Review: The Tainted Cup

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the first book in a new series by this author; and like his “founders trilogy,” it is off to great start. Where the previous trilogy opened with a “great heist” trope, this one begins with the “great mystery” trope that makes it hard to avoid a direct comparison to the my favorite detective adventures by the likes of Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe and Hercules Poirot. Here the great detective is an eccentric, Imperial Investigator, recently assigned to the boondocks of the outer regions. In a world where everybody is trying to move to the interior, it is presumed that some mysterious reversal of fortune is the reason for her exile. To aid in her investigations, she selects a local assistant/sidekick to serve as her “eyes and ears” and subsequently provides the PoV for the story (think Mr Watson’s diary) … but Din has a few secrets of his own, which only adds to all of the mystery … and there is plenty here: Why was Ana, the investigator transferred to the borderlands? How did Din suddenly and unexpectedly do well enough to finally get the success his so desperately needed? Who assassinated the military officer while he was visiting a villa of one of the most powerful families in the empire? Why and how did they do it? Of course, Ana is up to the task and solves mystery after mystery, often without leaving the confines of her own room (using just the observations reported back to her by her assistant Din). It is all a well worn and effective plot that still works for me when told as well it is here.

As good as the murder mystery is … I though the world-building was even better. The driving force behind the empire, is the destruction wrought by “Leviathans “ that periodically come ashore during the wet season. To defend against these “attacks,” the empire is divided up into walled cantons where the outer cantons use increasingly powerful bombards, guns and walls to turn back these sea titans. This whole scene had me making favorable comparisons to “Pacific Rim.” This adds yet another mystery to the plot (what are these abominations and why are they attacking). Next up is what could arguably be seen as the magic system, which could just as easily be seen as quasi-scientific biohacking. As part of the respond to these attacks, many people has augmented themselves to give them incredible (aka superhero) powers. Some of these alterations are temporary and some are permeant (and a few are inheritable, although the most extreme render the host sterile). The ones most frequently encountered in this story were Cracklers (strength), Axioms (human calculators), and Engravers (eidetic memory) … the later is what Din, the assistant investigator, is and the vivid description of his ability (and the his subsequent disability) helped make he a very relatable character. Additionally, the population was also divided upon by social function, with soldiers, engineers and iudex (justices) being the most prominent. All of this contributes to a very entertaining and natural feeling story that pulls you quickly through to the end (almost reading this in one sitting).

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: In the Beginnings: Discovering the Two Worldviews Hidden Within Genesis 1-11

In the Beginnings: Discovering the Two Worldviews Hidden Within Genesis 1-11 by David Harbater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The subtitle for this book is “Discovering the Two Worldviews Hidden within Genesis 1-11.” The extensive Introduction proves the context (using the documentary hypothesis combined with an aspects approach) for understanding the next 12 chapters (attributed to one or both of the J and P traditions). While acknowledging the obvious contradictions between these two sources, the author cautions against the human tendency to harmonize them … subscribing to the "both/and" paradigm suggested by the very existence of such contradictions within a divine revelation over the more modern/western paradigm of "either/or.” In other words, the tension between the two opposites was on purpose … and the author uses the two creation stories to illustrate this.

“If He is to create the world as 'the Lord,’ reflecting the middat harahamim (the attribute of compassion), people will not be held accountable for their actions. But if He is to create the world as ‘God,’ reflecting the middat hadin (the attribute of judgement), how will the world survive, given the human propensity toward sin. Thus God decided to create the world by carefully balancing both dimensions of Himself in the hope that the world will be able to stand. In other words, the multifaceted God conducts the affairs of humankind by combining, in a way incomprehensible to us, two contradictory aspects of Himself.”

While I am very familiar with the various methods and theories surrounding Christian interpretation of Genesis, I am much less so with how traditions within Judaism do so. In that respect, I found this book to be very interesting and even helpful for my own exegesis and understanding of the scriptures. At the beginning of each chapter, there is a brief analysis on which tradition (J or P) the chapter belongs to and why. Each chapter also generally ends with a summary of, and/or conclusion about, the topics discussed. As the author takes the reader through each part of the story, he carefully points out where interpretation of the Hebrew is problematic and brings in various rabbinical traditions that try to explain it (often with opposition views) before posing several questions to which we just don’t have good answers to (such as what exactly is mention by Eve bing a fitting helper). In particular I enjoyed how the original word play was highlighted during the interoperation explanations. This textual approach is wonderful because it also highlights the ambiguities within the text that have at times been used for “proof texting,” or using small segments to prove an opinion or interpretation is correct, as opposed to a more holistic reading that seems to more accurately capture the essence of the original author/redactor's intent.

Introduction
1. The First Story of Creation (P)
2. The Second Story of Creation (J)
3. The Garden of Eden (J)
4. Cain and Abel (J)
5. From Adam and Cain to Noah (J & P)
6. The Stories of the Flood
7. The Story of the Flood (J)
8. The Story of the Flood (P)
9. Noah and His Sons after the Flood (J)
10. The Tables of Nations (J & P)
11. The Babel Building Project (J)
12. From Shem to Terah to Abraham (P)

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#InTheBeginnings #LibraryThing

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Review: The Descendants of Prontoth: Galactic Civilizations, Book 2

The Descendants of Prontoth: Galactic Civilizations, Book 2 by Mark Raines
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Performance: ****

Story: ***

A Predictable Military Space Opera with Good Narration

This is the second of the Galactic Civilizations series following Felan's Rescue (which I have not read).  The story revolves around two factions of an urmahlullu ("lion man") like alien race (aka Timions) where the dominate take no prisoners authoritarian government (aka High Command) is trying to exterminate the radical Descendants of Prontoth for having the temerity to surrender instead of dying to the last man during a civil war some 800 years ago.  These same descendant were apparently introduced in the first book, but so far I am not seeing anything that creates any need to read the first story to understand what is going on here (with the possible exception of a galactic war where the Descendants played a pivotal role).  Regardless, there are still fault lines between the seven (7) galactic civilizations that the Timion High Command attempts to leverage in their never ending quest for vengeance (which is actually just a weird justification for what boils don’t to an irrational hatred of deviants).

The story pretty much develops as expected, with a healthy amount of simple intrigue and space combat.  Here is where the solid narration saves the day and makes it all more interesting than it otherwise would be leaving only  few nits to pick.  The obviously manufactured plot conflict is not really that compelling.  World Building is primarily done via descriptive text info dumps.  There are a few time jumps that were difficult to identify and caused some confusion for a time. There is absolutely no character development and few opportunities to connect with any of the character.  Perhaps the most irritating for me is the constant/frequent use of the entire title of the Descendants of Prontoth every single time they are referred to.  Would it kill you to consider an acronym or just using the term descendants instead?

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Generation Ship

Generation Ship by Michael Mammay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When we consider interstellar exploration, there are three general concepts that are typically used: Faster-Than-Light (FTL) travel (this would include such things as wormholes, gates, etc.); CryoStasis (basically sleep through the trip); and Generation Ships (everybody stays aware, has kids and trains up each generation until they get to their destination). This book obviously uses the last one. And while there is some good science here (gravity is from spin, etc.), it ignores enough to basically be a typically city in space civilization with a few nods toward expected limitations. One such limitation is a “Logan’s Run” style population control scheme that as the ship nears is ultimate destination, provide the spark that sets in motion the political dram that takes up the bulk of this story.

There are five (5) PoV: the Governor as the compromised politician trying to hold on to power at any cost, an uber hacker stuck in the maintenance division with no way out, a “farmer” reluctantly recruited as the rebel leader, an ambitious security officer maneuvering to get recognition for his awesomeness … and a senior scientist caught in the middle just trying to do the right thing … throw in a Captain who mostly stays off screen as an ultimate arbitrator (and mostly useless), a crime boss and a few hot headed rebels and security personnel and you get quite a mess (aka drama) that was fairly simple and predictable. The only one I found interesting was the hacker (Eddie). Frankly the total chaos of the ships contingent was more or less a copy of what you was expect in a small city and not something that would work very well for a long range colonization effort … which really makes this just a simple story in space (with a back drop of thousands of colonists represented by a handful of characters). Some of the action/interaction was pretty simple and at times bordering on ridiculous.

The arrival … arguably the most interesting part for me … was crammed into the last forth of the story and wasn’t very developed, making the ending fairly disappointing (and predicable, with most of the conflict here moving into the realm of fantasy). That makes for an entertaining story, but not much more than that.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#GenerationShip #NetGalley

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