Howling out loud! » Book Reviews

Book Review – The Windup Girl

Alpha Wolf — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:01:55 +0000

By Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Bacigalupi is an award winning author who has written quite a number of short stories and non-fiction offerings for numerous newspapers, web news outlets, science fiction magazines and now has published his first full length novel.

‘The Windup Girl‘ is Paolo Bacigalupi’s second book, ‘Pump Six and other Stories’ being the first book published. It is his first full length novel, based off some of his short stories.

‘The Windup Girl’ is set in a dark, near-future version of Thailand where fossil fuels are extremely rare and most work is done by creatures, be they human or biologically enhanced elephants. Genetic Manipulation is widely performed by the corporations, who are still more interested in their bottom line then their safety records. This has led to many genehack blights, which can only be fought with fire or more genehacking. The most common global currency is now the Calorie, and most of the corporations in one way or another deal in Calories.

In this rich landscape you are introduced to a number of characters, some of them are thieves, some are master manipulators, some are just trying to stay alive. The two protagonists are drawn together even though they are about as opposite as two people can get. The first is Anderson Lake, who is a white skinned foreigner that represents some of the most powerful global corporations. He is an expert at what he does, but what he plays his cards close to his chest, revealing them only when it is time. Emiko is a Japanese Windup Girl, a genetically created and enhanced humanoid. She is a servant, once to a Japanese executive, but now she serves a Thai Strip Bar owner. Emiko was created to be owned and to serve, but secretly she also desires freedom. Her biggest problem is that she has nowhere to go and no way to get there. In Thailand, she is worse than property, because if she is ever discovered by the law she will be destroyed and she is very easy to discover as her movements are naturally stiff and disjointed, like a windup doll. They both in their own ways represent blind progress.

The antagonists are two Thai government groups. The first group is the Environmental Ministry, which is basically a police force and army all in one. Their main representative in the book is Captain Jaidee, and he rules with strength and honor even if most of his troops are corrupt and regularly accept bribes to look the other way. The second group is the Trade Ministry represented by General Akkarat. The two ministries are in a politcal dance to gain power and to protect the independent Thai Nation from the likes of Anderson who would do just about anything to bring the Food Corporations in to gain power.

Overall I liked the book, and would recommend it. There was something about it that just wasn’t quite satisfying. Specifically, Anderson Lake was a character that I never really was able to understand or empathise with. He was also one of the most written about characters, so that left me pretty confused for a lot of the book.

‘The Windup Girl’ got a whole lot of great reviews. I think I only saw one slightly poor review and a ton of faves. I might be a little overcritical but as enjoyable as the book was I don’t think it earned all the accolades I read about it. It was a good book, but not the second coming of the science fiction greats that some have speculated.

Maybe time will prove me wrong, I hope it does.

Title: ‘The Windup Girl’
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Format: Harcover
ISBN#: 9781597801577

Website: windupstories.com

What should I read in the month of April 2010?

Alpha Wolf — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:28:12 +0000

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Book Review: The Battle of the Labyrinth – Book 4, Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Alpha Wolf — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:42:58 +0000

Rick Riordan is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for children and the multi-award-winning Tres Navarre mystery series for adults. For fifteen years, Rick taught English and history at public and private middle schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Texas. In 2002, Saint Mary’s Hall honored him with the school’s first Master Teacher Award.

I have recently the fourth book in the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, titled ‘The Battle of the Labyrinth‘. This books brings back the trio of Percy ‘Perseus’ Jackson, Annabeth Chase and Grover for another exciting quest to prevent another titan war and defeat the greatest titan of them all, Chronos.

I can’t help but love reading this series of books, and this book proves to be one of the best of the series. In ‘The Battle of the Labyrinth’ Mr. Riordan not only introduces some well known Greek myths but he also introduces young readers to a number of the more tragic and less known Greek Myths. The Minotaur, Daedalus, King Minos, Icarus and more are explained, expanded and integrated into a modern tale with skill and finesse. I am in awe of how well this book is written and how easily and cleverly it teaches the readers about Greek classic literature without the reader really feeling like they are being taught. I have earlier written that my knowledge of the Greek myths would often limit my enjoyment of the earlier books, such was not the case for this book. Instead, when reading this book my knowledge allowed me to enjoy it all the more.

Once again, I heartily recommend this book to just about anyone. You like fantasy, sci-fi, history, fiction or you are a young adult and you will enjoy this book.

Title: The Battle of the Labyrinth – Percy Jackson and the Olympians – Book 4
Author: Rick Riordan
ISBN#: 978-1423101468
Format: Hardcover

Book Review: The Titan’s Curse – Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 3

Alpha Wolf — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:34:36 +0000

In the first two books Percy, Grover and Annabeth just barely completed two harrowing quests. The rewards were great, they recovered Zeus‘ Lightning Bolt, Hades Helm and The Golden Fleece!

In the lastest book, ‘ The Titan’s Curse ‘, there is the sense that something is just not right. Thalia, Zeus’ daughter, was healed by the Golden Fleece and is now staying at Camp Half-Blood. Percy is not so sure that he is the child of the Great Prophecy anymore. If that wasn’t enough, both Annabeth and the Goddess Artemis have gone missing and Percy is not allowed on the quest to save them!

Of course it wouldn’t be much of a book if Percy stayed in Camp Half-Blood throughout the book, so he connives a way to sneak out and follow Thalia, Grover, and the two Hunters of Artemis Zoë Nightshade and Bianca De Angelo on their quest.

Once again, Mr. Riordan shows his talent for threading the exciting parts of Ancient Greek myth and carefully threading it through a modern setting to create a thoroughly enjoyable book! As usual, the book refers to the ancient tales often but rarely does it rely on them to tell the tale, the questers always find a new way to defeat ancient monsters and solve aged riddles.

I thought this book was a great cross-country romp with a great pace and an excellent story! It was easy to read and even easier to immerse yourself into the story and feel like you are a part of it. If you read the first two you definitely need to pick this one up and read up on the next exciting adventure!

Title: The Titan’s Curse – Percy Jackson and the Olympians – Book 3
Author:Rick Riordan
ISBN#: 978-0786856862
Format: Hardcover

Book Review: The Sea of Monsters – Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 2

Alpha Wolf — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:53:21 +0000

Warning – Here there be Spoilers!

I hope to not have many Spoilers for ‘The Sea of Monsters‘ in this review, but there will be a ton of spoilers for the previous book ‘The Lightning Thief‘.

When last we read about Percy Jackson, we learned that this not-so-mild mannered atypical 12 year old boy was suffering from dyslexia, ADHD and actually being the son of the Ancient Greek god of the Sea, Poseidon! He was enrolled in Camp Half-Blood, a year round camp that trains Half-Blood children how to defend themselves. This was doubly important for Percy for he was a child of one of the ‘Big Three’, the big three being the brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. Children of the big three are more powerful on average than the children of the other gods, which means that they are also bigger monster magnets! Also, the three brothers had made an oath after World War II that they would never again father any children, for there was a Great Prophecy that said that the child of one of those brothers that lived till their 16th birthday would make a decision that would either save or doom Olympus.

We also learned about important people in Percy’s life. Sally Jackson is Percy’s Mother, a mortal who can see through the mist that prevents most mortals from seing the monsters, gods and titans for what they really are. She also is very smart, and loves her son so much that she is willing to live with a rather odious man, physically and in temperament, in order to protect him. She also loves making blue food. Grover, one of his best friends, is a rather brave Satyr who appears to act very cowardly. He is very much like the Cowardly Lion from ‘Wizard of Oz’ in that regard. Annabeth Chase is a daughter of Athena who is just about the same age as Percy, and has been at Camp Half-Blood for 7 years before Percy arrived. Chiron the Centaur, also known as Mr. Brunner when he is Masquerading as a Centaur, is the Activities Director at Camp-Half Blood.

In the last book Percy, Grover and Annabeth quested to find Zeus’ Lightning Bolt in order to prevent a war among the gods, and in the process discovered that the titan Kronos is planning the annihilation of Olympus, the Gods and Western Civilization.

In this book Kronos hatches another evil scheme, and this time it appears he is planning on destroying Camp Hlaf-Blood. Once again Percy, Grover and Annabeth must join forces to save the day.

I enjoyed reading this book a lot. I will say that I think it is by far the weakest of the five books. Anyone who has read Homer has read at least half of this book. Riordan takes the quests almost unchanged from the classic to his story. He counts on most of his readers being young adults and fairly ignorant of Homer. I don’t think that people should skip this book because of that, but it was a little bit of a letdown after the unique charm of the story in the first book. The good news is that the rest of the books do not lean nearly as heavily on the Myths as this book does and are much easier to enjoy as literary creations instead of modern day copies of ancient tales.

Title: The Sea of Monsters – Percy Jackson and the Olympians – Book 2
Author: Rick Riordan
ISBN#: 978-0786856862
Format: Hardcover

Book Review: The Lightning Thief – Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Alpha Wolf — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:01:51 +0000

The Lightning Thief is the First book in a Five part Series called ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’. This first book has already been made into a movie. I have not seen the movie, but it does not appear to have done particularly well in the Box Office. Perhaps I will pick it up on Blu-Ray and check it out and review it.

Onto the book. The Lightning Thief is an introduction to a world very much like our modern world. There is one major difference, but 99.99% of the population cannot see it. The difference is that The Greek gods, titans and monsters are still alive! Mount Olympus is the center of western civilization, and it moves when the mortal ‘center of western civilization’ moves. In the book Mount Olympus is hidden about a half-mile above the Empire State Building. The Gods and Goddesses are as sexually active as ever, and there are lots of Half-Blood children from just about every god. All of these children are in danger, for monsters will hunt them down and try to kill them. The Gods created Camp Half-Blood to protect and train the children so they can survive, and it is now located on the east end of Long Island. The book also introduces us to Percy Jackson, a dyslexic delinquent with a penchant for getting himself into trouble. He was kicked out of every school he has ever attended. He has a great mother, but his step father is horrible. One might consider him evil, but he is just too lazy to be quite that bad. Percy is also a very special child, with a very special future.

In the first chapter, Percy is at his latest school. He has lasted there almost the whole year, and he has even done well in one class, Ancient Greek! He is with his friend Grover and the rest of his class on a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The book does not take long to jump into the action, and soon Percy once again gets into trouble. However, instead of the typical detention his Math teacher takes him deep into the Museum and attacks him! Fortunately, the teacher of his Ancient Greek class was able to toss him a pen that turned into a sword and he was able to kill his math teacher with it! Percy was horrified as his teacher turned into Gold dust and disappeared. Percy freaks out, but the next day the math teacher is replaced and as far as everyone is concerned nothing happened and that teacher was always the math teacher! There are too many strange things happening at once, even for Percy, and he starts to investigate what happened.

Thus is the start of both Percy’s and the readers introduction to the Modern world of Ancient Greece! Grover is actually a Satyr. Percy is the son of a God and he gets brought to Camp Half-Blood where he meets lots of campers and teachers including Mr. D, Chiron the Centaur who masqueraded as Percy’s teacher of Ancient Greek, and Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. Percy soon earns the right to go on a quest, along with Grover and Annabeth, and learns much about his heritage and his destiny.

I loved reading this book. I was always interested in Mythology, and have a love of Greek Mythology. This book brings to life all the ancient and modern tales of Greek Quests, integrating comedy and tragedy in a lively tale that will entertain all. It is written to entertain children, yet it uses the Ancient Greek names for all the monsters/gods/titans and does a great job of outlining the myths about them. I recommend this book to anyone who loves ancient history or fantasy stories!

Title: The Lightning Thief – Percy Jackson and the Olympians – Book 1
Author: Rick Riordan
ISBN#: 978-0641723445
Format: Hardcover

“The Lightning Thief”: You, sir, are no Harry Potter (salon.com)
Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (time.com)
Movie Review | ‘Percy Jackson & the Olympians’: Another Teenage Woe: The Hounds of Hades (movies.nytimes.com)

I have my new books!

Alpha Wolf — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:34:29 +0000

I got the two books I ordered from Barnes & Noble yesterday! I now have new books to savor, digest and thoroughly consume! Then the appropriate reviews will appear here for everyone’s perusal!

I also have a book I got from someone on BookMooch, ‘The Beauty Myth‘ by Naomi Wolf. That review should appear here very soon as well.

I am also finished with ‘Against All Enemies‘ by Richard Clarke. I will hopefully have the review done by this evening. It was a very interesting book that explained in my eyes many reasons why things happened and why people are taking the actions they are today. I will elaborate more in the book review.

Come back soon and read up on these books!

I will be getting a new book to read!

Alpha Wolf — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:08:26 +0000

By Paolo Bacigalupi

It has been way too long. I have the book ‘Against all Enemies’ that I have to write a review on and ‘The Beauty Myth’ that I am in the middle of reading.

I received a birthday gift of one $25 Barnes & Noble gift card. I look forward to picking up the book ‘The Windup Girl‘ tomorrow and continuing my reading and reviewing.

Book Review – A Contract With the Earth

Alpha Wolf — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:38:47 +0000

One of the lastest books I have read was “A Contract With the Earth – Ten Commitments you can Make to Protect the Environment Now” by Newt Gingrich and Terry L. Maple. Newt Gringrich was the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999 and was an Environmental Studies Professor. Terry L. Maple is president and CEO of the Palm Beach Zoo.

As stated clearly by the title, this book outlines a ten-step program to help people protect the environment. The book lists the ten commitments, the contract, right in the second chapter of the book. They are:

Take the Lead
Reward a New Generation of Environmental Entrepreneurs
Retire or Rejuvenate Old Technologies
Transform the Role of Government
Become and Aspirational and Inspirational Nation
Postiion America to Meet the Challenge
Encourage Scientific and Technical Literacy
Invoke the Spirit of Collaboration and Cooperation
Support the Environment through Philanthropy and Investment
Enlist the Nation

This contract is obviously meant to be used by those in political power to direct the nation toward a more environmentally friendly way of doing business. It is also a primer for the average citizen to pressure their representatives to push for environmental reform.

I enjoy reading, and thus I enjoyed this book to a certain extent. It was a learning experience, and there was value in the reading. I will say that I often find myself at odds with some of Mr. Gingrich’s philosophies and some of the ideas presented in this book are not ideas I would support. I do agree with the basic concepts of the contract as outlined by the book. I often do not agree with how the concepts should be fulfilled. It seems to be a difference between Conservation and Preservation. Mr. Gingrich seems to propose using Conservation, or active Human management of Natural Resourses, as much as possible to basically use the earth as one big resource and to replace what we have taken. I, more often than Mr. Gingrich, prefer the route of Preservation, or from keeping humans from interfering with the Environment. I find that if one attempts the road of Conservation over Preservation, even with well meaning intentions, the results are much less than desired. I also find some of the books methods of Conservation wanting.

I would recommend this book to everyone, even if one disagrees with a lot of the practicalities in this book like I did. What matters most that people become active and educated in Environmental Pursuits and this book can and does help in that regard.

Title: A Contract With the Earth
Author: Newt Gingrich and Terry L. Maple
ISBN#: 978-0-452-28992-5
Format: Paperback Book

Book Review – In Praise of Slowness

Alpha Wolf — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:04:02 +0000

: Cover via Amazon

Carl Honore was a true member of the Cult of Speed not too long ago. Then one day, he was waiting to catch a flight and saw an advertisement for ‘The One-Minute Bedtime Story’. The ad had quite a different effect, one the creators never anticipated. Carl did not buy the books, instead he started questioning why he was always in a hurry. That was the spark that eventually ignited the idea behind the book ‘In Praise of Slowness.’

In ‘In Praise of Slowness’, Carl Honore writes about different ways one can slow down and enjoy life. He explains that ones quality of life can inprove if one learns to slow down when preparinig Food. He also talks about Cities, Body/Mind, Medicine, Sex, Work, Leisure, and Children. The common theme is how one should find ways to slow down and enjoy life.

As I reading this book, I remember thinking that most young batchelor and batchelorettes would probably scoff at this book. They are probably happy members of the cult of speed, and have no desire to slow down. Most likely those who either already have a family or are looking to start one are the ones who will get the most out of this book.

I, being the family man, absolutely loved reading this book. Honore did some excellent research and uses both anecdotal evidence and personal experience to make his point. The book was both easy to read and well organized so one can go back and easily find information if they wish to. I appreciated the style of writing immensely. I was also intrigued by the subject matter, and was entertained by his personal experiences.

Honore relates a final tale at the conclusion of his book. He is putting his son to bed and he reads a book, answering all the questions his son has along the way. He then reads another book, answering all questions. He lost track of time, but he was ready to read another book. His son told him he was tired and wanted to go to bed, kissed him goodnight and snuggled under his covers. I am glad that he has found such a good relationship with his son, and I hope to have one just like it. He is doing his best to practice what he writes about, and how can you not be touched? I congratulate Carl Honore with being true to the slow movement and for writing a fantastic book.