Shirley Temple has pasted away. She will be remembered a the fizziest, and most bubbly of all the 1930's child stars.

Review: Vulcan's Hammer by Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick has made quite a name for himself in the realm of science fiction literature. Going into Vulcan's Hammer, each of us had read at least one of this other novels and we all felt the same way about him as a writer. The man comes up with some truly brilliant ideas. He creates incredibly detailed and fully realized worlds for his characters to walk around in.

The problem though, is that Dick spends very little time with the characters themselves. All the characters are relate-able and their motivations make total sense but outside of going through the motions that the plot provides for them, these people are simply bloodless.

But wait, I'm getting off on the wrong foot. Despite all that complaining I just did it really is a very enjoyable story. The plot is interesting with a couple of nice surprises in store and it moves along at a brisk pace. But above all its incredibly short. The novel tops out at around 180 pages. Dick knew his concept was good but he didn't want to beat it to death. Instead he serves up a full story in less than 200 pages and at that length and with a really interesting concept behind it, it ends up being quite an enjoyable read.

Review: Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Author Christopher Moore asked himself a question one day. Why does the bible only cover the last three years of Christ's life? He's our savior isn't he? There's not way that the final three years on this Earth were the only important ones for Jesus. So Moore decides to fill us in on all that lost time with his novel Lamb.

Moore tells that story through the perspective of Biff who lives up to his sub titular role.  Biff first meets Jesus (here called Joshua, after the Hebrew "Yeshua") when they're both 6 years old, and Joshua is happily resurrecting a lizard which his younger brother keeps killing. Biff is a colorful smartass, always ready with a one-liner or a convincing lie; as he and Joshua grow up together, his streetwise ways and fast thinking repeatedly protect his naïve, excessively honest friend from the fallout over the odd miracle, or the conflicts between Jewish rebels and their Roman overlords. When Joshua decides to seek out the three wise men who attended His birth, hoping they can teach Him how to be a proper Messiah, Biff tags along to protect the hapless idealist. Together, they travel to China and India, where Joshua learns the secrets of Buddhist thought and Hindu asceticism, while Biff learns sexual technique, martial arts, sleight of hand, and how to make explosives.

On the one hand, Moore takes Jesus' personality and opinions on religion relatively seriously, and seems to suggest how His message might have been formed; on the other, he strings out a Douglas Adams-like road trip full of dry humor, casually humorous sacrilege, and ribald absurdity.

I'd probably have to say that the best parts of Moore's story are the original sections. Luckily there's a strong majority of the book devoted to some wonderful ideas and some hysterical jokes.

"Blessed are the dumbfucks" and "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for they shall receive a fruit basket"

Next up: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

Sage brings us our next book - Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.

Moore is one funny dude so this one should be quite a good read.

Review to come.

Review: Sphere by Michale Crichton

Sphere first poked it's head above water in 1987. I find that publication date is immensely important when reading a thriller since generally, the genre relies a lot on technology to move its premise along. Whats quite lovely about Sphere is that even though we read this novel over twenty years after it was written, there weren't really any points where the story dated itself. Crichton built an  empire on being able to somehow keep the techno-thriller genre from falling behind the times.

The premise is simple enough. A group of multi talented scientists are shuttled to the bottom of the ocean to investigate a space craft of some kind that has mysteriously made it's way there. Most startling of all this, is that the ship appears to be loaded with technology far outreaching that of the late 1980's and according to it's log its over 300 years old.

The story moves along at a nice clip. Any time it begins to slow down a new clue or jaw dropping revelation is thrust upon the characters and they have to deal with it. The language of the novel is simple but never boring and this same description can be applied to the science of the story as well. Crichton knows that most of his readers aren't physicists and so he puts as much as he can into plain speaking. The characters talk on a number of subjects related to their personal fields and even though the novel is two decades old, there's still plenty of scientific trivia to pick up while reading.

The story wraps up nicely and there's enough twists and turns to help you get there. I'd never say this novel will change your life but I also can't actively find anything wrong with it. Its sets a great template for how to write a thriller novel. One that would and still is emulated today and probably for years to come.

Next Up: Sphere

We're gonna take it easy with Tucker's choice for our next novel which will be the sci fi thriller, Sphere by Michael Crichton.

Should be a nice, quick read so stay tuned for our take on it!

Review: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Stranger in a Strange Land was first published in 1961. Over 50 years ago. Though classic novels are considered timeless, I recommend taking this time gap into account before reading SiaSL. The novel is wonderfully and competently written. I'd even say I was surprised a number of times by how modern sounding much of the dialogue was. But where the age of the novel can be a problem is in the ideas presented within.
Heinlein is a genius of a writer and presents a number of thoughtful and razor sharp criticisms on humanity at large. But because those of us in this club were born almost 30 years after the novel was written we grew up with a number of other sources who presented the same ideas in better ways. But credit must be given where it's due. Robert Heinlein was a pioneer and without him so many other texts and sources would never have been explored.
So at the end of our time with SiaSL I'd have to say that though the book is truly a classic novel, its difficult to process if only because Heinlein had too much to say and didn't work it into the novel in the best way. He speaks very strongly through his characters and though it never seems unrealistic for them to be talking about such things, it ends up being a detriment to the novel's story which is quite fascinating in its own right.
This is hardly a review against reading the book. Instead, lets call it a warning light. If you're going to pick up this novel, be aware going in that the writing is rich, the characters are fully realized, and the narrative tends to drag when more focus is put on Heinlein's more philosophical points. Its a novel that requires a lot of focus and perseverance to get through, but at the end of the day I think that's what Heinlein wanted all along.