Novel: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein [1966]

This is my first Heinlein novel, and I have to say I was a bit skeptical at first.  I was aware of his influential status in hard science fiction writing, but was put off by the politics - sociological and economical; I like my science fiction technology oriented.  Well, that is what I got with Heinlein; really technical explanations of technology, a futuristic society of people living on the moon, and a talking computer.  However as I began to read the first two pages I noticed something: the grammar is awful.  The sentences are incomplete and read almost like shorthand ("mind own business" instead of 'mind your own business').  I thought it might just be something unique about the first chapter, but I skipped ahead and saw the same grammatical misnomers.  As I made my way through the book I eventually got used to reading between the lines and automatically the book seemed condensed and convenient to read without leaving anything out.  Reads like tech manual; straight and to point in few words possible.  Makes me wish every book was written as concisely.

The content of the book was primarily libertarian and involved the revolution of an oppressed people.  Not typically my type of content, but in this case I found that the large-scale political realism provided an epic storyline with much depth.  The culture of the "loonies" was portrayed with incredible realism, being criminal convicts exiled from Earth.  Because of physiological changes that occur in the muscles due to the exposure of an environment 1/6 times Earth's gravity, people who live on the moon for any length of time will find Earth's gravity a threat to their life when they go to return; making the moon a permanent sentence.  However a society forms out of this convict wasteland who now deserve better than to be treated like criminals; not everyone on the moon is a criminal, especially those who were born there.  Though the people are a rather tough crowd and as a culture have a complex set of ideals and rules even though in general it is a lawless society (controlled only by a warden who basically makes a profit off of the loonies' agricultural products to the benefit of the Authority on earth  - anything not compromising Authority or their wheat embargo is fair game).  Then a rebellion is started and everything begins to escalate.

I found the technology that Heinlein explained to be well rooted in technical discussion giving it a plausible explanation adhering as closely to physics as the current sciences were capable of explaining.  The catapult was a great application for demonstrating the gravity well of the moon and how it could be theoretically exploited to haul objects (like a space container full of wheat...or rocks) down to earth with ballistic trajectories.  The computer with a consciousness was a work of art.  He was a computer capable of programming itself that through some unexplainable phenomenon developed a consciousness.  His name was Mike and he was in control of pretty much every part of the technological workings of the moon.  Mike was just as good (if not better) than any of the main characters, who were also dynamic and especially intriguing.  His personality matured over time and was eventually able to perfectly imitate human voice and even video "appearance".  His calculations almost always took mere microseconds and he could multitask infinitely better than my current PC, not a bad estimate of the power of a supercomputer in the year 2075.   It was also fascinating how quickly he could absorb information, calculate complex statistics, and make intuitive judgments all related to his massive bank of information.

I cant say enough about this book.  Im glad I finally took the time to give one of Heinlein's novels a chance as I can say that I was very impressed.  One of the best science fiction books ive ever read without question.  I am very anxious to check out more of Heinlein's works, and would be happy even if they were half as good as The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. [10/10]

Novel: The Robots of Dawn

The Robots of Dawn - Isaac Asimov [1983]

Just finished reading the last book of Asimov's robot series.  Well, which I thought was the last book until I did a wiki search and discovered a 4th Robot novel.  Probably one of the most well rounded of the Robot series thus far, this book featured some interesting sociopolitical viewpoints, another interesting detective case with Elijah Bailey and his robot assistant Daneel Olivaw, and even a love story or two.  The book loses points from me because of the love story part, which at some points was the only part of the story that even caught my interest - a fault due to slow pacing and tedious romantic dialogue.  Seriously, Asimov should have stuck to introducing more scientific phenomena and weaving them into the story like he usually does so well instead of bog his pace down with lengthy dialogues that were largely conversational and lacked content.  That said, it was a page-turner and I was always anxious to get to the next break in the case or flash of insight by Elijah.  I liked the twist at the end too where the well-built but "less complex" non-humanoid robot Giskard wound up being a robot with the power to manipulate human's emotions and wound up being the conspirator of the entire plan to bring Bailey to Aurora in the first place.  Good read like all Asimov - I especially like the original Foundation trilogy, first two Robot novels, The Gods Themselves, and The End of Eternity.  The later Foundation books didnt have nearly the same scope as the trilogy and focused on a consistent cast of characters on a space journey.  Fun and exciting at times, but suffered from the same pacing problem that I had with The Robots of Dawn.  [6.5/10]

Novel: The Terminal Experiment

The Terminal Experiment - Robert J. Sawyer [1995]

Really impressed with this book.  I went into reading this book with rather low expectations despite the fact that it won the Nebula award in 1995.  I guess I should have more faith in our literature awards, but sometimes what appeals to the majority doesnt necessarily appeal to me.  The book starts out right after what I perceive to be the climax of the book and presents us with an escalated scenario, spending most of the book thereafter fleshing out the life of Peter Hobson and the events that resulted in his AI creation going on a killing spree.  Then it jumps to a scenario that will change Peter Hobson's life; he was assisting in an ER that was harvesting a young boy's organs and was supposed to monitor the EEG.  As the doctor was about to excise the heart, the patient's chest heaved massively as if in response to the cut, and the doctor ordered for more myolock to anesthetize the body.  Peter also notices some EEG activity and questions whether the patient was actually dead or not before his heart was cut out; and concludes that having his heart ripped out was what killed him, not the motorcycle accident he was in. 

Peter Hobson eventually creates a biotechnology company that specializes in neural scanning.  His device, unlike a normal EEG, is able to detect any and all brain activity, even that of the firing of a single neuron.  Finally the answer to the question that changed his life is finally starting to become visible; when does the body actually cease to be living?  In testing his device he finds evidence of an unknown concentration of electrical brain activity that travels through and leaves the brain through the temple at the exact moment of death.  Once he goes public with this discovery, the mysterious brain activity is dubbed the "soulwave" and a worldwide sensation is created.

Eventually Peter and his friend Muhammad Sarkar, who specializes in artificial life studies, create three simulacra; one simulates life after death, one immortality, and the last an unmodified control.

What I found fascinating with this book was how well it was put together.  The characters were really well developed and most of them were interesting and dynamic.  Most notably Peter's friend Sarkar was a really interesting Indian character who was portrayed with razor sharp wit and intellect as well as being devoutly religious.  The books pacing was also done really well.  Starting with Dectective Philo on the hospital bed set a mood that was full of tension and mystery.  The characters get a good amount of development before the plot starts to thicken.   I additionally really enjoyed the thought provoking material that this book had to offer.  Along with the obvious controversial issue about when people die or whether we have souls or not, issues of morality, relationships, and even the contemplation of morality were given attention.  "To use what Sarkar and I are doing as an example: we've created models of my mind.  Models, that's all.  Simulacra that seem to operate the same way as the original.  But when a real person builds a relationship with somebody else, are they in fact really having a relationship with that person, or just with a model - an image, an ideal - that they've built up in their own mind?"  I posted this quote earlier, but it really embodies the message this novel was trying to get across.  It sounds like a morbid outlook, and in some ways it is, but what Sawyer was really trying to get at was that people are special because they are always changing and evolving, making the first impression you have of somebody (be it good, bad, or what made you fall in love with them) not a very accurate representation of their current self. 

[9.5/10]

A novel idea

Ive been reading a lot of sci-fi lately and have come across some quotes that I found interesting, so I started noting some of the more meaningful (or humorous) ones that seemed significant to me.

"Such folly smacks of genius.  A lesser mind would be incapable of it." Isaac Asimov (Foundation 73)

Someone proposed that the Foundation just wait until the vault opens to find out how to solve their political crisis (which has the right history predicted for them through the invented science of psychohistory), and Salvor Hardin, who was the mayor of the Foundation at the time, replied with this quote.  Sometimes people can be this way in my experience and this quote seems to epitomize those situations.

"It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety." Isaac Asimov (Foundation 95)

Hardin, who was known in Foundation for making epigrammatic statements, operated under this idea to gain the upper hand over a country with infinitely greater military strength, but with lesser knowledge of technology. 

"Religion is one of the great civilizing influences of history and in that respect, its fulfilling." Isaac Asimov (Foundation 112)

Although I am not religious in any way myself, I find wisdom in this statement.  As much as religion causes conflict and war, it unites people moreso than any other method of control - and is typically a good thing from the standpoint of morals and values. 

"To succeed, planning alone is insufficient.  One must improvise as well." Isaac Asimov (Foundation 178)

"You've got to have the in-betweens, or you won't understand." Isaac Asimov (Foundation 180)

"Scientific research was much like prospecting : you went out and hunted, armed with your maps and your instruments, but in the end your preparations did not matter, or even your intuition.  You needed your luck, and whatever benefits accrued to the diligent, through sheer, grinding hard work." Michael Crichton (The Andromeda Strain 245)

As a current research scientist I can attest to this unfortunate quote of wisdom.

"Like many intelligent men, Stone took a rather suspicious attitude towards his own brain, which he saw as a precise and skilled but temperamental machine.  He was never surprised when the machine failed to perform, though he feared those moments, and hated them." Michael Crichton (The Andromeda Strain 259)

 "True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information" Winston Churchill

"Nothing is ever as simple in the concrete as it is in the abstract." Robert J. Sawyer (The Terminal Experiment 102)

"To use what Sarkar and I are doing as an example: we've created models of my mind.  Models, that's all.  Simulacra that seem to operate the same way as the original.  But when a real person builds a relationship with somebody else, are they in fact really having a relationship with that person, or just with a model - an image, an ideal - that they've built up in their own mind?" Robert J. Sawyer (The Terminal Experiment 152)

Novel: The Andromeda Strain

The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton [1969]

I have been on a big science fiction kick lately and have been reading a lot of the classic works of the genre.  I will probably do a write up on Asimov's Foundation series since it was such a great read.  As for Crichton, this is not the first book ive read by him.  Jurassic Park and it's inferior sequel were page-turning thrillers with some cool and interesting characters (John Malcolm mostly).  His world of dinosaurs was decent, and I really enjoyed the way in which it was shown how dinosaurs would be unsustainable in today's ecosystem; especially on such a small island.  Now onto the Andromeda Strain.  I went into this book expecting a page turning thriller with minimal science.  What I got actually impressed me since I welcome plenty of techno-babble in my literature.  The majority of the book focused on a team of scientists and doctors working on identifying an unknown virulent organism presumably from outer space and employing many scientific methods used today in the process.  As a molecular biologist student I can appreciate Crichton's depiction of scientific research and found myself not wanting to put this down.  My only gripe with Crichton's books is that not much effort seems to go into his sentence structures and grammar usage (ie. hes not a very good writer).  Nevertheless this did not stop me from enjoying this well crafted story and would without a doubt recommend it to anyone in search of true science fiction.  [7/10]

First Post

Decided to make a blog to say anything I feel like.  I will make posts as frequently as I care to about anything I find interesting.  I will probably talk mostly about black/death metal and anime/manga, and maybe the occasional science topic of interest.

Undergang - Til Døden os Skiller [2012]

Just listened to this death metal album.  It is some pretty solid traditional death metal with gritty bass guitar and some nice thick riffs.  The music itself gives off a nice creepy horror vibe and some of the vocal samples are really eerie.  Almost as good as the Charon album I listened to last night.  Want to give it a rating, but it is only after one listen so I dont really know it that well.  Temp rating then. [7.5/10]

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam [1985]

Ok I admit I actually just finished the sequel to this epic space mecha battle anime (ZZ Gundam), but since this was the more enjoyable and memorable of the two - dont get me wrong, I did enjoy ZZ Gundam later on-  I figured I would talk about it instead.  The main character is named Camille Bidan, and in the beginning seems kind of annoying and petty.  However after a while his personality grows on you and in the end becomes a rather complex and interesting character with plenty of depth.  He was born into a heritage of Gundam engineers and was forced to pilot the Gundam MkII, which he knew quite a bit about.  One good thing about earlier Gundam was how different realistic mobile suits can have different advantages and disadvantages over one another, but with the fresh emergence of New Types, these genetically superior fighters can achieve synchronicity with their mobile suit at a transcendental level - meaning they could predict gunfire and movements and eventually guide and direct missiles that puts them in a whole new league.  Zeta Gundam had a pretty good match of both realistic mechs and New Type mayhem.  Once Camille got the Zeta he was just about as skilled a pilot as Char Aznable and pretty much unstoppable with the most powerful Gundam to date (and made per Camille's specifications).  Underlying the awesome Gundam battles was a nice dramatic tension about the righteousness of war and the manifestation of emotional difficulties brought on by tragedy, suffering, and loss that comes with the collateral damage of war. [10/10]