Previous SFF Author: Alyson Noel
The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World by Oliver Milman
I’ve spent the past 27 summers minus two driving from New York out west to hike/camp with my family for 4-6 weeks. That’s 25 cross-country trips (including twice to Alaska but not counting the two I took before meeting my wife) and lots of driving during those trips as well. So much so that I often end up driving as many miles in June and July as I do the other ten months out of the year.
April 1st, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth’s Extinct Worlds by Thomas Halliday
I’m going to say something I don’t think I’ve ever said in my reviews of non-fiction works. One of the best things about Thomas Halliday’s science book Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth’s Extinct Worlds (2022) is the lack of science in Thomas Halliday’s science book Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth’s Extinct Worlds. Let me ‘splain.
What I mean by “lack of science” is a near-absence of the oft-used popular science go-tos,
February 21st, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
This Way to the Universe: A Theoretical Physicist’s Journey Into Reality by Michael Dine
This Way to the Universe: A Theoretical Physicist’s Journey Into Reality (2022) is Michael Dine’s worthy contribution to the popular physics/cosmology bookshelf, though readers may have to work a little harder at this one than similar books. That extra work is worth it, though, for this up-to-date and engaging exploration of modern science.
Dine moves between the very large and very small, covering particle theory, quantum theory, the Standard Model,
February 4th, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Dark and Magical Places: The Neuroscience of Navigation by Christopher Kemp
Once, driving with a friend from Rochester to New Orleans, I woke for my turn at the wheel to have my friend excitedly tell me we’d been making great time, as we were “less than an hour from Philadelphia.” Considering when we had left home, it was indeed “great time,” I told him. Unfortunately, I also had to tell him that Philadelphia was not even close to on the way to New Orleans, and that he’d been speeding in the wrong direction for the last few hours.
January 21st, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth by Henry Gee
A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters (2021), by Henry Gee is a, stay with me here, concisely told history of life on Earth. Really, it’s all in the title there. So you pretty much know upfront what you’re going to get. A broad, but not deep, fast-paced glide through the major elements of how life evolved from its earliest bacteria days to the more complex (if not “better”) days of,
December 6th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Understanding Genes by Kostas Kampourakis
Understanding Genes (2021), by Kostas Kampourakis, sits in a sometimes-awkward position betwixt and between a popular science book and a textbook. As such, lay readers looking for simple, smooth, easy-to-follow explanations may want to look elsewhere or be prepared to struggle and/or skim. Those with some background in biology (beyond their high school/early college courses) will fare better.
The intent of the book is a caution against genetic essentialism or fatalism and against the over-simplification,
November 26th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next by Jeanette Winterson
In 12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next (2021), Jeanette Winterson offers up a dozen essays on Artificial Intelligence divided into four sections: “How we got here” (a dip into the history of computing), “What’s Your Superpower” (a philosophical/religious change in vision of matter), “Sex and Other Stories” (AI’s potential impact on love and sex), and “The Future” (what will change and what might not with the advent of AI).
November 12th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Jeanette Winterson | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told by Douglas Wolk
I have to confess that I went into Douglas Wolk’s All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told (2021) with a certain set of expectations, leading to some early disappointment as I read. But once I realized that my expectations were askew, and then eventually (admittedly a bit grudgingly at first) set them aside, I was able to settle in and enjoy Wolk’s work for what it was as opposed to being annoyed by what it was not.
November 5th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Comics, Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science by Sam Kean
Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.
~ Albert Einstein
Sam Kean is my favorite pop science author, ever since I read Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us in 2017. Kean has an engaging voice, a solid understanding of science,
October 5th, 2021. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
I’m sure there is an audience for Timothy Morton’s Spacecraft (2021), one of the OBJECT LESSONS series titles. Unfortunately, I wasn’t it. I’m also thinking that based on the title, a number of people might find themselves in my position, a problem perhaps more of expectations than substance.
The OBJECT LESSONS, which I’ve generally been a big fan of, “start from a specific inspiration … and from there develop original insights and novel lessons about the object in question.” And there lies the expectations problem because from the title,
October 1st, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Previous SFF Author: Alyson Noel
Just saw you like Jack Vance. Me too. Surely he offends you somewhere though?
Words fail. I can't imagine what else might offend you. Great series, bizarre and ridiculous review. Especially the 'Nazi sympathizer'…
"Nor Iron Bars a Cage by Kage Harper" Freudian slip there. ;)
[…] (Fantasy Literature): In 1957, Hammer Studios in England came out with the first of their full-color horror creations, […]
I'm going to have to find these and read them.