thebacklistborrower's Reviews (570)

Welcome to the Real World is a great print copy of Angela Melick's Wasted Talent webcomic. Her real-life, down-to-earth views on unemployment, getting a job, and working as an EIT are great!

I have to say: I loved the book. I thought it was hilarious to have all the Bennett sisters more or less weapons of destruction, and the casualness of taking down zombies. I'm sure some people may not agree, but I hope they know I'm not saying that this mash-up is better than the original -- apples and oranges, anybody? -- but it is a unique and imaginative way to attempt to get more people to read the classics, in one way or another.

The addition of violence, gore, ninjas, was entertaining, but I feel it was done in a rather smooth way. Pride and prejudice refers to the Pride of Mr. Darcy of his background and the prejudice of Elizabeth Bennett has towards him from false accusations by Wickham and the rudeness he exhibited towards her. In +Zombies, the former was smoothly added to with pride of his Japanese martial arts education, as opposed to Chinese by the Bennetts; the latter was added to with accusations of horrible violence in +Zombies.

All in all, I think it was a great light read for those interested in the classics, and a very entertaining read for those more interested in modern culture.

Although technically this book technically isn’t a science fiction book, its topic is about “impossible” physics, or the physics that regularly come up in science-fiction books such as force-fields, robots, time travel, interstellar travel, alternate universes, and extra dimensions. Michio Kaku, the author of the book is a theoretical physicist who has written several science books and is a host of two radio shows. Kaku, in this book looks at the theoretical physics of various “impossible” technologies and rates them into three categories:

Class one impossibilities are technologies that are “impossible today, but do not violate the known laws of science.” Kaku estimates that these technologies will be available in a century or two, or even within our lifetimes.

Class two impossibilities are technologies that we know are possible, given our knowledge of physics, but stand at the very edge of our understanding, meaning they could take thousands or even millions of years to develop. I was surprised to find time travel in this category.

Class three impossibilities are technologies that are impossible given our knowledge of physics; we would have to drastically change our understanding of physics and the universe to make them possible. Fortunately for all us science nerds out there, there are only two technologies in this category: precognition, and perpetual motion machines.

Some people may find reading about such technologies daunting, for many of them are relevant to quantum theory. However, Kaku explains quantum, string, and many other theories clearly and without too much technical jargon. It was a welcome middle ground between scientific journals and Quantum Theory for Dummies. He also frequently used “real-life” examples, referring to Star Trek when explaining interstellar travel; several books by H.G. Wells, including The Invisible Man and The Time Machine; the Large Hadron Collider; and the typical household bed sheet when explaining Space-Time.

Having been introduced to all these examples, I amassed quite the book list. Currently I am reading an anthology of H.G. Wells that includes The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and War of the Worlds, which will perhaps be followed by The Science of Star Trek by Laurence M. Krauss if I can find a copy. If not, I have The Odyssey by Homer, Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne, and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens to get through. (There was a big book sale at Chapters. The H.G. Wells book, Odyssey, and Great Expectations for only 30$!) You can expect to read my reviews of these in the coming weeks.

It is a very short read(I read it in a day), but I thought it very effective and thought-provoking. Ayn made every word count. I felt the use of the word “we” to refer to singular people particularly jarring, mostly because although “we” as a subject was used singularly, but other parts of speech referring to an individual could be singular. It meant you always heard it, and always was bothered by it. As a reader, this just made the theme of the story, the importance of individuality, ego, and “I” all the more obvious. I’d also like to mention that thanks to JRR Tolkien, it reminded me of Gollom, giving the usage a rather sinister, negative tone.

Full review: http://lordofgallifrey.livejournal.com/6258.html