Genesis. W. A. Harbinson

Genesis.
W. A. Harbinson.
Dell: 1982.

Mad genius joins the Nazi's in the 30's to build flying saucers. By the 1970's, he is starting to control world governments from his secret base at the South Pole. UFO investigators who learn too much are either captured and turned into robots (electrodes in the brain) or are killed.

Part techno-thriller, part sci-fi, overall a rather good book, despite how it may sound. The main flaw is that mysteries are solved by very long monologues by various characters; this is more like an (alternative) history lesson than anything interesting.

Much of the book is believeable. Some things stand out, such as ESP, but overall, I'd buy it. The writing is generally clear and concise, but when the author forays into more fancy writing, he does so with some small skill, unlike many genre writers.

UFOs and government cover-ups are fun topics and this book, though strictly one-sided, does not go overboard with the whole consipiracy thing.

The Nothing That Is. Robert Kaplan

The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero.
Robert Kaplan.
Oxford: 1999.

An interesting topic that intrigued me when I first read about this book in a review. The first half of the book is rather interesting, as Kaplan follows the development of the idea of zero through the 16th-17th centuries. Zero as a number was never really accepted until this time; before then, it was either non-existent, a place-header only, or a suspicious number used by mathmeticians and magicians.

Throughout this half of the book, the author's innumerable tangents, asides, and references -- literary, philosophical, historical, scientific, religious, or otherwise -- are distracting and annoying, but we still follow something of a course.

Once we reach the modern era, however, the book collapses into a rambling essay on "what is the meaning of nothing" with all the author's usual asides. Boring to wade through, as he seems to have no point other than show off his wide array of knowledge (which, of course, is a valid point for discussion, but not one I particularly care about.) If he had stuck to the history, this would have been a great, albeit short, book.

Tales of the City. Armistead Maupin.

Tales of the City.
Armistead Maupin.
Harper: 1990.

Essentially a soap opera with San Franciscans. Maupin has presumably lived in San Francisco, and he really hits on the middle- to uppoer-class white folks there, with their casual acceptance of everything and their amateur philosophy. There are, of course, other sides of SF, but perhaps he touches on those in one of his other five novels in the series.

The book centers around a house owned by a marijuana-growing woman with a secret past, who is like a mother to her young tenants. None of the tenants have any real direction in their lives, nor are any very lucky in love. Although largely a soap, there are some truly comic moments in the book (but not as many as the author thinks.)

Overall, this is a safe, well-written story. I listened to the audio book, which is read by Maupin who has a distracting accent. I probably will not read more in the series, but would like to read another book of his to see if he ever really develops his sense of absurdity, or if he just keeps it at the sit-com level.

The Treasure. Selma Lagerlof.

The Treasure.
by Selma Lagerlof. Translated by Arthur Chater.
Doubleday, Page & Co: 1925.

A very enjoyable book. Set in 16th century Sweden, it tells the tale of a brutal murder by villains, and how the only survivor, the ghosts of the victims, and the last person to see them alive avenge their murders. The plot twist is that the survivor, a 14-year old girl, falls in love with the leader of the villains. The leader is haunted by a ghost and is very remorseful; he falls in love with the girl. The witness is too cowardly to do much of anything.

It ends with the lovers hating each other, the girl kills herself so that the leader can get caught (he doesn't) and the witness finally gets the courage to make a stand. The bad guys are eventually caught, and the girl is honored in/by her death.

This has all the aspects of a successful fairy tale: a fun yet dark & twisted plot; good characters; yet reads as easily as a young adult novel. Lots of neat setting details make this successful just as an historical novel.