Category Archives: Book Notes

Eugene Burdick & Harvey Wheeler: FAIL-SAFE

Posted on Wednesday 20 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(First published 1962. Edition show here: HarperCollins/Ecco, trade paperback, 1999, 286pp.) Here’s another book that begs categorization; is it really science fiction? I’ve grouped this book with two previously discussed, Pat Frank’s ALAS, BABYLON and Nevil Shute’s ON THE BEACH, … Continue reading →

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Nevil Shute: ON THE BEACH

Posted on Monday 11 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(First published 1957. Edition here: Vintage International, trade paperback, February 2010, 312pp) And here’s the next in a group of apocalyptic novels I read in June, following Butler’s PARABLE OF THE SOWER and Frank’s ALAS, BABYLON (review review here.) This is … Continue reading →

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We’re Living in a World of Mad Hatters

Posted on Monday 4 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

David Brin on the red state/blue state divide; The authors of a report about the 2016 election set the record straight, to correct Tulsi Gabbard, and all the Fox News coverage of her; Tom Nichols on the latest Trump distraction … Continue reading →

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Pat Frank: ALAS, BABYLON

Posted on Monday 21 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(First published 1959. Edition here: HarperCollins/Perennial Classics, 1999, 323pp, including author biography and publication history by Hal Hager) Next up in the group of apocalyptic novels I read in June, following Butler’s PARABLE OF THE SOWER, is this. It isn’t … Continue reading →

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Robert A. Heinlein: THE DOOR INTO SUMMER

Posted on Tuesday 8 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(First published 1957. Edition here: Orion/Gollancz/SF Masterworks 2003, 178pp, with an introduction by Stephen Baxter) I’m no expert on Robert A. Heinlein — I still haven’t read Farah Mendlesohn’s book about him — but I have read *almost* all his … Continue reading →

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Octavia E. Butler, PARABLE OF THE SOWER

Posted on Tuesday 1 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(Four Walls Eight Windows, October 1993, 299pp) In June I focused on reading classic science fiction novels, partly to see how many I could get through in one month, considering other obligations (answer: 6 and a bit), and partly to … Continue reading →

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Dr. Christopher Evans, CULTS OF UNREASON

Posted on Thursday 12 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

No subtitle (they didn’t do them so often fifty years ago). (UK, 1973; US: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974, 258pp, including 5pp index.) Like Nicholas Humphrey’s LEAPS OF FAITH, discussed a couple weeks ago, this is a book I read … Continue reading →

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Nicholas Humphrey, LEAPS OF FAITH

Posted on Saturday 24 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitle: “Science, Miracles, and the Search for Supernatural Consolation” (Basic Books, Jan. 1996, 244pp, including 20pp notes and index) (Chatto & Windus, 1995, as Soul Searching: Human Nature and Supernatural Belief) Here’s a book I read when it came out, … Continue reading →

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John Scalzi, WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE

Posted on Thursday 15 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(Tor, March 2025, 323pp) John Scalzi is one of the most popular of current science fiction writers, even as he’s not regarded, I think, as a *serious* sf writer by the critics or even readers. He’s entertaining, often humorous or … Continue reading →

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Tim Urban, WHAT’S OUR PROBLEM?, post 1

Posted on Tuesday 13 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(Wait But Why, 2024, 584pp, including 112pp of characters, acknowledgements, notes, bibliography, and bio) I wrote about this book back in December, before deciding to buy it. Which I did despite some cautionary signs: it’s apparently self-published, it’s enormous, it’s … Continue reading →

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