Steampunk zombies -- what's not to love? Boneshaker is actually a lot better than it has any right to be. Author Cherie Priest's history of southern Gothic short stories serves her well; the story of a boy's incursion into Zombie-infested Civil-war era Seattle to clear his father's name could easily be pulpy and bland. Priest's writing is solid, though, and the parallell story of a mother's efforts to save her son from said zombie-infested Seattle work well. There's an interesting story of buried family history and redemption beneath the running and gunning and the shambling "rotters."
Steampunk's definitely coming into its own: instead of "Ooooh, airships!" it's "Steampunk plus *crazy thing X*." Pretty soon it will be absorbed into the overall literary landscape, the way Cyberpunk was before it. ]]>
I've had Polaris sitting on my shelf for almost two years now, and only recently picked it up. It's a curious unfolding mystery, following two archeological prospectors as they try to unravel the seventy-year-old disappearance of six celebrities on a doomed cruise. They got their hands on some knickknacks from that historic flight, and now someone's trying to kill them.
A weak prologue didn't help Polaris, but once it gets rolling the locked-room mystery is a page-turner. Sadly, the conclusion feels weak as well given the carefully constructed build-up. Ultimately the female protagonist's voice carries the the weight of the story. Chase's character is interesting, more three-dimensional than one might expect from genre mystery/scifi. I enjoyed the book enough to plow through it, but have a hard time thinking of who I'd recommend it to. ]]>
My review of this should not be trusted -- as one of the co-authors I'm hopelessly biased. But I do like to think that it's, you know. Pretty awesome. ]]>
If it weren't so grim, Taibbi's book would be perfect. I went in expecting a thorough shredding of the modern dominionist movement, and while there are certainly some damning passages, the book's emphasis is more nuanced. Taibbi studies three worlds in turn: the deep-texas congregation of political firebrand/megachurch preacher John Haggee, the unhinged world of Bush-hating 9/11 Truthers, and the cynical swamp of day-to-day Congressional governance.
Taibbi's premise is that as Democrats and Republicans drag more and more of the work of governing into the world of late-hours behind-closed-doors old-boys wrangling, more and more citizens are pushed towards the fringes of conspiracy theory and rage -- regardless of their underlying political orientation. It's a hard theory to dismiss as the book unfolds; no real conclusion is offered, but it's a startlingly charitable way to view groups that are often demonized. ]]>
After the disappointing experience with Counterknowledge, I was a little skeptical. Sherry Seethaler, though, does an excellent job writing the book that Counterknowledge could have been. Rather than burning through chapters picking on easy targets, she does the hard work of explaining how the practical business of science works, how it interacts with the media and popular culture, and how we can tease understanding from the mountain of technical claims we see on a daily basis.
Two big thumbs up. ]]>
by Victor Gischler
Thanks for the warning. I thought the same thing, but lo -- I didn't have ime to grab the book. ]]>
Jeff
read and liked
Siri's
review of Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse:
""Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse!" I thought to myself. "What could possibly go wrong with this book?" MANY THINGS. "
""Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse!" I thought to myself. "What could possibly go wrong with this book?" MANY THINGS. "
Counterknowledge is a slim book about a big problem: the rising tide of pseudo-science and conspiracy-mongering that threatens to drown out real, empirical science and history in the public consciousness. It gets off to a promising start, but unfortunately it drifts for a dozen chapters before sputtering to a non-finish.
Thompson makes noises indicating that he'll address (at least in his eyes) the root causes of his rising tide. What he does is rant for a couple hundred pages about trends that annoy him: nutritionists, chiropractors, 9/11 conspiracy theorists, The Secret, and young-earth creationists -- specifically Muslim young-earth creationists. He calls these things "counterknowledge" but is admittedly dodgy about supplying rigorous criteria by which something can be labeled as such.
The result is an inconsistent, uneven selection of pet peeves united by the common thread of cultural and pseudo-intellectual contrarianism. After a few chapters, an undercurrent starts to emerge. At a dozen or so places, he characterizes the gullible vectors (or malicious originators) of counterknowledge as 'left-wing' or 'left-wing liberals.' Several times, he mentions that the problem "isn't as simple as blaming a bunch of aging hippies;" he doesn't elaborate on who else might be susceptible, though he admits that "capitalism" can sometimes encourage controversial but incorrect iconoclasts.
On closer inspection, the choices of anecdotes seem even more odd. An entire chapter is spent railing about people who thing the US Government knew about the 9/11 attacks beforehand, but nothing is said about the much larger percentage of the country that still believes Iraqis were behind the terrorist attacks. An entire chapter is spent berating young-earth Creationists for ignoring scientific consensus... but no mention is made of climate change skeptics, whose minority ideas have a far greater impact on public policy.
Thompson has pet theories about why these forms of public ignorance are on the rise, and briefly explains them. Ironically, he offers no evidence and quickly dismisses alternative theories as unsatisfying: the very sin he accuses the quacks and hucksters of perpetrating. It might be that the he's a self-proclaimed conservative Catholic capitalist (CCC?) unwilling to look closely at some of his own sacred cows. Or -- even simpler -- it might just be that the book's introduction promises more than its bloggy op-ed format can deliver. ]]>
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