The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be
by J.B. MacKinnon

This book was given to me by a reader who thought I might be interested. He was right! The topic is one of my core interests, and it’s even more timely as I begin the process of pondering my next novel.

The Once and Future World begins with a startling look at the former abundance of both plant and animal life on Earth — and how much things have changed since humans came on the scene.

Around the world, our ancestors tended to wipe out megafauna whenever they found their way to new lands. In the modern world, the process of extinction goes on. The past centuries of global exploration and exploitation have caused wildlife populations to plummet everywhere, with many species lost forever. However, this book is not only about loss. MacKinnon looks ahead, asking how and to what extent we might be able to admit nature back into our highly industrialized lives, and what benefits such an effort would bring, not only to us, but to the health and to the intrinsic wonder of our world.

A few years ago I read Charles C. Mann’s 1491, about the civilizations of north and south America prior to the arrival of Columbus. Its descriptions of human interactions with the environment profoundly changed the way I see the natural world and our place in it. The Once and Future World engages in similar ideas, accepting that humanity will shape nature, while insisting we do not need to continue destroying the diversity and abundance of life here on Earth.

If you go looking for The Once and Future World, be aware there are at least three different covers. The one I’ve used here is, honestly, the ugliest of the trio, but it’s from the American edition, so it’s the one most of you will see. (Readers in Canada get a charming fox instead.)

Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers came out last summer to rave reviews. I put off reading it because of its length — 775 pages! I’m not a fast reader, and that felt like way too much of a commitment. But I finally gathered my courage and read the opening chapters — and I was hooked. I was also surprised at how fast I got through it. This book is so well written, and the story and characters are so engrossing, it doesn’t feel long.

Wanderers is set in the present day, as random people begin to “sleepwalk” across America. No one knows why, though an intrepid team of scientists strives to figure it out. Meanwhile, this being America, other factions develop highly charged opinions based on nothing, and seek to exploit events to further their own immediate interests.

Except for the sleepwalking, that summary could probably describe a lot of thrillers, but this one is different. It’s brilliant! It’s a combination of horror, science fiction, and political fiction that adds up to a terrific novel. I’m amazed it didn’t appear on more award ballots.

Highly recommended.

What The Wind Brings by Matthew Hughes

My last book recommendation was River of Darkness by Buddy Levy, a nonfiction account of Francisco Orellana’s voyage down the Amazon in 1541-42. What The Wind Brings offers another look at the fallout of Spanish conquest in South America, this time in the form of a novel.

Matthew Hughes has based his story on a historical event: the shipwreck of a Spanish galleon on the unsettled coast of Ecuador.

Aboard that ship are African slaves. They survive the shipwreck and escape to freedom — but can they stay alive? And can they stay free?

The story is far-ranging, touching on the expanse of the slave trade, the depredations of disease in the new world, life among the tribal peoples of lowland Ecuador, and the Spanish takeover in the highlands.

I often find books intellectually interesting for their ideas or manner of storytelling, but it’s easy for me to take my time reading them. I rarely find a novel so compelling that it’s hard for me to put it aside. This is so different from when I was young, and books could possess me — and I miss that! What The Wind Brings began, for me, as one of those interesting, admirable stories, but I am delighted to report that along the way it became so compelling that I shifted my daily schedule around to find more time to read.

Here’s the cover copy:

Out of the fires of Caribbean revolution, shipwrecked onto the shores and jungles of Ecuador, a slave, a captive, and a shaman fight Inquisition-era Spain for freedom. In times like these, when power spends blood like pennies, what chance do these disparate underdogs have to create an independent nation?

Highly recommended.

If you decide to take a look at What The Wind Brings, let me know what you think. The ebook edition is only $6.99 at Amazon.

Find it at Amazon ~~~ Also at Kobo ~~~ and Barnes & Noble

River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana’s Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon by Buddy Levy

I think I picked up this audiobook as part of a 2-for-1 credit sale at Audible. Audible has these sales every now and then, and even though I’ve accumulated a lot of credits and don’t really need the extra books, I find the sales irresistible. And they’ve led me to some fantastic listens I wouldn’t have discovered on my own — like this one.

River of Darkness is exactly what the subtitle says: it’s a detailed history of conquistador Francisco Orellana’s voyage from the headwaters of the Amazon river, to the sea, and from there to a Spanish colony. As I’ve mentioned before, I love adventure stories and tales of exploration. This one was made more poignant by having read Charles C. Mann’s 1491 and knowing that those civilizations described in the notes kept by Friar Gaspar de Carvajal would soon be gone. The pandemic we’re experiencing now, for all its ravages and the speed of its transmission, is nothing compared to the apocalypse that struck the new world in those days of early contact. But in the time of Orellana’s voyage, the civilizations of the Amazon were still strong and intact.

The story that Buddy Levy tells in River of Darkness goes well beyond a description of the river journey. It also follows the misadventures and eventual rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro, the original captain of the mission, and it dips into both Spanish and colonial politics.

Though I found the opening chapter or two to be a bit slow, once the introductory material was past, the story was riveting.

By chance, just before I started listening to River of Darkness I read the opening chapters of a novel called What the Wind Brings, by Matthew Hughes. It’s set in the same era, in South America, and I look forward to returning to it as soon as time permits. I suspect it will make an interesting pairing with River of Darkness.

In my last newsletter, I recommended LX Beckett’s novel Gamechanger, with the caveat that the publisher had chosen to price the ebook at $14.99.

Well, right now, the ebook edition of Gamechanger is on sale for just $2.99. Here’s an affiliate link to Amazon that will earn me a few pennies of you click it and then buy. The ebook is probably also on sale at Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble, etc., if those are your preferred vendors.

About the book:
Gamechanger is a complex romp of a novel that includes some of the most impressive near-ish future world-building I’ve seen. The story takes place in the “bounceback” era, a period of future history that follows the “setback” (basically the present day, as climate change leads to catastrophic environmental collapse), and the “clawback” era, when a new global system begins to stave off immediate extinction. The bounceback generation is dealing with things, and the world is much improved for their efforts. But then things happen…

I listened to Gamechanger as an audiobook, but while the narrator does an excellent job, there is just so much terminology and (I suspect) quirky typography, that I wish I’d read it instead.

I have no idea how long the sale will last. If you’re interested, you should check it out now.

Oh! And if you haven’t signed up yet for my newsletter, please do! I just need your name and email address in that form on the right -> ->
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Next issue goes out next week.

Becoming Superman: My Journey From Poverty to Hollywood by J. Michael Straczynski

When I was growing up, my parents let me read anything I wanted to — except comic books. I don’t recall any arguments over this restriction. I was taught that comics were for people who couldn’t read very well, and I was a very, very good reader, so what need did I have for a comic book? As a result, I was never into comics. Looking back, I find that ironic and even a little distressing, given the popularity of comics among fans of prose science fiction.

Anyway, that’s my excuse for why, when I picked up J. Michael Straczynski’s autobiography, Becoming Superman, I wasn’t familiar with his work in comics, and I somehow had never watched Babylon Five, and did anyone really expect me to remember who wrote the screenplay for Thor? Still, his name was familiar, and an intriguing comment on Twitter led me to check out the audio version of the book, which was published just last summer.

I found it riveting.

Becoming Superman feels like two books in one. The first part details Straczynski’s childhood. Actually, it goes beyond childhood, looking at the history of his family before he was born, as a means to set the stage for the story of the incredible physical and emotional abuse he endured growing up, at the hands of a father he described as “the most evil man I ever met.” Comics, and particularly Superman, were his comfort and salvation. Determined to be the opposite of everything his father stood for, Superman became his personal hero — an outsider who fought evil and always remained determined to do the right thing.

The second part of the book focuses primarily on the tumultuous development of Straczynski’s writing career, beginning in high school, and continuing through the present day. He’s an extremely prolific writer (*ahem* unlike some of us), and he’s also been driven to succeed in diverse writing fields, hardship be damned.

Honestly, the book is potentially dangerous for young writers. Most of us will say that the trope of the starving writer is bullshit. You don’t need to suffer for your art. But Straczynski has gone through a lot — he’s literally been a starving writer. He’s also had to burn bridges, starting over more than once. If you want an inside look at writing in Hollywood, do not miss this book.

Despite the hardships, Straczynski has achieved admirable success in every field he’s tried, from comics, to animation, to live-action television, and feature films. But all throughout his story he returns again and again to the lesson of humility, and to doing your best work, doing the right thing — and that makes this story wonderful.

Highly recommended.

In 2019, I made some lifestyle changes.

For decades, I was in the habit of drinking two-and-a-half or three cups of coffee a day — not much by the standards of truly epic coffee drinkers, but if I missed the morning brew, a headache was inevitable.

At night, essentially every night, there was a glass or two of red wine. More was not unusual. It was a years-long pattern: coffee in the morning to get my brain going, wine at night to quiet the brain. But the ritual began to feel like more and more of a burden on my body and brain, and — not for the first time — I started thinking I really ought to clean up my act. So I started cutting back.

At almost the same time, my son-in-law recommended a book called Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams.

Ignore the new-age feel of the subtitle. The book is written by Ph.D. Matthew Walker, it’s based on many studies, and it has nothing to do with dream interpretation. Instead, the book looks at the negative effects that alcohol and caffeine have on both the quality of sleep and on memory retention, and it also presents evidence on the need, and the benefits, of getting 7-1/2 to 8 hours of sleep every night.

Like many (or is it most?) women I often have trouble sleeping. Going to sleep is generally no problem, but waking up at two in the morning and not being able to sleep again for hours — that’s a killer. So I decided to go all in on the program. I continued cutting back on coffee until I was down to a half cup in the morning. (If I miss that, I don’t even get headaches anymore!) And for the most part I stopped drinking alcohol, although I’m not an absolutist. I’ll still have a glass of wine on occasion. I also make an effort to get 7+ hours of sleep each night. (Confession: I almost never manage a full eight hours.)

I was emotionally ready to make the changes, so other than some days spent feeling sleepy, it wasn’t hard.

I’ve kept the new lifestyle for many months now, and I like the result. I feel better, especially in the morning. I sleep better too, although this took a long time to achieve. I still wake up in the wee hours, but can fall back asleep more often than in the past.

If you’re interested, here’s a link to Why We Sleep at Amazon†. I listened to the audiobook, but the paperback edition is only $11, so I bought that too.

May your nights be peaceful and your mornings bright!

Update 12/31/2019: I received an email today from Alexy Guzey, who has written a detailed essay disputing several claims made in Matthew Walker’s book. It’s a very interesting read, with links to online discussions. You can check it out here. Sleep well!

So you’ve read EDGES😎…

And you’re looking for new science fiction?

May I recommend Karl Schroeder’s Stealing Worlds, out today!

I was fortunate to read an early review copy. Here’s what I had to say about it:

Stealing Worlds is that rarest form of science fiction:a compelling story that dares to re-imagine the world we know in an entirely new and yet plausible way. With this novel, Karl Schroeder has given us a vision of a future blossoming from a synthesis of real and virtual realities.

In this novel, Karl figured out a way to do something I’ve pondered doing for years, but couldn’t figure out how. I love his original take on our future.

Not convinced? Check out this review from BoingBoing.

It’s been months since I’ve done an audiobook recommendation post. That doesn’t mean I haven’t enjoyed some great listens; it just means I’ve fallen way behind in posting. So this is a round-up post, listing some favorites since last fall.

The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore — Audible often has two-for-one sales featuring a limited selection of titles. I take advantage of these, and often find terrific books that I wouldn’t otherwise have known to look for. I think that’s how I discovered this one. It’s an excellent fictionalized story of science, invention, and patents. Edison vs Westinghouse, through the eyes of attorney Paul Cravath.

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond — (nonfiction) This one was an eye-opener. The author follows the lives of several individuals over a period of months — both tenants and landlords — using their experiences to examine the forces shaping the structure of home-rental markets in impoverished neighborhoods. It’s an amazing glimpse into the precarious lives of the very poor. This is another title I would not have considered but for the Audible promotion.

A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution by Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg — A history of the gene-editing method known as CRISPR, from those who invented it.

Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson — Another brilliant look into the future by the incomparable KSR. Red Moon assumes the ascendance of the Chinese in lunar colonization, and explores potential near-future existences on both the Earth and the Moon.

The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David Quammen — I loved this book. I majored in biology in college, with a particular interest in evolution, so this book hit home for me. It looks into evolutionary theory, tracing the development of a new theory on the mechanism of evolution, called horizontal gene transfer, in which the movement of genes occurs across species lines. This one partners nicely with Ed Yong’s “I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life” , reviewed last summer. I wish I could find the time to listen to both of them again.

LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media by P. W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking — War has taken new forms and America is not winning. This is a fascinating and eye-opening look at the skilled use of social media as propaganda. If you write near-future #sci-fi or present-day thrillers, read this book.

Ever since Jeffrey Lewis’s novel The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks against the United States came out last summer, people have been recommending it to me.

At last I’ve had a chance to read it, and now I’m recommending it to you.

On Twitter I posted a four-word review: Frightening, excellent, and necessary reading. I’ll add just a bit more here.

Jeffrey Lewis is an academic and the founding publisher of the blog Arms Control Wonk. The 2020 Commission Report is a “speculative novel” written in the form of an official report issued by a commission established to ascertain the historical facts that led to a devastating nuclear attack by North Korea in March of 2020 — just eleven months away in a postulated future.

An official report may sound like dry reading, but it’s riveting. The scenario Lewis develops feels all too realistic, and the characters are the actual people — mostly incompetents — who have somehow, absurdly, been placed in positions of power within the United States.

Here’s hoping we survive until the next election. May we gain enough wisdom as a country to elect competent people into the executive office next time.

Find it at Amazon.

Go here for links to other vendors.