Octavia E. Butler
Book 2 of the Xenogenesis Trilogy
Many years after the close of Dawn, Lilith has joined humans back on Earth and are well into resettlement. There are scores of settlements in the area, although all are remote. The Oankali situation is one where genetic engineering proceeds with the goal of producing both human born and Oankali born offspring (instead of genetically manufactured). This is an important step toward self sufficiency. The human situation is one where humans have been rendered sterile, unless they are willing to participate in the hybrid offspring program. So for humanity as a sustainable species, the outlook is grim. Our protagonist in this volume is Akin, a human looking hybrid child, who is kidnapped by human resisters and left to live with the humans as a way to learn about them and their values.
I continue to enjoy the exploration of human uniqueness, the exploration of human exceptionalism and the way Butler puts traditional colonialist values into the Oankali culture in such a matter-of-fact illumination of human contradictions.
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Monday, December 18, 2017
Sunday, December 17, 2017
The Last Season
Eric Blehm
This is the true story of the disappearance of Randy Morgenson. Morgenson was a super experienced, seasonal employee of the National Park Service who worked every summer as a back country ranger in the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Forest. These national forests contain the most rugged terrain of any land in the country, with only 1% of the area actually accessible to the public by trail. As a back country ranger, Morgenson was responsible to patrol, both the 1% and the 99%. But in the summer of 1996, he disappeared leaving only a "Ranger on patrol for 3-4 days" note. This book tells the story of Morgenson, before and after the disappearance, giving the reader a pretty good understanding of the person, and of the type of person who is a back country ranger. It also tells the story of Kings Canyon and Sequoia, fully characters in their own right, which would have been exactly what Morgenson would have insisted on. A fascinating read, made more so if you have been to any part of the national forest in California and have an image of the landscape to follow you around the telling.
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This is the true story of the disappearance of Randy Morgenson. Morgenson was a super experienced, seasonal employee of the National Park Service who worked every summer as a back country ranger in the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Forest. These national forests contain the most rugged terrain of any land in the country, with only 1% of the area actually accessible to the public by trail. As a back country ranger, Morgenson was responsible to patrol, both the 1% and the 99%. But in the summer of 1996, he disappeared leaving only a "Ranger on patrol for 3-4 days" note. This book tells the story of Morgenson, before and after the disappearance, giving the reader a pretty good understanding of the person, and of the type of person who is a back country ranger. It also tells the story of Kings Canyon and Sequoia, fully characters in their own right, which would have been exactly what Morgenson would have insisted on. A fascinating read, made more so if you have been to any part of the national forest in California and have an image of the landscape to follow you around the telling.
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Friday, December 1, 2017
Night School
A Jack Reacher Novel
Lee Child
Set back in time when Reacher is still an MP, he is reassigned to attend a night school class, along with an FBI agent and CIA analyst. Which means a highly sensitive, highly secretive, joint agency operation. This time the task is to track down a terrorist cell that is buying something for $100 million. To much for regular munitions, too little for WMD's. No worries, Reacher is on the case. He works with his assigned partners... sort of. Mostly he goes off on his own and solves the thing on his own, taking out some alt-right Euro's along the way. Classic Reacher.
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Lee Child
Set back in time when Reacher is still an MP, he is reassigned to attend a night school class, along with an FBI agent and CIA analyst. Which means a highly sensitive, highly secretive, joint agency operation. This time the task is to track down a terrorist cell that is buying something for $100 million. To much for regular munitions, too little for WMD's. No worries, Reacher is on the case. He works with his assigned partners... sort of. Mostly he goes off on his own and solves the thing on his own, taking out some alt-right Euro's along the way. Classic Reacher.
Read
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