Lucifer: Book One, Mike Carey

Lucifer: Book One by Mike Carey is a graphic novel which continues the story of Lucifer (the fallen angel) who leaves Hell behind in Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics.  This series of comics is the inspiration for the Lucifer television series.  I was surprised to see that a comic book series was the inspiration, but I felt that if I was ever going to make a foray into graphic novels, this was a good place to start.

Started:  09/09/2016

Completed: 10/30/2016

Recommendation: Not Recommended

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

So, I picked up the comic because I enjoyed the television series.  The two have little in common.  The wit and humor that suffuses the television series is darkly lacking from the comic book.  It was uncomfortable to have so many conflicting pantheons of gods, goddesses, and creatures interacting.  The idea of angels "waging war" just doesn't meet my concept of what angels do.  The part of the television series that I really enjoy is seeing how surprising Lucifer can be.  In this comic book I found no such surprises.  In short, it wasn't my thing.  I also missed thought bubbles.  There is no way to get inside the heads of these characters, all you see is what they say or do.  There is no sense of communion with them and their inner worlds are opaque.

About Time, Adam Frank

About Time:  Cosmology, Time, and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang by Adam Frank read by David Drummond is a book about the first moments of time.  I don't know why I chose this audio book, nor do I remember from where I got it.  

Started:  10/11/2016

Completed: 10/24/2016

Recommendation: Mild Recommendation

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

The first half of the book is a cosmologist lecturing on all of human history (basically stone age forward).  It was almost entirely old hat to me and seemed wildly inappropriate in a book about cosmology.  The central thesis for the author, however, is that time and culture are "braided" together.  He took a long time developing this thesis and concluded that we would only come to understand our cosmology in general in terms of our own cultural development (ranging from relatively new theories to doom and gloom accompanying peak oil and climate change).  The author felt comfortable, from this vantage, offering morality lessons.  The only reason for the recommendation is that the second half of the book is a pretty good, fairly complete, introduction to cosmological thinking and analysis.  It isn't terribly detailed, but it does a good job of putting things together for the lay audience (no math).  I found the description of pocket universes particularly lucid and helpful to me.

Perlmann's Silence, Pascal Mercier

Perlmann's Silence by Pascal Mercier (pseudonym for Pete Bieri) is an audio book read by Mel Foster. This is a book originally published in German and is a study in character by a modern philosopher disguised as a novel.

Started:  9/11/2016

Completed: 10/10/2016

Recommendation: Not Recommended

Recommended By: Nobody

Words and Phrases for which I needed help:

mendacity -- untruthfulness

Review:

In order for a novelization of philosophical principals to be meaningful, the characters in the novel need to be compelling.  These characters are not.  At no point does one feel inclined toward the protagonist and his bizarre series of behaviors are not terribly understandable.  One might be inclined to say the same of Kafka and I think that is a fair critique, but the guise is much thinner with Kafka and mercifully shorter.  I did not get a lot from the book.  The characters left me cold.  The tendency to leave dialog half undone (while stylistic) is maddening--particularly in the audio version.  I just cannot recommend this book to anyone.