The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge...random thoughts

The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge by Harry Harrison.

What can I say...better late than never. I'd meant to finish this up for Carl's Sci-Fi Experience, but obviously didn't quite make it. And now that I have finished it, I'm honestly not sure what to say about it. I know, I know, what am I even doing here then, huh? It's just that I feel I should say "something" since I am using it for a couple challenges.

Prior confession still stands. I'm just not terribly familiar with the worlds of science fiction, and frankly have no clue how to discuss it. I can say that if you're looking for intellectual stimulation, this is probably not the book for you. But if you're looking for humor, satire, action, adventure, and well, just plain fun, then you might want to take a look.

This is the second in the Stainless Steel Rat series, and again follows our hero/anti-hero Jim diGriz. This time he's sent to stop a series of inter-galactic invasions that have the Special Corps stumped. And luckily, this time his new bride, Angelina, will be fighting on his side.

While maybe not quite as much as the first, I did enjoy this book. A nice, light read. And like I said before...just plain fun.

a weekend of sci-fi shorts

The weekend has arrived for Carl's Out of This World Mini-Challenge! He's hosting it as a part of Dewey's Books Reading Challenge, but anyone is welcome to participate. Of course, it also corresponds with Carl's Sci-Fi Experience, which runs through the end of February. Basically, it just involves reading one or more science fiction short stories. Sounds like fun, right? Yeah, I thought so, too!

Not sure what the best way to do this might be. First thought I'd just keep this as a draft and then post it at the end of the weekend. But I think instead, I'll just post it and update it as I read more stories. I hope to get in quite a few, but who knows what the weekend will bring. (After all, Rich is still in the sunny Bahamas, so all emergencies, large and small, from spider captures to cat barf clean-ups to mustard on the couch, are solely mine to deal with.)

Okay, on with the short stories:

1. "The Father Thing" by Philip K. Dick. This story actually doesn't count for the mini-challenge, as I read it a couple of days ago, but since we're talking sci-fi shorts, I figured I mention it. A few days back, Carl had a great post about a bunch of sci-fi stories he'd read on-line, along with links to them. He described this story with, "Picture a Leave It To Beaver episode written by H.P. Lovecraft." Come on, am I the only one who finds that description irresistible?!! And the story really was a treat! I have to admit that there were a few places where it felt a bit disjointed...almost like there were supposed to breaks in the text to let you know there had been a change in time or place, but the breaks were missing. But the story itself was really fun. Fun in a creepy, slightly gross sort of way. It totally reminds me of one of those old 1950s horror movies. Little boy discovers his dad's body has been "taken over" by...something. Employs the help of a couple other neighborhood boys. Discovery of what the "something" is, and of what's in the bamboo patch...still leaves me a little skitchy.

2. "Orange" by Neil Gaiman. (From The Starry Rift edited by Jonathan Strahan.) This morning's first story was again one of pure fun. Very original. Not the events, so much. As again we've got a person being "taken over" by something. We've got beings from outer space. But the way that this story is written is something quite unique. One reads the answers, given by a seventeen-year-old girl, to some sort of questionaire or interview. However, the questions themselves are not included, so the reader is left to fill these in on his/her own. In a weird sort of way, it almost felt interactive. Anyway, it made for a great start to the mini-challenge.


Whew...the kids aren't making it easy, but I finally snuck in another story:

3. "Ass-Hat Magic Spider" by Scott Westerfeld. (From The Starry Rift edited by Jonathan Strahan.) I honestly don't know how to describe this story. And frankly, I'm not sure I want to, because it's a little treasure that needs to be discovered completely on one's own. But I will tell you this, if you're reading this then you almost certainly love books. And if you love books, you'll love this story. Really. It's wonderful.


Okay, been wanting to get this one in all day, but as it's on-line (here), and everyone seems to "need" the computer today, it hasn't been easy:

4. "The Menace From Earth" by Robert Heinlein. Another good story. You know what is truly amazing me with this mini-challenge? The variety. This story was so completely different from the others. It sort of had a "young adult" feel to it, if that makes any sense. It's told by Holly, a very smart and sassy 15-year-old. You can't help but love her. This is sort of teen romance sort of story, and yet so very sci-fi. Oh, and one other thing, if Carl hadn't mentioned that this story was written in the 1950s, I never would have believed it. Honestly, it really feels so very today.


If you have just a couple minutes, go read this:

5. "The Home Team" by Greg Wickenhofer. Super short little story. You know how frustrating it is to buy new appliances only to have them act up immediately? Well, it may just get worse in the future. Or better. Depends on how you look at it.


Didn't manage to get in nearly as many stories as I'd hoped yesterday. You know, there were chess games to be played, and t-shirts to be painted, and snowballs to be thrown. But today's a new day, and we'll see what we can squeeze in. Of course, my ability to concentrate is somewhat worse than normal (and normal's pretty bad), because I'm just so damn excited that Rich will be arriving home late tonight!!!

But back to stories. Eva has a great post with tons of links from the stories she read yesterday. I'd planned to focus on more stories from The Starry Rift today, but some of the stories she talked about just sound too good to pass up. In fact, that's where my first read of the day came from. It can be found here (just scroll down for the link to the story) at Rusty's BestScienceFictionStories.com. By the way, isn't his site incredible?!! Okay, to the story:

6. "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury. What can I say...it's Ray Bradbury!!! And it's that beautiful Ray Bradbury writing that I could just lose myself in for days on end. It's a wonderful little story. But so very, very sad. Very. A story of childhood cruelty that could happen anywhere, but not in quite the same manner as it happens here on Venus.

7. "Cheats" by Ann Halam. (From The Starry Rift edited by Jonathan Strahan.) To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure I was going to like this one. I'd read both in Becky's and Chris's reviews that it had to do with gaming. And I hate to admit it, but that is just a subject on which I have zero knowledge. Yep, completely clueless. So I was really afraid that I just wouldn't understand this story. But you know what, while it wasn't my favorite read of the mini-challenge, I really did like it! And while I do have to say I didn't totally understand the science of it, that in no way detracted from my overall enjoyment of the story. I wish I could talk a little about the story itself, but I'm afraid I'll word it wrong...a girl, her little brother, lost in a game world. Yeah, see that totally doesn't get to the depths of this story at all. Sorry.


Another of Eva's recommendations:

8. "The Fluted Girl" by Paolol Bacigulupi. (Can be found here.) Wow. Seriously, wow. I have no clue how to describe this story. But it is achingly beautiful. And horrendously disturbing. Set in the future, but in many ways feeling like the past. And again, this story is so very different from any of the other stories I've read this weekend. I cannot get over how incredibly diverse the world of science fiction is.

The Island of Dr. Moreau...random thoughts

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells.

I read my first book by Wells (The War of the Worlds) earlier this year, and was so delightfully surprised by how much I enjoyed it. While I'm not sure I enjoyed The Island of Dr. Moreau quite as much, the reasons for that have nothing to do with Well's writing. For there is something about his writing that I really adore. I'm not sure if I can adequately explain it, but to me, it seems to have this unique combination of intelligence, beauty, and complete down-to-earthness. (A gift I obviously don't possess, as can be witnessed in the use of "down-to-earthness" as a word.) He just has a wonderful way of using language in a way that is both expressive and thoroughly lacking in pretentiousness.

No, it wasn't the writing that marred my enjoyment of this book. Actually, it was my own weak stomach. There were parts of this book that left me feeling physically ill. Not a figure of speech, but honest-to-goodness sick to my stomach.

The telling of the story begins with Edward Prendick's experience after being rescued at sea after a shipwreck. At the time of his rescue, he has been afloat for some time, and would probably not have lasted much longer out on the open ocean. His rescuers are an odd lot. The drunken captain of this boat is an obnoxious man. He is delivering a fellow named Montgomery, along with his strange companion and several animals, including a puma, a llama, and a multitude of rabbits, to an island seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It was Montgomery who saved Prendick's life, but it seems as if he did so merely as a diversion as opposed to any real desire to help out a fellow human being. Upon arriving at the island, Prendick is put in an impossible situation...the captain won't allow him to stay aboard the boat and Montgomery won't allow him to come onto the island. However, Dr. Moreau, the man truly in charge of the island, relents when he finds that Prendick has some scientific training.

And here is where things truly take a turn for the macabre. For Dr. Moreau is no ordinary doctor, no ordinary scientist. In fact, it turns out that there is a reason why the name was so familiar to Prendick. For Dr. Moreau had been famous in the London news some ten years earlier for his experiments in vivisection. After that, Dr. Moreau had disappeared. And Prendick now finds that he has continued these experiments in earnest here on his own little deserted island. And yes, it is here in some of these descriptions, that I had a hard time pushing my way through.

But I must say that I'm quite glad that I did stick with it. For the book, while horrific, has so much to offer. I don't want to give away what happens during the rest of the book for those who have never read it, but I do want to say that it is not merely a gruesome tale of evil experimentation on animals. It has great relevance even today. For medical and scientific ethics will always be relevant. Though experiments of the sort Dr. Moreau seem clearly abhorrent to us, what about experiments in genetic engineering or in stem cell research? And no, I'm not saying that I think these avenues of research are wrong. And I'm definitely not wanting to start any debate here on my little blog about it. I'm merely saying that I found this book full of thought-provoking material.

Along with the issues of medical ethics, there's much to ponder on the subject of what makes us human. I was reminded a great deal of Shelley's Frankenstein as I read this book, both because of this question and more obviously because of the two obsessed men featured in these stories. (Okay, I admit it...I was also reminded of the episode of Gilligan's Island where the mad doctor scientist takes the castaways to his island where he's doing mind transfer experiments on animals. Hey, I never claimed to be an intellectual.)

So, despite some unpleasant images, I'm quite glad I read this book. And it definitely made for an appropriate R.I.P. read. Finally, I just want to share one line that I particularly loved:

An animal may be ferocious and cunning enough, but it takes a real man to tell a lie.

*****

If you have also reviewed this book, please feel free to leave a link in the comments and I'll add it here. Thanks.

Becky at Becky's Book Reviews

The Adoration of Jenna Fox...random thoughts

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson.

First off, let me say thanks to Becky, for it was she would urged me to pick this book up. Secondly, let me say that I have no idea of how to review this book. The problem being that I just don't want to give too much away. This is truly a book where you want to allow things to be slowly revealed to you.

I can say that Jenna Fox is a 17-year-old girl, who is trying to discover who she is. But not entirely in the way a normal teenager must search for their identity and meaning in life. No, Jenna just woke up from a coma and doesn't remember anything about herself. Gradually, she remembers little snippets about her former life, but nothing that gives her a feel for "who she is".

Maybe that is all any life is composed of, trivia that eventually adds up to a person...

I found that to be an interesting thought. But believe me, this book is nowhere as simple as I've made it sound.

It is definitely one those books that gets you thinking about many issues. Most especially, what is it that makes us human?

And there's lots to ponder in the realm of medical ethics.

And I must admit, as a parent, it left me a little unsettled, thinking about the lengths I might go to save one of my children.

Okay, I realize this isn't much of a review...like I said, I really don't want to give anything about the story away. But I loved it. I found Jenna utterly believable. And I loved the interesting way the book was written...in short "not quite chapters". And the way the author made me think about the meaning of words that inhabit our daily lives.

*****

If you have reviewed this book, feel free to leave a link in the comments and I'll add it here. Thanks.

Becky at Becky's Book Reviews
Kim at Bold Blue Adventure

*****

Read for:



A-Z Reading Challenge.








42 Challenge.













The YA Reading Challenge. (a substitute)

yet more fun hosted by Becky

Yep, she's at it again. More irresistible fun. This time we're heading into the realm of Sci-Fi. But it's not all about reading this time. Well, it could be if you so chose, but it needn't be. It's called the 42 Challenge...read and/or watch 42 sci-fi "items" in 42 weeks and 42 days. Items might include books, short stories, novellas, movies, TV show episodes, radio show episodes, just about anything you can think of. And the 42 weeks, 42 days officially runs from Jan. 1, 2009 through Dec. 3, 2009, but she has graciously allowed for cheating (in other words, we can start now if we can't contain ourselves). But you know what, instead of me trying to explain it here, just head over to the blog Becky set up just for the challenge.