< FeroxLog >

The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester

By the 25th century, three inner planets of the Solar System and eight satellites farther out are inhabited, and many humans are able to teleport themselves some distance across a planet (though not across space) simply through mental effort. Gulliver (”Gully”) Foyle was a simple mechanic aboard a space ship that was attacked by an Outer Satellites raiding party and left a bombed-out hulk. Barely alive, he hailed a passing space ship but it ignored him, and in his rage he vowed to destroy it and its crew when he got back to civilization. But there was more aboard his own craft than just himself and his dead crewmates, much more, and various powerful interests become interested in his fate, as he educates, strengthens, and trains himself for his mighty revenge.

Faces in the Clouds - Stewart Guthrie

Guthrie (anthropology, Fordham Univ.) critiques previous theories of the origin of religion and explains his view that religion is systematic anthropomorphism, which attributes human characteristics to events as well as to things in the world. Religion gives humanlike beings a central role in the worldview, while nonreligious constructs ascribe less importance to such beings. This anthropomorphism is perceptual, pervasive, and largely unconscious, resulting in an interpretative bet. Guthrie shows how the fields of science, cognitive science, philosophy, and the literary and visual arts are pervaded by anthropomorphism, even though they often criticize it. Academic and seminary libraries will need this provocative and carefully argued explanation.

Deathbird Stories - Harlan Ellison (anthology)

Two losers (male and female) meet and intermingle over a Vegas slot machine that invariably hits the jackpot. Lawrence Talbot, the Wolfman, goes to Victor Frankenstein for help in locating his soul so that he can die peacefully. A former POW-Vietnam vet returns to his Midwestern hometown to face the music among his neighbors who believe him a traitor for talking to the Vietcong under torture. Two cars engage in a duel on a near-future freeway. A man goes to confront God with the help of Snake, the hero who got the shaft in the inaccurate account of Genesis.

Holy Blood Holy Grail - Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln

Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln, and Richard Leigh, authors of The Messianic Legacy, spent over 10 years on their own kind of quest for the Holy Grail, into the secretive history of early France. What they found, researched with the tenacity and attention to detail that befits any great quest, is a tangled and intricate story of politics and faith that reads like a mystery novel. It is the story of the Knights Templar, and a behind-the-scenes society called the Prieure de Sion, and its involvement in reinstating descendants of the Merovingian bloodline into political power. Why? The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail assert that their explorations into early history ultimately reveal that Jesus may not have died on the cross, but lived to marry and father children whose bloodline continues today. The authors’ point here is not to compromise or to demean Jesus, but to offer another, more complete perspective of Jesus as God’s incarnation in man. The power of this secret, which has been carefully guarded for hundreds of years, has sparked much controversy. For all the sensationalism and hoopla surrounding Holy Blood, Holy Grail and the alternate history that it outlines, the authors are careful to keep their perspective and sense of skepticism alive in its pages, explaining carefully and clearly how they came to draw such combustible conclusions.

Legacies - A Repairman Jack Novel - F. Paul Wilson

Urban mercenary Repairman Jack is back after a long hiatus, but Wilson’s work-for-hire outlaw has clearly lost his edge since his last novel-length adventure, The Tomb (1984). Although still a lean and mean equalizer who makes his living “fixing” personal injustices, he has developed a soft spot for the kind of sympathetic victim that no conscientious defender could refuse. This new escapade pairs him with Alicia Clayton, head of a pediatric AIDS clinic in Manhattan, who has inherited a valuable Murray Hill townhouse from her estranged father. Alicia would love to destroy the building and with it memories of childhood sexual abuse she suffered there, but she is prevented by her slimy half-brother, Thomas, who offers to buy the house for an outrageous sum of money and whom she suspects is responsible for the violent deaths of everyone she hires to dispose of it. Jack eventually teases out the intricate thread that binds Thomas, his secret Saudi Arabian backers, an enigmatic Japanese spy and Alicia’s secret shame to the property, but not without considerable help from fortuitous coincidences, lucky deductions and unlikely motives. Wilson (Deep as the Marrow) tries to prop up the shaky logic of his tale with preachy attacks against drug abuse, child pornography and parental irresponsibility, but these issues are too weighty for his pulpy villains and strained plot to bear. Jack still thrills with cliffhanger escapes and ingenious snares for the blundering bad guys, but he emerges from this novel less a hero than a hostage to its social consciousness.

The End Of Faith - Sam Harris

Sam Harris cranks out blunt, hard-hitting chapters to make his case for why faith itself is the most dangerous element of modern life. And if the devil’s in the details, then you’ll find Satan waiting at the back of the book in the very substantial notes section where Harris saves his more esoteric discussions to avoid sidetracking the urgency of his message.
Interestingly, Harris is not just focused on debunking religious faith, though he makes his compelling arguments with verve and intellectual clarity. The End of Faith is also a bit of a philosophical Swiss Army knife. Once he has presented his arguments on why, in an age of Weapons of Mass Destruction, belief is now a hazard of great proportions, he focuses on proposing alternate approaches to the mysteries of life. Harris recognizes the truth of the human condition, that we fear death, and we often crave “something more” we cannot easily define, and which is not met by accumulating more material possessions. But by attempting to provide the cure for the ills it defines, the book bites off a bit more than it can comfortably chew in its modest page count (however the rich Bibliography provides more than enough background for an intrigued reader to follow up for months on any particular strand of the author’ musings.)

Harris’ heart is not as much in the latter chapters, though, but in presenting his main premise. Simply stated, any belief system that speaks with assurance about the hereafter has the potential to place far less value on the here and now. And thus the corollary — when death is simply a door translating us from one existence to another, it loses its sting and finality. Harris pointedly asks us to consider that those who do not fear death for themselves, and who also revere ancient scriptures instructing them to mete it out generously to others, may soon have these weapons in their own hands. If thoughts along the same line haunt you, this is your book.–Ed Dobeas –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Odd Girl Out - Rachel Simmons

There is little sugar but lots of spice in journalist Rachel Simmons’s brave and brilliant book that skewers the stereotype of girls as the kinder, gentler gender. Odd Girl Out begins with the premise that girls are socialized to be sweet with a double bind: they must value friendships; but they must not express the anger that might destroy them. Lacking cultural permission to acknowledge conflict, girls develop what Simmons calls “a hidden culture of silent and indirect aggression.”
The author, who visited 30 schools and talked to 300 girls, catalogues chilling and heartbreaking acts of aggression, including the silent treatment, note-passing, glaring, gossiping, ganging up, fashion police, and being nice in private/mean in public. She decodes the vocabulary of these sneak attacks, explaining, for example, three ways to parse the meaning of “I’m fat.”

Simmons is a gifted writer who is skilled at describing destructive patterns and prescribing clear-cut strategies for parents, teachers, and girls to resist them. “The heart of resistance is truth telling,” advises Simmons. She guides readers to nurture emotional honesty in girls and to discover a language for public discussions of bullying. She offers innovative ideas for changing the dynamics of the classroom, sample dialogues for talking to daughters, and exercises for girls and their friends to explore and resolve messy feelings and conflicts head-on.

One intriguing chapter contrasts truth telling in white middle class, African-American, Latino, and working-class communities. Odd Girl Out is that rare book with the power to touch individual lives and transform the culture that constrains girls–and boys–from speaking the truth. –Barbara Mackoff