Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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Meta
Category Archives: Book Notes
Carl Sagan: THE DRAGONS OF EDEN (1977)
Carl Sagan: The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence. Random House, 1977. This was Sagan’s first book since his 1973 hit The Cosmic Connection (revisited here), and is distinctive in two ways. First, it was the … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Science
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Novella et al: THE SKEPTICS’ GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE
Novella, Dr. Steven, et al. The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe: How to Know What’s Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake. Grand Central, 2018. *** I read this shortly after publication, nearly three years ago now, and … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Science, Thinking
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Links & Comments & Thoughts for the Day & Endpiece: 3 Dec 21
Thought for the day: All the Christmas carols, all the movies about Santa, and so on, are *fan fiction*. Another thought for the day: I haven’t seen anyone point out that the reason Covid variants keep appearing, and then spreading … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Conservative Resistance, science fiction
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Ursula K. Le Guin: THE DISPOSSESSED (1974)
I (re)read this a year and a half ago, and took notes, now condensed a bit here. And I’ll add it to the Reviews/SF directory page. Le Guin is best known for THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS in 1969, but … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, science fiction
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H.G. Wells, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1897)
No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, science fiction
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Sam Harris, LYING (2013)
Summary and comments about this 2011 essay and 2013 book. With an aside about my belief in Santa Claus.
Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, Philosophy
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Heinlein’s STARMAN JONES (1953)
Starman Jones is the 7th of 14 novels that Heinlein published from 1947 to 1963, at annual intervals except for a four-year gap between the last two, that were called “juveniles” at the time — that is, designed for younger … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, science fiction
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Robert Sheckley, MINDSWAP (1966)
Robert Sheckley was a science fiction writer who debuted in the early 1950s, right about the time Philip K. Dick that did. They were both prolific short story writers through the ’50s, each publishing several stories a year, in the … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, science fiction
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PKD: The Man in the High Castle
I am going to begin posting relatively *brief* comments about books I’ve read lately, to keep up with what I’ve been reading. My extensive book summaries with comments take a long time to set up; by waiting to post anything … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, science fiction
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How to Read a Book
I posted this on Fb last night, perhaps a bit intemperately and incompletely, upon publication of this book yesterday, Sept. 28th.
Posted in Book Notes, Personal history
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