“44 Horrible Dates” by Eddie Campbell, 2012

“44 Horrible Dates” by Eddie Campbell, 2012

Just as the title spells out, this book is about 44 horrible dates. Each story is short enough that even a cat with attention deficit disorder can complete a story before getting the urge to “play the violin”. For those of you who don’t own, nor have ever seen a cat “playing the violin”, it’s when a cat lifts own leg up over its head up in the air while keeping the other leg down, and licks its private parts for hygiene.  Gross, I know, but some men just love their pussy.

Each short story is a chapter and is titled with the date’s name. At the end of the 2 or 4 page long chapter, the horrible date perpetrator is assigned a witty “A.K.A.”. For example, the first story involves a gentleman named Tim who the author fell quickly enamored with. His infatuation fell short lived due to his beaus’ gastric-winded interruptions throughout the date. The date came and gone like a short gust of wind and the author cleverly nicknamed Tim, “inflatulation”.

The general locale of the horrible dates is and around Los Angeles.  Localites would probably relate to the authors general opinions of the bars, clubs, and restaurants he mentions—Oil Can Harry’s, Roosterfish, Gauntlet (now The Eagle), WeHo, etc.

Some have described this book a “hilarious romp of true life”, while others describe it as an “emotional catharsis for anyone who has ever come home from a horrible date”, but just prefer file the book under, “disaster dates and the snarky queen”. And I say “snarky queen,” only because that is the image my brain involuntarily conjures in my pedantic mind when the stories seem to cross the delicate line of witty back-handed bitchy humor to just plain mean queen territory. And yes dear author Eddie, I took the un-pusillanimous route like you and spoke my mind.  Should I “LOL” that? Oh, I just did. Dastardly!

While I enjoyed this book, as far as I can remember—what can I say, I was vacationing in Palms Springs, sprawled out in the sun whilst some scantily clad boy poured my libations heavy.  I wouldn’t recommend reading it in its entirety in one sitting. It’s a coffee table book, or a beach book. Better yet, a pool book in Palm Springs while the drinks are poured heavily. –Excuse me, I digress.  Read a chapter or two and get a laugh, and when you are done with the entire book, pass it forward to someone who will do the same.

My rating: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5 stars) - I really liked it.

Various Media/Art from the internet:

Author: Eddie Campbell

“I, Robot” by Isaac Asimov,1950

“I, Robot” by Isaac Asimov,1950

“I, Robot” is a collection of nine (9) stories loosely threaded together throughout the life of one scientist, a “Robopsychologist” named Susan Calvin under the employ of U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc. The story is delivered through the narration of a reporter, as told by Susan Calvin in the 21st century.

This novel also shares the name of a movie released in the year 2004, starring Will Smith, called “I, Robot”. The movie was inspired and borrows from “Little Lost Robot”, some of Asimov’s character’s names, and the “Three Laws of Robotics.” The similarities end there and the movie, for the most part, is original from the book.

Each story involves a witty premise in which the “Three Laws of Robotics” are stretched to a breaking point and causes aberrant behavior in the robot, leaving the protagonist(s) in search of logical explanations to solve the problem.

The individual stories share themes of morality, and examine the interactions and relationship between humans and machines from the time when robots were relatively crude mute household appliances to when they grow into lifelike androids indiscernible from humans. Combined, the series of vignettes tell a larger story of Asimov’s history of robotics.

The short stories are:

“Robbie”- A touching story about a little girl’s attachment to her mute, appliancelike robot, is simply splendid and my favorite.

“Runaround” – We meet a pair of field testers of new robot model, Donovan and Powell, who are almost stranded on Mercury when a new robot model has trouble reconciling the Second and Third Laws. The robot is described as seeming to behave intoxicatedly, and with that, sets a farcical tone to the story.

“Reason” – A robot becomes fanatically religious and refuses to believe that weak and frail humans are its creator.

“Catch that Rabbit” – Donovan and Powell troubleshoot a “multiple-robot”, a set of mechanical workers with one master robot controlling six subordinate parts.

“Liar” – A robot factory accidentally creates a mind-reading robot and Susan Calvin tries to determine how this happened. The story also explores what happens when what people say and think (mean) are not the same things.

“Little Lost Robot” – A potentially dangerous military robot whose First Law has been slightly altered is hiding among a shipment of physically identical robots. Susan Calvin tries to determine which robot is the dangerous one.

“Escape” – A mischievous robot send Donovan and Powell unwillingly on an intergalactic test flight. Susan Calvin must convince the jovially mischievous robot into returning them home.

“Evidence” - A short story positing the existence of difference between robots and politicians contains neat twist in the end and ranks in as my second favorite.

“The Evitable Conflict” – Delivered as a conversation between humans analysts, consider the consequences of turning over control of the global economy to the Machines, was for me, dull and uninteresting.

Here, are Asimov’s lasting and famous “Three Laws of Robotics” introduced in this book:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

My rating: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5 stars) - I really liked it.

Related art from various sources on the internet:

“Amped” by Daniel H. Wilson, 2012

“Amped” by Daniel H. Wilson, 2012

In a future reality, the government is implanting technology, in the form of a tiny device into brains of people to correct defects and disabilities, or increase intelligence, or control other augmentations to the body.

However, after some decades, a Supreme Court decision declares "amplified humans", or ”amps”, to be an unprotected class, Owen Gray learns his implant to control his epilepsy makes him not just a second class citizen, but a criminal and a fugitive. And moments before the lab explosion that kills his father, Owen Gray learns that his implanted amp is more than an antiepilepsy device and in fear, flees for his life.

Owen heads for an amp haven in Oklahoma called Eden and meets an ex-military soldier implanted with a zenith-class amp, called Lyle Crosby. The zenith-class amp, was government classified and was bestowed to a select few, turned soldiers into supersoldiers and was secretly given to Owen by his government scientist father.

With the help of the unpredictable and violent Lyle, Owen slowly unlocks the powers of his supercharged zenith-class amp and struggles through acceptance of the possibility of becoming prone to violence.

“Amped” is an action adventure speeding across the landscape of a paranoid society that needed to stop for gas halfway through the novel. The novel had a strong start that left questions that drew me in immediately, a somewhat sputtering middle with thought provoking concepts and intriguing ideas that eventually gain momentum, and a high-impact explosive action ending.

The novel falls on its face a bit, for me, on its social commentary of the world the author painted in this novel. For the hero to be an underdog, the author had to create a society that hated and persecuted amps. Membership into this society means either extreme hatred for amps or be an amp. I just couldn’t buy into it. Where is the gray in this society? Perhaps the author intended Owen Gray to be the representative as suggested by his namesake.

Thoughtful and well-written, like the author’s previous novel Robopocalypse, the tense interplay between humans and machines is provocative and intriguing. The action sequences delivered through its conjured situations that explore boundaries between humankind and its technological creations made up for the, in my view, weak character development and thin plotting.

My rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 out of 5 stars) - I liked it.

Fan Art from various sources on the internet:

 

"Children of the Mind (Ender's Saga #4)" by Orson Scott Card, 1996

"Children of the Mind (Ender's Saga #4)" by Orson Scott Card, 1996


Children of the Mind is the fourth installment and conclusion in the Ender's Game series. Originally the second half of Xenocide, the third installment in the Ender's Game series, it was split into a separate novel.


Jane, the evolved computer artificial intelligence living the computer networks of the Hundred Worlds of the Starway Congress, is racing to find a way to transfer her aiua or soul into another body, human, pequenino, or bugger before the ansible is shut down.


Peter Wiggin, a creation of sorts by Ender, along with Wang-Mu of the planet Path, travel from world to world instantaneously through Jane's newly developed ability of transporting people and ships faster than light. Peter and Wang-Mu hope to convince highly regarded philosophers to sway the Starways Congress to call off the fleet ordered to destroy the planet Lusitania.


Meanwhile, Miro and Val-Jane travel the stars through Jane's new faster-than-light ability to search for colonizable planets for pequeninos, buggers, and Lusitanian humans to escape to in preparation of the impending destruction of the planet Lusitania.


Ela and Quara, two of Ender's adopted children who are brilliant Xenobioligists from Lusitania, travel to a planet where the "descolada" virus may have originated from to try to communicate with the Descoladores, a new and possibly sentient species introduced in this novel, to stop attacking other inhabited worlds.


The blend of science fiction with philosophy was slightly heavy and somewhat detracted from my full enjoyment of the story. The preachiness peppered throughout the book was less of a religious nature, which was predominant in Xenocide, but rather more of mind, body and soul.


Ideas and questions like "what makes a person a person?", and "are you a part of your soul who lives in you and makes you moral being?", or "are you merely a collection of memories?" are presented head on in this book and quite uniquely.


There is a bittersweet feeling that lingers with me after reading the end of the novel. All the outstanding questions, along with minutiae, stemming from the previous three books are resolved with a sense of peace that follows a life of imbroglio. As the saying goes, a good life is a messy life, so goes this novel.


My rating: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5 stars)

“Piper in the Woods” by Philip K. Dick, 1953

“Piper in the Woods” by Philip K. Dick, 1953

Henry Harris, an army doctor on Earth, receive a patient who, after returning from a mission on asteroid Y-3, claims to be a plant. Harris’ diagnosis of post-traumatic stress syndrome was dispelled when a several more soldiers returning from asteroid Y-3 exhibit the same symptoms—the soldiers claim they are plants, they sit in basking in the sun during daylight hours, remain in a catatonic state at nighttime hours, and refuse to perform any kind of work.

Harris travels to asteroid Y-3 and investigates for a cause of the soldier’s conditions and learns from the soldiers of an indigenous people living in the woods called “Pipers”, and that it was the “Pipers” who made the soldiers realize they were plants.

Harris ventures out to the woods and meets an indigene woman. The woman seems gracefully beautiful yet mysterious. She leads him deeper into the wood with promise of a meeting with the Piper.

Harris returns to earth and decides that the “Pipers” were created by the soldiers to cope with their high-pressured military jobs; allowing them to simply “tune out” and relax by turning into plants. Harris contemplates all the work that lies ahead of him as he unpacks his suitcases, which, rather than contain clothes, contain soil from Asteroid Y-3. Harris spreads the soil on the floor, sat squarely in the middle like a plant, and goes to sleep.

This science fiction short story seems fairly straight forward. The characters were relatively well developed given the number of pages. I can see this story as a basis of a Twilight Zone or Outer Limits television episode. I surely would recommend adding this to your reading list of short stories.

My rating: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5 stars)

Here is a link to the full story:http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Piper_in_the_Woods

“The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James, 1898

“The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James, 1898

Told through a third-party narrator, the story is about a governess who is hired to watch over two children, Miles and Flora, in a manor named Bly in Essex. The kids are charming at all accounts with the exception of Miles expelled from school for reasons that are never clear.


Life at Bly proceeds normally until two strangers, later to be identified as Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, start materializing on the grounds of Bly, and then vanishing just as quickly.


We later learn from Mrs. Grose, the person in charge of all things “below stairs”, that Peter Quint, the valet, was Miss Jessel’s hunky stud, and Miss Jessel was the previous governess to the children. The problem is, Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, are both dead.


Throughout the entire book, the governess is the only person who actually sees the two ghosts, or is, for any account, the only person who will admit to seeing the apparitions. For this reason, a plentitude of scholarly discussions, whether this is a ghost story or a story of a mad woman’s downward spiral into dementia, exists.


Personally, I thought of the book as a ghost story because of the fact Mrs. Grose had so easily been able to put a name to the detailed descriptions of the ghosts who the governess describes, but had never seen before. Other readers, though, may disagree on this, and it is very much, I suppose, open to interpretation.


“The Turn of the Screw” is around 120 pages, a short but clever story, and still the author manages to make the two children with angelic exteriors, Miles and Flora, at times seem rather sinister. Were Miles and Flora really aware of the ghosts? Were the children hiding dark secrets of sexual abuse? Did the Miles witness and commit homosexual acts; encouraging other boys at school which led to his expulsion?


All told, I would have to say the novel is an uncommonly good story and is one that tends to stay with the reader (me anyway) even after the final and rather abruptly shocking page has been turned.


My rating: ★★★★★ (5 out of 5 stars)

“Xenocide (Ender’s Saga #3) ” by Orson Scott Card, 1991

“Xenocide (Ender’s Saga #3) ” by Orson Scott Card, 1991

The story takes place on two planets; the Catholic colony world of Lusitania, home of the porcine indigenes known as the pequeninos and the Chinese Taoist colony world of Path, home of genetically modified humans. The human colonists on Lusitania are racing to find a solution to the “descolada”, a virus necessary to the three-stage life cycle of the pequeninos but fatal to human beings, before the Starways Congress fleet to destroy Lusitania arrives.

The introduction of subatomic particles the author has invented called “philotes” links everything together and is utilized by the “ansibles” for faster than light communications in the Ender universe, gives rise to the question of faster than light travel. Within the “ansibles”, “philotes”, and computers of the “hundred worlds”, Jane an evolved artificial intelligence with whom Ender and the other aliens are in communication, comes to question her sentience and attempts to develop faster-than-light travel.

With help from the world of Path, the xenobiologists on Lusitania find the solution to the “descolada” and in part also discovering the solution to the “super obsessive-compulsive disorder gene” problem suffered on Path. And with the help of the other aliens, the buggers and the pequeninos, Jane develops faster than light travel; enabling the physical transport and exchange of the “solutions” between the worlds of Path and Lusitania before the arrival of the Starways Congress fleet.

While themes of duty and absolution pervade the novel, the question of the very nature of life itself is at the heart of the novel. Although Xenocide is long with frequent, irksome, and interminable theological/philosophical interludes and wrestles with fundamental questions of faith and free will, it was quite an enjoyable read.

My rating: ★★★★★ (5 out of 5 stars)




Fan art: