Reviews and Comments

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.

A lovely, but too short, story of four robots who want to run a proper restaurant serving biang biang noodles in a future San Francisco, where California has declared independence from the rest of the US. They have to navigate a smart contract to gain ownership of the restaurant, learn how to make noodles, and survive a review bombing before it is over.

The story starts with the robots (with near human intelligence) waking up in a deserted restaurant to discover that they may soon be repossessed as the restaurant's franchise owner has closed. Considering their options, they decide to go their own way, and reopen the restaurant with food they want to serve to pay off their loans. But they have to navigate (and obfuscate) their way into ownership, for robots still cannot own property, and figure out how to serve food.

As first, it works, and their get high ratings. But then, trolls begin to review bomb them, lowering their ratings (and income). Investigating, they discover a group of robot haters and have to figure out how to fight back.

The story is set in a world where California is independent of the rest of the US, but not without a war that ended not long ago. Some of the robots in the restaurant fought in the war, and are recovering from the conflict. But while California may now have more freedoms, robot freedom isn't one of them, and there are still parts of the population that are wary of robots, especially those with near human intelligence.

The story ends with the restaurant on the way to success, but leaves dangling threads in the story, like how the robots ultimate navigate bureaucracy to really own the restaurant, and how the robots and humans will ultimately live together (or not). These might require another story (or two) to settle.

A remarkable adaptation into graphic form of Ursula K. Le Guin's book. The author notes that much of the text from the original novel is preserved here, but layered on is artwork that evokes the world of Earthsea.

The adaptation tells the story of a young wizard who has a strong affinity for magic. He comes to the attention of a mage when he uses strong magic to save his village from an invasion, who gives him his true name: Ged. In Earthsea, true words have magical power and wizards are trained to use words, but in a sparing manner, for the balance between light and dark must be maintained.

But Ged is impatient to learn magic. He eventually goes to a school to learn about magic and is a quick learner. But his pride gets the better of him, and he shows off his magical skills. But this ends up summoning a shadow that attacks him. Recovering from the attack, he learns that the shadow has no name and is hunting for him. Mastering his pride, Ged goes on several adventures involving dragons and other dark forces in the world, before he goes on to confront the shadow.

A fascinating fantasy story about a world and the journey one person makes to grow up ready to confront his fears. The graphic novel also helps bring to Earthsea to visual life.

An interesting prequel to "Made Things", at a time when small living puppets are still in the tower of the wizard (now frozen in time) who gave them life. The puppets procreate by building more puppets using material they find (paper, cloth, wood, etc.) and using the wizard's magical aura.

But now a disruption appears in their little tower world. More wizards approach, knowing nothing of the puppets' world, but only desire what the wizard has. Now may be the time for the puppets to repel the invasion, and to go out into the wider world to survive.

A better than average issue, with interesting stories by Samantha Murray, James Patrick Kelly, Ju Chu and A. W. Prihandita.

• "The Stars You Can't See by Looking Directly" by Samantha Murray: an alien invasion apparently takes place. But for one mother, the solution is not to fight the aliens, but to love them.

• "Down We Go Gently" by M. L. Clark: a visit by a space merchant and his son to a colony world shows the commerce that arises out of moving objects from world to world.

• "Donor Unknown" by Nika Murphy: an android is tasked with retrieving a painting from a reluctant seller. But what the story reveals is the still deep-seated resentment between Nazis and Jews that now extends to this particular android, even when mankind has moved into space.

• "Je Ne Regrette Rien" by James Patrick Kelly: a story of a researcher who is invited to inspect and interact with 'ni ren', intelligent robots with human-like bodies. As the story progresses and the research learns more about how the ni ren interact with other humans, he finds himself having conflicting reactions with them: attracted by their likeness to human and their human-like interactions, yet repelled by their desire to be more than robots in human-like skin.

• "Tomorrow's Beautiful Dream" by Ju Chu, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan: in a future where people's bodies can be rented out to perform repetitive tasks for hours at a time, one worker discovers work that would pay him much more usual, but at a risk of being worked for much longer than he wants. Curiosity makes him covertly find out more about what he is being made to do, and discovers a plot involving workers like him. But will he have the time to reveal it before it is too late?

• "The Desolate Order of the Head in the Water" by A. W. Prihandita: in a future where most people are connected to a computer, a disaster happens, and one unconnected family is left to try to survive. Then only the child is left, and he must choose between trying to survive on his own, or to be connected and lose his individuality.

• "Space is Deep" - by Seth Chambers: a man in space with multiple partners is preparing to return to Earth, before it is too late to leave because he won't survive Earth's gravity. But then an unexpected bodily event occurs, and it will change his relationship with his partners and their decision on whether to return to Earth or not.

A fascinating book involving a Society set up to hide away magical Unknowable Objects to prevent them from being misused. They meet every six months, but it has been years since a magical object has been found: until now. Magda Sparks goes to get it, but she encounters a professional killer who has his own reasons for hunting magical objects. The result is a race between Magda (and her friends) and the killer for the objects.

And then, an unusual person with an affinity for magical objects steps into the story, a twist that reveals that the Society of Unknowable Objects that Magda knows is not what it seems. It also reveals the truth behind the magical objects and the unusual person: and Magda may be the only one who can prevent the world from being destroyed by magic, even if the solution is one that she does not like.

There is a link between this book and the author's previous one, "The Book of Doors", but it is hinted at when the source of the magical objects is revealed.

An average issue, with interesting stories by Michelle Z. Jin, Anne Wilkins and Ferenc Samsa.

• "Tomorrow. Today." by R.T. Ester: on the relationship between a father and his son, when the son has to make a decision about his life that may not be his after all.

• "Imperfect Simulations" by Michelle Z. Jin: on a human colony on another one world, one person hides his skill at predicting how people would behave by internally simulating their behaviours. But when Earth starts to cut off supplies to the colony, his simulations would reveal just what is happening. But what needs to be done may be a surprise, even to him.

• "The Cold Burns" by Anne Wilkins: in a 'Utopian' society where everybody is measured by how much they consume, one person struggles to lower his consumption footprint, which doing his job at moving frozen people to a new colony. Then he learns the truth about what really happens to the frozen people, and learns that his utopia is not one at all.

• "The Hole" by Ferenc Samsa: in an unusual country where 'golems' do most of the work, people indulge in entertainment shows (even peep shows) put up by other people. As two people has a conversation through a peephole, it is revealed that one golem has gone rogue and gained intelligence. One of the persons in the conversation is hunting the golem, but he may be the hunted by assassins sent by the golem, unless he can turn the tables.

• "Between Here and Everywhere" by Robert Reed: an archaic man may be the key to ending a search by a ship in space for a lost prize.

• "This Sepulchral Aegis" by Rob Gillham: a generation ship lost in space discovers a lifeboat harbouring a more advanced human. The human was to return to where it was found, but must convince the lonely captain of the ship to do so. But the way to do that may be via the captain's sleeping sister, and by revealing the secret to the captain's long life.

• "Home Grown" by Madeleine Vigneron: only one of two sisters can travel on a ship heading to another world. During the travel, she imagines the life her sister is having back on earth so vividly that she has a crisis and needs to recover to keep on living.

A fun little book that honour J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth by illustrating and rhyming about the deaths that feature in the books. It starts with “A is for Arwen, done in by sorrow.” and ends with Z, one of the more notable deaths in the books.

The A-Z list is followed by a note from the author about how the book got started. Then an appendix is given, showing how each death was illustrated, along with information about the character featured in the death. This is helpful for general readers not familiar with the works of Tolkien, and may persuade them to read the books to find out more about the character themselves.

A fascinating book that gathers together what is known about Spinosaurus, and related species, and presents them in a way that will interest both general readers and specialist (dinosaur and fossil lovers). The author is careful to state what the fossils actually tell us about Spinosaurus, and to provide speculations based on comparisons with other dinosaur families. At various times, the author does say that new fossil discoveries can invalidate what he says, so this should be not be considered an authoritative book with the final word on Spinosaurus.

The book starts out with an introduction to Spinosaurus and why it now in the limelight. Being the main dinosaur 'villain' in the film "Jurassic Park 3" made Spinosaurus well known to the public. Fewer fossils of Spinosaurus are known, especially compared to those for T. rex, and are fragmentary, resulting in media headlines whenever new significant fossils of Spinosaurus are discovered, helping to keep it in the news. But much of the public info on Spinosaurus is incorrect and not based on fossil evidence, which is fragmentary and more prone to reinterpretation.

Next, the author gives a brief history of dinosaurs and the position of Spinosaurus in the family tree, which is somewhat speculative due to a lack of early Spinosaur fossils that would help to place its location and origins.

The anatomy of Spinosaurus is then presented, starting with the head (which has more complete fossils), the neck, body, arms, legs and tail. Despite the lack of a complete skeleton of Spinosaurus, the fossil fragments reveal a very unusual dinosaur: one with a long head, a huge sail that rises above the back (with another sail above the tail) and comparatively short legs. This starts a debate over how Spinosaurus moved (two versus four legs) and whether it could swim. For now, the consensus is that it moved on two legs and can wade in water, but not swim.

The long head, which resembles alligators, presents a case that Spinosaurus was a fish eater. But this does not mean that Spinosaurus did not feed on other animals, like turtles or reptiles. The location of Spinosaur fossils indicates that it inhabits waterways and coastlines, and probably interacted with other animals (and dinosaurs) in those locations. While there is (yet) little evidence on what the sail on Spinosaurus is used for, the author speculates that it may be used as a social display or a mating display.

In the end, the author does a good job of separating fact from fiction about what is now known about Spinosaurs, making this a good book to read to learn about what it really is, rather than what is presented about it in films or hyperbolic press releases.

An interesting book that looks at how organisms lie and cheat to deceive others and gain an advantage. This lying is not planned; it arises by evolution by natural selection because any organism that gets ahead by lying would pass on its genes to future generations of liars. The author then ties in this lying in nature with the nature of human liars, showing that while people may knowingly cheat, the reasons for human lying are still the same: to get an advantage over another person.

The author first shows that lying and deception occur at all levels in nature and is done by many organisms, whether they may be animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, viruses, or even genes. And this lying is a driver for evolutionary change: if lying did not benefit an organism, it would not be passed on.

Lying naturally arises when animals communicate with other animals to get better access to resources. Cheaters can benefit by communicating false information that give them better access: like sending an alarm call to make others flee while it goes for food. Getting or prevent access to females is a reason for male animals to cheat. Cheaters can also bluff to intimidate rivals. But there is a trade-off: too much cheating might lead others to discount or ignore the cheating signals (like in the story of the boy who cried wolf too many times).

Deception can work because it is exploiting loopholes in the perception or behaviour of others. Acts like playing dead work because some animals prefer live prey. Feigning injury can cause a predator to chase the wrong kind of prey (ones that can later escape). Mimicry is another deception that can be used to either attract prey or to hide from predators. So is camouflage. These deceptions cause evolution to act to counter them, leading to an evolutionary race between deceivers and deception countermeasures.

Despite all these deceptions, it is still possible for honesty to arise. This is possible if the cost of cheating is higher than the cost of sending an honest signal. Animals can regulate behaviour, such that sending a false signal would result in punishment. Differences in males and females requires different kinds of honest signals. Females need access to resources (to produce and raise young), while males want access to females. One result of this is that while most females may be socially monogamous, they may not be sexually monogamous (to get access to a more sexually alluring male). For males, being more sexually alluring may mean sending an honest signal by handicapping themselves to prove their worth: like the tail of peacocks or the antlers of stags. For humans, this can also mean producing new works of art or acquiring items of worth.

One way females can cheat on resources is by making others raise their young. This brood parasitism is practiced by cuckoo birds and other animals, leading to countermeasures to prevent it. This will spur the production of new traits and behaviours, based on the need for cuckoos to continue cheating and for their victims to detect this cheating behaviour.

After showing how cheating works in nature, the author looks at cheating among humans and shows that our cheating behaviour comes about naturally for the same reasons. We cheat to get better access not only to resources, but also to increase our reputation or status. Humans are unique in that cheating can be institutional: people free ride at work to get paid for doing nothing, for example.

Humans can also deceive themselves, as shown in the Dunning-Krueger effect (where many people over-estimate their abilities). This happens because lying requires a larger cognitive load in humans (needed to keep 'the story straight' when lying). Self-deception is a way to reduce this cognitive load: by believing your own self-deceptions and lies, it can make it easier for other to believe your lies. Lying to yourself is also a way that placebos and alternative medicine works, but the benefits here depend on the person. But self-deception can also lead to over-confidence and cognitive bias against information that does not agree with the self-deception. Being humble and self-critical can counteract bias, and lead a person to have a better grasp of reality.

The author then looks at how we can live in a world when lying is normal. It turns out that in a society, honesty is more about social norms. While we should be personally honest, we do need to tell the occasional lie (white lies) for society to keep functioning, and for people to have socially acceptable behaviours. Thus, while lying can never be eliminated from society, it is possible to educate people to detect certain lies (like scams and frauds) that are not socially acceptable.

Another fascinating detective and investigative story involving Ana Dolabra and Dinios Kol. It starts with a locked room murder which is, of course, solved within a few chapters. But the repercussions of the murder would build up as the story progresses, until it would involve an attack on the Shroud, the mysterious and chilling artifact that the Empire uses to extract and process the blood of the Titans, that the Empire depends upon for its survival.

Unlike the first book, where suspects are investigated and then revealed as the story progresses, the identity of the murderer in this book is determined 'off-stage' halfway through the book. Instead, it is more of a CSI-type story, where the methods and motive of the murderer take centre stage. As the investigation progresses, we also get to see more of the author's world-building, as more biological augmentations are revealed, all possible due to the Titan's blood that is being distilled in the Shroud. And one of those augmentations would give the murderer the ability to predict what Ana would do, leading to a cat and mouse game between two masters of logic and deduction.

If not controlled, the Titan's blood can cause biological corruption and disaster. And it doesn't help that the Shroud is at the edge of the Empire, bordering a corrupt, autocratic kingdom that the Empire is negotiating with. And as the investigation continues, Ana discovers yet more corruption in the bureaucracy of the Empire itself. All of these corruptions would come to a head at the climax of the story, leading Dinios to make a decision about his future that he has been reconsidering after months of working with Ana at what he thinks is an unglamorous job.

While the identity of the murderer is given to the reader, the methods and intent of the murderer could still be deduced from the story, if the reader is attentive enough. This reader was able to make a few logical deductions before their revelation in this inventive story.

The cat with an unusual connection with books returns. Here, it teams up with a girl suffering from asthma whose favourite activity is reading books from the library. Her familiarity with the library is what makes her realise that something is wrong: books are disappearing from the library.

One day, she sees an unusual grey man in the library and when she investigates, discovers a number of Arsène Lupin books are missing. Following the man is where she meets up with the cat and discovers the books being guarded in a castle guarded by grey soldiers. Confronting the grey man, she learns that not only has he been with humanity for a long time, but is working to 'free' men from the influence of books.

While rescuing the books from the grey man is a major objective for the girl, it would turn out to be the girl's relationship with books, the cat, her father (and with characters from the previous book) that would point the way to lessen the impact the grey man would have on humanity.