My Review of The Courts of Chaos

The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Well, finally a story wraps up, and it is a good one. Corwin has moved from the center of things to some extent with the return of Oberon, and is now sulking in the Library, but Random talks him into leaving and taking an interest in things. Dara now appears as Oberon’s messenger with instructions for everyone in the family. And from Random’s son Martin, Corwin learns that he has a son named Merlin who will take center stage with the next set of novels.

Oberon is going to try and repair the pattern that Brand disrupted, but Corwin steals the Jewel and tries to do it himself. He is stopped before he can make the attempt by Oberon and Dworkin. Oberon instead takes a little of Corwin’s blood and turns it into a red raven that will accompany Corwin. They have a final talk, and Corwin tells Oberon he no longer is interested in the throne of Amber. He mostly wanted it in competition with Eric, and now that Eric is gone he knows he is not right for it. Oberon tells him he has to Hell Ride to the Courts of Chaos, and to bring the Jewel to the battle there, but first Oberon needs it to try the repair of the Pattern. The other members of the family have their instructions to gather their armies and go to the battle.

While on his ride, Corwin is visited by the red raven who brings him the Jewel, but he does not know at first whether Oberon succeeded in repairing the pattern or died in the attempt, but as the monster storm gathers it looks like Oberon failed. Corwin is able to create a new pattern, but when he falls exhausted Brand appears and takes the Jewel. So now Corwin has to go the Battle and find Brand and get the Jewel back somehow. He finds Brand, and so do the others, but Corwin is better attuned to the Jewel and uses it to burn Brand, before an arrow kills Brand, and he and the Jewel go into a chasm.

Oberon’s face appears in the sky and tells them that the decision of who is to rule in Amber will be left to the horn of the unicorn. The unicorn duly appears, with the Jewel hanging from its horn, and places the Jewel in front of Random. Corwin helps Random to become attuned to the Jewel, and Random disperses the storm.

This ends the 5 novel “Corwin Cycle” of Amber, to be followed by the 5 novel “Merlin Cycle”. It is a very satisfying ending that ties up a lot of loose ends, and is well worth a read. But at the very least you have to commit to reading all 5 novels to get any value out of this. It is really one long novel divided into 5 parts. But if you like fantasy, give it a shot. Zelazny is fantastic writer, and I have never regretted reading any of his work. I even got to hear him read from one of his novels (A Night In The Lonesome October) at a local science fiction convention some years ago.



View all my reviews

 Save as PDF
Share
Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged | Comments Off on My Review of The Courts of Chaos

My Review of The Hand of Oberon

The Hand of Oberon by Roger Zelazny

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Basically, so far every book in the series makes a turn that renders what you thought you knew to be wrong and making everything appear in a new light. There are some clues here to what is going on, but you need to be paying careful attention to pick them up. Otherwise, you will get that complete turn on the next book.

Corwin has come to realize that he really does not want the throne of Amber, but he does feel some responsibility for setting things right. Part of it comes from the curse he placed on Amber previously, which he thinks may haver caused, or at contributed to, the black road and the corruption of the Pattern. When he, Ganelon, and Random go to the original Pattern, they see objects at the center which Ganelon retrieves, and they prove to be a dagger and a Trump, which Random realizes depicts his son Martin. The Trump was stabbed by the dagger, and they realize that it was drawn by Brand, who must have used it lure Martin there and stab him, with his blood causing the corruption of the Pattern and the Black Road. So now it completely clear that Brand is the enemy they neeed to defeat.

Corwin can see what needs to happen, but he requires the Jewel, which he had hidden in the Earth shadow. But when he gets there he discovers that Brand got there ahead of him. But Brand needs to walk the Pattern with the Jewel before he can be completely attuned to it. So the main objective now is make sure Brand cannot do that. They place guards at all of the Pattern sites, and Corwin first has a crack at Brand. He is succeeding when Brand is able to “teleport” away in some fashion. Then Benedict confronts him in Tir-na Nog’th, and despite being immobilized by Brand, his metal arm (which came from Tir-na Nog’th) moves of its own volition the wrest the Jewel from Brand.

This is another good chapter in the overall 10-book cycle that is Amber, but like all of them it does not stand alone. You have to read all of them, in order, to get the full effect, and if you cannot commit to that you probably should not even start. If you can make that commitment, though, it is worth your investment as Zelazny is a very good writer.



View all my reviews

 Save as PDF
Share
Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged | Comments Off on My Review of The Hand of Oberon

My Review of Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years

Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years by Peter Haining

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Peter Haining is a well-known author in the world of Doctor Who, and this book is part of the reason. As you might infer from the title, it was published in 1988 for the 25th anniversary of Doctor Who. It has a lot of good information concerning those first 25 years, but do not expect to read anything critical beyond some mild criticism of the hiatus in the middle of Colin Baker’s run. This reads like a release from the BBC publicity department: everyone is brilliant, the decisions were all sound, and no mistakes were ever made. That said, it deserves a place on the bookshelf of any Doctor Who fan.

Since the Doctor at the time of this book was Sylvester McCoy, it is not surprising that he gets a little more attention than the other Doctors, but all of them are covered. In addition, there is some discussion of the various companions and many of the guest stars. Other chapters address the various merchandise you could have gotten (mostly Dalek figures), Doctor Who in the comics, and the status of the lost episodes at the time it was written (some additional episodes have been discovered since, thankfully). And the many photographs are a welcome addition. So if you see a copy, pick it up. I think you will like it.



View all my reviews

 Save as PDF
Share
Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged | Comments Off on My Review of Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years

My Review Of “Capital in the Twenty-first Century”

Capital in the Twenty First Century by Thomas Piketty

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is an important contribution to the economic analysis of a major issue of our times, inequality. In a time when non-economists are comfortable talking about the 1% and the 99%, it is clear that this issue has moved into the forefront of social thinking in the 21st century. But even though the title promises an analysis of the 21st century, Piketty begins with an historical look, primarily at England and France. And he uses an interesting and hitherto ignored data source, literature. By looking that the novels of Jane Austen and Gustave Flaubert he brings in the assumptions that these novelists had about the nature of wealth and income in these societies. The point here is that inequality of income and wealth are not new results of our time, they are the natural outcomes of laws of economics. His fundamental law involves the rate of return on capital (r) and the growth rate of the economy (g) and he shows that the historical data support an average return on capital of 4-5%, and an average growth rate of the economy of 1-1.5%. And from this he works out that as long as r is greater than g, there will be tendency for wealth to concentrate and accumulate.

This is not healthy for society and cannot proceed indefinitely. Something will come along to restore the balance. In the late 18th century, this would be the French Revolution, followed by the Napoleonic Wars. In the 20th century, two World Wars very effectively wiped out a lot of accumulated wealth. But the inequality is rapidly growing again, as r>g would stipulate, and the growing class of multi-billionaires and increasing numbers of trillion+ companies give evidence. So how will we restore the balance this time? Piketty’s answer is that we should do this by a graduated tax on wealth, which is surely preferable to another World War, particularly with the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

This is a long book, and may be bit heavy going, but I think it is worth the investment of time and effort. Piketty is making the observation that a democratically-controlled tax policy of taxes on wealth to restrain the runaway accumulation is better than any alternative. And while I have joked about eating the rich from time to time, I doubt they would be tasty or particularly nutritious.




View all my reviews

 Save as PDF
Share
Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , | Comments Off on My Review Of “Capital in the Twenty-first Century”

My Review of “Doctor Who: The Early Years”

Doctor Who: The Early Years by Jeremy Bentham

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This large-format paperback does what the title says. It starts with Sydney Newman, the father of Doctor Who, who came from Canada to eventually wind up as Head of Drama at the BBC. He had an idea for a show about a mysterious character who traveled through time and space in a ship that was bigger on the inside than on the outside. When no one at the BBC wanted to be the producer he grabbed a young lady who had been a production assistant for him at ITV, and talked her into being the producer. That of course is Verity Lambert, who went on to a very successful career in TV and film production. Then they had to assemble a cast, and a production team, and get the show going. The book discusses all of this and is a good introduction to this historical material. This is useful, but honestly there is nothing in this that is really unique.
Then the book goes into discussions of selected stories from the run of the first Doctor, played by William Hartnell. It isn’t all of the stories, but it mostly picks the ones that are significant to get this attention. It is the illustrations that make this book something you want to have in your library if you are a fan. While there are a few color photos, most are in black-and-white, but then so was the show itself in this time. What you will particularly enjoy are the production drawings and models, and the discussion in particular of Raymond Cusick, the Production Designer for some of the most important stories including “The Daleks”. I am rating this 4 stars out of 5 and recommended for the true Doctor Who fan.



View all my reviews

 Save as PDF
Share
Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , | Comments Off on My Review of “Doctor Who: The Early Years”

Battery and Charging Technology 20240128

It has become obvious to nearly everyone that we need to stop burning fossil fuels, and while that is all well and good, what takes their place? We have renewable energy sources that can provide electricity to run our vehicles and power our homes, but they tend to be intermittent. The Sun only shines half of the day, winds come and go, and the key technology we need to bridge the gap is battery technology. Fortunately there have been some important developments that provide good news on this front. Much of this comes from China which has no oil resources of its own is and is therefor incentivized push research into alternatives. And another country in a similar situation is Japan, which has the same incentives and has also done good work in this area. The United States, in contrast, is a major oil producer and as such has faced significant opposition to efforts to move to renewables.

One major area we need to look at is for automobiles. The share of new vehicles that are electric goes up each year, and they will be the largest share of new vehicles sooner than most people realize. In 2023, Norway had 90% of their sales be EVs in the first half of 2023. This figure includes both pure electric vehicles and hydrid-electric vehicles. In Germany the comparable figure was 35%, and in China 33% (https://fortune.com/2023/11/23/us-electric-vehicle-sales-2023-record/). Meanwhile, California and Washington have mandated that 100% of new vehicles be electric by 2035,. New Jersey has a similar mandate and I would expect other states will join in this. But the main obstacle to increased adoption is what is called “range anxiety”. For example, most electric cars right now have around a 300 mile top range on a full charge. And recharging can take up to an hour at a time. I do a trip each year from my home in Michigan to New England, where most of the family for both me and my wife live, and that is around 800 miles. So that would mean stopping at least twice going each way for up to an hour for a recharge. The solution has to be some combination of higher capacity batteries and quicker recharging times. Fortunately there is progress on both of these fronts.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co, Ltd. (CATL)

This is the largest battery manufacturer in the world, and it is a Chinese company. For that reason, there are accusations in the US that they are a security concern. But the rest of the world is not likely to worry too much about that. What they have done technically is to improve the capacity and charging times of their batteries significantly. They now are shipping batteries that power a car for 400km (about 250 miles) on just a 10 minute charge. So for my trip each year I would spend 30 minutes recharging instead of two hours. That starts to look like a feasible plan. Or with a full charge, it could go 700km (435 miles). So I could get a full charge before leaving home, do a couple of 10 minute charges on the way, and be there with power to spare. That is totally doable. As a pair of senior citizens I can assure you we spend more time than that in the bathrooms as we go. These batteries are fairly conventional as rechargeables go, being Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LIP) in their chemistry. But what about other technologies?

Solid-State Batteries

One of the leaders with this technology is Toyota, which is the early leader in hybrid vehicles, which combine a gasoline (petrol) engine with batteries and electric motors. So they have probably more automotive experience with batteries than any manufacturer in the business, even though they are a bit later to the fully-electric vehicle market. Solid-state batteries can avoid using Lithium, which can be a safety issue, and they will be lighter and have a higher energy density. Because this is new technology, it may not appear in production for another 3-4 years, but Toyota claims they should be able to produce a car that will go 1200km (750 miles) on a 10 minute charge. Here is a look at Toyota’s plans: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a45942785/toyota-future-ev-battery-plans/.

Of course, Toyota is far from the only company researching this. Honda is the main competitor to Toyota in Hybrid vehicles, and they have plans for solid-state batteries as well: https://global.honda/en/tech/All-solid-state_battery_technology/. Chinese manufacturer NIO has a semi-solid state battery right now that can go 650 miles (1046 km) on a single charge.

It is worth noting that the idea of solid-state batteries is not all that new, as Michael Faraday first discovered them in the early 19th century. What is new is the technology to scale up the batteries into something that can power an automobile.

For as good look at how solid-state batteries work, here is an explanation from the Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2024/01/solid-state-battery-design-charges-minutes-lasts-thousands-cycles. And here is one from New Scientist: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2398896-what-are-solid-state-batteries-and-why-do-we-need-them. And here is Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_battery.

Other Technologies

BYD is a Chinese company that is the world’s largest EV producer. They employ a technology that is called the Blade battery. This is a variation on LIP technology that the company claims is safer, has a longer range, and a longer lifetime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_battery.

Sodium-ion batteries are a coming thing as well. This is not surprising since Sodium and Lithium are in the same chemical family both being alkali metals. So they should have similar properties. But one advantage of sodium is that it is more abundant. So sodium-ion batteries should cost less, and unlike lithium produce no toxic by-products. The Swedish company Northvolt has made great progress in this area: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/21/breakthrough-battery-from-sweden-may-cut-dependency-on-china.

Role for Government

The biggest problem is the lack of infrastructure around battery recharging, and that is where there is a role for government. In the US, which I am most familiar with, the government has in the past intervened to promote transportation innovations. In the 19th century, it was the promotion of railroads, which the government aided through substantial land grants. Then in the 20th century it was building the road network. Those things would not have happened if the government had not made those investments. I would suggest that there is a need now to build out the charging infrastructure at a speed and scale that the private sector cannot accomplish. That would solve the last problem preventing wide-spread adoption of Electric Vehicles. Companies are now producing, or will be shortly, the batteries we need. Right now, with my fuel-efficient car, it takes me two tanks of gasoline (petrol) to make my trip each year since I can go around 500 miles on a full tank. We should within the next few years have batteries that can exceed that range. What we lack is the charging infrastructure to make recharging as easy as refueling is now. The obstacle now is not technology, it is politics.

The other issue that should be a concern to some Americans is that all of the leading work on these vital technologies is happening in other countries. I’m less concerned about that because the problems we face are global, but I find it odd that some American politicians consider technology from China to be a security threat, yet seem to have no interest in developing the technology here.

 Save as PDF
Share
Posted in Editorial, Reviews | Tagged | Comments Off on Battery and Charging Technology 20240128

My Review of Robert A. Heinlein: A Reader’s Companion

Robert A. Heinlein : A Reader’s Companion by James Gifford

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is an excellent book, but not exactly a page turner. What it does is provide the metadata for nearly everything (Some things have come out sine it was written) that Heinlein wrote. It will tell youwhen a piece was written, when it was published, where it has been collected, the circumstances surrounding the writing of it, and any “Curiosities and Anomalies” he finds in the piece. As such, it is not a book to be read in a sitting, but rathere one to be kept by the bookshelf and consulted when reading a Heinlein story or novel. And so it is really only for the hardcore Heinlein fan. Since there are still many such in the science fiction public, it has an audience, but if you are not a hardcore fan I would skip it in favor of something more congenial. I happen to be a hardcore Heinlein fan and consider this an important part of my collection.



View all my reviews

 Save as PDF
Share
Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , | Comments Off on My Review of Robert A. Heinlein: A Reader’s Companion

My Review Of Sign of the Unicorn

Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


So the story continues, but oddly. The previous book left off on a real cliff-hanger, and this one picks up in the future with no real explanation of how the cliff-hanger was resolved. Seriously, the antagonists were facing each other with swords drawn, and now nothing? Corwin is now the King in Amber, and Eric is dead, but it happened when they were allied against the dark powers threatening Amber, and Eric gives Corwin key information to help him. Then this story takes us into what I can only analogize as Game of Thrones territory, where every member of the family seems to be making shifting alliances and opposition. One member has been held captive, but they manage to bring him back, only to have him be attacked as the rescue is accomplished. At the end, the nature of Amber is called into question. This makes abundantly clear that this series needs to be read as a whole, and not as individual novels for it to make any sense.



View all my reviews

 Save as PDF
Share
Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , | Comments Off on My Review Of Sign of the Unicorn

My Review of The Guns of Avalon

The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is book 2 in the Amber series, and we continue with the story of Corwin. He goes to the Shadow world of Avalon to obtain a particular product that will help him assault Eric in Amber, but he keeps running into sinister black forces that he himself has unleashed by his curse in Book 1. But when he gets to Avalon he discovers his brother Benedict is there, and that could mean trouble since Benedict won’t support Corwin’s plans. This leaves open the question of how far he will go to stop Corwin. Then Corwin meets Benedict’s granddaughter, and that adds more complications. The book ends on a cliff-hanger that may leave you cursing the author, but it is clear that this meant to be a series that won’t have any stand-alone novels and will only be complete when you have read all of it. Fortunately each of the novels is a fairly quick read, around 5 hours for me, at least so far.



View all my reviews

 Save as PDF
Share
Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , | Comments Off on My Review of The Guns of Avalon

My Review of Nine Princes in Amber

Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have read a number of Zelazny’s novels with great pleasure, but had somehow not gotten around to this major fantasy series. This is book one in a ten book series, and it gets off to a great start. The protagonist, Corwin, starts off as an amnesiac, but gradually gets some memory back and discovers that he is one of the 9 Princes of Amber. Amber is the true world, and our Earth is just a shadow of Amber. Corwin has to get back to Amber and contend for the throne, but as you might guess from the fact that this is the first book of ten, he doesn’t make it this time. Zelazny developes some interesting ideas, such as the magical Trumps that let the members of the royal family communicate with each other. The family dynamics are tons of fun as half the family wants to kill the other half, but the alliances constantly shift. And there is a tantalizing but unresolved issue involving the King of Amber, who is not dead, but may be near to it. He is of course the father of these nine princes, but so far no mention of the mother. And there is an opposite counterpart to Amber called Chaos, but little has been revealed about that yet. But it is a good read, and I plan to move on to the next book. If you like fantasy, this is a good book, and Zelazny is one of the best.



View all my reviews

 Save as PDF
Share
Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged | Comments Off on My Review of Nine Princes in Amber