Death Match

After two biblically oriented novels,  reading a novel set in our millennium with all the techno stuff and modern mores was a welcome change.

Author :  Lincoln Child

Publication Date :  October 31, 2006

Publisher :  Anchor

ISBN-10: 0307275566

ISBN-13: 978-0307275561

No. of  Pages :  416

The Story :

Consider this :  a matchmaker that can faultlessly predict your soul mate.   No more senseless dates, no uncomfortable and embarrassing encounters, no more guessing games.  Meet the spouse of your dreams!  For a service worth every penny,  Eden Inc., provides its daily hopefuls with matches made in heaven.  The secret behind this behemoth company’s success is a sentient computer program that can, aside from finding perfect couples,  creatively develop its own problem-solving skills and learn from its mistakes.

But Eden Inc.’s smug confidence cracks  when a very happily matched couple  (with a rare compatibility rating of  a hundred percent) is found dead with what looks like a double suicide.  The company hires a forensic psychologist, Christopher Lash, to investigate the tragedy of such a perfect union.

No motives or inclinations for self destruction nor murder appear to explain the deaths and Lash is stymied. The company seems puzzled as well.  And then, the next super couple is found dead, too, from suicide.  Lash intensifies his hunt; but the perpetrator launches a detrimental campaign against him.  As Lash works obsessively to piece the impossible enigma together,  someone with the clout and technology, changes his personal data so that Lash finds himself in a dangerous mess.  He must solve the riddle of the deaths to save himself as well.

The Review :

The first chapter opens with the neighbour resolving to investigate why the Thorpe baby, who hardly ever cries,  is unendingly squalling next door.  She enters the house and sees that:

“…the infant was strapped tightly into her high chair, facing the living room.  The little face was mottled from crying, and the cheeks were stained with mucus and tears.  Maureen rushed forward.  “Oh you poor thing.”…. she fished for a tissue, cleaned the child’s face.

But the crying did not ease.  The baby was pounding her little fists, staring fixedly ahead, inconsolable.

It took quite some time to wipe the red face clean, and by the time she was done Maureen’s ears were ringing with the noise.  It wasn’t until she was pushing the tissue back into the pocket of her jeans that she thought to follow the child’s line of sight into the living room.

And when she did, the cry of the child, the crash of china as she dropped the cookies, were instantly drowned by the sound of her screams.”

This ends the first chapter after which the reader is hooked and reeled in to read some more and find out : “What did the neighbour see?”.  It isn’t until chapter five that the author reveals what could possibly have frightened the neighbour.  By this time, one is already riveted enough to keep the pages turning.

Here we have death, mystery, impossibilities, and an enigma that seems to defy logical explanations.  The reader is compelled to turn page after page to see how the author resolves the quandary at which he keeps the reader wondering as well.

Unfortunately , the whodunit aspect of the story unravels to a disappointing revelation.  Perhaps this reviewer is simply jaded by the same plot ending as those of numerous science fiction movies on artificial intelligence, which have been popping up for several years now.  The conclusion seems to be a hackneyed modification of many a techno thriller with sentient computers as their focus.

Perhaps, if the A.I. theme were new and less explored, this book would be a blockbuster with a great, surprise ending.  But since this isn’t the case anymore, it’s a “roll-your-eyes”, “aww…not again” story that may make some want to throw the book after having had their anticipation built up most of the way.

This doesn’t take away, though , Child’s superb skill for suspense-thriller writing.  Being half of the great Preston-Child writing partnership of many outstanding suspense-mystery-thrillers, Child is no average author of this genre.  He does know how to grip one’s attention, build incredulity and suspense, and elicit steady page-turning well into the night.  For this novel, he cranks out at full speed all the way through the finish line; although around one-eighth of the way before the end, the effects are diminished considerably by the corny predictability of it all.

Please bear in mind, however, that this review is from a perspective of one who is simply tired of the same themes on artificial intelligence in science fiction stories.  If you have not yet been overly fed with a such a diet, this novel would be a terrific one to lose yourself in.

To Read Or Not To Read :

Since I can’t discuss what I mean by the same A.I. theme without the revealing the spoiler, the reader will just have to find out by himself.  (I’m sure those who’ve had a good share of sci-fi movies, know by now what I’m talking about.)  Again,  if you haven’t watched much on computers and robots, then you’ll thoroughly enjoy this novel to its very end.  Otherwise, be prepared for a mediocre landing.

In A Nutshell :

It’s all about The End.  Here’s wishing that the author, having come up with a very strong beginning and having been able to sustain its pounding plot with irresistibly interesting events, chose his villain more creatively  in order to bring this book to a table-slapping, satisfying conclusion.

Once more, despite its mostly exhilarating eventualities and puzzling “whos”, “hows”, and “whys”, I must rate “Death Match” with the feeling it left me after I’ve turned the last page.

My Mark :  Good (Could have been better…)

 

Rachel & Leah (Women of Genesis)

Rachel & Leah” follows “Rebekah” in Card’s “Women of Genesis” series,  where the story  segues into Jacob’s  flight from Esau’s wrath over the usurpation of the birthright.  Jacob seeks refuge in his Uncle Laban’s camp where he meets Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah.  And thus this story unfolds to center on these  four important women in the Genesis whose lives would intertwine  each other and around one man, Jacob.

 

 

Author  :  Orson Scott Card

First Publication Date :  2004

First Publisher   :  Shadow Mountain

This Edition’s Publication Date  :  November 29, 2005  (Mass Market Paperback)

This Edition’s Publisher :  Forge Books

 ISBN-10: 0765341298

 ISBN-13: 978-0765341297

No. of pages :   368

 

The Story :

Leah is the myopic eldest daughter of Rebekah’s brother, Laban.  Her acute nearsighted condition limits her participation in the normal, everyday life of  a  pastoral camp.  Leah’s greatest desire is  to know her purpose and worth.  She believes that God’s purpose for her is in the Scriptures,  God’s Words.   She reveals to Jacob her desire to study the Holy Writings.    Jacob readily teaches her to read and write in preparation for understanding the Holy Scriptures.  However her perceptual infirmity forces her to rely increasingly on her handmaid, Bilhah, who undertakes the same tasks  of reading and copying the Scriptures for posterity. In the daily reading and writing exercises, Leah becomes secretly enamored of Jacob.

Rachel, the youngest daughter of Laban, is known as the beauty of the family. It is she whom Jacob falls in love with when he spies her at the well.  He contracts with Laban for the hand of Rachel in return for his service as a bondsman for seven years.

Bilhah, Leah’s handmaid, is orphaned before she comes into Laban’s household.  She is not a slave but a free woman.  Although free in name, she still serves the family to earn her place.  Thus, Bilhah’s confused stature earns her a chip on her shoulder.  She makes a very impatient handmaid to Leah so later she is given over to Rachel instead.  She becomes adept in reading and writing, so Jacob gives her the task (enviable to Leah) of copying the Holy Scriptures.

Zilpah is born in Laban’s camp as a bondservant.  A flirt and an opportunist,  Zilpah has the ambition of bettering her life and status.  She assesses correctly that her future will hold nothing should she stay forever in Laban’s camp.  Thus, she plans to attach herself to those who can take her away from it.  An opportunity arises when she makes herself indispensable to Leah and thus, becomes her handmaid.  Also, she tells Jacob of Laban’s sons’ plot to kill him, raising her trustworthiness in Jacob’s eyes.

All four women are drawn inexorably to Jacob.  As per the Biblical story, Jacob completes his seven-year servitude to Laban and prepares to wed Rachel.  Rachel, in her seven-year “engagement” to Jacob,  had not thought much about marriage and what it truly entails.  Her ignorance sends her in a serious panic and suddenly she cannot bear to marry Jacob nor any man for that matter.  In Hebrew culture where honor and pride is paramount, Laban must think  of a way  to honor his commitment to Jacob and at the same time,  address his daughter’s emotional stress and her well-being.  What follows is exactly what happens in the Bible, but with the author’s own, very creative twist of how these historical  events happen to be so.

 

 

The Review :

In this novel, Card has to flesh out the characters of four women.  And he does this best with Leah who slowly grows in character as the book progresses.  The other three aren’t as developed but it is interesting to notice the dynamics between the four of them, with Jacob somehow drawing them together as the story progresses.

As in “Rebekah“, the author also takes an interest in his male characters and pays the central ones very good attention.  Jacob is a born leader, quiet and gentle but with a natural charisma that endears him to many.  Laban is a loving father who treasures his daughters and would do anything possible to make them happy.

For a male author, it must have been a challenge to have to draw four different female personalities and get into their psyches.  However, Card does quite a good job of it, as mirrored in this excerpt from his Rachel character who reacts with these thoughts to Jacob’s statement, “…compared to women, everything is easy..” :

“…Whatever it was that men imagined about women, they did not change their minds just because a woman disagreed.  Father was that way, and every other man Rachel had talked to in the camp.  It’s as if they thought that women were conducting a vast conspiracy to deceive men and make their lives difficult, so that anything a woman might say to simplify things had to be an attempt at deception.

If only men would listen to us, they’d find out that each one of us is different, and we’re eager to teach you how to understand us.  But I can’t tell you how to understand Leah–I don’t understand her either.  And if you did understand her, poor foolish man, you would think that you then understood all the rest of us, and you’d be hopelessly wrong.  No wonder you despair of understanding women.  The best you could ever hope for would be to understand one woman.  And that’s the goal none of you ever seems to try for.”   — pp. 198-199

Orson Scott Card likes to put his own philosophies within his characters’ dialogues and ruminations;  some make interesting food for thought.

 

 

To  Read Or Not To Read :

For those who think this is a religious book, it is not.  It is simply a fictional adaptation of a Biblical story, the framework of which is used as the plot but the richness of detail and characterization are from the author’s deep well of imagination.  What makes it equally worthy of attention is the fact that the story evolves from the perspective of women mentioned but otherwise not conferred with much importance in the Bible as the men were.  Given the limited power Hebrew women had at the time of Jacob, it is quite engaging to note how these women employ ways to circumvent male dominance to get their way.

At the end of the novel, the author notes that this book is only the first of a series on these four women and Jacob.  Card states:  “…the story has four very strong female characters who needed separate development..”  Thus, this story will perhaps be broken down into a series of books, the number of which has not been specified.  Currently, he is working on “The Wives of Israel“,  the sequel without an established release date yet as of the moment.

It has been five years since “Rachel & Leah” ’s publication date.  If you’re willing to wait, pick up this book and be treated to a  good imaginative version of half the Biblical story.  While only half the story, the conclusion is still pretty well tied off despite its broad hint of a sequel.

 

In A Nutshell :

Although not as great as Card’s earlier “Women of Genesis” books, namely “Sarah” and “Rebekah“,  “Rachel and Leah” isn’t very far off the good writing mark either (considering it is only half or maybe even one-fourth of the whole  story).  With its solid characters and Card’s sharp insight into the female mind, the novel takes a good second place to his earlier ones in the Genesis series.

 

 

My Mark :   Very, Very Good

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rebekah (Women Of Genesis)

With his “Women of Genesis” series, Orson Scott Card tackles the challenge of bringing ancient Biblical women  to believable life.  The author directs attention to those extraordinary women of their time, giving them prominence where the Old Testament had minimized them and bestowing on them a relevancy to readers of today.

The Author :   Orson Scott Card

Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (November 28, 2002)

ISBN-10: 076534128X

ISBN-13: 978-0765341280

No. of pages : 416

The Story :

Motherless at a young age, a Hebrew maiden, Rebekah,  matures early to become a beautiful, practical, intelligent, and headstrong girl with an unwavering faith in God.

As per the Biblical story,  a group of travelers spy Rebekah coming to the well.  The master among them asks for a drink, to which she readily obliges.  It is Eliezer,  a servant from the great house of Abraham who had tasked him to seek a wife for his son, Isaac, heir to the Holy Scriptures, the birthright.  Eliezer had prayed to the Lord to help point out Isaac’s would-be bride by sending him a woman who would do what was considered improper : talking to a stranger at the well; drawing water for his drink; and pouring water for his animals as well.  For Eliezer, God answers his prayers with this beautiful Hebrew maiden who does all what he had determined as signs of His choice.

Immediately, Eliezer negotiates with Bethuel, Rebekah’s father, for her hand in marriage to Isaac.  Rebekah regards the honor of being the chosen bride  for the heir of the birthright and therefore Abraham’s future daughter-in-law, as God’s will for her. Thus, she leaves her father, Bethuel, to take a coveted place in Abraham’s promised destiny of becoming the Father of Nations.

However, her awe of Abraham’s status in the eyes of the Lord quickly falls to disappointment when her headstrong and practical  personality clashes with his.  She also comes to struggle with Isaac’s low self-esteem and his tension-filled relationship with his father.  In a cultural milieu where women are subject to the will their fathers, brothers, or husband, Rebekah learns to adapt and make her way so her opinions and beliefs could be acknowledged by the men in her life.

Several years into the marriage, Rebekah’s prayers for children are answered when she conceives and gives birth to twins, Esau and Jacob.  God speaks to her through a prophecy foretelling that her second-born son, Jacob, would inherit the birthright from Isaac.  In ancient Hebrew society in which inheritances are  strictly handed  to firstborn sons, this was a gravely disturbing revelation.   As her children grow,  Esau exhibits athleticism and rashness and quickly becomes Isaac’s and Abraham’s  favorite.  Thoughtful, introspective and responsible Jacob becomes his mother’s.

All through her life, Rebekah’s character is marked by her intense faith and love of God.  Thus,  her reverance for the Scriptures  encompasses a  strong protective regard for them.   It is her belief that the heir of the Holy Scripture or birthright should be the son who is most likely to ensure its sanctity and preservation through the generations.   Esau , being a more physically oriented man, is wholly uninterested in the scrolls, while Jacob reads and studies them.   With her strong conviction of the worthiness of Jacob and her realization that the prophecy should come to pass, Rebekah contrives to fool Isaac, by now,  old and blind,  into conferring the blessing on Jacob.  She succeeds and so we have a story that segues into a story of Jacob, which is dealt with in a separate book.

The Review :

This is a lovely story of faith and fortitude against cultural odds.  The lot of women in the Old Testament is often a subservient one in a very patriarchal culture.  Women in the Bible, therefore, have mostly served as supporting roles to the Biblical male stars.  With very few exceptions like Eve,  they are often overlooked and their importance denigrated in Biblical history.  (But although Eve has a prominent role in the Genesis, it is a dark one,  that of being credited to have caused man’s downfall and his original sin.)

Orson Scott Card has successfully taken this biblical one-dimensionally drawn female character, Rebekah,  and given her a very plausible personality that explains her actions and her daring decisions, that of leaving her family and traveling miles to marry a man she has never met,  deceiving her husband and betraying her firstborn son of the birthright which by religious and cultural laws was Esau’s to inherit.   Card’s  Rebekah seems like a woman out of our century; but then, it may be because a strong woman’s nature may not be all that inherently different despite time and change.

What is astonishing, though, is Card’s depiction of two very important Genesis characters : Abraham and Isaac.  He delves into what must have been a traumatizing experience  for the sacrificial Isaac and imagines what his psyche might have been after almost being served up to God.   He creatively comes up with a realistic probability that Isaac, who had to face near death by the hand of his own father,  must have been emotionally scarred for life.  So, he  takes this premise and depicts Isaac as suffering from low self-esteem with constant craving for approval from Abraham.  His poor self image carries on to affect how he relates with his sons, Jacob and Esau,  his father,  Abraham and his wife, Rebekah. 

In Card’s story, Abraham, despite being God’s chosen one, is still subject to human frailties.  As an ordinary man, he has high regard for manliness (meaning physical prowess, brashness, fearlessness—traits of a “true man”) and thus cannot help but be disappointed in his mild-mannered, introverted, quiet heir and proud of his other son, Ishmael, who exhibits all these enviable qualities.

With all these human flaws and strengths imbued in his characters, Card relates the dynamics of relationships within this ancient Biblical family, producing a very interesting humanistic story that brings the Bible’s account into contemporary understanding and empathy.

To Read Or Not To Read :

I must commend the author for his vivid imaginations of the story behind the bland skeletal account written in the Bible.   Indeed,  his purpose  must be to influence the reader to see beyond the Biblical story and actually appreciate the trials and tribulations those Biblical people must have gone through in their love and absolute faith in the Lord, meriting their lives’ immortalization for thousands of years in the Holy Scripture.  The reader is persuaded to see Rebekah, Isaac, Abraham, Jacob, Esau, et. al. as “real people” whose actions and choices were driven by the same factors that drive many of us today.

The intense faith in God by the characters whose lives were dedicated to serving His will is palpable in the novel and is quite humbling if one compares  it to today’s degree of faith.

This novel may lead you to a much better appreciation of the Old Testament stories.   As an engaging read, this should be in your list of fruitful things to pass your time with.

My Mark :  Outstanding

 

Fashion Babylon

Since I’ve been putting in serious hours in the gym, working to regain my long lost endurance, I haven’t been curling up much in my reading chair.  Sadly, I’ve neglected my TBR pile and this blog after dragging my exhausted self directly to bed night after night.

This book I’ve  picked up, however, was perfect for my frame of mind last week.  I didn’t want to wade through serious text;  so, this little gossip of a novel was just the  perfect shallow read for my brain to happily coast along with.

Author :  Imogen Edward-Jones

First Publication Date   :  2006

First Publisher :  Bantam Books

This Edition’s Publication Date :  2007

This Edition’s Publisher :  Corgi Books

No of  pages :  379

A  frank and often hilarious look up at fashion industry’s underpants, “Fashion Babylon” is an intriguing non-fictional account in a six-month period that marks a designer’s life in between creating collections.  Imogen Edwards-Jones and Anonymous ( the insider who spills the juicy tidbits about our revered designers and celebs), recounts the world of  glamour through a fictitious designer.

What makes the novel so intriguing is that the gossipy anecdotes are all true!  This is a work of non-fiction and only a few names are changed to protect the identities.  But, there are a lot of real names in there, names we do know as fashion icons— Anna Wintour, Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, to name a few.   Oh, and the book gives us a pretty good idea of how things really work in the world of high fashion and the mind-boggling lifestyle endemic to it.  It is a wonder how many survive the almost daily booze and drugs needed to keep up with all the stresses of deadlines, backstabbing, career and financial precariousness over a single mediocre collection, etc.

Anything and everything  — clothes, accessories, pets, food, hobbies, people– fall into two categories: “cool” or very last season.  “Coolness” is a very unpredictable status which can turn into “last season” in a blink of an eye if the wrong sort of people get their hands on the trend:

“…Stella McCartney’s over-the-knee non-leather boots are a case in point.  They were worn by Madonna on Monday, Posh on Wednesday, and a footballer’s wife on the Friday.  In fashion terms they were dead and buried within a week.

Half of the reason why companies like Balenciaga are always churning out new versions of the same bag is because they are constatnly being killed off by the wrong sort of celebrity.  You can imagine how much Roland must have wanted to slash his wrists when he saw Countdown’s Carol Vorderman wearing his dress.  It went from Scarlet Johansson via Cameron Diaz and Rachel Weisz to Carol in three months.  As a result, Scarlett is now running miles from the Galaxy dress.  In the end, I suppose that is the price of having a hit collection.” —- pp. 202 -203

In fashion, image is everything.  That is why…

“…Thousands of pounds of expensive, beautiful clothes are destroyed every year by their own designers rather than being sold somewhere that might tarnish the brand.  Fashion may be about beauty and aesthetic and aspiration, but it is also about the brand.  Brand is everything.  Tarnish the brand and what are you left with?  Why pay  a thousand pounds for a dress that you know costs less than a hundred pounds to make?  Why buy a Chanel bag when there is one at Accessorize that is just as charming?  So, rather than helping out those less fortunate than ourselves, we guard our image and burn the lot.” … p.105

“…You might be starving, drunk and high , with dried-up kidneys and the liver of a fifty-five-year-old alcoholic, but just as long as you can make it down the catwalk looking fabulous, who cares?”…p. 81

And the pervasive exhaustion of it all is partly because…

“Drugs are endemic in this insudstry because it is all about make-believe…You can’t really talk seriously about fashion–there is nothing to talk about.  You can’t just say I have done this great skirt this season.   It’s all about dressing this bitch because she’s cool and she’s going to help my brand.  If she goes out in this dress she is going to give me some kudos, so I have to get up her arse, and then I have to be nice and suck cok with some journalist, and then I have to be nice to this buyer to help my brand.  It is all so soul-destroying….You don’t make friends in this industry.  There is no camaraderie.  There is no one trying to make real connections.  People are parasites.  They do the fashion rubbish talk.  That’s why people are high all the time, to help them escape it all.  They’d rather not confront the reality.   We all live on fresh air, so it has to be high-octane and fun otherwise we would all sit here and say, “I’m not making any money.  What the fuck am I doing?”….p. 181

If you want the insider tidbits on fashion’s characters, this book is chock-full of it.  If you’re a hard-core fashionista, perhaps a lot would be old hat to you by now.  But to the less glamorous of us,  some will be just downright funny and shocking at the same time.  Did you know that…

“Thiery Mugler has an atelier where there is a glass shower by the gym so anyone who is in the gym can work out while watching someone hosing themselves down.”

“…Sienna Miller gets seeded by nearly everyone.  In fact, the girl gets something like twenty-six handbags a month, and they are worth between £2,000 and  £30,000 each.  An estate car comes to her house every week loaded down with dresses, bags, coats, hats, make-up, body products and, more weirdly, candles.”  — p. 134

“Gwyneth Paltrow can’t cope with all the stuff she gets sent out.  She often has parties at her house where she invites all her mates over to go through the piles of freebies on the instruction that they can take what they want.” — p. 134

There’s never a dull moment with this book in hand.  Lightly written with lots of contemporary droll English wit,  Fashion Babylon will delight every gossipy heart that loves fashion and celebrities.  Plus the astonishing revelations behind the backroom of couture is guaranteed to keep you marvelously glued in between covers.

My Mark :  Fabulous!

 

Danse Macabre

Author :  Laurell K. Hamilton

Series   :  Book 14, Anita Blake Series

Publication Date :  March 27, 2007 (Paperback Edition)

Publisher :   Jove

ISBN-10: 0515142816

ISBN-13: 978-0515142815

No. of pages : 576

The Story :

Anita Blake thinks she is pregnant but doesn’t know who the father is.  Is it Micah, the wereleopard;  Jean-Claude, her master vampire;  or Richard the werewolf?  She is a human with vampiric powers and a variety of lycanthropic strains — wolf, lion, leopard, etc.  She is supposedly every woman’s erotic fantasy, possessing the powers of the ardeur, which unleashes a sexual desire so great that men cannot resist but fall desperately in lust and in love as well.  Lust is Anita’s food upon which she feeds and her orgasmic delights in turn feed  some of her partners whose very existence rely on her ability to arouse and drink in sexual pleasure.  Thus, her harem of men.

Sex and the ardeur is a necessity so that Anita is not a slut but rather a very important element in the supernatural community.

The Review :

If the synopsis sounds lame and vacuous, that’s because it really is. The thin,  feeble plot seems like an flimsy excuse for providing a story when the book is really just plain porn.   Events always necessitate sex and despite the author’s obvious attempt to imbue deep emotional dimensions on her characters, they come out as pathetically half-baked, sex-starved freaks who just can’t relate with each other without rutting — and rutting in all forms : straight sex, gay sex, threesomes, anal, a bit of SM and animal sex.  And since the story is character driven,  it falls utterly flat on its face with them.

This book practically reeks of sex, so much so that it becomes tiresome and entirely unerotic.  Hamilton comes out as a bad erotic writer (and a bad storyteller,  to boot) and this supernatural piece of porn does not tilltilate but bores.

However, this is the 14th book in the Anita  Blake series and for Hamilton to have published a book this far into her series  makes me  wonder if this particular novel is simply a dud in her  collection, and if her other books are actually great.

To Read Or Not To Read? :

Read, if you :

• like written erotica  (and you don’t give a damn if it’s artistically done or not)
• get off on supernaturals
• are unrelentingly going through each book in this series and so just have to read this one
• have nothing else to grab for the loo

Otherwise,  ditch this and spend your time on something more worthwhile.  Or get to know the first few novels and see how Hamilton managed to acquire a fan base to make it this far (book # 14).

My Mark :  Poor

 

Before The Dawn

Sometimes, life does get in the way of blogging. That and large doses of TV miniseries in its various seasons have kept me away from my bookshelf for quite some time. But, I’m glad to be back, dishing out more reviews for you.

After the book, “Waiting” by Frank M. Robinson, the subject of human evolution had piqued a great deal of my interest in human origins. Luckily, I had this book in my collection which has temporarily  satiated my appetite on the subject.

Author : Nicholas Wade

Date of First Publication :  April 20, 2006 (Hardcover)

This Edition’s Date of Publication :  March 27, 2007 (Paperback)

Publisher :  The Penguin Group

ISBN-10: 014303832X

ISBN-13: 978-0143038320

No. of pages :  320

What It Is About :

“Before the Dawn” is Nicholas Wade’s dissertation on human evolution. It traces our roots through the infallible footprints of our DNA, bringing us to our earliest known origins which is Africa, and to the first chromosomal Adam who supplied the definable Y chromosome that started the ancestral human population.

The treatise goes on to define how modern man evolved through genetic mutations, made prevalent by natural selection, to include large changes such as vast improvements in intelligence, capacity for language, and increasing behavioral complexity.

Wade states that human evolution is an irrefutable truth than can be proven by DNA:

“…in the past few years an extraordinary new archive has become available to those who study human evolution, human nature and history. It is the record encoded in the DNA of the human genome and in the versions of it carried by the world’s population. Geneticists have long contributed to the study of the human past but are doing so with particular success since the full sequence of DNA units in the genome was determined in 2003.” — p. 2

“As a repository of hereditary information that is in constant flux, the genome is like a document unless ceaseless revision. Its mechanism of change is such that it retains evidence about its previous drafts and these, though not easy to interpret, provide a record that stretches deep into the past. The genome can therefore be interrogated at many different time levels. It can supply answers that reach back more than 50,000 years to the genetic Adam, a man whose Y chromosome is carried by all men alive.” — p.2

“The human genome is a new source of data that enriches all the disciplines concerned with the human past. It furnishes two quite different types of information, one to do with genes, the other with genealogies. “ — p. 6

Wade lays down the main issues covered in the book:

1.  There is clear evidence that the human and ape species are descended from one common ancestry.

2. In response to environmental pressures, human social relations have evolved as a survival necessity. Behavioral developments such as communication, alliances, trust, etc. have arisen as tools to ensure being one step ahead of competition.

3.  Human physical form was attained first before significant changes in human behavior occurred. Bipedalism, increase in brain size, shedding of hair are examples of development toward modern human physique that did not occur simultaneously with advanced human behavior.

4. “Most of human prehistory , occurred in and was shaped by, the last ice age.”

5.  In our evolution, man’s acquisition of the gene that is responsible for our language ability is one of the most important evolutionary gifts bestowed on man. Language has enabled us to form three principal social institutions that have shaped human societies : warfare, religion, and trade.

6.  The ancestral people were too aggressive to live in settled communities as their lives were dominated by constant warfare. Gradually, humans had to evolve into less aggressive individuals in order to be able to live in larger societies with new structures such as social hierarchy, ownership of property, and specialization of roles.

7.  Human evolution has not halted and is continuing to the present day.

8.  “People probably once spoke a single language from which all contemporary languages are derived.”

9.   “The human genome contains excellent records of the recent past, providing a parallel history to the written record.”

The Review:

Wade does an excellent job of explaining human evolution which makes “Before The Dawn” a highly absorbing read.  This book is based on various sources covering a variety of esoteric topics, such as “Ancient DNA Evidence for Old World Origin of New World Dogs”, “The Neolithic Invasion of Europe”,  “Hunter-Gatherers and Human Evolution”, etc.  from which details were culled to create a cohesive, well explained summary for the layman’s understanding of human evolution.  About 367 source materials, most of which have been only recently published (1996-2006) are cited, so the information is guaranteed to be current.

A lot of fascinating facts may keep one glued to Wade.  This is one of his footnotes:

“Most people in Africa and Europe have wet earwax.  But dry earwax is the rule among East Asians.  A team of Japanese researchers has traced the difference to a mutation in a gene called ABCCII….”  —- Footnote no. 153

According to Wade, one can date the invention  of clothing through the time at which the body louse evolved from the head louse.  When body hair started to fall off, the louse was confined to a restricted area of hair–the head.  But once man started using clothing (perhaps animal skins), the louse now had more area to live on but it just had to evolve to acquire different claws to be able to cling to clothing instead of hair.  So, studies into louse DNA to discover when this evolution occured would give an answer to when men took to wearing clothing.  This turned out to be 72,000 years ago, give or take several thousand years.

A very well put-together work, this is not a difficult read for the common reader as long as one does a little research on some of the jargon (i.e. paleolithic, australopithecines, mitochondria, et al.).  Get past it and one should be off on a very interesting educational treat.  Moreover, the explanations are clear and concise, the writing informative without being heavy.  Chapters are also organized and well- laid out so it isn’t a chore to pore through this book.

To Read Or Not To Read:

Nicholas Wade certainly raises questions regarding Biblical writings, most of which center on the Genesis.  It renders the literal story of the Creation and the Christian belief that we are unique and not creatures of evolution, as myths.  This may be disturbing to those whose religious beliefs center on Biblical truths , as these are challenged in the light of current scientific evidence.   But those who are truly interested in human history, biology,  genetics, anthropology,  archeology or even linguistics, or those who simply have an open mind toward the subject of human evolution,  shouldn’t pass this one up.  The range of topics and the fascinating informational asides do add tremendously to one’s store of knowledge while providing entertainment as well.

In A Nutshell :

Since the human genome was unraveled in 2003, this book rests on DNA as the incontrovertible evidence upon which human evolution can sit on and be proven.   Our DNA suggests that not only have we evolved but that our evolution continues and will continue well into the future.

As per Publishers Weekly editorial review: “This is highly recommended for readers interested in how DNA analysis is rewriting the history of mankind. “

My Mark :  Excellent

 

Waiting

The little blurb promising a creative and unusual “alien” mystery thriller just leaped out at me from the back cover and compelled me to snatch this one up from a book sale.

Author :  Frank M. Robinson

Date of First Publication : April 1999 (Hardcover)

Publisher :  Forge

Date of Publication for This Edition :  April 2000 (Mass Paperback)

Publisher :  Tor Books

ISBN: 0-812-54164-2

No. of Pages :  347

The Story :

Suppose there were a society of aliens whose existence we know nothing about, living among us for over 35,000 years?  What if they look like us, talk like us, and have imbibed all cultural nuances to seem human?  What if they were your best friend, your nice next-door neighbour,  or your teacher at school?

This isn’t your average  UFO invasion/ body-snatcher story.  The creatively original concept here is that the aliens in our midst are hominids but not homo sapiens; rather they are a different species, who almost lost the fight for survival some 35,000 years ago and have learned to assimilate with the dominant species, us, in order to survive, albeit in small clusters, waiting for the time when they, too, shall have dominion over the earth.

Participating in an autopsy of a sixty- plus- year-old male who died in accident,  Dr. Larry Shea makes this exciting but unfortunate discovery.  The victim possess muscles, bones, and inner organs which were as healthy and strong as a those of a thirty year old.  Measurements of the cranium, heart, etc. are also significantly different from humans, so that  he concludes that the man was not a man after all — not within the biological parameters of homo sapiens.  Dr. Shea prepares to share his discovery with his friends in the Suicide Club, an organization among a group of professionals whose  ties go back to their younger, reckless days.  But, he is murdered before he is able to do so.

Artie and Mitch, two friends from the club, decide to investigate his mysterious death.  Soon, they discover the bizarre and terrifying reason and become the next targets while other members are picked off, one by one, as well.  The killer must be part of the club and they must find him before they become victims, themselves.

The Review :

With the aliens assuming an anthropological nature,  Frank Robinson does  a refreshingly clever and original take on the tired and hackneyed aliens theme with “Waiting“.   This time the aliens are of our earth, just a different branch of the homo genus.

With this unique concept, Robinson blends in a whodunit theme and crafts this sci-fi mystery thriller with a deft hand.   He opens the book with a strange murder and proceeds to compel our reading through skillful manipulation of plot events so that,  as one with the main character, Artie, the reader isn’t quite sure whom to trust as well.

Frank Robinson writes like a typical man would — straightforward and decisive.  His characters seem pretty much like his writing, too — not given to much sentimentality and exuding a no-nonsense quality that would appeal to a lot of male readers.

There is a very strong environmental message in this book, being that man and his activities are the prime factors  for various ecological collapses.  Furthermore,  nature has its own way of addressing its own survival and so as prime factors of destruction, it may well serve us to take serious heed.

Robinson concludes the novel with a good twist to render this book, a very enjoyable read.

My Mark  :  Very Good

 

Map of Bones

Author        :  James Rollins

Date of  First Publication : April 26, 2005  (Hardcover)

Publisher    :  William Morrow

Date of  This Edition’s Publication :  May 2006

This Edition’s Publisher  :  Avon Books

ISBN-13:  978-0-06-076524-8

ISBN-10:  0-06-076524-0

No. of pages :   540

The Story :

The story opens with a crash into the year 1152.  Men of the exiled, legitimate  Pope desperately try to defend a holy relic from falling into the hands of the false pope ensconced in Rome.  They succeed.

Fast forward to the present in Cologne :  cold-blooded terrorists garbed in monk’s robes walk into a Catholic mass after the Eucharistic rites, steal the Church’s relic — the bones of the very Magi who had paid homage to the infant Christ at his birth — and leaves behind an entire congregation, dead from electrocution by Communion wafers.

The sacrilegious carnage and theft forces the Vatican to work alongside the Sigma force, an  elite unit of highly educated and specially trained soldiers for organized crime of this magnitude.  Commander Grayson Pierce , three other agents,  a caribinieri lieutenant Rachel Verona, and the Vatican’s own, Monsignor Vigor Verona, form a team to race against time and danger to solve the mystery of the Dragon Court’s deadly interest in the Magi’s bones.

The bones become the first clue which lead the team through an international hunt for clues to a treasure, far greater than anyone had ever known.  To solve the riddles, they must piece historical, religious and scientific knowledge together to unlock ancient secrets, before their adversaries gain the knowledge and purported power of the prize.

The Review :

Whoa!  What a ride!  Shock value and originality in the first few chapters make a strong start with a novel idea for mass murder:  grand scale killing of a Catholic congregation through electrocution with contaminated communion hosts.  A seemingly improbable event but as a beginning, it does grip you to stay with the book and run along with a series of marvelous historical, religious and techno tidbits which the author insists are facts, in his preface.  Such interesting details like Mithraism (an old Roman military religion that has parallels with Christian rites);  existence of the monoatomic state (m-state) of metals;  liquid body armor being developed by the military;  and the Mandylion (the purported true burial shroud of Christ that predates the Shroud of Turin) to name a few,  are dropped like crumbs on a trail for me, the reader, to eagerly lap up and broaden my knowledge on many esoteric matters,  after the story.

In fact,  the book is chock-full of trivia.  The bulging amount is quite distracting and adds more complexity to an already complicated mystery.  On occasion,  I’d wonder how matters came to be from Points A to C.  My attention probably wandered on some detail at point B.  But then, Rollins’ way of incorporating all these factual details keeps one riveted enough to stay on their reading course.

The book is highly driven like one on speed.  The author loves big bangs and surprises and uses these often;  so expect lots of jarring moments from beginning to end.  The hunt’s conclusion, though, seems both rather outrageous and a tad anti-climactic; but since this is escapism, it might do you well to just ride along.

To Read Or Not To Read?

Packing a lot of action, this book may be a good choice to pass the time. Score another for it if you do like books that inform as well as entertain. This is my first Rollins book and it just whetted my appetite for more. It’s quite a rollicking good read, one of those that holds up its end well against books of its type — hunt for ancient artifact adventure / mystery kind of novel.

Oh, there is a bit of romance involved. A weak injection by the author to…? …add more spice?…humanize the lead characters…?… touch on as much elements as he can?…whatever. Although this may annoy some , it doesn’t detract much from the excitement which this book is about.

In A Nutshell :

Map of Bones is quite the speedy suspense slash thriller slash adventure slash mystery it should be, melding the elements of history, religion, and technology, a genre mix that surely must be a James Rollins’ signature.

My Mark : Very Good

 

I’m Flattered Pink with A Splash! Award

I have just been awarded the Splash! Award, my second honor in five months of blogging life,  by sumthinblue of Bookmarked! This just makes  my dracula-like eyes (mostly from reading) and my growing middle (reading and snacking go so well together) all so worthwhile!

The Splash! Award is an honor given by fellow bloggers to blogs which either “allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire”.  For my blog to be one of these is just whew! … super!  Can you say cool, as well?      And, to receive it from someone in the blogging community really flatters me pink!

This blog was born out of my need to take up simple writing once more and a compulsion to share my books with those who love reading as well.

Blogging takes a lot of time, especially for me.  Writing does not come as easily as it used to.  I haven’t been penning much of anything nor getting acquainted with  much books  for years; so,  I’m still wobbly on the writer’s bicycle.

The Rules:

1) Put the logo on your blog/post.
2) Nominate up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you.
3) Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let them know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog.
5) Remember to link to the person from whom your received your Splash award.

My Awardees :

I would love to have nine awardees; however, I haven’t been visiting many blogs for me to able to come up with a list.  Also, those blogs I wish to give it to have also been awarded by sumthinblue.  To name them:  Coffeespoons and KyusiReader,  both well-written blogs worth your time perusing.

So, I’m left with a micro list of my awardees :

Sumthinblue of Bookmarked!, as you have linked back to you awarder, so shall I with you.  For great feature and review writing  and a drool-worthy collection of books I can only be envious of,  you certainly deserve being Splashed!

Verby of Verbivore, my first cyber friend in the blogging community, for your informative and sometimes amusing articles on life in Bangalore, I Splash! you!

Grammar Pulis, for your hilarious posts on grammatical sins and for authoring a blog so useful to those who have forgotten a lot of the rules (guilty, as charged), I Splash! you!

Nicki of Fyrefly’s Book Blog, for your meticulous blog  and well-written reviews.  Nowhere have I encountered a book blog which has everything it should have.  Features like a vocabulary list for each book reviewed, the opening lines of each book,  a reading calendar,  author interviews, a monthly wrap-up, and even (wow!)  a reading tracking spreadsheet and graph!   You’ve got it all covered, and for this, I Splash! you!

Lightstaff , the newest addition to my blogroll,  for marvelous, artistic  photos I have been enviously gazing at  for a few months now,  here’s a Splash! for you!

 

Memoirs Of A Geisha

“Geisha Of Gion” just whetted my appetite for more books on the geiko world. Luckily, I had this book to momentarily satisfy my craving.

Author:  Arthur Golden

First Published:  1997  (Hardcover)

Publisher:  Alfred A. Knopf Inc.

This Edition Published:  1999 ( Mass Paperback)

Publisher:  Vintage Books

No. Pages:  502

The Story :

In the poor village of Yoroida, a little girl with startling blue-gray eyes, is plucked from her parents and sold to an okiya, a geisha house, in Gion.  Chiyo’s eyes are a rarity in Japan, so her potential as a stunning geisha earns the greedy regard of Mother, the okiya’s proprietress and the spiteful jealousy of the house’s star geisha, Hatsumomo.  Together, they bear down on Chiyo’s confusion and homesickness which drive her to escape the okiya’s oppressive life.  Her attempt, however, fails with a fall from a roof  and a broken arm.  For this she becomes a disappointment and a bad investment and so doomed by the okiya to be an abused, overworked maid instead.

Chiyo pours out her misery one day, as life seems to stretch out bleakly before her.  A kind, well-dressed stranger, in the company of a geisha, spies her and gives her comfort with his handkerchief and a coin for a snowcone.  This innocent encounter marks a turning point in Chiyo’s life.  His kindness sparks a childish crush so that Chiyo begins to perceive a clear goal for life –  becoming a geisha, this being the only possible way she sees for someone of her station to meet him again.

As luck would have it,  another of Gion’s star geishas, Mameha,  seems enthralled by Chiyo’s eyes so that she negotiates with Mother to bring Chiyo under her tutelage.  With Mameha’s lessons,  Chiyo transforms into Sayuri and becomes the most sought- after maiko (apprentice geisha) and inevitably comes into contact with the kind stranger known as the Chairman.  Sayuri, by now has fallen in love with him.  However, the Chairman’s business partner, Nobu, becomes attracted to her instead.

What follows is a beautiful story of suppressed passion and love that spans time and circumstance.

The Review :

Few books have thoroughly captivated me as much as “Memoirs of A Geisha“.  The first few chapters hint at serving one with a sumptuous literary feast of exquisite prose, mesmerizing details of the exotic and secretive “flower and willow” world, and an uncommon emotional depth, all of which seem to flow so effortlessly from Golden’s pen.

Golden’s writing has a very lyrical quality to it and the book is rife with creatively crafted descriptions and charming little asides from the main character’s point of view.  It is quite astonishing how Arthur Golden,  being a man, could write so intimately and convincingly about a young  girl’s psyche.

The novel is full of analogies, metaphors, and descriptive phraseologies; yet, strangely, it isn’t burdened by them.  On the contrary, words flow so naturally and combine so beautifully to paint a lovely, poignant story that has touched the hearts of readers everywhere; hence, its international bestseller status.

Aside from a romantic, sensitively written story, one experiences the obsequious, community-dependent, perfection-driven, and heavily nuanced geisha culture whose exotically mysterious nature provides the book with a wonderfully different romantic flavor.

As An Aside :

Indeed, geisha depiction here is quite different from what Mineko Iwasaki (Japan’s foremost geisha in the 70’s) wanted to  project in her memoirs, “Geisha of Gion“.   After she was thanked by Golden as his major source, Mineko was believed to be the real-life basis of Golden’s character, Sayuri; hence, the reported falling out between these two authors.

Golden renders the geisha more  as a courtesan, whose sole purpose is to entertain men — entertainment, here,  meaning one catering to all:  from the highest  artistic forms  down to more baser  pleasures.  Mineko Iwasaki, on the other hand, insists that real geishas are artists, trained in artistic customary perfection from a very young age, to carry on the tradition in Japanese entertainment.

Perhaps, both are right.  I’m surmising that there must be social hierarchies in the geisha community, with the existence of high-class and low-class geishas.  Mineko Iwasaki was perhaps telling her story from her viewpoint atop the community’s pinnacle while Golden was trying to tell his from the viewpoint of those at the base.

However it is,  Japanese culture has never been more interesting after these two books, and I hope to lay my hands on more on the same subject.

To Read Or Not To Read :

“Memoirs of A Geisha” is certainly a must-read not just for lovers of romance, but also for those who want a well written story that informs as well as pleasures the reader with its intelligence, sensitivity, and femininely graceful style.

Conclusion :

This is a book worth keeping on your shelf to be re-read as a treat,  years after you’ve done with it.  Its tale is as timeless as enduring love.

My Mark :  Excellent