"Tales of Hoffmann" by E.T.A. Hoffmann

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman died in 1822, in the midst of a government inquiry into his "treasonable activities." He was a talented man, being not only a writer, but also a composer, conductor, and artist of some stature in Germany. He was also good at poking fun at the wrong people, as evidenced by his troubled career in the Prussian civil service.

Hoffmann is placed within the Romantic period, and his stories often bring Hugo and Mary Shelley to mind. The first and most famous of his tales, "Mademoiselle de Scudery," is set in Paris and is something of a detective story. Echoes of "Les Miserables" can be detected here, though Hoffmann's native ingenuity is evident throughout.

The second of these tales is "The Sandman," which is a prototypical science fiction story. It is one of the more original things I've read in a while, and resembles some of Poe's work. This is no accident, since Hoffmann was a big influence on Poe.

All of the other stories in this collection are good, "The Artushof" being my favorite. If you are a fan of Poe, or even of the more recent fabulists like Italo Calvino, you will find a lot to like in Hoffmann.

"Destination: Void" by Frank Herbert

"Destination: Void" was written in 1966, quite a while after Frank Herbert wrote "Direct Descent," which has also been reviewed here. It is much closer in tone to the Dune novels, and is more densely written. Fans of more "action oriented" sci-fi will probably find this book too "talky," or even "intellectual," but those who (like me) admire the more cerebral sci-fi authors will probably like it.

The story begins with a spaceship on its way to Tau Ceti, many light years distant from Earth. The crew of this spaceship, reliant upon the "brain computers" that guide the ship, are thrown into a desperate situation after the third and last of these "brain computers" has succumbed to insanity.

Unable to pilot the ship manually, they spend most of the book trying to create an artificial intelligence smart enough to get them to their destination. It is at this point that "Destination: Void" gets DEEP. The crew spend much of the book debating what consciousness is, how it might be created, and other philosophical and neurological issues related to their goal of crafting AI out of spare parts.

And while I found many of their discussions interesting, I am left to wonder how creating AI for the second time in human history is somehow easier than just piloting the ship the rest of the way. You would think that the crew members would have found some middle ground between using their "brain computers" and creating AI. As it is, the book never really explains WHY the crew can't pilot the ship the rest of the way, aside from the facts that a) it's really far, and b) it's stressful. But then again, what is more stressful, piloting a ship to Tau Ceti, or worrying whether or not your spaceship is going insane?

Taken altogether, this is a great book and I would highly recommend it. It has a few plot holes, but these are both far smaller and far fewer than what you will find in most popular sci-fi.

"Against All Enemies" by Richard A. Clarke

"After the shock of September 11, Americans rallied around the flag in support of their country and their government. Unfortunately, that commendable sentiment brought a blind loyalty, an unquestioning willingness to accept whatever the leadership said was necessary to fight terrorism. By suppressing our natural skepticism, turning off our analytical filters, we participated in a major national mistake, the invasion of Iraq."

I agree with the above statement. Whether or not you agree depends upon complex arguments which will not be cataloged here. Whether or not there were any WMDs, whether or not Bush Jr. was trying too hard to make a name for himself, and whether or not the War on Terror is/was a preventable mistake are all points open to debate, and none of these points will be decided anytime soon.

I will say that books like this have a definite shelf life. The "Washington insider" genre has always been popular, and new additions to this category of non-fiction are to be found each month. A few of them stand the test of time, but most of them fade from memory once the events they attempt to describe have been replaced by newer, more relevant issues. I assume that this will be one of those books that fades.

Reading this in 2011, I am left to wonder how much of the War on Terror is directly attributable to Bush Jr. and Co. As we have seen in recent months, many of America's previous blunders with regard to foreign policy have continued into the Obama administration, as our recent debacles in Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan show.

I just wish that Americans (like me) could start learning from our history, in order to avoid repeating it. Reading a book like this is perhaps a step in that direction. It is a far-from-masterful survey of what led us into our present predicaments, but as an example of popular non-fiction it is not surprising that this book lacks the detail and fleshed-out arguments found elsewhere. It is a good introduction to the War on Terror, but far from the last word on this subject.

"Direct Descent" by Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert is famous for writing the Dune novels, which his son (and another guy) later wrote sequels to. I thought one of these novels ("Chapterhouse Dune") was awful, two were just OK ("Children of Dune" and "Dune"), and the other three ("Dune Messiah", "God Emperor of Dune", and "Heretics of Dune") were truly epic. As for the books his son (and the other guy) wrote, I think they are best left in the discount bin where they belong.

"Direct Descent" is one of the many, many novels Frank Herbert wrote before he was famous. It is an extension of a short story first published in 1954. Like many of Herbert's "pre-Dune" novels, it showcases ideas in their embryonic form. It is a lot like reading the author's notebook, and offers a fascinating glimpse of ideas that he would later bring to a wider audience.

The setting is Terra, thousands of years in the future. At this point in time, the entire Earth has been converted into a vast library, wherein the knowledge amassed from a galactic empire is stored. A new president has been elected, and believing all knowledge to be evil, sets out to destroy the library in the hopes of eradicating knowledge itself. The book is something of a dialogue between rationalism and mysticism, and given that the book belongs to the SCIENCE-fiction genre, the outcome is fairly obvious from the beginning. The book also resembles Asimov's Empire novels in many ways, though I can't say if this was intentional or just coincidence.

Regardless of whoever owned these ideas first, Herbert presents them in his own inimitable style. And even if Asimov created some of these concepts, Herbert could always take them to a higher level. This book is an easy read, and I liked it a lot. Of course it's not on the same level as something like "God Emperor of Dune," but it's a lot less ponderous than the more labored of his Dune novels.

"Glamorama" by Bret Easton Ellis

I've also read "Less Than Zero," "American Psycho," and "Rules of Attraction" by the same author. I thought "Less Than Zero" was a good book, "American Psycho" was a GREAT book, and "Rules of Attraction" was a book full of uninteresting characters that never really went anywhere.

"Glamorama" is something of a sequel to "Rules of Attraction," featuring Victor Ward (Johnson), who was introduced in "Rules". Patrick Bateman, the serial killer (?) featured in "American Psycho," also makes an appearance. Besides these two characters, the book includes a long list of supporting characters, and name-drops just about anyone who was anyone in the 1990s.

The plot of this book is largely irrelevant, and just about all of the characters are so shallow and self-obsessed that it's difficult to care about any of them for very long. Perhaps this was the author's intention, but reading a book of this length - which is essentially just a compilation of long and semi-witty conversations - became a task after the first few chapters. Ellis offers some great insights on our obsession with celebrity culture, but "Glamorama" could have probably been half the length and offered just as much.

"American Psycho" is one of my favorite books ever, and so I was more than willing to give the author a chance on this one. In other words, I wanted to like it. Unfortunately my hopes were defeated, and I am left to wonder how an author of such unquestionable talent could write something so vapid and uninspired.

"The King James Bible" by God (and King James)

Who is this God person anyway? Does He exist, or is He just playing a joke on us? Is He a man, or just an Incarnation of one? Does he want us to be Jews or Christians? Catholics or Protestants? Mormons or Unitarians? Does He care if we believe in Him? Does He have a Facebook profile?

Whoever "He" is, he is often referred to (by more ignorant folks) as the author of the Bible. Better-educated Christians would refer to Him as the inspiration for the Bible. Still better-educated people (likely the product of universities), would start throwing around letters like J and P, refer to languages ranging from Hebrew to Aramaic, and generally confuse people with their well-endowed erudition.

Whatever one thinks about the Bible, it is of inarguable importance to Western culture, and should be read on that score, if on no other. It has shaped our language in countless ways, and in doing so has shaped our ways of thinking. This is particularly true of the King James Version of the Bible, which is the most historically important of all the English-language Bibles.

I have read the Bible several times. I've read the King James Version (KJV) twice, as well as the New Standard translation. I have also read the Bible in the Latin (Vulgate) version and the New Testament in Chinese. For this reason, you might think me a religious person, but this is far from the case. I am an agnostic, and merely find that studying religious texts offers many insights on human nature.

A lot of people won't "stoop" to reading the Bible. They think it's only for converts, and they are hostile to the idea of religion in general. This, I think, is a mistake on their part. The Bible can be read as both a reflection of, and as a motivating force within human history. It is also a rich source of poetry, philosophical speculation, and mythology. The same could be said for all the other major religious texts, from the Qur'an, the Upanishads, to the Zend Avesta. You could even make a case for the Book of Mormon and L. Ron Hubbard's "Dianetics." I have read all of them, and I have learned a lot.

So let me take this time to encourage you to read your Bible. It has a lot to tell us about ourselves. As to this matter of God, I'll leave that to your discretion.