Tag: book review

Exploring _The Salt Path Scandal_: A Review

Well, readers, I watched this gem on Sky earlier. The first few minutes revisit what had been a best-selling book, later turned into a starring Gillian Anderson.

The show lulls you into a tranquil daze. There are drone shots of cliffs that look like they’ve been photoshopped by the concept of serenity itself. Gentle strings hum. Someone says something earnest about “healing.” You exhale. It’s about a 650-mile walk you can do in the South West of England as told by Raynor Winn. She had just lost her house, and her husband was diagnosed with a terminal illness. The walk was transformative.

And then—record scratch—a talking head appears to ask a question so sharp it could open tinned beans: “But did that actually happen?” From there, The Salt Path Scandal becomes less a journey and more a brisk hike through footnotes.

The documentary’s true star is its tone, which can best be described as polite British skepticism wearing a fleece. Nobody yells. Nobody lunges. Instead, the filmmakers deploy the deadliest weapon in the national arsenal: calm, persistent follow-ups. “Just to clarify,” a narrator says, with the menace of a librarian about to revoke privileges. Every “just to clarify” lands like a small pebble in your shoe—annoying, impossible to ignore, and increasingly painful over time.

You see, the book claimed to be a memoir. Like, it was supposed to be true. But once, a journalist, Hadjimatheou, probed a bit. Well, there were reasons to be skeptical.

Structurally, the series is a masterclass in pacing. Each episode introduces a claim, lets it bask in sunlight, then quietly rotates it to reveal a price tag, a date discrepancy, or a witness who remembers things… differently. It’s less gotcha journalism and more hmm, interesting journalism,

By the finale, you’re left amused, mildly scandalized, and deeply suspicious of any memoir. The truth is out there somewhere.

It gets four stars out of five from me.

Have you seen it? Let me know what you think.

A Deep Dive into Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End

Well, readers, I have a treat for you today after I completed the above novel that was written in nineteen fifty-seven by what is considered to be one of the best science fiction writers of all time. This is considered by most to be his greatest work.

First, a description from Wikipedia (in italics) that I’ve read and agree with.

In the late 20th century, the United States and the Soviet Union are competing to launch the first spacecraft into orbit when alien spaceships suddenly position themselves above Earth’s principal cities. After one week, the aliens announce they are assuming supervision of international affairs, to prevent humanity’s extinction. They become known as the Overlords. In general, they let humans go on conducting their affairs in their own way, although some humans are suspicious of the Overlords’ benign intent, as they never allow themselves to be seen.

Yeah, remember the Soviet Union? They were a big deal back then.

The Overlord Karellen, the “Supervisor for Earth”, periodically meets with Rikki Stormgren, the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Karellen tells Stormgren that the Overlords will reveal themselves in 50 years, when humanity will have become used to their presence. When the Overlords finally reveal their appearance, they resemble the traditional Christian folk images of demons, with cloven hooves, leathery wings, horns, and barbed tails. Humankind enters a golden age of prosperity at the expense of creativity.

The Overlords are interested in psychic research, which humans suppose is part of their anthropological study. Rupert Boyce, a prolific book collector on the subject, allows one Overlord, Rashaverak, to study these books at his home. To impress his friends with Rashaverak’s presence, Boyce holds a party, during which he makes use of a Ouija board. Jan Rodricks, an astrophysicist and Rupert’s brother-in-law, asks the identity of the Overlords’ home star. The Ouija board reveals a number which Jan recognizes as a star-catalogue number and learns that it is consistent with the direction in which Overlord supply ships appear and disappear. Jan stows away on an Overlord supply ship and travels 40 light years to their home planet.

The story then continues to reveal that humans are about to make a psychic leap, which will elevate humanity to a new level of existence, allowing it to join the Overmind, but also lead to the end of humans as an independent race.

So what did I think? Well, it was interesting what the author conceived a future alien species would be like. There is no advanced robotics, and only a brief mention of computers that can do wondrous things. Although they are still described as mostly mathematical tools.

Credence is given to the supernatural. This is something that the author quasi-believed at the time but later disavowed. Still, it helps the story come along.

The character development and writing are of the highest quality, and it is refreshing to read something from a nineteen-fifties perspective. You should give it a read.

On a more negative level, the passing of time shows. So, you have to put things we know now out of your mind and use some imagination.

Overall, I’d give it four stars out of five.

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Pegasus (Part 117)

We exited the room and were about to go to our left when Sharon spoke.

“Guys don’t go that way!” She pointed in the opposite direction.

Leanne made to go that way.

“Are we sure we can trust her?”

The others scowled at me and went the way she suggested. We turned right and right again. A service lift was there, She looked at me with a wry grin. I smiled back.

It was a small lift but we all managed to find space inside. Then Sharon inputted the setting for the very top level.

“Be prepared to open fire! There are usually a few guards up here.”

The lift swept us upwards. There were no stabilizers so you could feel the acceleration. With each second, my legs became heavier.

“Woohoo, we’re really traveling!” I exclaimed just before it came to a halt momentarily lifting our feet off the ground.

The door began to creak open.

One of the guards had their back to us. She was wearing a distinctive blue uniform with a handgun around her waist. No quarter was given.

Bullets ripped through his torso. Her body slipped to the ground revealing two. They put their hands up, and Chrissie and Pam ran towards them to tie them up.

Pegasus (Part 112)

I gulped down what was left of my drink and followed him. Tabitha didn’t bother finishing hers.

We went to one of the side walls where he pressed a well disguised button, Part of the wall opened up revealing a silver lift. We got in, and it immediately closed behind us.

The man inputted a long line of numbers. My heart skipped a beat. Our friends outside would be of little use. The lift took what seemed to be a few minutes to reach its destination. The doors opened revealing a large, comfy sitting room. I walked forward before feeling a strike to the back of my head.

It must have knocked me unconscious, because the next thing I know is my eyes are closed and I feel a massive headache. The kind where you wonder f you would be better off dead. I open my eyes to an unfamiliar room. It is very small, with white walls. I am tied down to a wooden chair in front of a door, that is the only piece of furniture. Instinctively, I roar out but it is muffled.

“Tabitha, Tabitha.”

There is no response. This is not good.

The seconds turn to minutes and then hours before I finally hear the sound of footsteps outside

For We Are Many (Bobiverse) by Denis E Taylor

Hello dear readers, I have just finished reading the second book in the Bobiverse series by Denis E Taylor. For those that may have forgotten, I gave the first one five stars out of five (We are Legion We are Bob). The sequel is not always on a par with the original though.

Bob Johansson didn’t believe in an afterlife, so he signed up to be resurrected after he had died. Little did he realize that it would be as an Artificial Intelligence or replicant, and that life would far outlive his biological one. Bob and his copies have been spreading out from Earth for 40 years now, looking for habitable planets trying to save the last remnants of humanity after a disastrous nuclear war. Something that’s increasingly feeling like a real prospect these days.

Each Bob copy has its own variability in character due both to the copying process and their own unique experiences once they separate. The relationships between the Bobs themselves is one of the things that makes this novel so special.

What follows is an intriguing tale of exploration, love and friendship over space and time.

Amongst the various sub stories, one Bob becomes a Sky God to a primitive species doing everything possible to ensure its survival.

Another Bob fall in love with a woman he can never touch.

“The Others” are the adversary in the book, who are stripping the surrounding star systems of life and material to create their own Dyson Sphere. Who finally wins is left to the next novel and I for one, can’t wait.

This gets another five stars out of five from me.

Pegasus (Part 92)

The two Scottish men led us round the rear of the closest semi-standing building to an old manhole. They lifted it open and started climbing down a ladder. Tabitha followed them first, then me. I pulled the manhole close and immediately felt much cooler.

They were waiting for me at the bottom, lit by torches at the side walls.

“Ye shud take some of dis, don wanna ya dying before we even get to no yous,” the blonde one spoke as he showed a flask in his hand.

“What is it?” Tabitha asked.

“Water.”

She slowly gulped it down, before handing it to me. I did likewise. It tasted like the best thing I had ever drank.

“Dis used to be a sewer.”

I stopped drinking to laughter from both men.

“Don worry, the water is from elsewhere. Follow us dis way.”

We walked along the tunnel for a few minutes. It was dry and dusty, and there was little evidence of its previous use. We heard chattering in the distance, then reached a large cavern full of people, tables, and their body odor.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“The East End,” came the reply.

We were then led through the throng of people to an enclosed area with chairs and a table.

Pegasus (Part 91)

“Where are we? Near the coordinates?” Tabitha asked excitedly as she opened the overhead hatch.

Spotting a clearance amongst all the rubble, I set the spacecraft down.

“Not too far from here,” I replied confidently.

Hit by a wave of heat as we exited the craft, unlike anything I’d experienced before., I struggled to get out.

“Just as well, we came during a cold spell.” I looked back to see Tabitha was already sweating. There were crumbling buildings all around us, and little signs of life. It smelled of death. Humanity had really messed this place up.

“We better get moving,” Tabitha added anxiously.

“Yeah, let go. It’s just a hundred meters this way. I’m sure we’ve been monitored, and there waiting for us.”

I was growing anxious, and the heat was not helping.

The short distance we had to walk over the dusty surface was unpleasant. Then, just as I expected two men appeared from before, and I was started by what I think was a thick Scottish accent. That in itself, could have been considered an archaeological find. They were tall in white robes like ancient Roman Emperors, and with flowing black and blond hair.

“Wha brings ya ere?”

“Five, four, six, one, niner,” I replied. The password had been one of the first things I noted on the leaflet.

“Aye, follow me.”

We are Legion (We are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor

Hello readers, I do hope you are all in good form. The cold weather is really settling now, at least in Ireland. Let’s hope it doesn’t last too long for the sake of my sanity. On much more positive notice, I have just finished reading We are Legion (We are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor.

This is the best sci-fi novel I’ve read in quite some time. Thoroughly original and engaging throughout, it was impossible to stop reading.

Bob is the main character or is that characters? In the current time, Bob has come to riches through the sale of his software company. One of the first things he does with his newfound wealth is sign up for a life extension company. He is an atheist, so he wants to live as long as possible. Upon his death, his head will be removed from his body in the hope that in the future with advancements in technology, he can be brought back to life.

Of course, he thinks this is something that is the far future.

But it’s not.

He dies in a car crash.

The next thing he is awakened over a hundred years from now. But, not all is as he would have hoped. He quickly realizes he no longer has a body but is now computer code. Due, to political changes, he has also lost all of his wealth and his body has been incinerated. He is now private property, belonging to the Ministry of Truth, and is what is called a replicant.

Most replicants quickly have psychotic breaks and don’t make it even with their mood qualifiers. But, Bob sees it as a chance at immortality and realizes he is in the running for an important task.

That task is integral to a Von Neumann probe seeking new habitable worlds for humans. A self-replicating probe to cover the galaxy will necessitate more copies of Bob being created. But, other probes are being sent by other political entities, and some will be armed.

Bob just about manages to take off before missiles strike. This ultimately leads to a nuclear conflict on Earth.

What follows is a tale of exploration, kinship, and what it means to be human.

This gets five stars out of five for me. Highly recommended.

Have you read this novel? What did you think? Let me know in the comments.

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