Category Archives: Book Notes

Asimov: PEBBLE IN THE SKY

Posted on Friday 26 July 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Isaac Asimov began publishing stories in magazines in 1939, but his first book wasn’t released until 1950, and that first book was his first proper novel, PEBBLE IN THE SKY. By 1950 however he had published in the magazines all … Continue reading →

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Asimov, Six Lucky Starr novels

Posted on Wednesday 10 July 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

In the 1950s Isaac Asimov wrote six short science fiction novels for the ‘juvenile’ market, what today we would call ‘young adult.’ These were: DAVID STARR, SPACE RANGER (1952) LUCKY STARR AND THE PIRATES OF THE ASTEROIDS (1953) LUCKY STARR … Continue reading →

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Dawkins, THE SELFISH GENE

Posted on Sunday 16 June 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Opening paragraph, of a chapter called “Why are people?” Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence. If superior creatures from space ever visit earth, the first question they … Continue reading →

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Miller, A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ

Posted on Saturday 15 June 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

This 1959 novel is one of the most popular and celebrated science fiction novels of all time. It’s set in the years following an atomic war, it portrays religion in a relatively favorable way (in contrast to the skeptical or … Continue reading →

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Oliver, THE WINDS OF TIME

Posted on Saturday 1 June 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

This science fiction novel, from 1957, is by an author known for anthropologically informed works; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Oliver. (The edition I read, the only edition I have, is a 1975 Avon Equinox trade paperback, one of its “SF Rediscovery” series that ran … Continue reading →

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Heinlein, DOUBLE STAR

Posted on Friday 31 May 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

This short novel is from the late 1950s, and is the first of four novels for which Heinlein won the Hugo Award. It’s short and snappy, notable in part because it’s not essentially a science fiction novel. It’s about politics … Continue reading →

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Simak, CITY

Posted on Wednesday 15 May 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Clifford D. Simak’s CITY, published in 1952 but composed of stories published in magazines from 1944 onward, is a story cycle that tells the future of humanity as it abandons cities for country estates and then moves off Earth to … Continue reading →

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E.O. Wilson: ON HUMAN NATURE

Posted on Sunday 14 April 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

I first read this book shortly after its 1978 hardcover publication, and it was revelatory; elegantly written and insightful, it challenged conventional ideas about human nature, especially the one about the mind being a ‘blank slate’ completely molded by environment, … Continue reading →

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Kinsley: OLD AGE

Posted on Sunday 24 March 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Michael Kinsley’s OLD AGE: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE (Crown/Tim Duggan Books 2016) is another slender book that, like part of Junger’s, was originally published as various magazine pieces. Kinsley is known for his ‘law’ — “A gaffe is when a politician … Continue reading →

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Junger: TRIBE

Posted on Saturday 23 March 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Sebastian Junger’s TRIBE: On Homecoming and Belonging (Grand Central/Twelve 2016) is one of several short, relatively ‘incidental’, books I’ve read in the past month — ‘incidental’ in that they’re mostly off-topic to my more serious themes of science, philosophy, and … Continue reading →

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