It's Forty Two! » Books

Does God Get Diarrhea?

Species8472 — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:13:38 +0000

I came across this book on a forum and since it was available for download at the time, I decided to have a look at it. As expected this book is not for the weak, and especially not the weak religious type. It is deliberately written to provoke the religious, but that said, it is damned funny for those of us who doesn’t care. The arguments provided in the book are still good ones, and he makes several good points about the silliness of religion.

Worth reading for both it’s comedy-value and for its insights into the case of Christianity.

Official website: www.doesgodgetdiarrhea.com

Share this post

House of Suns

Species8472 — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:56:31 +0000

A very different book by Alastair Reynolds. In this book humans have long colonized our galaxy and split into many different sub-species and sub-civilizations. One such sub-civilization is the shatterlings. They are clones who’s purpose are to explore the galaxy. The particular faction we follow are all clones of a woman who’s childhood is one of the parallel storylines in the book. These clones live for millions of years, both due to relativistic time dilation and cryogenic technology. But something threatens their existence, most of them are killed in an attack, and the survivor are left to figure out what happened.

The setting of the book is brilliant, but this time I think Reynolds got a bit lost in his storylines. I felt too much time was spent on less significant tracks, and too little on the conclusion. The end of the book comes really fast and while magnificent, a bit hasty. Still a very good book.

Share this post

Absolution Gap

Species8472 — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:42:39 +0000

Catching up on my book reviews, so here is yet another book I just read by Alastair Reynolds. This book is the continuation of the story in “Redemption Ark”. In that book we left a shipload of refugees on a habitable planet after fleeing from the Inhibitors, a machine intelligence who’s task is to prevent intelligent civilizations to arise in our galaxy in an effort to prevent galactic wars. In “Absolution Gap” they’ve caught up with our refugees. We follow these people as well as the story of a man employed by a Conjoiner to survey solar systems for treasure. He has a religious experience involving a gas giant that seems to periodically vanish from existence for a fraction of a second. On an orbiting moon he forms a cult of believers who sole purpose in life is to observe such a vanish. The two storylines meet at the end to form a grand finale.

I have to say I enjoyed this book the most of the 3 Revelation Space books involving the same characters. The characters in this book are even more colourful than the previous, and the story is entertaining and involving in every substory and side tracks. Reynolds description of futuristic technology is more imaginative than ever, and his attention to details is as great as always.

Share this post

Pushing Ice

Species8472 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:09:46 +0000

Well, since I’m on a book review roll here, I might as well review another book I read this summer (mostly on the train to and from Oslo). “Pushing Ice” is one of the books by Alastair Reynolds who does not take place in the Revelation Space universe. It was published in 2005.

Summary: The story revolves around the crew on the mining vessel Rockhopper who’s job it is to mine comets for resources. On a mission their orders are changed. One of the moons of Saturn, Janus, has broken off and is accelerating away into interstellar space! Rockhopper takes up the pursuit in an attempt to find out what or who is doing this, and it soon becomes apparent that Janus is not a moon after all. At least not one made of rock. The is an intriguing collection of interpersonal conflicts, the birth of a new society, strange alien encounters and a struggle to grasp the relativistic effects like time dilation. What has happened to humanity while they were on their way?

This book was very hard to put down. It is the first of Reynolds books I’ve read (the other two are on my iPod). It’s the kind of story where you just have to read the next chapter. In the end I felt that the story was a bit rushed towards a conclusion. Although the prologue and epilogue are a brilliant wrapping of the story that I personally greatly enjoyed. I see a potential book just from what’s outlined there. I also understand that there are plans for a follow-up of this book too, which may account for the somewhat sudden end to this one. I look forward to it.

Share this post

Revelation Space

Species8472 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:56:16 +0000

Revelation Space is the first of (so far) five Sci-Fi books by Alastair Reynolds that take place in the same universe, but only book one (Revelation Space) and book three (Redemption Ark) are about the same people. Reynolds have also written several other Sci-Fi books in other variations of a future universe. Reynolds has a Ph.D. in astrophysics, and his books clearly reflects his knowledge of physics as there is very little bullshit science in them. A few stretches, sure, but a lot less than what is common in Sci-Fi. As I am a physicist myself, I greatly enjoy this change from the common techno-babble

The Revelation Space universe is a fascinating one. Human nature is still much the same, but humanity has split into different branches depending on how much technology they put into their bodies. Regardless, they all have the capability to regenerate and thus live for centuries while also backing up their consciousness into so-called alpha, beta and gamma simulations depending on how advanced and similar to the original they are. Humans have also discovered many ancient alien ruins on other planets, but no aliens. Something has systematically been keeping intelligent life from becoming too advanced. In the first book you will discover the disturbing reason why there is no intelligent life to be found in our galaxy besides ourselves.

I have so far read the first book and also the third book which deal with this pruning force of the universe. I am currently reading the fifth book, “The Prefect”, and have the second one , “Chasm City”, next on my list. (No, they’re not chronological in that sense, except from one and three.) If you enjoy Sci-Fi, you cannot afford to miss out on these books. They’re about as good as Sci-Fi gets. Reynolds himself has bagged a book deal recently, and will continue to produce books for the coming years. I’ll be looking forward to every single one of them!

Share this post

Altered Carbon

Species8472 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:27:30 +0000

I’m currently reading the “Altered Carbon” trilogy by Richard K. Morgan. (On the second book at the moment.) This is high quality Sci-Fi. Raw and brutal and yet it makes you wonder how the future of humanity will turn out.

In Morgan’s universe human consciousness is stored in a small chip at the back of the scull. Your body is just a piece of meat you can replace. This leads to a society where human life has little value and torture has an entire new dimension. The main character of the series, Takeshi Kovacs, is a hired gun who in the first book investigates what looks like a rich man’s suicide. In the course of his investigation he runs into many of the aspects of futuristic human life. Little details like how advertisers impose advertisements directly into your brain and also the awkward issues following people changing body are things that pop up regularly to make the story more entertaining and humorous. But the story also leads us into the dark side of the human nature. The wealthy can now practically live forever and gain wealth and influence indefinitely, while the poor is limited to mere one or two lifetimes of existence. If you’re put in storage, the punishment for serious crime, someone else may very well buy your body and run off with it. One such case is the body the main character possesses in the first book, the body of a convicted police officer.

I’m now greatly enjoying the second book on my iPod while on my daily subway rides. I have to warn you though. Many of the descriptions in the book are quite violent and detailed, but if you don’t mind that, they greatly enhance the story.

Share this post

The Bible Unearthed

Species8472 — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:30:54 +0000

The Bible Unearhed is a book written by the archaeologists Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman. It covers the historical parts of the old testament of the Bible and how it fits into the picture archaeology in the Middle East paints of its ancient history. Not surprisingly it turns out that most of the early writings are largely mythical and little is verified by actual findings. I am not talking about the supernatural claims, but the actual people and claimed events. There is absolutely nothing to back up the Genesis version of early history, nor the conquest of Canaan or the magnificent first kingdom of Solomon and David. Actually facts contradict and outright disprove these stories in many of their details.

Still, the authors are not hostile towards the biblical texts. They are not attepting to have a go at the Bible, they are instead investigating the archaeological facts rather objectively, and tieing it into the biblical account where it fits. The book also attempts to give us some insight as to why the biblical texts were written and what the motives may have been. The political situation at the time the old testament was compiled was such that history needed to be adapted to current theology both for political and religious reasons. Which is not surprising. It is after all how religions develop, and why should this one be any different just because our western civilisation is so influenced by it?

The book is structured into three parts. The first part investigate the early history of the Bible and how the patriarchs fit into the archaeological reality. The second and third part covers the two kingdoms, Israel (Northern Kingdom) and Juda (Judea), and gives us the real story of how the rose and fell and how they fit into the history of the region. Much religious propaganda needs to be filtered out in the biblical account.

For those interested in the history behind Christianity and Judaism, this book is a must read. The book was a bit tricky to get hold of though.

Share this post

Golden Compass

Species8472 — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:09:52 +0000

Just gone through the Golden Compass trilogy by Philip Pullman on audiobook. Although these books are childrens books (or I’d say youth), they are still great reads for adults. Not at least because of his amusing and unusual nderlying philosophy about religion. In his world God is the villain and the fallen angels are the good guys. The church is evil, and God a fraud. He obviously doesn’t care much for the church. Anyway, beside this the books are also well written and the world, or worlds as multiple universes are the background of the story, is very well imagined in all their detail. The trilogy is well worth the read. The movie however is a faint shadow compared to the first book, and I cannot recommend it. But that is often the case when books are made into movies. Lord of the Rings is an unusal exeption to that rule, but it goes to show how much effort needs to be put into a movie to bring it up to the level of many of the good books.

Share this post