This Week’s Books (09/03/14)
Iris Chang – The Rape of Nanking (1997)
In December 1937, the Japanese army invaded the ancient city of Nanking, systematically raping, torturing, and murdering more than 300,000 Chinese civilians. This book tells the story from three perspectives: of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved many.
Verdict: 4/5
Orson Scott Card – The Worthing Saga (1978)
Gathering every story about Jason Worthing, this volume includes “The Worthing Chronicle,” as well as all of the other stories set on Capitol and later on Jason’s colonized planet.
It was a miracle of science that permitted human beings to live, if not forever, then for a long, long time. Some people, anyway. The rich, the powerful–they lived their lives at the rate of one year every ten. Somec created two societies: that of people who lived out their normal span and died, and those who slept away the decades, skipping over the intervening years and events. It allowed great plans to be put in motion. It allowed interstellar Empires to be built.
It came near to destroying humanity.
After a long, long time of decadence and stagnation, a few seed ships were sent out to save our species. They carried human embryos and supplies, and teaching robots, and one man. The Worthing Saga is the story of one of these men, Jason Worthing, and the world he found for the seed he carried.
Verdict: 3/5
The post This Week’s Books (09/03/14) appeared first on News of the Worlds.
