”Stories of your life and others” by Ted Chiang is a collection of fictional short stories about such diverse topics as the tower of Babylon, superintelligence, and automata. It also includes the story that the movie ”Arrival” was based on, so add ”aliens” to this list of topics. Considering how wide the thematic spectrum of the book is, it comes as no surprise that the language and tone varies. Some of the stories are so horrifyingly dystopian that they could be easily turned into […]
We’re all flawed
It’s impossible to write a review of Harper Lee’s ”Go set a watchman” without comparing it to her masterpiece ”To kill a mockingbird”. My comparison is short: The former not even close to the latter. ”To kill a mockingbird” is a classic for a reason. That’s not to say that ”Go set a watchman” is a bad book; it has many redeeming features. But more on that later. Jean Louise (aka Scout) Finch, one of the central characters of TKAM, is now an adult. She […]
Emilio Sandoz is a Jesuit priest. He has just arrived back to Earth after having been on a journey to another planet to make contact with aliens. He is a broken man. The things he has been through have left him shaken to his core, and they have shaken his faith in God. We find out these things gradually. The story is told backwards in that it starts with the return of Sandoz to Earth. Only later, as Sandoz himself starts to come to terms […]
Carl Sagan is known for making astronomy and the mysteries of the universe accessible to the public, through his lectures, television shows and books. His novel ”Contact” was made into a popular film, one that I loved with all my heart despite its flaws. So saying negative things about his collection of essays ”Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium” is a little like swearing in church: you should only really do it under your breath so no […]
We are stardust, we are golden
Simon Singh’s ”Big Bang: The most important scientific discovery of all time and why you need to know about it” is a 500-page thick book about how the titular theory was formed after thousands of years’ worth of scientific research. It starts back when the ancient Greeks first thought to turn their eyes to the heavens and tried to measure such things as the Earth’s diameter and distance to the moon, and it ends in present day, when we know so much more than they […]
I’m not crying, you’re crying
Patrick Ness is a stupid dumb-dumb. Who does he think he is, writing beautiful, meaningful, dark fairy tales for kids that work just as well on adults? I hated this stupid book and its stupid story with its stupid, stupid little boy of a main character. I hated how well thought out and tender it was talking about death and feelings and coming to terms with stupid, stupid things like grief. Connor is a thirteen-year old boy living alone with his very sick mother. He’s […]