns a murder mystery, social satire, hard SF, and straight super-powered fantasy, Dick's sparse prose and dry wit move the story along at an exciting pace, and never leave you starved for action of humour.

Book Reviews III

Being a review of books read while travelling, rather than a review of travel books, in less than more than around 100 150 words.


Player Piano - Kurt Vonnegut


One of Vonnegut's earlier novels (published 1952), Player Piano may be as close as he came to the true dystopic tales of Orwell, Huxley, and Bradbury, though his prophetic warning certainly contained less mileage. It is perhaps one of the earlier science fictions to deal with the idea of a world in which the human workforce is replaced by machines, and is possibly unique in that it doesn't involve itself with the trite possibility of a robot uprising against human masters, but deals instead with the existential damage dealt to the now redundant workforce.

While we may have sidestepped Vonnegut's warning of a human revolution against automatisation, the essential question of how people assign value to the lives remains highly charged.

In typical Vonnegut style the story revolves around a depressed individual struggling (and failing) to make his own choices and being forced to react to pressures greater than himself. Player Piano may miss some of Vonnegut's later skill with irony, but is still a story convincingly, and humanly, told.

Book Reviews II

Being a review of books read while travelling, rather than a review of travel books, in less than more than around 100 150 words.


Hitch-22 - Christopher Hitchens


Christopher Hitchens has led a fascinating life. Perhaps best known as the author of god Is Not Great, he has also been witness, as a journalist, to almost every major conflict of the last 30 years. Despite bemoaning his own lack of skill at poetry and fiction, he is surely one of the most literate persons alive, and his autobiography is as laden with allusion and literary reference as it is with his signature cutting wit. The list of notables he counts among his friends are as remarkable as those he recounts duelling with, and the stories of friendship and combat are filled with pathos and intimacy, as well as well-delivered humour. The anecdote wherein he is paddled by the Iron Lady, future Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is a hilarious, hardly-to-be-believed example.

The book also includes a brutal, honest account of both gulf wars, that will leave you sobbing tears of joy and despair. All told, Hitchens tells his own story with honesty and clarity, and if he occasionally comes across as pompous and proud, well he does so with inimitable style, and I for one cannot fault him.

Travel book reviews I

Being a review of books read while travelling, rather than a review of travel books, in less than more than around 100 150 words.


Bad Science - Ben Goldacre


As the man behind BadScience.net, British GP Ben Goldacre has spent years calling foul on inaccurate science reporting and medical claims in the public sphere. In this book he draws on that experience to give the reader insight into all the tricks of misinformation, incompetence hidden, and outright deceit practised, not just just by the "soft" targets of alternative medicine and homeopathy, but also by the pharmaceutical giants and the mass media. Along the way the reader receives a basic education in medical trial procedure and statistical analysis.

Perhaps lacking some of his trademark wit and energy in this longer form, Goldacre nevertheless conveys his enthusiasm for the subject, making for a fascinating and informative read.