Owner: Resolute Reader - One man's odyssey through the world of books URL:http://resolutereader.blogspot.com Join Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:10:57 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: The Resolute Readers' reviews, comments and discussion about every book read.... taking in politics, history, archaeology, science fiction and the occasional detective romp. Now how exciting is that? Site statistics:Click here
Larissa Reissner – Hamburg at the Barricades 2008-03-02 10:22:00 To live through a revolution is the dream of every revolutionary. To experience the overthrow of capitalism and the first steps down the road towards a new society is something that few have experienced in history. One of those who did is a little known revolutionary called Larissa
Reissner.
Reissner took part in the Russian Revolution in 1917 and fought gallantly in the civil war that Read more:Hamburg
Fitzroy Maclean – Eastern Approaches 2008-02-26 14:54:00 I suspect that few boys have read the novels of Rider Haggard through the years and not dreamed that they would one day cross deserts, fight in battles and explore strange countries. The reality of escapist adventure though, is that it is the stuff of dreams, not reality and the closest most people get to adventure is running for the bus in the morning.
Fitzroy Maclean
was a real life Read more:Eastern
Fredrick Engels - The Condition of the Working Class in England 2008-02-18 15:25:00 Before he became Karl Marx's friend and closest collaborator, Frederick Engels had already achieved more in his life than most philosophers do in decades of thinking. This book, his first major work, is nothing less than a classic work of social investigation. It wasn't the first book to document the poverty and alienation of the emerging working classes, but it was the first to do so with an Read more:Condition
, England
Alastair Reynolds - Pushing Ice 2008-02-13 14:12:00 This is the first Alastair Reynolds
work that I have read that isn't set in his future history set in the so called "Redemption Ark" universe.
It's really a three part novel that starts moving very slowly and gathers pace, until the end, which is extremely fast moving. This is only in part due to the immense acceleration in space/time that the principle characters experience.
The title refers Read more:Pushing
Larry Niven - Crashlander 2008-01-15 13:41:00 Crashlander brings together all the short stories that make up one of the more famous "arcs" in Science Fiction - the stories dealing with Beowulf Shaeffer. Or so it says on the back, however since reading this, I've discovered that there is a further Shaeffer story, which I'm glad about, because the last one in this volume is strangely unfulfilling. In the "future history" that is Larry
Niven's
Cathy Gere – The Tomb of Agamemnon (*) 2008-01-08 15:22:00 The story of Agamemnon, the King who led the Greeks to the siege of Troy is one that deserves reading. Possibly of far greater interest and excitement is the story of how the ancient city of Mycanae was named as the hero’s place of burial.
This story is fascinating because it shows how history and archaeology are often the battleground for more contemporary ideologies, and that far from being Read more:Cathy
Alastair Reynolds - Galactic North 2008-01-04 02:19:00 This collection of short stories fills in some neat little gaps, and ties up a few loose threads from Alastair Reynolds
' galaxy-wide future histories. The stories are pretty much self contained, though I imagine that a few of them would benefit from a prior knowledge of Reynold's universe and ideas.
Reynold's universe is populated by a few different "types" of humans and very little else. Other Read more:Galactic
, North
Madison Smartt Bell - All Soul's Rising 2008-01-01 12:42:00 When I reviewed CLR James' magnificent work of history, The Black Jacobians, I commented that someone had described it as the greatest work of history ever written. I commented further that to read it, was to be inspired to challenge oppression and racism today.
Madison
Smartt Bell's three volume work of fiction based on the events described in CLR James' book has that same aim - no one who Read more:Rising
Eugene Linden - The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of Civilizations 2007-12-19 12:22:00 Just how civilizations have been altered by the climate is something that scientists, historians and archaeologists are happy to debate to a great extent. There is no doubt however, that climate (or rather changes in climate) has had a tremendous effect on the development (or retardation) of various historical societies.
Eugene
Linden has summarized these discussions remarkably well. In Read more:Climate
, Winds
, Change
, Destruction
, Civilizations
Norman Collins - London Belongs To Me 2007-11-27 11:56:00 London 1938 - war hangs like a shadow over the heads of every inhabitant of the town. But London doesn't stop. In his beautiful preface to this, Norman
Collin's most famous novel, the author introduces the "Real Londoners" who star in his novel.
These Real Londoners "sleep the night in London as well as work the day there", and of these, some are "in love, some in debt, some committing murders, Read more:Collins
Barry Lopez – Arctic Dreams 2007-11-18 09:18:00 Subtitled “Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape”, this is a strange tome indeed. The first chapters read very much like a somewhat florid natural history book. The arctic is often described and imagined as a desolate landscape of snow, ice and few living things. BarryLopez
explains why this isn’t the case.
Lopez explains how the peculiar nature of the arctic makes the things that Read more:Arctic
, Dreams
Christina Hardyment - Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk 2007-11-14 14:32:00 One of the hardest things about loving the novels by Arthur
Ransome as a child, was not being able to sail, or even having access to a boat, apart from the occasional rowing trip on the pond in the local park. Novels like "Swallows and Amazons", "Peter Duck" and "We Didn't mean to Go to Sea" were books to stimulate the imagination and let a young reader dream about sailing across the oceans. Read more:Christina
, Captain
, Flint
, Trunk
John Romer - Ancient Lives; The Story of the Pharaohs' Tombmakers 2007-10-29 13:23:00 Whenever you wander around an ancient place, be it Roman, Egyptian or Greek. Or visit some long ruined castle or cave, it is impossible not to gaze around and imagine what it must have been like for the people who lived there.
This is doubly problematic for those who have been lucky enough to visit the Pyramids. After all, no-one lived there. These were the tombs of the richest of Egyptian Read more:Ancient
, Lives
Chris Harman - Revolution in the 21st Century 2007-10-23 14:07:00 Chris Harman
has been writing about the revolutionary transformation of society for over 40 years. Whether writing about the broad sweep of human history, the "Lost" German Revolution of 1919-1923 or in more detailed work on Marxism and History, he has, in my opinion been one of the best Marxist writers for decades.
This little book is a fantastic re-assertion of the Marxist theory of Read more:Chris
, Century
Harry Harrison - The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell 2007-10-15 10:23:00 When I was about ten, I was given a copy of a collection of Science Fiction stories, that I still have today. The book can be credited with a lifelong love of that particular genre. Amongst the many stories in it, was one that wasn't a complete story, but actually turned out to be the first chapter of HarryHarrison
's novel, The Stainless Steel
Rat.
From the moment I read it, I was hooked on
Hans Zinsser – Rats, Lice and History 2007-10-05 13:04:00 Throughout history, on hundreds of occasions, various epidemics decimated the human populations. On many of these occasions the dead have remained uncounted, entire villages and towns have been emptied and very occasionally, the course of history has been changed.
We have become used to the type of history book that focuses on one particular commodity, material or scientific discovery and Read more:History
John Bellamy Foster – The Vulnerable Planet; A Short Economic History of the Environment 2007-10-01 08:13:00 Most famous perhaps for his examination of Karl Marx's understanding of nature and capitalism, in his book “Marx’s Ecology”, this older book was John BellamyFoster
’s first venture into the world of environmentalism. It is short – barely 150 pages in length, but contains a succinct analysis of both the history of the human race’s relationship with the environment and the Marxist understanding of Read more:History
, Vulnerable
, Short
, Economic
, Environment
Charles Stross – The Atrocity Archives 2007-09-14 14:03:00 This is a remarkably strange SF&F novel. I should clarify that I mean this in a good way. The world of the Atrocity Archives
is one where magic is real. Demons can be summoned, the paraphernalia of which-craft is real and secret government organisations battle to save the world from monsters from other dimensions.
What makes the novel clever is that this is all part of our normal world. The Read more:Charles
Gareth Dale – The East German Revolution of 1989 2007-09-07 12:42:00 The closest I have ever been to revolution was to be one of the “Mauer-Spechte” who helped, from the western side, chip away at the Berlin wall in December 1989. Of course, by then, the wall was no longer the barrier it once was. As a symbol of oppression and dictatorship, it had been rendered totally impotent by the struggles of millions of ordinary East German
’s over the preceding months.
In Read more:Gareth
Neal Asher – Hilldiggers 2007-09-03 08:09:00 Neal Asher
is not a new writer on the SF&F scene - “Hilldiggers” his latest [2007] novel, is clearly the continuation of earlier works and themes.
Initially, this seems to be a classic story of first contact between a solar system of humans “cut off” in some way from Earth and left to develop in isolation, and the more advanced human societies, left behind. However as we delve deeper we find
Peter Linebaugh - The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century 2007-09-01 13:28:00 Loath as I am to quote favourably anything from the odious Daily Mail, when reviewing Peter
Linebaugh’s monumental work, they got it absolutely spot on - describing it as “A remarkable book… this is history as it should be written”.
Linebaugh’s starting point is to argue that you cannot understand the history of London without understanding property relations within that society. And you cannot Read more:Century
, Hanged
, Civil
, Society
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2007-08-11 07:08:00 The final installement of the HarryPotter
series really needs little extra comment online from me, but as the rules of this blog require me to record this completed novel, I will make a few brief points. Other blogs have commented on the massive marketing machine that has accompanied this book, however, such a machine can only promote a book to a certain extent. The truth is of course that Read more:Rowling
, Deathly
, Hallows
, Deathly Hallows
Jack McDevitt - Engines of God 2007-07-28 11:12:00 "Archaeologists in Space" would be a fairly accurate title for this neat little science fiction novel. In Jack McDevitt's 1996 novel we encounter an Earth wrecked by global warming and war; and a humankind struggling for a future. The universe that they hope to escape into though is surprisingly devoid of very much intelligent life. Surprising, because the galaxy is littered with the artifacts
Steven Mithen - The Singing Neanderthals; The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body 2007-07-20 15:05:00 Quite early on in the reading of this book, it becomes clear that just how humans communicate, how language developed and how our minds work are matters that keep specialist scientists arguing late into the night.
Steven
Mithen's excellent introduction to the debates around is matters does a good job of introducing the basic ideas to an audience on non-specialists. At almost roller-coaster Read more:Music
, Singing
, Origins
Richard Morgan - Market Forces 2007-07-16 14:52:00 A quick Google of the phrase "anti-capitalist science fiction" generates few hits. Perhaps this review will link RichardMorgan
's novel "MarketForces
" with this rather apt description, even if I do say so myself.
The world of Market Forces is perhaps best described as an extrapolation of our own. The multinational corporations that dominate the world's economies of today have become more power
Mary Beard - The Roman Triumph 2008-03-09 14:23:00 Unusually for a classical historian, Mary Beard seems to be adept at bringing to life complex periods of history. Her humourous and immensely entertaining blog, uses the past to shed light on the present and often explains the past through the lens of current events.
Her latest book, The Roman
Triumph, examines what is actually quite a niche in Roman History. The Triumph, was the much emmulated
Lester R. Brown - Plan B 3.0, Mobilising to Save Civilisation 2008-03-17 12:48:00 Lester Brown
's book on climate change is unlike many of the myriad of books that have been produced about the subject. His book is geared towards the international strategies that are needed to tackle the problem - or at least limiting emissions so that global temperatures do not rise about the 2 degree mark, and runaway climate change becomes inevitable.
Of course to do this, Brown has to set Read more:Lester
Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels 2008-03-24 07:18:00 Few readers can have failed to have heard the basic tenets of Gulliver's Travels
. Written in the 1700s, it follows the voyages of Lemuel Gulliver as he, through a series of misfortunes, finds himself at a variety of stragen lands, populated by even stranger creature.
Most people will have heard of Lilliput - the first land that Gulliver arrives at, where the inhabitants are tiny - six inches or Read more:Jonathan
Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination 2008-04-12 15:12:00 There are few classic works of science fiction written in the 1960s that survive so well into modern times as “The Stars My Destination
”. That, in part, must be because at it’s heart it’s not really a science fiction story. It’s a classic tale of betrayal and revenge set in the context of a widely colonised solar system, whose planets are at work with each other.
At the start of the novel, it’s Read more:Alfred
David Beerling - The Emerald Planet; How Plants Changed Earth's History 2008-04-23 15:28:00 The idea that the humble planet could change the course of Earth
's geological history is difficult to imagine. That plants have changed human history is of course easy to believe - imagine how the European world would be without tobacco or potatoes for instance.
But plants have had a much bigger impact - the ability for vast forests for instance to alter the fundamental make-up of the Read more:David
, Emerald
, Plants
, History
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