Ministry for the Future

The Ministry for the Future: A Novel by Kim Stanley Robinson

This is a modern version of the classic utopian novel. The author zeroes in on one area they want to change. They propose drastic changes to enter their utopia. They assume everything else will proceed as planned and other areas will only improve for the good. It is comical how many parts were just missed or projected wrongly in old books.

This book starts with a massive heat wave in Indian. It is more than people can handle. People are dying. Indian is decides to act on its own and use geo-engineering to cool the earth. The rest of the world has agreed to reduce carbon, but they are slow to do it. The Ministry for the Future is an organization that is supposed to help drive the earth towards the future. However, eco-terrorist groups seem to have a bigger impact. They assassinate business and political leaders they don't like. They use weapons to take out military bases and polluters. They magically manage to stop before they get too carried away. (They must have some amazing will-power that other revolutionaries have not.) The world then creates a new carbon currency to help reduce emissions. This also encourages massive geoengineering efforts that in the end lead to actual reductions in emissions. The human population becomes increasingly equitable and hardly anyone has kids, with the human population declining significantly.

This Utopia is easy to pick apart right now. The terrorists group would either get out of control or get squashed. It is almost impossible for a terrorist-led revolution to stop at just the right place. The same goes with geo-engineering. Things could quickly get out of hand and lead to an accelerating ice age. Focussing on carbon alone may also miss many other areas of global impact that are much harder to manage. Even human population declines due to external events (like wars and disasters) often result in post-event baby booms equalizing the population. Good thing that this is a book rather than government policy.

The Forgotten Creed: Christianity's Original Struggle against Bigotry, Slavery, and Sexism

The Forgotten Creed: Christianity's Original Struggle against Bigotry, Slavery, and Sexism by Stephen J. Patterson

Primitive Christianity was just a "very inclusive" sect of Judaism. It later morphed into a European state religion that became a key badge of identity to separate Christians from others. This book argues that a lot of the exclusivity came from false interpretations of the works of Paul as well as those creating forged documents in the name of Paul. He also points to early creeds that may have been the base of Paul's teaching. The author also looks at many non-Canonical works to evaluate teachings.

It is an interesting historical approach to putting the Christian teachings in modern ideals. If the church had followed the inclusiveness of Paul's early teachings, the world history would likely have been quite different. However, the difference is most likely that Christianity would have never become the state religion of Rome.   Inclusiveness is often present at the start of a movement, but an identity tends to gradually evolve. Also, why should the teachings of Paul be more important than those of other early church leaders? There have been a number of different writers and editors of the Bible. They each have had their own areas of emphasis. Paul attempted to make the teachings of Jesus more appealing to other groups (in part by not mandating circumcision.) Others made it more appealing to different groups. As a historical exercise, it can be interesting to analyze different viewpoints.

Free Lunch

Poverty is tough. Middle school is tough. Together they are a huge challenge. In this book, Rex Ogle describes the experiences as a sixth grader in Texas. It is written in the style of a middle grade book. (I initially assumed it was a work of fiction.) 

Rex's dad is out of the picture. His mom is now with a new boyfriend and Rex has a much younger half-brother. Rex's mom and step-dad are prone to violence. They are also both out of work at the time. Rex sees his mom pay with food stamps for the first time. She also complains to restaurants in order to get free vouchers. At school. Rex is signed up for the school lunch program for the first time. He is embarrassed to give the lunch lady his name to get free lunch. 

In spite of the poverty, his mother is prideful. She does not like to accept help from her mother. One time her mother visited with a lot of snacks and food for the family. Instead of accepting it, she threw it all away. (This seems like a problem with many assistance mechanisms. People want to be able to be independent, even if in their own way. Working to get fast food vouchers feels may feel ok, while receiving handouts from grandma does not. It is interesting how different feelings are.)

Rex does not have school supplies like others. His parents do not let him play football like his friends. His parents need to pawn the TV and other things to help ends meet. He must sleep in the car one night and then move to the other side of town for government housing. The experience of poverty is not pleasant.

He falls away from some of his elementary school friends. They are playing football. They also start to hang with people that are bad influences. Some of the Christian group try to befriend him. However, one of them comes on too strong with the religion and he doesn't go on. He tries to befriend a guy that also has free lunch, but he doesn't want to. He does become friends with a loner that likes comic books. This friend lives with his dad and step mom, but is much better off.

At the end of the book, his parents both have jobs. They get a Nintendo for Christmas. He gets to go visit his friend's house. It seemed like a happily ever after. But, you do get the feeling it is only temporary.

Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians: Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, Book 6

The original "final book" of the Alcatraz series ended on a downer, but it ended. To work around the bad ending, this "final final book" switches the narrator to Alcatraz's protector, Bastille. We learn that Alcatraz was pretty much "out of it" near the end, and Bastille provides the narrative that gets us towards the fulfilling ending. It also allows for a co-author to take the reigns of story-writing. It is a different character narrating, so we would expect the style to be a little different.

The story continues in the style of the previous books. Alcatraz had broken the talents, seemingly dooming the Smedries and the world to the will of the librarians. Bastille helps the big fight, which includes out-punning a Yak, breaking gravity, flying sharks and an army of kittens battling librarians. Librarians now have Smedry talents, and Bastille gets her longtime desire of being able to battle against talents. The final destruction of the "villain" seems almost too simple. Almost everything ends nicely.

Masterminds: Payback

Project Osiris involved cloning criminal masterminds and bringing them up in a sheltered environment. This was intended to prove that nurture could overcome nature. A few kids escaped. They were on the run to try to understand themselves. They teamed up in various groups to meet their "original". They did see stuff in common with associated mastermind. Eventually the group meets with the original founder of the project who feels regret. They find the group has moved from New Mexico to the Bahamas and they attempt to break them free. There go through all sorts of adventures before the series reaches the conclusion in this book.