octavia_cade's Reviews (2.64k)

I wonder if I'm the target audience for this book, to be honest. Astronomy is an interest of mine, as is the popularisation of science, but although clearly well-researched this book didn't really do it for me. I'm not sure if it actually falls under pop sci, or if it's more an introductory round-up for those entering or those (even peripherally) involved in the field.

I found it quite dense, and it didn't leave me interested in the topic. I do feel marginally more educated on the other hand (though I'm not sure how much has stuck) so I suppose that's something.

Brief look at the first season of DS9. Because it was the first season, a lot of the book is dedicated to set-up; I would have preferred more emphasis on the episodes themselves, which were rather superficially reviewed.

It's fair to say it needed another editorial pass, as well. There were a lot of typos, and the typography itself seems to change from chapter to chapter.

Martinson's long, epic poem is a classic of its kind. The ideas and imagery of the poem set it apart, I think - it's a long, close, sad study of isolation and homelessness in space. That said, it's not always an easy read - perhaps this is a function of the translation, but the words themselves are often novel, the phrasing unclear.

Still one of the sci-fi classics though. Martinson should be better known in sci-fi circles than he is, I think.

A collection of (often very) short stories, all sharing the same theme: what happens when aliens arrive on Earth. This isn't hard science fiction. It's a series of metaphors, of analogies, and while nearly all of them are funny some of them are more successful than others.

The ones I preferred were often the shortest - not so much because of length, but the longer stories were often a set-up for a joke, while the shorter ones were little glimpses of utter strangeness (like "Newton" and "Old Oak"), which is the sort of thing that really appeals to me.

The strongest part of this book was I think the very vivid images that would pop up from time to time - humans hand-swinging with giants, the intergalactic baseball team, the laying out of cadavers, the shower of millions of little yellow cubes - and this is my favourite, I have to quote it: "they came like an epileptic fit in a Skittles factory". I LOVE that last image, even if it did make me hungry. (The fascination with food is an ongoing theme...)

As for the weakest part... I think that might have to be the final story. Tempting as it is to take your readers by their scruff and say "Did you get it? You got it, didn't you?" sometimes it's best to rely on the fact that they do have some intelligence and can figure the occasional thing out for themselves. They're readers, after all, there must be some lights on inside their skulls. Calvino's been around for a while, all cities are Venice, they are us and so on.

But overall, a fun easy read. Not encyclopaedia-length either, which is something I always appreciate in my genre fiction. It made me laugh, and some of the images are lovely.

I suppose I'd characterise this as medical philosophy. Admittedly, I don't have a great deal of patience for philosophy at the best of times, but this is very clearly written for a field which seems to delight in leaving as many people behind as possible. In short: normal people can understand it.

New Frontiers isn't so much a cohesive book as a collection of papers originally published in the Australian Family Physician. As such, there is quite a bit of repetition, but the gist of the collection is medicine needs to take a holistic approach. The papers that went into specifics were most effective, but these were the minority. Many had few references and honestly, I'm pretty sceptical about homeopathy and so on. A little less rambling about Plato and a lot more actual data might have been more convincing to me. Then again, I'm not the primary market for this book (GPs are, essentially) so what do I know.

Very readable fiction about Sir Thomas More. I enjoyed the focus on his family life, and the dodgy-from-the-get-go portrait of King Henry. I did feel, however, that the depiction of More himself was so sympathetic as to be almost cloying.

There are some wonderful poems here, but the real attraction is the variety, especially in the settings. Hall has poems here from Antarctica, New Zealand, Asia, Ireland. The collection skips about from place to place, from reality to fantasy and back, so that there's something for everyone, I think.

My favourite collection of hers so far (though I haven't read all of them yet, so take that for what it's worth).

A brief little book containing sketches and literary fragments from New Zealand artists sent to Antarctica under the "Artists in Antarctica" programme. The poems and brief Mahy extract have, I think, appeared elsewhere so the real interest is in the sketches and accompanying notes from the visual artists Brown and Elliot.

My favourite so far of Manhire's poetry collections (though granted, I've not read them all yet). Imaginative, and darkly fantastic - I particularly liked the short "Poem" and "Poem Against the Natural World". That last is the pick of the collection, I reckon.

Owen Marshall's first collection of poetry. There's a wide range of subjects here, and the language is strong and bare and laid back, with the odd wry touch and sly humour. The poem he wrote about sneaking condensed milk for a tasty treat - I've done that (and I'm not sorry!), so it made me laugh.

The poems I connected most with were those written about southern New Zealand - I lived there for many years myself and so a lot of it was familiar to me. "God / Don't let me die in Auckland." Quite.