Reviews and Comments

An average issue, with interesting stories by Thomas Ha, Wanxiang Fengnian and Thoraiya Dyer.

• "Bend Like the Palm" by David D. Levine: an island is threatened by a storm and its inhabitants have to decide what to save and what to sacrifice. But as tension mounts at the discussion, one person reminds them of the principles their island is based on.

• "First Human Ghost on Mars" by R.L. Meza: a human ghost is transported to Mars. But upon arrival, it gets involved in a life and death situation.

• "Crosstalk, Elysium" by Carolyn Zhao: a story set in a system where spaceships need to be 'encouraged' to operate.

• "Scion" by Thomas Ha: the scion of a family wakes in his family house, and discovers things are not right. As he struggles to get to the heart of the house, from where his father is controlling the house, he discovers some truths about the 'servants' in the house, his relationship with them, and what must be done to bring things back to normal; or perhaps to move on to a new way of living.

• "Scion: Afterword" by Thomas Ha: a series of journal entries set long after the previous story, which reveals more about the world that "Scion" is set in.

• "Those Who Left History" by Wanxiang Fengnian, translated by Stella Jiayue Zhu: pocket universes have been invented, and those who enter them are forever 'gone' from our universe, although those inside can still see what is happening outside. The story is a series of journal entries over ever-increasing time spans showing the effect the discovery has on the world, and whether the people in the universes should be forgotten or not.

• "You Are Invited to Our SPRING CELEBRATION" by Thoraiya Dyer: on another world, its lifeform, which apparently live on internal radioactivity make contact with a human ship that arrives, but is damaged. While waiting many years for a rescue ship to arrive, they interact and learn about each other, with the humans showing off a spring celebration. But the celebration is tinged with regret with the alien lifeform discover that rescue may never come.

• "Person, Place, Thing" by Marissa Lingen: an alien, which is a colony organism makes contact with humanity, although humanity is not aware of its colonial nature. When the alien's human contacts are replaced with other that make different demands on it, the alien colony decide to take matters into its own hands to regain contact with the original humans.

A fascinating book that looks at the engineering that goes into the infrastructure that you can see around you. It should give the reader an appreciation of the planning, design, construction and management that goes into making the infrastructure 'just work' and fade into the background of daily life: until a breakdown makes it clear how vital the infrastructure is.

The book starts with the electrical grid, covering how electricity is generated and distributed. Next, the book looks at communication systems, from landlines and mobile phones, to how messages are sent to distant countries.

Roads are covered in the next section, covering the various kinds of roads and road traffic, traffic signals, the design of roads, road shoulders and embankments. Highways and interchanges are also covered. Bridges and tunnels are then covered, showing how they are designed, constructed, and maintained. Trains and railways are then featured in the next section.

Dams, levees and coastal structures are then covered, showing how they contain or hold back bodies of water. Municipal water and wastewater systems are then featured, showing how water is cleaned and moved to users and how wastewater is treated so that is can be discharged safely back into the environment.

The final section covers construction, showing how a construction site that looks 'chaotic' to outsiders is well-orchestrated to ensure the construction is executed efficiently but with safety in mind.

Readers should get a better appreciation of how the infrastructure they see around them works, and what some structures that appear here and there in urban areas may be for. They would get an appreciation of just how much thought and engineering goes into some of the infrastructure to ensure they are safe for people to use in their daily lives.

A lovely graphic novel adaptation of Tolkien's book about the adventures of the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, as he joins a group of dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield on a journey to reclaim their kingdom from the dragon Smaug. Gandalf, the wizard, helps them in their adventures while they are aided and hindered by trolls, elves, goblins, wargs, a shape-shifter and men. But it is one meeting that Bilbo has with the creature, Gollum, deep in the heart of the mountains, that will have world changing consequences.

This is a revised version of the original graphic novel by the artist. Since I do not have the original graphic novel, I am unable to compare them to see what changes have been done. The artist states the revision was done to make the flow of the content better now that publication restrictions that applied to the original version have been removed.

Included at the end of this edition is some background on how the artist came to create the novel, and the kind of artwork he decided to use, and some details on how he created the characters of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, and the dwarves.

Apart from a minor glitch, the graphic novel closely follows the book. The glitch occurs when the dwarves are captured by the spiders and are hanging from trees imprisoned in webs. Bilbo finds them and proceeds to rescue them. Missing at this point is the actual rescue, with Bilbo distracting the spiders, then cutting the dwarves free of their webs. In the book, Bilbo finds the dwarves and in the next scene, they are free and trying to escape from the spiders. A strange ommission in the book.

Otherwise, a good adaptation of the novel, with artwork that enhances the story and helps put the reader into the story.

An anthology of speculative tales with that range from those with mainly contemporary settings to ones where things are somewhat 'weird'. What you won't find are straight up fantasy or science fiction stories. Some stories feature fantastical elements from the start, while others take some time to appear. Of the stories featured, the ones I found interesting were by Jason Stoddard, Lucy Sussex, Maureen F. McHugh, Margo Lanagan, Lavie Tidhar, Barry N. Malzberg, Pat Cadigan and Paul McAuley and Kim Newman.

• "The Elephant Ironclads" by Jason Stoddard: an alternate history story set after World War II, in a Navajo nation that is independent of the USA. Two Native American boys set out as guides for two strangers that have an obsession with certain rocks. What they discover about the strangers could change their nation, and becomes tied up with the legend of elephants clad in iron.

• "Ardent Clouds" by Lucy Sussex: a story of a documentary maker who lives on the edge of death, chasing after the best shots of volcanoes in the act of erupting. But her next assignment may well be too close to the action.

• "Gather" by Christopher Rowe: Gather is the name of a person who lives next to a river in a world where the word of god on pieces of paper (and metal) may be literal. But a 'scientist', whom Gather works for, wants to make sense of this world.

• "Sonny Liston Takes the Fall" by Elizabeth Bear: an alternative history look at Sonny Liston, a boxing champion after his defeats by Muhammad Ali. In this version, he has one more task to do, to ensure that the boxing world has a Black Champion that people will look up to.

• "North American Lake Monsters" by Nathan Ballingrud: a daughter and her father discover a strange creature washed up on the shore of a lake. What the story reveals, instead, is the abusive relationship between the father, newly released from jail, with his family over what to do with the creature.

• "All Washed Up While Looking for a Better World" by Carol Emshwiller: a shipwrecked girl finds herself on a strange deserted island inhabited by beings that don't recognise her as human.

• "Special Economics" by Maureen F. McHugh: a girl gets to work in a factory in China. But what she finds instead is slavery, with the factory charging for her food and board, leaving her in debt to the factory. But an opportunity to turn the tables on the factory occurs when she goes out busking for extra money.

• "Aka St. Mark's Place" by Richard Bowes: a mainly contemporary story about a relationship between a girl and a boy who turns out to be a runaway. The story becomes more fantastical when the runaway boy turns out to have a magical skill that he eventually uses on the person who tracked him down to return him to his family.

• "The Goosle" by Margo Lanagan: a story involving a well-known fairy tale, but told after the events. A boy returns to the house of a witch accompanied by a swindler, but events turn violently bloody, and it is up to the boy to end the terror of the witch.

• "Shira" by Lavie Tidhar: a researcher goes in search of poetry written by a relatively unknown writer which emotionally moves her. But then she discovers more stories by the writer, including one story which involves her personally.

• "The Passion of Azazel" by Barry N. Malzberg: a literal scapegoat is reborn and now wants to take revenge on the people who sacrificed him by bringing to life a golem as a goat. But the golem has other plans for the people involved.

• "The Lagerstätte" by Laird Barron: a woman suffers from manic depression after the death of her family. But one day, she is offered a way to bring them back. Whether the method did work, in an unexpected way, or is just another mental symptom is left to the reader to decide.

• "Gladiolus Exposed" by Anna Tambour: while on a trip, a man find a human gladiolus (sternum) and becomes fixated on it, to the point of causing a rift in his marriage.

• "Daltharee" by Jeffrey Ford: the story of an inhabited miniature city in a bottle, created by a mad scientist. When the city starts to break down, the authorities have little choice but to ask the scientist to aid it, with tiny and giant consequences.

• "Jimmy" by Pat Cadigan: the story of a boy which the town considers a troublemaker, except by his friend. When he apparently disappears one day, his friend is called upon to try to find him. But when she (the friend) finds him, she discovers him to be in thrall with people who granted him knowledge, but at a price.

• "Prisoners of the Action" by Paul McAuley and Kim Newman: a military lawyer investigates a security breach at an isolated facility being used to hold POTAs (Prisoners of the Action). As the story progresses, it becomes clear who the POTAs are (or are not), and how they are causing outbreaks of mental disease among the personnel. And it is up to the lawyer to decide who is, and is not, a lunatic and what should be done with the POTAs.

A fascinating book that looks at the large variety of butterflies that can be found in the world. The family Lepidoptera ('scaled insects') is one of the largest family of insects and this book covers one part of the family: the butterflies. Moths, which actually make up a major part of the family Lepidoptera, are covered in a companion book.

The book starts with a general overview of the butterflies, showing their anatomy, general behaviour and biology. Butterfly caterpillars are 'eating machines' while the adults are 'reproductive machines', a specialisation that has enabled the group to spread out and occupy many ecological niches from the tropics to the polar regions. Some caterpillars are also predators, feeding on aphids. Because butterflies are familiar, 'flashy', and often seen (they are the 'daytime moths'), they have become important as a way to inform the public about wildlife insect conservation.

The book then proceeds to list down the butterflies, arranged into families and subfamilies, listing down their major features, behaviours, ecology and so on, of each family. Numerous superb photos of the adults are included, showing some butterflies with splendid patterns and colouration.

This book is not the final word on butterflies. Many species, including their life histories, are still not known to science and future genetic studies may rearrange the taxonomic their family. But until the next edition of the book is released, this one is a good, general guide to the butterflies of the world. A list of references is also given for those who wish to know more about butterflies from a specific region of interest.

A series of stories that involves an unusual bookshop that can only be accessed at a certain time when the proprietor of the shop reads a book at the same time as a person. But the person who enters the shop gets to access information that lets them accept what has happened in their life and to move on.

The first story involves a girl who is settling the funeral matters of her estranged mother. In the process, she discovers why her mother was so frugal with money and so demanding of her children. But it requires a visit with the bookshop to learn how much their mother loved her and wanted her to be her own person.

The second story involves an elderly former train driver who is suffering from memory loss, especially the memory of what his beloved late wife once said to him. A visit to the shop reveals what she once said to him, and helps him accept his situation and to connect with his family again.

The third story involves two twin sisters, one of who is now leaving the family home. On their last day together, but a visit to the shop who show them that a disagreement over events involving an old acquaintance is not what it appears to be, bringing them closer together.

The last story is unusual: a visit to the shop by a woman, which would affect the shop itself via a book written by the woman's father. And in an interesting circular plot point, would involve the woman from the first story.

An average issue with interesting stories by Sarah Pauling, D.A. Xiaolin Spires, Fiona Moore and Louis Inglis Hall.

• "Remember Me in the Meat" by Sarah Pauling: in a future where people depend on machine implants to remember for them, one person goes on an undercover mission by being 'wiped' from memory banks of the machines. But she has her own reasons for going on the mission to assassinate a person who may change the climate of the world.

• "Chip" by D.A. Xiaolin Spires: a backpacker visiting a city takes a ride in an AI cab that, due to advertising reasons, tries to convince her to try a fast food outlet. In the ensuing conversation, the backpacker finds the AI has ambitions to be more than just a cab driver.

• "Think of Me Before I Disappear" by Raahem Alvi: a woman develops a loving relationship with an android. The question is whether the feeling is mutual or 'just' a matter of programming, something that the girl and android have to struggle with.

• "A Sleeper Ship Is Like a Game of Go" by Claire Jia-Wen: a story told in the past, present and future about the journey of a spaceship to colonise a world. Navigating and preparing the ship to face uncertain situations may tax the abilities of one person who has to control the ship during the journey.

• "The Iron Piper" by Fiona Moore: set in a post-collapse world where people mostly co-operate to live, a new group appears, offering technology and space for people to work on it. But things may not be what they seem, especially when the group wants to impose order from the pre-collapsed world.

• "Painstaking" by Rich Larson: a man and his brother are on the run from the authorities. As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that the two of them have an unusual ability that the authorities will kill to get.

• "Three Fortunes on Alcestis as Told by the Fraud Baeliss Shudal" by Louis Inglis Hall: the duke of several worlds calls on a famous fortune-teller to read his fortune. Only, the fortune-teller is a fake, which the duke ignores, for he only wants a fortune to match his violent tendencies. In the aftermath, two other fortunes are told by the teller, but unlike the first, these may have a chance of coming true.

A better than average issue, with interesting stories by Matthew Kressel and Mercurio D. Rivera, Justin C. Key, John Shirley and William Mangieri.

• "Threat Assessment" by Matthew Kressel and Mercurio D. Rivera: an interesting story of a psychologist tasked to access the intelligence of an AI that may threaten humanity. What she discovers, instead, are lies and deceptions and a struggle to discover the truth.

• "The Final Trial of Jalen, Oba of Uhuri" by Justin C. Key: a tale set in an African country at the time when slavery was rampant. The ruler of one country was disposed and sentenced to limbo by his sister, but now has a chance to return to reclaim his throne and try to end the slavery of his people.

• "The Corporate Soul" by John Shirley: a scientist discovers a way to illuminate the 'soul' of a person, and has now been tasked to reveal the collective soul of a corporation (made up of members of its board) ahead of a vote to grant US Senate seats to corporations. But what he reveals may not be what the corporation may be expecting.

• "The Apology Tour" by Nnedi Okorafor: a scientist responsible for creating sentient AI goes on a tour, to 'apologise' for effectively turning the AIs in virtual slaves for humanity. A personal crisis and a heart-to-heart talk with her own personal AI assistant inspires her to change her ways.

• "The Seventy-Eight Spoons" by Devan Barlow: A woman visits the home left to her by her great-aunt, who was once considered the village witch. The spoons she finds in the house would lead her to discover a way to have 'fun'.

• "And a Little Garlic" by William Mangieri: a fishing trip with some garlic would lead a fisherman to discover a talking fish, with their own ideas on merits of fishing.

• "The Red River Summers" by Inda Lauryn: a Native American discovers she has powers that can help others. But she has to run from slavery and hides in a forest. Some people know of her powers, and come to her for help. With ever-growing development encroaching, she may not have a place to hide.

• "Soul Rebel" by Maurice Broaddus: part of a series of stories by the author, this one starts and ends in the middle of a tale of attempted sabotage and a man trying to keep his son with unusual abilities safe from those who want to kidnap the son for their own purposes.

An interesting book that is billed as a 'sheep detective' novel, but is actually more of a novel told mainly from the viewpoint of the sheep as they try to find out their shepherd's murder. They observe the actions of various humans, listen in on their conversations, make some deductions and occasionally do detective work. All this was probably encouraged by the shepherd reading various detective and romance books to the sheep in the past (and also one book on sheep diseases).

Some humour is injected into the story via mis-understandings or the obscure motives of humans. There are some deductions that make sense to the sheep, but are off the mark. For example, 'grass' means one thing to sheep but quite another to humans. Ditto for concepts like 'justice' and 'god' that the sheep attribute to actions or to an actual person.

As the story progresses, it gradually becomes clearer that the shepherd's murder is tied to up events that happened in the area in the past that have been covered up. The shepherd and other inhabitants of the village where the murder occurred are also not as innocent as they first appear.

In the end, the murder is solved, but maybe not in the way the reader expects. As for the sheep, they now get the chance to go to Europe, a fantasy destination that their shepherd wanted to take them to before his death.

An interesting book that demystifies mathematics by looking at it as a language: it has nouns, verbs and a grammar. By looking at maths from this angle, the author hopes to guide the reader to look past the numerous symbols that make up mathematics, and to think of it as a language for describing aspects of mathematics. The book is livened by the authors numerous (trademark) bad drawings and personal recollections of teaching and talking about maths.

The first part of the book looks at numbers and arithmetics, which the author considers as nouns. This is usually the first encounter people have with maths. He looks at different ways to count and measure numbers, negative numbers and ways to express large numbers. He then moves on to verbs, which are the actions that can be done on numbers like addition, multiplication and other more advanced forms like square roots and logarithms. Finally, he shows that the symbols, variables, expressions and equations make up a grammar, making use of the numbers (nouns) and actions (verbs) to make up a mathematical sentence. He then ends with a brief 'phrase book' on the vocabulary of the various aspects of mathematics from geometry, statistics, proofs and so on.

By the end, the author hopes to show that mathematics resembles a language that is used to express an idea or to make a statement, rather than just a jumble of symbols to be manipulated in obscure manners.

A story that features some elements of the Cinderella fairy tale, mixed in a tale full of political intrigue. It starts with Yining, a thief and pickpocket that is barely surviving and living with her (evil) stepmother. She then discovers, and loses, a magical ring that hints at her actual background. Regaining that ring would involve her in political intrigue between the Iron Mountains and another kingdom that is nominally in league with the kingdom.

Her first real test would be winning the right to go on a quest to recover the royal daughter of another kingdom from a witch. But that would be the start of her voyage to discover who she really is, and where her loyalties (and her heart) should lie: with a cruel prince with an unexpected relation to her in the past, or with a devious aid to a rival kingdom whose motives may be hidden from her, or perhaps with the kingdom from which she originally came from.

The story starts off with Yining being a victim of circumstances, and it is only in the later half of the story when her origins are revealed to her does she being to assert herself. But it would be one act at the end that would define what she is and what she intends to do with the knowledge she has gained.

This is the first part of a duology, so it remains to be seen what she will do to head off the danger that threatens not only her kingdom, but other kingdoms too.

A fascinating book that looks at what fossils and current animal behaviours can tell us about the behaviour of non-avian dinosaurs. While there have been speculative depictions of dinosaurs behaving in certain ways, the author looks at what the fossils evidence is for such behaviours. In some cases, it is quite probable: but in others, the evidence is equivocal and depends on how you interpret the fossil evidence.

The book starts with an introduction to dinosaurs, showing their history, origins, biology and relationship with current day animals. He then looks how we can study the behaviour of dinosaurs from the fossils (which consist of fossils of their bodies and trace fossils like footprints, marks and coprolites [poo]). To do this, the geological context and provenance of the fossil must be known. He notes the various biases that can arise when interpreting behaviour from fossils: their location, the age of the fossils, and the field work done to retrieve the fossils. It is also hard to determine behaviour that might be preserved in only one fossil: does it show a common behaviour, or a 'one-off' that happened to be preserved?

Despite this, some common behaviours can be determined from the fossils. The sensory organs (size and location of their eyes, ears and noses) gives us clues as to when they are active and how they may react to sight, sounds and smells, using living animals as possible models. The posture of the dinosaurs, from their bones, can tell us how they move, and how active they may be.

Some living animals move in groups, so it is easy to suggest that some dinosaurs also move in groups and may form complex social groups or gregarious gatherings. But evidence for this can be hard to interpret. While groups of fossils and tracks have been found, interpreting them can be difficult. The group of fossils may have been swept together in a storm, for example. Multiple fossil tracks may indicate a social group or individuals that just happen to be together at the same time. Still, there is some evidence of social groups from careful examination of fossils and comparisons with living animals. Some fossil groups appear to be segregated based on presumed age, indicating juveniles that may have gathered together for protection. However, there is little conclusive evidence for pack behaviour from current fossils.

Like living animals, dinosaurs also communicate and signal to one another, usually to find a mate, warn off competitors or to hide from predators (camouflage). Here, there is fossil evidence for sexual displays (crests, horns, etc.). Like birds, dinosaurs have good colour vision, so colourful visual signals can be expected, and is also used for camouflage, to hide from predators. Audio calls and signals based on touch or smell are also expected from dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs need to reproduce, and the fossil evidence shows two strategies: lots of eggs with little parental care, or fewer eggs with more parental care. There is fossil evidence for nests and eggs, which show us how dinosaurs lay their eggs and incubate them. There is also evidence for communal nests.

Evidence of combat between dinosaurs, either from those of the same species (for sex) or between difference species (for resources, for between predator and prey) appear in the fossil record. Similarly, fossil evidence for feeding can be found based on the kind of jaws and teeth and gut contents.

In closing, some dinosaur behaviour can be interpreted based on the fossil evidence. But the varied behaviour of living organisms shows that there is behaviour that is not captured by fossils. The study of fossils, both known and ones discovered in the future, can shed some light on how they behaved, but needs to be backed up by proper evidence and interpretation.

An interesting book about a journey through Hell by Cambridge University graduates to, of all things, retrieve their supervisor so they can finish their degrees. In this universe, magic is real and done by inscribing logical formulas around pentagrams. In her hurry, Alice Law may not have completed a pentagram properly, causing her supervisor to die in a pretty horrific manner. Now, she wants to journey to Hell to retrieve his soul so she can complete her magic studies, get recommended by him and get an academic post.

This may sound crazy to 'normal' people, but Alice is not normal. She is single-minded in wanting to graduate in magical linguistics, even if she has to debase herself and grovel under the constant demands of her supervisor to get it. Getting him back from Hell is just the next step in completing her studies. But then, a rival student, Peter Murdoch, a fellow magic student specialising in logic, joins her on her journey. Together, they must journey through the many levels of Hell to find him and then figure out a way to return to the world of the living.

In this world, the system of magic is based on stating and believing in paradoxes, which alter the state of the world in pentagrams created with magical chalk. This results in lots of mathematical paradoxes (like Zeno's paradox of motion) being featured in the book. For those not well versed in such paradoxes, this may be confusing, but it is a feature of this world.

There are also stretches of the book that focus on the characters' past, rather than the plot, to show how they both became students of magic in Cambridge under this supervisor, and how they became both friends and rivals, in an academic atmosphere where gossip about relationships between professors and students abound.

As they both journey through Hell, using their wits to overcome obstacles, they become aware that they are being hunted by beings who have designs on them: for in Hell, magic can also work, but it requires a rather different source to enable it.

In the end, Alice does find her supervisor. But by then, her experience of going through Hell to find him has changed her character, and she now has a different set of priorities.

A story about how academic life can be harsh on graduates and twist them into doing things that, in hindsight, may not have been good ideas. But in a world where graduating, getting published and achieving tenure are considered paramount, it may be understandable why Alice was the way she was. But now, after the journey, she has a chance to do things differently.