Gravity's Rainbow

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

I started this after reading a quote from here about burned out light bulbs. It is a long book. After spending a few hours, I was not impressed and getting sick of the vulgarity, so I put it down. That's about it. (From November 18, 2016)

I am not a fan George Guidall narrations. His voice screams out "boring" and there are too many "empty spaces" as he reads. It doesn't help that the book is long and rambling. The Pulitzer Advisory Board was offended by its content, some of which was described as "'unreadable', 'turgid', 'overwritten', and in parts 'obscene'. That feels accurate.

While it is not being vulgar and scattalogical, there is a bit of World War II science fiction going on. There is some super device that some people want. Nazis and various other people come into play. Perhaps that would be an interesting novella, rather than an afterthought in 37 hours of blather.

Jeffy's Lookin' at Me

Jeffy's Lookin' at Me by Bil Keane

The humor in Family Circus involves the actions of the parents with 4 small children. Much of it is still relatable today. However, some aspects are just not as prevalent. (4 kids would not be common. Kids would not respond on the land line to a boss.) But kids do still say crazy things that seem "correct" to them. There is even a cartoon about a kid sucking all the flavor out of their thumb.

Socks

Socks by Beverly Cleary

A kitten is purchased by a couple. They pamper him. Then they have a baby. This causes many changes in the cat's life. The cat has trouble being "second". He gets in a cat fight and the family helps him get better, showing they still love him. It is told mostly from the cat's point of view. Many of the cat behaviors are very recognizable to anybody that has had a cat.

Sacrament

Sacrament by Camma Larsen Zollinger, illustrated by William Kuhre

This book starts with a discussion of friendship. Then it relates friendship to Christ, baptism and the sacrament. The books was well done and does a good job of presenting religious topics without feeling forced.

My Mama Says There Aren't Any Zombies, Ghosts, Vampires, Creatures, Demons, Monsters, Fiends, Goblins, or Things

My Mama Says There Aren't Any Zombies, Ghosts, Vampires, Creatures, Demons, Monsters, Fiends, Goblins, or Things by Judith Viorst (Author), Kay Chorao (Illustrator)

A kid is afraid of various types of monsters. His mom tells him that these beings don't exist. However, she also tells him other things that end up being incorrect. So, he doesn't know what to trust. The "false" things his mom tells him are minor things like that he is able to carry something that he later drops, the name of one of friends or the directions to his friend's house. (in other words minor items.) In the end, there is a giant monster, but ends up being his mom giving him a hug. The illustrations are all in black and white. The story is something that kids can easily relate to.

The Little Red Hen

 The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone

This is s classic Little Red Hen story. The hen farms the wheat, gathers the wood and does everything needed to make the cake. Dog, Cat and Mouse don't have anything to do with it until the end. The next time around, they are eager to help. This one has the Hen on her own without chicks. The drawings are nice and the story is well paced.

Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

This book takes a few moments to acknowledge that Breakfast of Champions is a trademark of the cereal company. It them spends a lot of time on the ruminations of a dirty old mind. Kilgore Trout appears as do aliens. The idiosyncrasies of what people think is important or offensive all come in to play as Vonnegut tries to push people's buttons. There is a plot here about a car dealer that believes Trout's science fiction is true. However, it feels like the plot is just a vehicle for different bits of satire and observations. 

Rendezvous with Rama

I've had this book title in my head since I remember seeing an add for a Commodore 64 video game. It was a great sounding title, even if I had no idea what the book was about.

The book is set in the not-so-distant future. Humanity occupies multiple planets in the solar system. There are various squabbles, fights and conflicts as would be expected. People tend to identify themselves with the planet (or moon) that they inhabit.

Things get interesting when a strange object is noticed in the sky. It appears to be coming towards the solar system. However, it does not seem right. They discover that it is some type of spacecraft. A group goes to explore it. They discover that it is somewhat alien in origin, but the inhabitants seem to have passed away. They are able to go instead and explore. They spend time exploring and run into some sort of "servant" beings. 

The spacecraft appears to have traveled for millenia. It gets closer and closer to the sun, causing water to melt inside. Some humans from Mercury freak out and attempt to destroy it, yet some of the explorers disable the bomb. The people bail before it gets too close to the sun. They then discover that it was only on a "refueling" stop before it continued on its journal.

This interaction with aliens is a very passive one. Orson Scott Card carried on the "insect-like" aliens further in Ender's Game. In this book, the aliens really didn't care about the humans. They may not have even noticed their presence. This may be similar to an earthly voyage of discovery that landed on a "deserted" island for a fuel stop. They may never have noticed the natives that game to the ship. Perhaps later things would have changed.

The Dark Is Rising: Book 2 of The Dark Is Rising Sequence

While Over Sea, Under Stone was a nice contemporary book with fantasy elements, Dark Is Rising goes all in with good vs. evil fantasy. A kid is an "old one" and must help protect the world from evil. There are other old ones that have been around for centuries. It is mostly fantastical and very little contemporary. I struggled to keep going with the book.

Hellstrom's Hive

Hellstrom's public persona is an insect afficionado that spends most of his time making nature documentaries from his isolated compound in a remote corner of Oregon. The locals pretty much ignore him and let him go about doing what he does. However, the happenings inside this compound are much more complex than first meets the eye. He is part of a community of humans acculturated to an insect-like behavior. Through a number of biochemicals, people are brought into the fold and their behavior is controlled. Breeding is carefully carried out to maximize the most desirable traits. (Breeding with outsiders is also encouraged in order to bring in valuable mutations.) The compound is built primarily underground, with a number of tunnels and elevators leading to different areas, including one area carrying out research in advanced weaponry. Even dead bodies are sent to the vats to become the next meal. Resources are very efficiently used. Anybody that stumbles into the area is often exterminated (and thrown to the vats.)

Into this setting, we have some agents of a super-secret government agency. They managed to uncover portions of the plans for the weapon that were accidentally left on the desk of an MIT library. The first agent was put to the vats, so a new crew was sent out. This crew didn't make it, so another crew came out. A large team ended up descending on the compound, though not many survived. (Hellstrom's compound also had a number of security measures, including radio blockers as well as audio listening and communication equipment.)

The novel ends as Hellstrom's group sets off a major explosion in Asia and the government workers invasion fails. During the story, we find ourselves sympathizing with Hellstrom, in spite of the community that seems to go against the core beliefs of western society.

What could become of this society? Would it eventually encompass all of humanity? We see that the insect-like humans still maintain some of their free-thinking. They occasionally violate hive orders (though is that for the betterment of the hive itself.) They also allow an agent to escape the hive, due to a limited chemical treatment. (He was weaned off the control chemical, but maintained the "member" chemical. Thus, the drones ignored him, even as he retained the ability to act on his own.

The society reminded me a little of the Formics in Orson Scott Card's Ender books. (However, in this case, they are true humans rather than an alien species.)

The book also provides some criticism of the politics of both the left and the right. Being in the early 70s, Hippies and Vietnam would have been on people's minds. The Hive is the hippie commune taken to extreme: everyone is totally free to do what they want - as long as they do it the hive way. The secret government agency is plagued by infighting and internal conflict and ends up seeking its personal goals, rather than what is best for the country.

Time Enough For Love

This is a tedious book that spends long periods rambling about Heinlein's "hippy libertarian" philosophy. Sometimes, he just decides to spits out his personal aphorisms, while at other times, he seems he is just going pseudo-autobiographical.

The book centers around a character who was born in the early 1900s, and is now a few thousand years old, thanks to breeded longevity and rejuvenation. We get some stories of his life, including past marriages and experiences with others. Finally in the end, he travels back in time to view his own early upbringing and attempt to have an affair with his own mother. (While he as a child is hidden away in the back seat of the car.) The time travel here is "immutable". Everything already happened, so time travel can't really change anything - because if it did, it would already have been changed.

The personal relationships in the book represent the Heinlein ideal. Breading is the most important goal. Institutions such as marriage are set up to help protect women and children. Women are demeaned when they seek "equality" with men. Inbreeding and incest or perfectly fine as long as the genetic issues are taken care of. (And he spends plenty of time going over genetic analysis.) We also get multiple partners and breading with clones of oneself. People have become so "enlightened" that they run these breeding experiments on themselves.

While the novel goes off on tangents and explores parts of a futuristic society, it ends conventionally, with the protagonist living with his "family" in the midwest, and going off to serve in World War I. In the end he gets shot. But then gets taken back to the future.

There are bits of good story here. There are also bits of interesting science fiction conjecture. Together that would make a great short novella. Unfortunately, this is one long book with way too much blather.