ISBN: 0785120416
NLB Call Number: 741.5973 NIC
Think I’d have to read from the beginning to get the full picture for this series. If I’ve gotten my facts wrong, feel free to correct me.
Cable seems to be this superhero messiah. Captain America was sent by the Justice League to investigate what he’s up to, and this “Utopian metropolis” he’s constructing.
Deadpool is a mercenary, who acts like the verbal comic relief.
ISBN: 9781401204952
NLB Call Number: 741.5973 MOR
This is a graphic novel that’s like “Terminator” meets “Homeward bound: The Incredible Journey” (the Disney classic, though that had two dogs and a cat).
“We3″ (very clever — “We Three”) are a dog, a cat and a rabbit. Stolen from their owners and secretly tested as cyborg war machines. They are just prototypes due for termination. They escape, with the help of their trainer/ scientist. They kick ass.
BTW, Robo-rabbit shits mini-bombs.
By the end of the graphic novel, I was touched.
This graphic novel has a “suggested for mature readers” label. Contains graphic scenes of violence.
ISBN: 9780785111542
NLB Call Number: 741.5 THO
A Marvel rendition of Homer’s epic, in graphic novel form.
It made me revisit “Troy” the movie (the one starring Brad Pitt) in YouTube.
Have to say though — tried reading the full English version of Iliad and it was confusing. The graphic novel was also equally confusing for me, in terms of the plot. I don’t have the capacity for Classics! But this graphic novel is definitely more accessible.
ISBN: 0930289854
Starts with Batman captured and tortured, then brainwashed into following a cult. The plan was for the cult (led by a long-lived shaman) to rid Gotham of all other criminal competition. Batman manages to escape, recovers his wits (with the help of Robin). Manages to eliminate the cult.
Overall, this graphic novel has a dark theme. Interestingly, it portrays Batman as vulnerable and even after recovering from the brainwashing, he still has some shreds of self-doubt. Have to say the storyline isn’t that great though. The brainwashing part wasn’t convincing (Batman seems to have broken in too easily). Or maybe it was also because I didn’t like how Batman seemed so vulnerable — it just wasn’t consistent with the Batman I know.
ISBN: 0393061310
This Pulitzer-winning book attempts to explain history, from an environmental geography and biogeography imperative, through historical sciences like evolutionary biology and geology.
It asks (and offers explanations) interesting questions: why didn’t the Inca Empire invade The Spaniards? How did early people domesticate plants without modern technology?
P25. Author sums up his lengthy book: “History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves.”
Says the book sets out to provide the “ultimate explanation” why history unfolded differently on different continents, rather than solely attribute to racial, technological or cultural explanations (his prologue points out particularly why race is not the reason, by way of sharing his experience working with the New Guineans).
P10. He asked a good question: “… Why didn’t traditions like Confucianism and the Judaeo-Christian ethic instead develop in western and China, respectively?”
P152-153, 161/ 166. Makes the case that it’s the (limitations of) indigenous biota, environment, and the animal species themselves — rather than people — that determine the degree of food production and large-scale domestication of animals, and subsequent development of social and political structures etc.
P87. Diagram showing the “factors underlying the broadest pattern of history”; from ultimate factors (east/ west axis, suitable wild species for domestication etc.) to proximate factors (horses, steel swords & guns, ocean-going ships, political organisations & writing, epidemic diseases).
Chpt 1 – “Up to the starting line”. An overview of human evolutionary history up till 11,000 B.C. (13,000 years ago). By P46, he makes the link between human expansion and subsequent extinction of large animals — Australia/ New Guinea; America West — rather than climate changes (questions why the large animals died out at the point of human expansion, when they survived earlier eras of climate changes).
Chapter 2. Polynesian islanders. The Maori conquest and extermination of the Moriori. Geography playing a part in how both societies developed. The Maori were able to establish large scale farming, which allowed them to develop and support a social system with specialist roles (e.g. artisans, soldiers). Also had experience in organised warfare. The Moriori, on the other hand, settled on land that forced them to adopt a hunter-gathering culture, low population density, and were not organised like how the Maori were.
P68. Francisco Pizarro, with a ragtag group of 62 cavalry and 106 foot soldiers captured the Inca emperor Atahuallpa within a few minutes of first setting eyes on each other. Pizarro was in unfamiliar terrain, ignorant of the locals, out of contact with the nearest Spaniard reinforcement. Atahuallpa was in Cajamarca, the middle of his own empire, immediately surrounded by his 80,000 strong battle tested army. Chapter 3 starts with excerpts from Spanish eyewitness accounts. Fascinating account of the fear and one could say bravery of the Spaniards (“many of us urinated without noticing It,s out of sheer terror”) when confronted with the numerical superiority of the Incas. The Spaniards laid an ambush (whether as a contingency or as a premeditated attack, it wasn’t said explicitly). Friar Vicente de Valverde handed Atahuallpa the bible when asked, and was greatly offended when Atahuallpa threw it away (he was apparently frustrated at not knowing how to open the book nor read its contents). The Friar then shouted to the Spaniards to “come at these enemy dogs who reject the things of god”. And so rushed the hidden spanish cavalry, supported by the cannons. The unarmed Incas panicked and were slaughtered. Atahuallpa was captured. It was also clear that the Inca army did not exercise any initiative when they saw the attack, for they remained battle-ready but stationary a mile away from Cajamarca.
The better weaponry of the Spaniards (cavalry Vs. Foot soldiers; steel armour and swords, lances and daggers — rather than the slow loading harquebuses — Vs. blunt clubs and quilted armour) enabled them to defeat the numerically superior native indians, even when the Incas later mounted two large-scale rebellions. Other advantageous factors for the Spaniards include the preceding Incas civil war, triggered by the smallpox epidemic brought by the Spanish settlers of the Incas, that would have meant a more united Incas empire. P78. Diamond is also quick to point out that disease also struck the invaders (malaria, yellow fever).
P78. To the question why the Inca Empire didn’t instead try to conquer Spain, the Incas did not possess the sort of ship building technology. Also, they did not have a writing system, unlike the Spaniards (printed information among thE Spaniards of the exploits of the discovery and initial success led to more expeditions).
P79. Atahuallpa walked into an apparent trap because he was misled by word of mouth accounts, of how the Spaniards were disorganised and that they would be easily subdued. Atahuallpa also appeared to be entirely ignorant of the Spaniards’s conquests that began in 1510, and was also unaware of the Spaniards’s existence until Pizarro’s landing on the Peruvian coast in 1527.
P80. Summarises the factors for European conquest of the New World instead of the Native Americans’s colonising Europe: better military technology based on guns, steel weapons, and horses; infectious diseases endemic in Eurasia; European maritime technology; centralised political organisation of European states; and writing.
Next two chapters answers why those immediate advantages were on the side of Europe than the New World.
P103. Only a few areas in the world developed food production independently, and at widely differing times (even when locations seem suitable for farming).
P108. Farming was not a conscious choice (no other farmers to observe) but evolved from hunting-gathering. Preceding paras also give possible ways hunters also cultivated crops but not in the scale that we are familiar.
P111. Autocatalytic process – a gradual rise in population Increased the demand for food, and rewarded those who unconsciously produced food (rather than gather), which led to larger population and increased demand.
Chpt 7 on the domestication of plants (I understood it to be a process involving cultivation of wild plants; discovery of what can or cannot be eaten or cultivated; observing other animals consuming the plant; conscious or unconscious selection of plants with mutant genes, e.g. non-bitter seeds).
“natural selection” – how plants and animals with traits that allow them to survive/ propagate better would therefore mean more of them with those traits. E.g. p123. During the Industrial Revolution, British moths developed darker tones, as a reaction to the soot polluting the environment. Darker moths stood out less than paler ones, and therefore more survived to pass on the dark genes. So, same principle that early farmers applied: selecting the seeds/ crops that yielded what they wanted, and refining that by further selection of plants that had desirable traits like size, sweetness, leaves or fruits etc.
Chapter 8. The climate of the Fertile Crescent influenced the evolution/ of wild plant species. The mild, wet winters/ long, dry summers selects plant species that can survive those cycles (annual plants, like wheat). These plants put their energy into producing big seeds adapted to the dry/ wet seasonal cycles, rather than making wood or fibrous stems (e.g. Trees and bushes that are inedible by humans). Also, wheat has a higher protein content compared to rice and corn (better nutritional qualities that I think the author implies there’s an effect in the development and expansion of eastern Asia and the New World).
P145. People in earlier civilizations have a much more intimate knowledge of a wide range of native plants, which modern people may not appreciate (partly we are reliant on those few plant species, and traditional knowledge has gradually been lost).
P106. Table about the ancient 14 species (major 5 and minor 9) of big herbivorous domestic animals, including the names of their wild ancestors.
P169. Six main reasons why some animal species resist domestication.
p176. Chapter 10 “Spacious Skies and Tilted Axes”. The spread of crops tend to follow a more favourable east-west weather pattern route (benefiting Eurasia) and less so a north-south route (Africa and Americas). Makes sense, as crops would prefer a more stable weather and would fare less successfully when subject to weather differences along the north-south axis.
P195. Chapter 11 “Lethal gift of livestock”. How viruses like measles, tuberculosis, smallpox, and flu are most closely related to animal pathogens from cattle, pigs, ducks, dogs, birds. The animal pathogens transfer to humans and later evolving to affect humans, i.e. Use humans as hosts. P207. Table showing the human disease and the animal with the most closely related pathogen.
P225. How writing systems develop: “Blueprint Copying” or by “Idea Diffusion” (or degrees in between).
P226. The Roman alphabet is a product of a long sequence of blueprint copying, and can be traced back to the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
P228. On how, around 1810, a Cherokee indian named Sequoyah, observed how white settlers had a system of making marks on paper that “gave them great advantages”. So he started experimenting with different approaches to develop a writing system for Cherokee. He was illiterate (did not know English) but was able to subsequent adapt the English alphabet, from a English spelling book, and devised a written system for the Cherokee language. The Cherokees attained 100% literacy in their language, bought a printing press, and began printing books and newspapers.
P235. “As the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss put it, ancient writing’s main function was “to facilitate the enslavement of other human beings.”" Personal uses of writing by nonprofessionals came much later.
P236 – 238. Concludes that ecology and geography has an influence over development of writing. Writing systems were developed by societies that could support dedicated scribes, and whose societies had a need to use writing systems to serve its political institutions (taxation, record keeping, propaganda).
P239. Makes the case that “invention is the mother of necessity” rather than the common refrain. Also the final use of the invention could differ from original use. E.g. Edison’s phonograph (P243) was originally intended for uses other than music (he considered using it for music a debasement, and reluctantly conceded after 2010 years).
P244 – 245. How James Watt’s invention of the steam engine in 1769 really arose from him repairing and subsequently introducing improvements to Newcomen’s steam engine invented 57 years earlier (over 100 had been produced). Which Newcomen followed Thomas Savery’s 1698 patented steam engine, and even that was after Denis Papin’s 1680 unbuilt design that had precursors in ideas by Christian Huygens and others. Btw, Savery was English, Papin was French, Huygens was Dutch.
Chpt 14. explains the reasons why large complex societies develop centralised governments and structures (necessary for conflict resolution and maintenance of order).
P265. On an incident in 1979, New Guinea tribe Fayu who live an isolated existence that when a few dozen gather (for bride exchanges), “murderers suddenly found themselves face-to-face with their victim’s relatives”. The Fayu population was also decimated by their internal warfare.
P276. “The difference between a kleptocrat and a wise statesman, between a robber baron and a public benefactor, is merely one of degree…”
P277. Four solutions used by Kleptocrats to maintain popular support and also the comfortable lifestyles:
1. Disarm the populace, arm the elite.
2. Makes masses happy by distributing much of the tribute received, in popular ways.
3. Use monopoly of force to promote happiness, by maintaining public order and curbing violence.
4. Construct an ideology or religion justifying kleptocracy.
P290. How the Zulus came to be united under chief Dingiswayo in 1807, whose strategy was to draft young men into military regiments by age rather than clans, and left conquered chiefs’s family intact to rule on his behalf (like Genghis Khan, I thought).
P297. Explores why Australia, despite its native population having a headstart in developing stone tools, ended up being conquered by Europeans. Author makes the connection between geography, native plants and animals, food production, population densities, social structures (they remained as hunter-gather societies since their population size was kept constant; population size is linked to food consumption/ production, which remains constant as the native biological species were harder to domesticate).
P310. Wrong to think of Australia’s aborigines as “desert people”. They weren’t; the invading Europeans drove them to places where the Europeans didn’t desire.
P322. Chapter 16. “How China became Chinese”.
P343. How a linguist might be able to work out if Austronesians living on Taiwan 6,000 years ago had pigs.
P353. “indigenous germs and food producers prevented the Europeans from settling most of this region [Southeast Asia] in significant numbers.”
Chpt 19. P376. “How Africa came to be dominated by blacks”, when it had “five of the world’s six major divisions of humanity” (by A.D. 1000 it was already home to blacks/ Bantus, whites*, African Pygmies, Khoisan, and Asians/ indonesians). *the whites range from Egyptians, Libyans to Moroccans.
Again, the ultimate factor was geography that the Bantus occupied.
Epilogue. P408. Suggests developing “human history as a science, on par with acknowledged historical sciences such as astronomy, geology, and evolutionary biology.”
P410-411. He reasons that the Fertile Crescent and eastern Mediterranean societies “committed ecological suicide by destroying their resource base”. Northern and western Europe benefited from a higher rainfall and faster regrowth of plants compared to Fertile Crescent region. Food production, livestock, technology, writing systems were received from the Fertile Crescent, which then “gradually eliminated itself as a major center of power and innovation.”
P412. He suggests China lost its lead when it stopped its naval fleet exploration and expansion. although Columbus also faced obstacles in getting his exploration request granted initially, he was able to seek assistance from the different rulers, since the rulers were fragmented. China, in contrast, was one united political unit so there was no recourse when the decision was made to stop the treasure fleets. In this case, China’s “chronic unity” placed it at a disadvantage over Europe’s “chronic disunity” (to me, this is one drawback of too centralised a government).
Ends with references for further readings.
ISBN: 034076998X
“What follows is an attempt to put down, briefly and simply, how I came to the craft, what I know about it now, and how it’s done. It’s about the day job; it’s about the language.” (p. ix).
Stephen King approaches writing like a word play, where he lets his unconscious (rather than consciously) develop characters. And he doesn’t believe in developing plots as much as developing characters in situations.
P17. As a child, he copied and slightly embellished the words fro comic books. His remembers his mother asking if the stories were original (he admitted they were not) and said he should write “one of your own”.
P33. He kept mostly science fiction books.
P34. His habit of saving his rejection slips on a nail spike, until there were too many. That was only up to sixteen years old, which meant he’d submitted and continued practicing during his teens.
BTW, that para is a lesson in making writing interesting (“write, not describe”). He could’ve written that he received many rejection slips but persevered. Instead he wrote: “By the time I was fourteen… the nail on the wall will no longer support the weight of all the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing.”
And P37. Instead of listing Dave’s (his older brother) passion and hobbies, he wrote from his perspective: “I wasn’t interested in the printing process, and I wasn’t interested at all in the arcana of first developing and then reproducing photographs. I didn’t care about putting Hearst shifters in cars, making cider… What I cared about most between 1958 and 1966 was movies.”
P45/ 46. Selling his story in grade school (albeit plagarised unknowingly) sold en mass. And a teacher admonishing him for writing “trash” and leaving an indelible mark and self-doubt for years.
P56. Editorial advice he received from his first paid assignment as a student reporter: “When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story… When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.”
(between P56 to 112). Early family life, struggles, his sale of Carrie, acknowledgement and dealing with alcoholism and drug abuse, death of his mother.
P112. “… Put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room. Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.”
P114. “Books are a uniquely portable magic”.
P118. Feels that if we want to be writers, don’t take writing lightly.
P125. His version of a writer’s toolbox:
1. Vocabulary. But write concise and appropriately; don’t use vocabulary merely to dress up.
2. Grammar.
P133. Good grammar is the foundation of good writing.
P134. place a noun with a verb and you always have a sentence (whether it makes sense is another thing): “rocks explode”, “mountains float”, “plums deify”.
P134. His pet peeve is passive tense: “The meeting will be held at seven o’clock” (passive tense) Vs. “The meeting starts at seven” (active tense).
P145. “With a hammer he killed Frank” Vs. “He killed Frank with a hammer” (see the emphasis on the hammer Vs. the person).
Suggests to have Skrunk and White on hand.
P145. Use “s” even if word ends with “s”: “Thomas’s bike” Vs. “Thomas’ bike”.
P164. To be a good writer, above all else, “read a lot and write a lot”.
P178. “one word at a time”.
180. “don’t wait for the muse”.
He reads about 70 novels a year. Not analyse them per se but because he enjoys reading. Also learns what is good and bad writing.
His routine is 2,000 words a day (about 10 pages) unfailingly. Keeps writing on current theme to keep the characters fresh.
P171. “The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor.”
P182. On what to write: “Anything at all… as long as you tell the truth.”
P182. “… The job of fiction is to find the truth inside the story’s web of lies…”
P185. Writing about what we know and like: “write what you like, then imbue it with life and make it unique by blending in your personal knowledge of life, friendship, relationships, sex and work. Especially work. People love to read about work.” (e.g. John Grisham’s The Firm) suggests a plumber who enjoys Scifi might consider a novel about a plumber abroad a starship or on an alien planet. Recommends Clifford D. Simak’s Cosmic Engineers. And don’t lecture on what you know; use it to enrich your story.
P188. He believes that stories make themselves, i.e. Minimal predetermined plot and letting the story develop. That the writer’s role is to use their writing tools and techniques to uncover buried stories as intact as possible (paraphrase: “undiscovered relics of a pre-existing world” — hmm, one can say the same of music too, I suppose).
P189. Narration (moving the story); Description (creating a sensory reality for the reader); Dialogue (giving characters life through their speech). Plot, to King, is a writer’s later resort.
P190 – P195. Described himself as writing about “situations” rather than plots. Explains how he developed/ wrote Misery (or let the story develop itself).
P255. “is this story coherent?” and “what will turn coherence into a song? What are the recurring elements? Do they entwine and make a theme?”
P255. He looks for ‘resonance’: the thing that will linger in the reader’s mind and heart at the end of the story.
P256-263. His approach to getting his books reviewed (he prefers friends and critics he knows). Basically, the principle seems to be ‘listen to what the majority says’ and ‘author decides if decision is split’.
P266. Rule of 2nd Draft = 1st Draft less 10%.
P270. Praises J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels as good way of weaving in “back stories”, as well as being “fun”.
P273. Background remains in the ‘back’. Warns against self-indulgence in writing.
P278. King doesn’t believe, and admits a bias against, writing courses and seminars. Critiques are vague and he suggests writing a first draft should be just the author and the imaginary Ideal Reader, and not the whole world forcing you to second guess or interrupt the initial ideas.
P301. He states that he has never written a story for the money but for the buzz he derives from writing. “… if you can do it for joy, you can so it forever.”
P305 – 327. He writes a blow-by-blow account of his accident, of meeting the errant driver, being sent for emergency treatment, almost losing his life, the painful recuperation, and how he managed to pick up writing again.
P326. “Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well.”
P336. He explains his editorial changes using an actual story he was writing.
P347. What he considers as books that have entertained him.
Ends with a short story he chose as the winner of a writing competition — “Jumper” by Garrett Addams.
ISBN: 0451461851
Following the same treatment in Book 2, we learn of the chain of events from the perspective of the Copper dragon.
In Book 1, I got the impression the copper dragon, crippled in the birthing fight, maliciously led the dwarves to murder his parents and siblings. In this book, we learn that he was also tortured and tricked by the dwarves.
After several sequence of events, he and a bunch of blood-drinking bats end up at the Lavadome, with the Copper later being adopted into a royal family of dragons. He’s named Rugaard and assigned to the Drakwatch (kind of like National Service). He learns of the value of being tenacious, and that intelligence can more than make up for pure brawn. Distinguishes himself with his steadfastness in a battle.
Gradually, he finds himself drawn into the political maneuverings and manipulations within the royal line. A civil war develops. RuGaard manages to turn the tide against the numerically superior dragons by employing the help of the bats.
The Dragonblade makes his appearance yet again. Ironically, it’s RuGaard — the crippled dragon — that manages to kill the Dragonblade, and ultimately avenge their family.
ISBN: 0451461096
Told from the perspective of AuRon’s sister Wistala the Green.
Common thread starts from the time they were born in the cave, to Wistala witnessing the birthing battles among her brothers, to the murder of her mother and other sister. And Wistala escaping with Auron.
After that, their paths diverge.
Wistala finds their father, who appears to be mortally wounded. But Wistala manages to nurse him to health, only to lose him in a final desperate battle with the Dragon-killer, a man called Dragonblade.
She manages to escape once again. Ends up fighting a troll (not the sort of troll that I might have imagined) and then adopted as the daughter of an Elf named Rainfall. Even becomes a librarian!
Part of Wistala’s education was to join a traveling circus. Learns how to pretend to read fortunes.
Eventually, she infiltrates the dwarves (led by the one who murdered her parents), manages to deceive them from her true intent, and she gets her revenge.
End part: she meets Dragonblade and his son (we’re introduced to the boy, Eliam, in Book 1); was also the cause of Eliam’s injury.
Decided to read this because I enjoyed this earlier book by the same author.
ISBN: 0451460472
Fantasy novel centering on a young dragon, Auron (or AuRon, after dragons unfurl their wings), and his coming of age.
Auron is a Grey (i.e. un-amoured scales scale-less). Survives initial birthing ritual.
Family is killed by hostile dwarfs. Two surviving sisters (one of them, Wistala, goes on to book 2 while the other sister is killed; the crippled unnamed Copper has his own story in Book 3).
Auron is captured and sold. Learns of a book written about the secret of dragons and also an old dragon, NooMoahk, and seeks him out. Midway he escapes. Survives by his wits.
Outwits a drake on an island and devises a way to have the humans kill the drake (but as a dragon, his view of humans are like how we see lab rats. Auron remorsefully kills a child just to accomplish the deed).
Meets up with a dwarf. Enters into a partnership to escort the goods.
Eventually finds NooMoahk. Also has a human baby companion.
Through NooMoahk’s library, Auron learns the languages and histories of man and various species (elves, dwarves).
Wings are unfurled (in E. E. Knight’s world, dragons are wingless drakes before growing their wings). Forced to leave after NooMoahk goes berserk.
Finds a band of humans who have domesticated dragons. Apparently the ultimate cause of his family’s death. Infiltrates them. Abides his time. Meets Eliam, a sadistic lieutenant (linked to book 2 and 3).
Schemes and eventually wins the freedom of all the dragons in the stronghold.
BTW, what’s interesting is the author’s notion of dragons and gold (and other precious metals). In Knight’s world, dragons lust after gold and metals because they eat metal to strengthen and develop amoured scales. And they are able to produce fire by spitting a sort of bile that ignites upon contact with air.
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