The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an excellent book.  The story is engrossing and well-told.  12 outlying districts of the country of Parnem, once known as North America, are punished for past rebellion against the dictatorial Capitol City by being forced to provide "tribute" of one boy and one girl to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a brutal, nationally televised fight to the death.  Told from the point of view of Katniss, who volunteers for the games to save her sister, the story follows her through the peril of the games and the terrible choices she must make.


This is a book clearly written for young adults, but is not dumbed-down in the least.  The writing is spare, yet clear and compelling.  I highly recommend this book for any adults, young or old, who love a good story well told.


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The Ghost in the Universe: God in light of Modern Science

The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science by Taner Edis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Taner Edis attempts, in this book, to explore arguments for and against the existence of God.  He explores this question from the perspective of a scientific naturalism, bringing in arguments and evidence from history, psychology, scientific inquiry, philosophy, and literature.  He examines the claims of major world religions with a sympathetic style, giving due credit to claims of religious experience, and examining claims fairly and logically.

Edis explores God in terms of traditional notions of deity and explores the evolution of human concepts of deity from beginnings in myth and scripture to religious understanding of God in light of modern knowledge.  He explores religious experience both as evidence for a spiritual facet to the world and as a product of human evolution.  In the end he discusses the underpinnings of morality and explores attempts at forming (or discovering) an objective morality.  Finally he explores the importance of moral systems and the possibility not only of coexistence of competing philosophies, but of forming common moral bonds in a pluralistic society.

Now a warning, this book is dense.  It's not that it's overly verbose, or particularly hard to read, it's just dense with ideas to the point where I would find my mind pondering and exploring a particular point while my eyes read and re-read the same lines.  It took me a long time to get through the whole thing, but in the end I'm glad I did.

I'd welcome discussion with anyone else who has read the book and found value in any of the author's arguments.



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Lilith's Brood

I just finished reading Lilith's Brood, which is a collected trilogy of novels by Octavia Butler. Butler deftly sets up a future where mankind has all but destroyed the planet in nuclear war. From the very brink of utter destruction, mankind is saved by an alien race which gathers the remaining humans and heals them and holds them in stasis as the Earth is healed.

Lilith is one such human, who upon awakening aboard the alien ship is eventually told the price of humanity's salvation. The aliens mean to blend with humanity, genetically. Lilith is chosen to be the alien's ambassador to her own people. But will they accept her leadership, and does she even want to lead? Will she fight or will she help usher in a new species, one where the children are far different from their parents.

Butler is a writer of amazing talent and imagination. With clear, direct language, she unfolds a story where mankind is offered complete salvation from its self imposed extinction, but at a price many may not accept. As with her excellent, but quite different, novel Wild Seed, Butler deals with questions of sexuality and gender with frankness, imagination, and compassion, and through her work explores not only what humanity is, but also what we may become.

The single volume Lilith's Brood contains the complete novels Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago and is a must-read not only for sci-fi fans but for any lovers of good storytelling.