The Wrath of Cons - Robert Kroese

   2018; 177 pages.  Book 4 (out of 4) in the “Starship Grifters” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Science Fiction; Spoof.  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

 

    Rex Nihilo unabashedly loves his job!  Of course, the fact that its potential payoffs are huge is just an added bonus.  Rex is a burglar/con artist, and he’s very good at it.  He’s often found working on several jobs simultaneously.

 

    There are claims that Rex is the greatest shyster in the galaxy.  Okay, most of those claims were made by Rex himself, but no one is arguing with him.  Alas, there’s now another contender for that title.  Some people call him “The Unpinchable Hannibal Pritchett", others call him “PP”, which is short for another moniker he likes to use: “the Platinum Pigeon”.

 

    Hannibal Pritchett has just stolen the most sought-after secret in the Universe, something called “the Shiva Plans”, from the most powerful bad guy in the Universe, The Malarchian Primate, who wants them back.  Move over, Rex, there’s a new top-tier shyster in town.  Maybe you could steal those plans back.  You could get in good graces with the Malarchians and eliminate your top rival at the same time.

 

    Or even better, maybe you can scam all of them.

 

What’s To Like...

    The Wrath of Cons is the fourth installment (but also sometimes listed as “Book Three” because there’s a “Book Zero”) in Robert Kroese’s superb sci-fi spoof “Rex Nihilo Adventures” series, which is sometimes also called the “Starship Grifters Universe” series.  The story is told from the first-person POV, that of “Sasha”, Rex’s girl-Friday, moral compass, and a robot, since her name is an acronym for Self-Arresting near-Sentient Heuristic Android. 

 

    Acronyms are just one of many recurring witticisms in this series, with other examples being APPLE, GASP, AGNES, NARATR, and my favorite, SHAMBLERS.  You can find out what those all stand for, as well as the contraction “Sp’ossels”, by reading this book.  The mangling of names is another recurring theme; in earlier books Rex came up with oodles of variations for “Sasha”, here the “Platinum Pigeon” is repeatedly and hilariously abused.

 

    I enjoyed the literary nods to The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, the Brontë sisters, and Dune.  The phenomenon known as the “Wandering Wornhole” (aka “the double double-U”) was a nice touch to the story.  There are lots of alien races and evil groups to meet and run away from, a half-dozen planets to try not to die on, plus all sorts of sci-fi geeky tools and weapons to learn to use.

 

    Robert Kroese comes up with lots of plotlines to keep the reader’s interest and whet Rex’s appetite for greed.  Those Shiva Plans aren’t the only document worth stealing, there are goods ranging from zontonium to suddenly-inhabitable planets to fence, a lifeless planet (Earth) to eschew, that conniving rival con artist to dispose of (or ally with if you can’t beat him), some Wizard-of-Oz-ish “gifts” to request for someone or something called “The Narrator”, and if you’re Sasha, sentience rights for all robots to strive for.

 

    There’s only a smattering of cussing (14 times in the first 50%) in the book, and no adult situations that I recall.  Most of the cussing situations are handled via LOL phrases such as “lying skorf-rat”, “duplicitous flaffle-herder”, “blamp-turfer”, and “for Space’s sake”.  I loved those!

 

    The ending is good; albeit a bit over-the-top, but that’s okay in a genre like this.  It leaves the door open for further adventures in this series, but I doubt that will happen.  More on this in a bit.  The Wrath of Cons is both a standalone novel as well as part of a series.  I’ve been reading the stories in publication order (Book 1, Book 2, Book Zero, Book Three), but that probably isn’t necessary.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 63 ratings and 32 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.12/5 based on 184 ratings and 21 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “Sasha,” Rex said, “most men lead lives of quiet desperation.  But not us.  You know why?  Because we were born for greater things.”

    “I wasn’t born at all, sir.”

    “Manufactured, then.  Don’t interrupt me.”

    “Yes, sir.”

    “We were born and/or manufactured for greater things.  We have a purpose.  A destiny.  And nothing can keep us from that destiny, Sasha.  Not even jelly donuts with sprinkles, as delicious as those may be.  (loc. 141)

 

    After staring at the cave wall for a while, he opened and closed his mouth several times, smacking his lips together loudly, and then said, “My mouth tastes like a Valorkkian muck-beast’s back side.  Sasha, what did I tell you about letting me drink more than five shots of Ragulian whiskey?”

    For a moment I was too stunned to reply.  The others were all frozen, staring at Rex.

    “Not to, sir,” I managed at last.  “Sir, are you okay?  Are you really back?”

    “Back from where?” he said, looking around the cave.  “Space, I could use a drink.  Sasha, pour me six shots of Ragulian whiskey.”  (loc. 3483)

 

Kindle Details…

    The Wrath of Cons presently goes for $4.99 at Amazon, as do the other three books in the series.  Robert Kroese has three dozen or so other e-books for your reading pleasure, the majority of which are in fantasy/sci-fi series, and none of which I’ve yet read.  They range in price from $0.99 to $13.99.

 

“Chimps rule, humans drool.”  (loc. 1163)

    Like the other books in this series, The Wrath of Cons is a fast, light, fun read where the focus is first and foremost on spoofery and entertainment, not things like character development and storyline continuity.

 

    Hence my only quibble with the book is the way the plot threads were handled.  When you look at the half-dozen or more plotlines listed earlier, none of them get resolved in the book.  Even the “con artist competition” which the title alludes to.

 

    I suspect that Robert Kroese originally planned to tackle these in the next book, but that’s never happened.  The Wrath of Cons was published 3½ years ago (October 2018), since then the author has been concentrating on a “cranky libertarian sci-fi series” (his words, not mine) called “Mammon”.  So far, he’s published two novels in it, plus a short story collection, with the third novel due out any day now.

 

    Sadly, I think this means we’ve seen the last of Rex and Sasha.

 

    7 Stars.  My quibble should not be misconstrued as a red flag.  When watching a Three Stooges skit, we don’t complain that the characters are shallow and the storyline is full of holes.  We just sit back and allow ourselves to be amused and entertained.  And in that respect, The Wrath of Cons succeeds nicely.

Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know - Serhy Yekelchyk

   2020; 185 pages (of text, anyway).  Author: Serhy Yekelchyk.  Part of a 131-book set called the “What Everyone Needs to Know” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Political History; Ukraine; War; Political Science; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9½*/10.

 

    That war between Ukraine and Russia sure is in the news a lot lately.  Russia seems to be the one doing all the invading, although I never did read what their justification is.

 

    I vaguely remember Russia pulling this sort of stunt a few years back.  They took over and then annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.  I think they said it was because all the citizens there were Russians, although that doesn’t make much sense.

 

    The recent Russian assault on Kyiv was a failure, and now they’re concentrating on invading a region called Donbas.  It sounds like they claim its inhabitants are also mostly Russians.  Weird.

 

    Oh well, it’s a long way from the USA, so why should I care?  I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?  Hmm, I guess that would be Russia opting for the nuclear option, wiping out all of Europe and America, followed by our nuclear retaliation, wiping out all of Russia, China, and the rest of Asia.

 

    Y'know, it might behoove everyone to study up on the situation in Ukraine.

 

What’s To Like...

    Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know is divided into seven sections, namely:

1. Why Ukraine? (pg. 1, 5 q.)

2. The Land and the People (pg. 13, 4 q.)

3. The Making of Modern Ukraine (pg. 24, 16 q.)

4. Ukraine After Communism (pg. 56, 11 q.)

5. The Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan (pg. 78, 13 q.)

6. Russia’s Annexation of the Crimea and the War in Donbas (pg. 104, 16 q.)

7. The War in Ukraine as an International Issue (pg. 140, 17 q.)

 

    Serhy Yekelchyk makes clever use of a question-and-answer format for each section. As shown above, the sections, and the number of questions per section, are not of equal length.  I was surprised by how well that worked, and although I’d like to read a book on the complete history of Ukraine at some point, what I’m really interested in right now is the historical and political reasons that have resulted in the present-day Russia-Ukraine conflict, and what the NATO powers should be doing about it.  This book succeeds nicely in that regard.

 

    The author is Ukrainian (now living in Canada), and as expected, this book has a pro-Ukrainian slant.  In fairness however, it’s hard to give a pro-Russian spin to their invasions of the Ukraine, and Serhy Yekelchyk does present a “warts and all” account of Ukraine since they gained independence after the USSR broke up.  Corruption was rampant, and ballot-stuffing, bribery, embezzlement, and nepotism were all “business as usual” for the first two decades.  Things marginally improved when Poroshenko was elected in 2014, then took a quantum leap forward with Zelensky’s meteoric rise in 2019, although even there, Yekelchyk details some of the lessons learned during the early days of Zelensky’s tenure.

 

    Places in the book are given in the Ukrainian spelling, so the capital city is spelled “Kyiv” and not “Kiev” (and pronounced “Keev”), and the southern seaport is spelled with one 'S': "Odesa".  I was amazed that Mennonites crop up in Ukraine’s history, and recognized the name Vitalii Klitschko, a former Heavyweight Boxing Champion who is now an important Ukrainian politician.

 

    There are some interesting tie-ins to American politics.  Dr. Yekelchyk addresses the thorny issue of whether (and how much) Russia interfered in the 2016 US elections, as well as the “Hunter Biden Affair”, repeatedly touted by Trump during that campaign.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.4/5 based on 72 ratings and 8 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.97/5 based on 375 ratings and 54 reviews

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Volte-face (n.) : a complete and abrupt turnaround in attitude, opinion, or position.

Others: Autochthonous (adj.); Kleptocratic (adj.); Lustration (n.).

 

Excerpts...

    When mass protests began in 2014, the Yanukovych clique employed a familiar strategy of framing the unrest as an identity conflict, a war against Russian culture in Ukraine.  Yet, they soon lost control over the genie they summoned when Putin’s Russia marched in to “protect” its “compatriots”.  It mattered little whether the latter even wanted to be protected, for on the eve of the war, opinion polls in the Donbas showed that only about a third favored separating from Ukraine and joining Russia.  The conflict quickly shifted its focus from building a multicultural Ukraine to rebuilding a greater Russia.  (loc. 1997)

 

    On New Year’s Eve, (…) the popular comedian Volodymyr Zelensky announced on television his intention to participate in the election.  Zelensky represented the direct opposite of establishment candidates — he had zero political experience and the mien of an honest everyman.  A successful entrepreneur, he rose to fame as the star of an unpretentious Russian-language comedy television show, but he also possessed the Charlie Chaplin-like charisma of a “little man” refusing to accept this world’s injustices.  (loc. 3138)

 

Kindle Details…

    Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know currently sells for $8.57 at Amazon, but I gratefully snatched it up  when it was discounted for one day to a mere $0.10.  There is a companion volume in the What Everyone Needs to Know series titled The Conflict in Ukraine; which goes for $8.79, but it’s just the earlier version of this book.

 

 

“Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire.”  (loc. 1255)

    I can’t think of much to nitpick about in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know.  The book was published in 2015, but Serhy Yekelchyk periodically added updates to the text, including things like the impact of the coronavirus pandemic; then issued a new version in 2020.  Be aware, however, that the 2022 invasions by Russia are not included, even in this updated version.  This doesn’t bother me since no one knows just how that’s going to turn out.

 

    Amazon indicates this is a 230-page book, but the text ends at page 184 (76% Kindle), with the next 25 pages devoted to Notes, Further Reading, and an extensive Index.  Even including all those add-ons, the e-book version still ends at page 209.  Accessing the map is clunky (you can’t make South point downward), but I didn’t find that particularly irksome.  The footnotes work well, but they just simply reference Yekelchyk’s sources listed in the Notes section.

 

    9½ Stars.  Up until the 2022 invasions by Russia, news about Ukrainian current events here in the West has been sporadic.  The 2004 Orange Revolution got decent coverage, but then Ukraine faded into obscurity until the 2013/14 Euromaidan protests.  I was looking for a book that would give some continuity to Ukraine’s recent history, and Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know did exactly that.  I strongly suspect Serhy Yekelchyk will continue to update and revise this book as the present war plays out and I'm looking forward to the insight he imparts to it.

The Bastard of Istanbul - Elif Shafak

   2007; 366 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Turkish Literature; Historical Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    Say hello to Asya Kazanci.  She’s a Turk, lives in Istanbul, and is the daughter of Zeliha Kazanci, whom she calls “Auntie”.  She doesn’t know who her father is, nor does anyone else except Zeliha, who isn’t telling.

 

    Say hello to Armanoush Tchakhmakhchian.  She’s an Armenian-American who splits her time between Tucson, where her American mother, Rose, lives; and San Francisco, where her Armenian dad, Barsam, lives.  Rose and Barsam are divorced.

 

    The odds of Asya and Armanoush ever meeting are very slim, since neither one has ever visited, nor has any plans of visiting each other’s country.  And if somehow that happened, the odds of them — one a Turk, the other an Armenian — becoming friends are even slimmer.

 

    But since they’re the two main protagonists in The Bastard of Istanbul, I’m betting they'll somehow overcome those long odds.

 

What’s To Like...

    The book's title is explained early on and is brutally straightforward: if you’re a fatherless-child in Istanbul, you will be labeled a bastard.  Asya copes with this relatively well, but her family situation is still weird. The men in the Kazanci clan all die at an early age, mostly in their early 40s.  Thus Asya grows up among a group of "Aunties", including one who’s actually her mother.  Armanoush's family situation is also weird; she's surrounded by Aunties when she’s in San Francisco, and when she in Tucson, she's the typical rebellious teen, resenting both her mother and her stepfather, Mustafa, Rose’s second husband, and who’s a Turk, not an Armenian.

 

    With one exception, the eighteen chapters in the book all have a food, spice, or grain heading (Cinnamon, Garbanzo Beans, Wheat, Orange Peels, etc.), each of which somehow get worked into the chapter’s events.  The lone exception is the last chapter, which has a chemical title, Potassium Cyanide.  It would be a spoiler to reveal how that figures into the story.

 

    The story is set in two time periods: 2005 (the present) and 1915, and three places – Istanbul, San Francisco, and Tucson, with present-day Istanbul being the predominant one.  I chuckled at the climate description of Tucson (“the weather in Arizona is always nice, you know, nice and sunny”).  I live in Arizona, and can assure you that our “sunniness” is NOT nice when the daytime high temperatures are above 100°F, which is about the half the year.

 

    I thoroughly enjoyed getting a feel for daily life in Istanbul, including doing things such as: listening to Madonna and Johnny Cash on the radio, fishing from a bridge while holding an umbrella when it’s raining, taking ballet classes, smoking pot and wearing hippie skirts, going to tattoo parlors, and drinking milk from glass bottles or having a cherry-vanilla diet coke.  I also learned how to foresee my future via tarot cards and/or pouring lead, and protecting myself via evil-eye beads..

 

    The storyline held my interest, and Elif Shafak’s writing style delighted my vocabulary tastes in three different languages: Turkish, Armenian, and English, with a few examples given in the next section.  I learned about Milan Kundera and Mesrop Mashtots, the recipe for Ashure, and how funerals are different in Turkey compared to here.  I also liked the way Elif Shafak worked a “is it natural or supernatural?” aspect into the story, via a pair of djinni that are at Auntie Banu’s beck and call.

 

    The ending is good and features a twist or two to keep you on your toes.  Justice prevails, although it isn't meted out by heavenly agents.  The Bastard of Istanbul is a standalone novel without a sequel, although I for one would really like to know more about what comes next in life for Asya and Armanoush.  According to Wikipedia, the book was originally written in English, despite Elif Shafak being Turkish.  I’m in awe of anyone who can write a bestselling novel in their “second language”.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Simit (n., Turkish) : a crispy sesame-seed coated bagel.

Others: Konak (n., Turkish); Dipsomaniac (n.); Mordant (adj.); Concomitantly (adv.), Bolshie (adj., British); Odar (n., Turkish); Oluevi (n., Turkish).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.2/5 based on 1,437 ratings and 359 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.86/5 based on 44,393 ratings and 4,853 reviews

 

 

Excerpts...

    “What are you listening to?” Armanoush asked loudly.

    “Huh?” Asya shouted, “Johnny Cash!”

    “Oh, sure!  What are you reading?”

    “Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy,” the same loud, steady voice replied.

    “Isn’t that a bit irrational too?  How can you listen to music and concentrate on existential philosophy at the same time?”

    “They square perfectly,” Asya remarked.  “Johnny Cash and existential philosophy, they both probe the human soul to see what’s inside, and unhappy with their findings, they both leave it open!”  (loc.2858)

 

    “Look, the Armenians in the diaspora have no Turkish friends.  Their only acquaintance with the Turks is through the stories they heard from their grandparents or else from one another.  And those stories are so terribly heartbreaking.  But believe me, just like in every nation, in Turkey too there are good-hearted people and bad people.  It is as simple as that.  I have Turkish friends who are closer to me than my flesh-and-blood brother.  And then there is, of course” —he lifted his glass and signaled toward Auntie Zeliha — “this crazy love of mine.”  (loc. 3726)

 

Kindle Details…

    The Bastard of Istanbul sells for $9.99 at Amazon right now.   Elif Shafak offers nine other e-books in English, ranging in price from $9.45 to $13.99.  Eight of them are novels, the other one is a non-fiction book, titled Black Milk.

 

“The oppressor has no use for the past.  The oppressed has nothing but the past.”  (loc. 3810)

    I can't think of anything to gripe about in The Bastard of Istanbul, but I love reading both historical fiction in general and Turkish literature in particular.  But prospective readers should know that, although the cussing is light (just 12 swear words in the first 50% of the book!), a number of non-cozy themes are encountered, including rape, abortions, suicide, divorce, incest, and Armenian-Turkish relations.

 

    That last one may sound ticky-tacky, but it isn’t.  In the book’s “Acknowledgements” section, Elif Shafak writes:

 

    “Between the Turkish edition and the English edition of this novel in 2006, I was put on trial for “denigrating Turkishness” under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.  The charges that were brought against me were due to the words that some of the Armenian characters spoke in the novel: I could have been given up to a three-year prison sentence, but the charges were eventually dropped.”

 

    For the record, I thoroughly appreciated the amount of attention given to issue of Turkish-Armenian relations in The Bastard of Istanbul.  I was aware of its historical causes, but had no idea it was still such a divisive topic today.

 

    9 Stars.  I have one other novel by Elif Shafak on my Kindle, The Architect’s Apprentice.  I was worried that I’d find The Bastard of Istanbul too "romantic" for my reading tastes, but that turned out to not be the case.  I think I'll go look for more of her books at my local bookstores.

Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris

   2006; 324 pages.  Book 6 (out of 13) in the (completed) “Sookie Stackhouse” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Paranormal Mystery; Gothic Romance; Vampires.  Overall Rating : 6½*/10.

 

    It’s a sad time.  Sookie’s cousin, Hadley, is dead, a stake driven through her heart, and it now falls to Sookie to make a trip to New Orleans to clean out Hadley’s apartment.

 

    Before Hadley's demise she had a pretty high-ranking position: she was the consort to the queen of the Louisiana vampires, Sophie-Anne Leclerq, who recently married the Vampire King of Arkansas, Peter Threadgill.  Like many royal marriages, it’s an arrangement of convenience, not of love.

 

    Sophie-Anne and Hadley were close.  Extremely close.  Perhaps even embarrassingly close in the eyes of Sophie's new husband.  Particularly if a certain item, given by the King to his bride and presently rumored to be missing turns up somewhere else.

 

    So be on the lookout when you’re going through things at Hadley’s apartment, Sookie.  And be careful if you find anything that looks a bit …um… regal.  Someone may be willing to kill for it.

 

What’s To Like...

    Definitely Dead is the sixth book in Charlaine Harris’s "Sookie Stackhouse" series, which I’ve thus far been reading in order.  Vampires take center stage here, with Sookie once again reluctantly getting involved in their affairs.

 

    The shape-shifting weres (as in “werewolves”, “werepanthers”, “werefoxes”, etc.) are also around, and it was nice to also see demons, including “half-demons” and “semi-demons”, and fairies getting some ink.  I was especially delighted when a witch or four showed up, and it’s always a pleasure to have Bubba show up, even if he's just making a cameo appearance.

 

    There are plenty of plotlines to keep Sookie busy and the reader turning the pages.  Children get lost, pregnancies lead to complications, The family of the late Debbie Pelt still wants answers about her disappearance, messengers get waylaid, and all sorts of people – dead and undead – are way too interested in what’s in Hadley’s apartment.  Also the recurring theme of who Sookie should give her heart to (metaphorically, not literally) – Eric or Bill – now gets a bit more complicated with the emergence of a third suitor.

 

    I enjoyed the music nods to No Doubt, NIN, Eminem, and Usher, as well as the mention of two favorite "undead" songs: “After Midnight” (see below) and “Bad Moon Rising”.  Sookie gets a genealogical jolt late in the book that helps explain why undead males seem to always be attracted to her.  And it’s always fun to see Tarot cards being used.

 

    The ending is suitably exciting, if a bit straightforward.  Sookie saves the day and most, but not all, of the plot threads are resolved.  The book’s title is referenced a couple of times, but mostly it’s just a general caveat about declaring someone dead in a world where all sorts of undead possibilities exist.  There is some cussing, but not a lot: I counted 37 instances in the whole book, the majority of which occurred in the later chapters.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.7/5 based on 1,640 ratings and 560 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.01/5 based on 198,265 ratings and 4,148 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “The boss wants to see you,” she said.  “I’m calling from his office.”

    Eric’s office, in the back of his club, Fangtasia, was well soundproofed.  I could barely hear KDED, the all-vampire radio station, playing in the background: Clapton’s version of “After Midnight”.

    “Well, lah-de-dah.  He’s too lofty to make his own phone calls?”

    “Yes,” Pam said.  That Pam—literal-minded was the phrase for her.  (pg. 32)

 

    Somewhere close, there was a lot of hostility and evil intent.  We left the sidewalk to cross the street to the parking lot.  I gripped Quinn’s arm and then let it go so we could clear for action.

    “Something’s wrong,” I said.

    Without replying, Quinn began scanning the area.  He unbuttoned his suit coat with his left hand so he could move without hindrance.  His fingers curled into fists.  Since he was a man with a powerful protective urge, he stepped ahead of me, in front of me.

    So of course, we were attacked from behind.  (pg. 96)

 

“You look better than a Happy Meal to a three-year-old.”  (pg. 276)

    I had a couple of quibbles with Definitely Dead, mostly with the storytelling.

 

    The book starts out slow, as we get reintroduced to all sorts of secondary characters who frankly will not play any part in the story, including The Fellowship of the Sun, a group of baddies from earlier books in the series.  Backstories are given, acquaintances are made, but unless this is your first book in this series, it's all old news and doesn't lead anywhere.

 

    The same holds true for several of the plot threads.  A little boy goes missing, Sookie’s telepathic talent saves the day.  Jason’s werepanther girlfriend has had a miscarriage and is in desperate need of medical help, Sookie comes through with the discreet, paranormal medical connections.  I kept waiting to see how both of these would later impact the main storyline, but they never did.  Frankly, after a hundred pages, I still had no idea what the main storyline was.

 

    Then there’s Hadley.  How come I can’t remember anything about her?  Well it turns out she'd never appeared in any of the previous books in the series.  She and her fatal backstory were introduced in a one-off short story titled One Word Answer, published elsewhere in a gothic anthology magazine.  Unless you happened to have also read that magazine, Hadley will blindside you.

 

    It almost felt like Charlaine Harris came up with this great idea for a plotline, then realized it was only good for 150 pages, so she padded it with all sorts of tangents and backstories to turn it into a full-length novel.

 

    6½ Stars.  Definitely Dead may be filled with filler, but it still does fine as a beach read or airport novel.  High-brow it isn’t; highly-entertaining it is.

Homo Deus - Yuval Noah Harari

   2017; 398 pages.  Full Title: Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.  Book 2 (out of 2) in the series “A Brief History”.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Speculative Futurism; Anthropology; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    There’s no doubt about it.  We Homo Sapiens are at the top of the food chain.  We are the kings of the hill, the crown of creation, and the top dogs.  The only question is: where do we go from here?

 

    Maybe we’ve reached the peak of evolution, maybe not.  But if we’re still evolving, what direction are we heading?  We’re getting taller and less hairy, that much is evident.  But as a species, are we getting more intelligent anymore?

 

    The rest of the animal kingdom view and fear us as gods.  But once upon a time, that was true of the dinosaurs, and look where they are today.  Is there anything we can do to help us remain the dominant species on Earth?

 

    In 2014, Israeli author Yuval Noah Harari came out with Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.  In it, he explains how we Homo Sapiens progressed from being just another ape in the jungle to the top of the pecking order here on Earth.  Hmm, he might be able to give us some educated insight as to where we go from here.

 

What’s To Like...

    After a 1-chapter introduction, Yuval Noah Harari divides the remaining 10 chapters of Homo Deus into three sections:

Part 1: Homo Sapiens Conquers the World (pg. 71, at 18% Kindle)

Part 2: Homo Sapiens Gives Meaning to the World (pg. pg. 155, at 35% Kindle)

Part 3: Homo Sapiens Loses Control (pg. 281, at 59% Kindle)

 

    In a nutshell, Part 1 details how we separated our species from the rest of the animal world, Part 2 details what we did when we got to the top, and Part 3 details what we’re doing today to maintain and expand our dominating position.  The text comes with a fair number of footnotes and pictures; I’m happy to report they all worked easily and smoothly.  The text is incredibly free of cussing, I counted only six instances in the entire book – three “damns” and three “hells”.

 

    Yuval Harari is careful to mention several times that he isn’t presenting his views as some sort of prophecy; he’s simply laying out one set of possibilities.  The reader may or may not agree with what he proposes, but his points are most certainly thought-provoking, and will quite likely initiate a reevaluation of the reader's attitudes and beliefs.

 

    The chapters are fairly long, averaging about 36 pages, but they are subdivided into shorter sections that often have catchy titles.  Some examples are: Who’s Afraid of Charles Darwin?, A Brief History of Lawns, Is Beethoven Better than Chuck Berry?, Who Are I?, and I Smell Fear.

 

    The book is written in English, not American, but I didn’t find that distracting.  It just means you can baulk at something for ever even if you’re ageing or skilful, hop onto aeroplanes, hope you don’t get diarrhoea, and pay for things with roubles.  I learned some new acronyms: FOMO ("Fear Of Missing Out"), and WEIRD ("Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic").  That last one describes the type of test subject that’s almost invariably been used in brain studies.

 

    The last chapter is Yuval Harari’s guess at where Homo Sapiens is headed.  It involves something he calls Dataism, which the author describes as “the worship of data”, and can be viewed as either exciting or frightful, depending on your mindset.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 13,680 ratings and 3,619 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.52/5 based on 3,377 ratings and 620 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Conflating (v.) : combining (two or more texts, ideas, etc.) into one.

Others: Congeries (n., singular); Diktat (n.).

 

Excerpts...

    For the first time in history, more people die today from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals combined.  In the early twenty-first century, the average human is far more likely to die from bingeing at McDonald’s than from drought, Ebola, or an al-Qaeda attack.  (loc. 369)

 

    Today in the US more people read digital books than printed ones.  Devices such as Amazon’s Kindle are able to collect data on their users while they are reading.  Your Kindle can, for example, monitor which parts of a book you read quickly, and which slowly; on which page you took a break, and on which sentence you abandoned the book, never to pick it up again.  (Better tell the author to rewrite that bit.)  (loc. 5753)

 

Kindle Details…

    Homo Deus currently costs $13.49 at Amazon.  The prequel, Sapiens, goes for $14.99.  You can save yourself a couple of bucks by buying them in a 2-book bundle for $22.49.  Sapiens is also available as a two-volume “graphic” version; those will run you $19.99 apiece.

 

For millions of years we were enhanced chimpanzees.  In the future, we may become oversized ants.  (loc. 6057)

    I only have one thing to quibble about in Homo Deus: overall, the tone of the book is kind of a downer.

 

    For instance, here’s a list of things Yuval Harari doesn’t like: Gods-&-Religions, Humanism, Monotheism, Liberalism, Nazism, Fascism, Industrialization (*), Agriculturalization (*), Communism, Individualism (#), Free Will (#), AI, Google, Facebook, and something called Transhumanism.  Items marked (*) are covered in greater detail in his first book; items marked (#) are "isms" that he doesn’t believe exist.

 

    And here’s a list of things Yuval Harari likes:  Hunting-Gathering (*), and Dataism.

 

    8½ Stars.  The tone of Homo Deus may be negative, but I found it to be a treasure trove of facts, trivia, and things to ponder about concerning mankind's future.  It doesn’t quite measure up to Sapiens, but I think that's unavoidable because, whereas Sapiens focuses on the factual past, Homo Deus focuses on a speculative future.  Kudos to Yuval Noah Harari for daring to undertake such a challenge.

Crossing Worlds - Zoe Saadia

   2012; 184 pages.  Book 2 (out of 7) in the series “The Rise of the Aztecs”.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Mesoamerica; Historical Fiction; Native American Literature.   Overall Rating: 8/10.

 

    The dreaded Tepanecs are at the gates of Huexotzinco!

 

    Well okay, that’s not quite true yet.  But they have conquered the nearby altepetl (think “city-state”) of Texcoco, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where they will attack next, especially since the heir to the Texcoco throne, a youth named Coyotl, is currently hanging out with Kuini, one of the sons of the Huexotzinco War Leader.

 

    Nobody doubts that, if/when the Tepanecs attack, they will be victorious.  The question then is, what should Huexotzinco do?  Maybe they should offer up Coyotl as a human sacrifice to one of their gods.  But since the War Leader has already welcomed Coyotl into the city, such a ritual slaying would be in poor taste.

 

    Maybe it’s time for Huexotzinco to seek allies.  Those upstart Aztecs are just as powerful as the Tepanecs, but right now those two altepetls are chummy.  Coyotl’s people, the Acolhua, would surely love to help fight against the Tepanecs and retake Texcoco, but they’re a conquered tribe.  Besides, they’re a bunch of filthy Lowlanders, and the traditional enemy of Huexotzinco, which are Highlanders.

 

    That doesn’t leave the War Leader many options.

 

What’s To Like...

    Crossing Worlds is the second book in Zoe Saadia’s Rise of the Aztecs series.  I read the first one, The Highlander, three years ago; it is reviewed here.  We followed three protagonists in that book, two of which – Kuini and Coyotl – are in the spotlight once again.  The third, Iztac-Ayotl, gets only scant mention here, but I suspect she will have a major role in Book 3.

 

    The main storyline is summarized in the introduction above.  An invasion by the Tepanecs is nigh, and all the strategic options available to Huexotzinco are both distasteful and of doubtful worth.  Kuini and Coyotl can play pivotal roles in all this, but they seem to be more interested in having dalliances with the local girls and getting into fights with the local men.

 

    It was neat to watch Kuini begin to develop some leadership skills.  He has a hot-headed nature, and expects those around him to carry out his wishes without question.  I suppose that might be useful if you’re next in line for the position of War Leader, but Kuini is currently fifth in line for that, with four older brothers ahead of him.

 

    I read the paperback version of Crossing Worlds, and very much appreciated the inclusion of a map, from which I frequently got my bearings.  I also liked the way cussing is handled here: euphemisms such as dung-eater, excrement-eaters, gods-know-where, and frog-eater replace f-bombs and other vulgarities.  There are a couple rolls-in-the-hay, but they’re tastefully done.

 

    The ending is not particularly exciting, but nevertheless works.  Decisions about how to handle the Tepanecs are made, and Kuini and Coyotl are dispatched to carry out a portion of those plans.  How much they will or will not accomplish awaits the reader in Book 3, The Emperor’s Second Wife, which is on my TBR shelf.  The book closes with a brief Epilogue which zings a neat and unforeseen twist at the reader as a teaser for the sequel.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 81 ratings and 69 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.45*/5, based on 196 ratings and 30 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “The filthy piece of excrement just went on, spilling it all.  First, doubting my strategy against the Tepanecs; then, bringing up the Acolhua heir.  He even had the gall to hint about the doubtful actions of my son, imagine that!  The only thing he neglected was to bring up my foreign origins. (…)  I’m telling you, this filthy piece of dirt is up to something.”

    “He didn’t have to bring up your origins, because you bothered to do it yourself,” said Mino mildly, pursing her lips.  (pg. 90)

 

    “We will not war on each other as long as I live.”

    The warrior’s gaze softened as another of his amused grins flashed.  “Well, then it boils down to getting you back onto the Texcoco throne.”  The grin disappeared.  “Not a small undertaking.  And it’ll take more than a few summers to achieve.  Do you realize that?”

    Coyotl’s heart fell, and it must have reflected upon his face as the man shook his head, his grin spreading back.  “Oh, you didn’t think I’d just gather my warriors and roll down the First Pass toward Texcoco, did you?”

    “No, of course not!” said Coyotl, his jaw tightening.  It was precisely how he had imagined it would happen.  (pg. 125)

 

“Remember this, Netzahualcoyotl.  People don’t have to like you in order to help you.”  (pg. 131)

    There’s little to quibble about in Crossing Worlds, provided you read this as a piece of Historical Fiction and not as an Action-Adventure tale.  The story is set in 1418/19, Cortez and his conquistadors won’t show up for another century.  There is some fighting and five more books where gods-only-know how much blood will be shed, but so far the storyline is mostly a study of three teenaged youths coming to grips with their destined duties.

 

    My main quibble is with the spellchecker errors that are the bane of most self-publishing efforts.  A bunch of typos crop up here, including leaning/learning, tagged/tugged, maintains/mountains, disperse/dispense, brunches/branches, heard/heart, and a character named Mino getting re-named as Mini.  That last one made me chuckle.  Way to blunder, spellchecker.

 

    I found Crossing Worlds to be a fascinating and enlightening read.  I love stories set in the pre-Columbian New World, particularly ones that focus on something besides Aztecs and Mayans offering bloody human sacrifices and/or Spanish armies searching for gold while decimating the native civilizations with swords, saints, and smallpox plagues.  This book and series are a refreshing departure from those overused storylines.

 

    8 Stars.  If you are a history buff, be sure to read the “Author’s Afterword” in the back of the book.  The Rise of the Aztecs is a deeply-researched effort by Zoe Saadia, and I was surprised, after consulting Wikipedia, to see how many of the major characters, places, and events  in Crossing Worlds really were historically accurate.  For me, Historical Fiction is always more fun when the “History” aspect gets just as much attention as the “Fiction”.