Barb's Book Reviews: Review of "The Caves of Steel: The Classic Robot Novel" by Isaac Asimov

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Review of "The Caves of Steel: The Classic Robot Novel" by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov is well known as a science fiction writer and this book is supposed to be a science fiction/detective story "fusion" book. Apparently Asimov wanted to demonstrate that science fiction could meld with other genres (according to the book cover).

The detective partners in the story are a New York detective named Elijah Baley and a very human-looking robot, called R. Daneel Olivaw. But the "detection" seems to consist of the cop just accusing one person after another - he doesn't even question suspects. Not such a good "fusion"... but later books in the series do get better.

Rating: 3 stars

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Leading up to and during World War II, some Jewish children in Europe were hidden with Christian families, or in convents, or in monasteries, or in churches, etc., to protect the youngsters from the Nazis. The idea was for Jewish survivors to retrieve the children after the war. Author Jennifer Rosner, who did extensive research on the subject, and interviewed many people, addresses this topic in her fiction book 'Once We Were Home.' I heard Rosner speak about her novel, and she emphasized the difficult situations that sometimes arose from secreting Jewish children (which only saved a tiny percentage of Jewish kids, by the way). Some 'foster parents' came to love the children as their own and vice versa; some church organizations baptized the children and refused to return them; some Jewish kids came to think of themselves as Christian; etc. For the decimated Jewish population, getting these children back after the war was of paramount importance. Jewish survivors would use bribes, payoffs, lawsuits, or even kidnapping to bring the kids home. Some children were reunited with European families, and some were taken to Israel, to live on kibbutzim. Rosner, who has a Ph.D. in philosophy, observes there wasn't always a 'right thing to do,' as shown in this novel. ***** There are several 'displaced' characters in 'Once We Were Home.' Roger: During World War II, Roger is a smart, inquisitive French schoolboy living in the Convent Sainte Marie de Sion. Roger likes to write stories; enjoys sharing jokes and riddles with his best friend Henri; goes to prayer services morning and evening; attends the convent school; and has a favorite teacher, Sister Brigitte, who encourages Roger to ask questions. Roger's sponsor, a woman named Madame Mercier, tells Roger his Jewish parents took the 'wrong road' and arranges for the boy to be baptized. Roger doesn't comprehend what the 'wrong road' is and wonders about his Jewish family. When World War II is over, Roger's aunt wants him back. The church, determined to save Roger's soul, sends him on the run with a monk, who takes Roger over the snowy mountains (on foot) to Spain. Meanwhile, Roger's aunt petitions the church and the courts again and again and again......

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Author Colin Cotterill, a London-born Renaissance man who lives in Thailand, writes the award-winning Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery series. This book, a humorous suspense novel about two Bangkok movie buffs, is a nice departure for Cotterill. ***** Thirtysomething Bangkok residents Supot and Ali are friends whose prime interest in life is movies. Supot is a lackadaisical mailman and Ali - who's in the midst of writing a screenplay - owns a video rental shop in Bangkok. In Supot's spare time he 'works' (without pay) at Ali's video shop....if you can call it working. Usually Supot and Ali sit in the back of the shop watching and discussing films, about which they are VERY knowledgeable. The two pals extol the virtue of western cinema and western movie stars, and especially love legendary actresses like Marlene Dietrich. Conversely, Supot and Ali bemoan the lack of great Thai movies. The video shop gets about 3 to 4 customers on an average evening, and one night - when a nervous boy with a penciled on mustache comes in, and in a fake deep voice, says the men at his snooker club want a couple of sex films - Ali and Supot can barely contain their mirth. One day a homeless man called Woot comes by the video store with a box of old cassettes he 'found' (stole). Ali agrees to purchase the haul for a few Baht and he and Supot proceed to enjoy the movies. Then a miracle happens. One of the cassettes, a Thai film called 'Bangkok 2010' - which neither man has ever heard of - is SUPERB. It has a compelling storyline, great acting, high production values, and so on. Moreover Supot falls in love with the beautiful lead actress, whose name is Suriluk....and who plays a character called Suriluk......

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Interspersed with discussions about specific plays are miscellaneous chapters, including: Stratford-Upon-Avon; Play; Company; Fireside Ramblings; Rose Theatre; Failure; Rehearsal; Critics; Shakespeare's Language; Audience; Changing Times; Future of Shakespeare; and Advice. In addition the audiobook concludes with a fun 'off the cuff' talk between O'Hea and Dench. Dame Judi Dench chatting with Brendan O'Hea Though I've seen some Shakespeare productions, I'll admit I looked up synopses of the plays being discussed, to familiarize myself with the plots and characters. Thus the book was a twofer for me - Judi Dench's memoir and a bit of a primer on Shakespeare. Prompted by O'Hea, Dench discusses the plays' plots, language, staging, costumes, cast, directors, relevance, mishaps, and more, and Judi is knowledgeable, fun, introspective, philosophical, practical, honest....all kinds of good things. Dench also gives us a glimpse of her personal life, with anecdotes about her parents; her husband Michael (Mikey) Williams, her daughter Finty, and people she's met and worked with during her long career. I'll give examples of the chitchat, to provide a feel for the book. Macbeth Speaking about Lady Macbeth, Dench opines: "Macbeth needs a push, and with the help of the spirits his wife is the one to do it. She is the spur that pricks him on....She's not interested [in being the Queen]....She does it for him....towards what she believes to be his due." Judi Dench (as Lady Macbeth) and Ian McKellan (as Macbeth) in Shakespeare's Macbeth On a light note, thinking about doing the play in Africa, and acting outside in the heat, Judi recalls, "I remember seeing vultures sitting in the trees and I said to the actors, 'For God's sake, twitch when you're dead, they're waiting to eat us."

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This story, about vampyrs (aka vampires) vs. humans, has the vibe of a 19th century novel, but is set in modern times. Vampyrs, who have been declared a protected species in the United States, reside in small colonies in remote areas. By now, most vampyrs live on animal blood and don't bother humans. However, IF a vampyr colony proves dangerous to people, a cull may be authorized by the government. This can only happen after the danger is assessed by a detective from the Forensic Vampyr Anthropology Department (FVAD). In any case, vampyrs have very restricted lives, since they're not permitted to go to regular schools or to get jobs. As one vampire leader observes, "They had so many years to live and yet so little of substance to fill their long lives." Thus vampyrs resent humans and most humans hate and fear vampyrs. ***** As the book opens, Detective Barbara Atkins from the FVAD is on her way to Deadhart, Alaska, a small town close to a vampyr habitat called the Colony. Atkins is being sent to investigate the murder of a 15-year-old human boy named Marcus Anderson, whose blood has been drained and whose ravaged throat is a mess of torn skin and gristle......

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Many people think Misty Copeland, who became a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre in 2015, was American's first Black ballerina. This is incorrect. In 1969, African American danseur Arthur Mitchell founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH), a company that featured Black ballet dancers. Misty Copeland Arthur Mitchell For many years, it was 'common knowledge' that Black dancers belonged in modern dance, not classical ballet. Mitchell explains, "I said to hell with that; I wasn't raised speaking Swahili or doing native dances. Why not classical ballet?" So Mitchell became a danseur in George Balanchine's New York City Ballet, and later founded DTH. Arthur Mitchell Arthur Mitchell instructing a ballerina Dance Theatre of Harlem DTH's five pioneer ballerinas were well known in their time, but subsequently faded from memory. Author Karen Valby, who's White, thought it was time to restore these women - whom she calls the Swans of Harlem - to their place in history. In an interview, Valby said, "Fundamentally, I consider this book a gift to my [adopted] daughters — young Black girls who are dancers themselves. They deserve to know about the Swans, and to feel surrounded by the power of example. Writing in this case felt like an act of mothering.”.....

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Author Marion Gibson, a historian of witchcraft and magic, writes about ancient and modern witches and witch-trials. In this book, Gibson hones in on thirteen trials that span Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Author Marion Gibson In modern times people often associate witches with characters in television shows like Bewitched, Charmed, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Mayfair Witches, etc., where the witches are funny or helpful or heroic....protagonists we root for. Elizabeth Montgomery played witch Samantha Stevens in 'Bewitched' In the real world, however, witches have generally been thought of as evil beings who use magic to do harm. In the Bible, witch stories extend back hundreds of years BCE, but witch hunts really took off during the medieval period, with the study of demonology by Christian clergymen. Christian clerics persecuted witches in the Middle Ages According to Gibson, clerics believed witches were committed to wickedness, and "the imaginative world of the 15th to 18th centuries was crammed with curses and blessings, angels, devils, ghosts, sprits that could invade bodies, fairies, and elves."......

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Holly Gibney was introduced to readers in Stephen King's 'Bill Hodges Trilogy' which begins with 'Mr. Mercedes.' In the trilogy, Bill Hodges is a retired police detective who investigates crimes with the help of an amateur team that includes Holly, a shy computer whiz; and Jerome Robinson, a bright young man headed for Harvard. Holly has now come into her own as an investigator, and she and ex-cop Pete Huntley run a private detective agency called 'Finders Keepers.' Holly also gets some part-time assistance from Jerome Robinson, who's now in college; and Jerome's sister Barbara, a student. The book 'Holly' is set in the middle of the Covid pandemic, at a time when most people are vaccinated, wear masks, avoid shaking hands, and so on. Holly is very meticulous about evading infection, and is extremely conscious that her business partner Pete is home with the coronavirus; and her mother, who refused to be vaccinated, died from the disease. Holly is grieving the loss of her mother, and dealing with surprising revelations that followed her mother's death, so she's planning to take a break from work. Then Holly gets a call from a woman called Penny Dahl. Penny says her daughter Bonnie Dahl, an assistant librarian at nearby Bell College, has disappeared. Penny is distraught, and wants to hire Finders Keepers to look for Bonnie.....

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At some time in the not too distant future, the Earth is in crisis. Climate change has led to cataclysmic flooding, drought, hunger, and mass migrations, and a plague has killed two billion people. In the chaos, China led the recovery and took the economic and technological lead..... .....and the New American Union (Union) - which has become more Christian than ever - is struggling to catch up. In this climate, the Union is trying to establish Christian colonies on distant planets. To do this, the Union has to 'lease' Chinese interstellar ships, which are controlled by Chinese engineers. The Chinese engineers have sole access to the ships' engines and inner workings, to make sure no one steals China's technological secrets. The Union's first space settlers were sent to establish a colony called Bethesda, which is 35 years away in space-travel time. For the first ten years, things were going well on Bethesda, with messages going back and forth between Earth and the 5,000 people on the distant colony......

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The book's main protagonist, Ivan Zoschenko, has had a difficult life. Ivan grew up in Coal Run, a coal-mining town in Pennsylvania. In 1967, when Ivan was six-years-old, a mine explosion killed 96 men, including the boy's father - an immigrant from Ukraine. Ivan's mother carried on alone, doing her best to raise Ivan and his younger sister Jolene. It's hard growing up without a dad, but Ivan did well in the circumstances. Ivan grew up to be a high school football star..... .....and his beautiful sister Jolene became a pageant winner - many many pageants. Both Ivan and Jolene might have benefitted from more parental guidance, because the football celebrity prided himself on seducing as many girls as he could..... .....and Jolene, who's still single, had three sons with three different men. Ivan played football in college, and Just as he was about to join the Chicago Bears, the athlete's leg was damaged in a freak accident. Ivan then moved to Florida, where he lived for 16 years, drinking heavily and supporting himself as an exterminator. Now thirtysomehting Ivan has returned to Coal Run, drawn back by the news that a fellow high school football player, a universally hated bully called Reese Raynor, is being released from prison. Right around the time of Ivan's accident, Reese beat his young wife so badly she became a vegetable, and Ivan was, and still is, incensed about the incident. Ivan knows Reese will cause trouble when he gets out, and Ivan means to do something about it. Though Ivan's football career was cut short, he's still a superstar in Coal Run, and the sheriff makes him a deputy. Ivan is lackadaisical about the job, drinks on duty, and usually wears only half his uniform - which isn't necessarily spotless......

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Twenty-nine-year-old Ingrid Yang, a Taiwanese-American graduate student at Massachusetts' Barnes University (BU), is writing a dissertation about the exalted Chinese poet Xiao-Wen Chou. Before his death, Xiao-Wen Chou was a faculty member at BU, and he's now enshrined as the school's shining star. The problem for Ingrid is that everything that CAN BE written about Xiao-Wen Chou's work HAS BEEN written, and she's struggling to find a topic for her research. Moreover, Ingrid is in her eighth and final year in BU's Ph.D. program, and her funding is about to run out. Ingrid spends her days in BU's Xiao-Wen Chou archives, looking through boxes of the poet's papers and pretending to work. Ingrid can't sleep, binges on snacks, has pains in her stomach, pulls out her hair....and makes no progress. Worse yet, Ingrid's Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Michael Bartholomew - who heads BU's East Asian Studies Department - keeps asking Ingrid when she'll complete her dissertation and schedule her Ph.D. defense. Then one day, an apparent miracle occurs. Ingrid is languidly looking through a box in the Xiao-Wen Chou archives when she finds a cryptic note....a note that's clearly meant for Ingrid. The missive opens up a new, and VERY controversial, area of research about Xiao-Wen Chou. With the help of her best friend, Eunice Kim, Ingrid pursues this new topic, which involves consulting a private detective, sneaking into files, breaking-and-entering, confronting a dyed-in-the-wool white nationalist, and more. All this is hilarious, which is expected, because the book is a satire......

Barb's Book Reviews

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Review of "The Caves of Steel: The Classic Robot Novel" by Isaac Asimov

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