Courtesy For Everyman and His Bowels

Last time, I discussed courtesy and punctuation. Today, I should like to discuss courtesy, enunciation, and also efficient subject lines.

Let's start with four words, two advertisements, both obviously misheard by me but is that my fault? I probably bang on too much about advertisements, but why on earth do businesses choose voice talent that cannot speak clearly to promote their products and their trademarks?

Who do you think might be "modern bowel"? They produce fabric products, such as jeans and T shirts. I've nothing bad to say about them, apart from their spokesperson's diction.

Racing driver, raconteur and sports commentator David Hobbs (born in Leamington Spa, so I feel something in common with him) used to describe rather inconsiderate racing driver behaviour on the track as "arseholing". At least, he did so once during a Keynote dinner speech at the Amelia Island concours d' elegance at which he was honored, and I was in the audience.

But who tells others "But hole on"? No one that I know of, but you might follow my stream of consciousness. I misheard "But hold on", but someone (not David) dropped their d's.

In order to avoid offending a bot, I edited two heard words into three, dropping one of two "t's" if you get my drift.

As for subject lines in emails, in these days of scam upon scam, good internet hygiene is more important than ever. Legitimate invoices may go unread if the subject line is not specific. "Your Account", "Renewal", "Invoice", a random stream of numbers,  "Your Order", etc are popular with malicious actors.

Unless one is certain that the recipient is expecting an invoice and will recognize ones email address, it is well worth a couple of additional seconds to type an explicit subject line.

I think I warned recently that even an "Unsubscribe" text link at the bottom of an email is not necessarily safe to click.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ 

https://www.spacesnark.com/ 

https://www.rowenacherry.com

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Codex by Douglas Preston by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Codex by Douglas Preston

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

Last week I reviewed Douglas Preston's Wyman Ford Series. In the first book in that series, Tyrannosaur Canyon, published in 2005, the main character the series is named for doesn't come into the story until much later. Instead, the protagonist in the first book through most of the story is Tom Broadbent, a former code breaker. Broadbent was the main character in Preston's 2003 standalone thriller novel, The Codex, along with his sidekick Sally Colorado. In The Codex, both protagonists were drawn with deep, compelling characterization that I can't deny would have really made the Wyman Ford Series worth reading (in fact, I wish Wyman Ford had been taken out altogether so the series could include Broadbent and Colorado as main characters instead). 

In this story, Tom and his two brothers' father Maxwell is a notorious treasure hunter and tomb robber. In his lifetime, he accumulated more than half a billion dollars' worth of rare art, jewels, and artifacts. When Maxwell gathers his three grown, estranged sons to his New Mexico estate, they arrive to find that all his treasure is missing. Robbery is suspected until they find a cryptic message from Maxwell, telling them he's devised a final test for them to discover his tomb treasure trove. Winner takes all. Tom's two brothers can hardly wait and enlist private investigators and mercenaries. But they're far from the only ones searching for this rare, priceless hoard of items. 

Tom isn't interested in the treasure at all, at least not until a drop-dead gorgeous ethnopharmacologist (explanation for that mouthful: medicinal products used by isolated or primitive people are investigated using modern scientific methods) contacts him. Sally Colorado tells Tom that years ago his dad tried to present a Mayan Codex to a museum for translation. Without experts in the language at that time, the museum rejected it. But, now that ancient Mayan has been deciphered, Sally and her Yale professor fiancé believe ancient herbal remedies contained within that Codex could revolutionize modern medicine and lead to cures for diseases. Reluctantly, Tom agrees to help them track down his father's treasure trove in Central America, where the Codex is presumably hidden. 

In the course of multiple, thrilling twists and turns and near-death experiences, Tom, Sally, and his brothers discover they have another brother--the true eldest son of their father. Borabay is associated with the native Tara tribe who live below the White City--a mountain temple in Honduras. The chief of the tribe tells Tom and his brothers that their cancer-ridden father asked to be poisoned and buried with his treasure in the White City. However, the chief only gave him a drink that rendered him unconscious. So now the siblings must rescue their father along with reaching the treasure before the other hunters in hot pursuit get to it first. 

As I said of this author in previous reviews of his work, he excels at providing authentic settings and scenarios that seem utterly believable, in large part because Preston himself is an adventurer. Having studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, and English literature, he's been a curator at a museum and a writer for National Geographic and Smithsonian, among other notable publications. With a friend, Preston once retraced on horseback a thousand miles of Coronado's route across Arizona and New Mexico--and nearly killed themselves in the process--in order to research a book. Preston's outstanding core elements are combined with The Codex's high-stakes plot and contain all the necessary complications and layers that provide unremitting suspense and action. 

While often Preston's characterization leaves much to be desired, that's not the case here. The protagonists in The Codex are beautifully drawn and fleshed out. Tom and Sally are such genuine, appealing characters from start to finish. I was rooting for them to succeed in their quest and fall in love. They really should have a series of their own. It's too bad Wyman Ford, such a cardboard character, took center stage in the Wyman Ford Series because I really believe Tom and Sally would have brought that sequence to life instead of simply starring in it intermittently (but powerfully) in the first book of it. If you're a fan of Lara Croft Tomb Raider type adventure stories that take you to ancient civilizations and feature brave, compelling, worthy heroes and heroines, this one has everything you could want and more. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Cozy Fantasy by Sarah Beth Durst

Recently I've gotten into the emergent subgenre of "cozy fantasy" -- for example, LEGENDS AND LATTES and its prequel, BOOKSHOPS AND BONEDUST, by Travis Baldree. (Both titles actually have ampersands in place of the word "and," but for some reason this software doesn't like that.) Unsure how to define it specifically enough, I'm still in the "I know it when I see it" phase. So here's an essay that covers the topic in lucid detail:

What Is Cozy Fantasy?

This blogger's summary definition: "Cozy Fantasy can be defined as a fantasy book with a slice-of-life ambience wrapped up in a story that is healing or comforting, that centers deeply on its worldbuilding and characters, but in the end has a hopeful narrative." Because of the content of the novels I've read so far, I tend to think of cozy fantasy as mainly dealing with quirky shops in small towns; however, as the author of the blog mentions, it doesn't always take place in that kind of setting.

Here's the Goodreads list of cozy fantasies. Because it's compiled from readers' classifications of books, though, it should be taken with a grain if not a shaker of salt. For instance, T. Kingfisher's SWORDHEART and Heather Fawcett's Emily Wilde novels definitely do NOT fit into the category:

Cozy Fantasy on Goodreads

These general remarks lead up to a review of Sarah Beth Durst's THE ENCHANTED GREENHOUSE, which I love, linked to her earlier novel THE SPELLSHOP, which I also love. By the way, the plots of these books certainly don't feature "low stakes," mistakenly cited by some readers as a defining trait of cozy fantasy.

While THE ENCHANTED GREENHOUSE is part prequel to and part spinoff from THE SPELLSHOP, the two novels can be read independently. Aside from a shared setting, they’re connected by a sentient spider plant, a major secondary character in THE SPELLSHOP, whose creation triggers the events at the beginning of THE ENCHANTED GREENHOUSE. The two heroines, both librarians, reverse-mirror each other in personality. The protagonist of THE SPELLSHOP is an introvert perfectly content to live in her corner of the library without speaking to anyone except the spider plant for weeks at a time. Upon returning to her home island, she shrinks from meeting people and tries in vain to discourage her obtrusively friendly nearest neighbor. Terlu in THE ENCHANTED GREENHOUSE, on the other hand, expected that as a librarian she would meet scholars and other patrons every day, helping them find the perfect books for their needs. Instead, she works in unwelcome isolation. In her loneliness, she casts a spell to bestow sentience on the spider plant, violating the harsh law against magical activity by non-sorcerers, just to have someone to talk to.

She ends up alone on an island with a handsome but antisocial gardener who communicates mainly by grunts and shrugs. The story begins with the trial that condemns her to transformation into a wooden statue as an example to other would-be lawbreakers. Six years later, she reverts to human form, awakening amid a snow-covered landscape on the aforesaid island. The only inhabitant, Yarrow, the caretaker for a complex of enchanted greenhouses, petitioned the capital of the Empire for a sorcerer to stop the gradual degradation of the magic that keeps the greenhouses functional. Instead, he received Terlu along with instructions on how to break her punitive spell. From him, she learns the sorcerer who ruled the island died some time ago, and ever since, greenhouses have failed at regular intervals. Glass cracks, and the spells that maintain their internal environments stop working. The structures house a fascinating variety of plant life, both magical and mundane, in a wide array of micro-climates. Terlu also meets miniature dragons, a winged cat, a talking rosebush, and a roomful of other sentient, ambulatory plants (after she wakes them). One feature of this world I especially like is its diverse population of multiple human races, humanoids, and human-animal hybrids (although in this book we don’t see much of them until the island gets re-settled at the end). Terlu, for instance, has lavender skin, and nobody thinks anything of it. It’s also a delightful novelty to see a “pleasingly plump” heroine with a face resembling a cheerful chipmunk’s.

The initially grumpy, withdrawn Yarrow nevertheless helps her as much as possible and invites her to stay in his own cottage, even though he clearly thinks she talks too much. As they work together researching the books and notes left by the dead sorcerer, who became increasingly paranoid with age, to figure out the cause and cure for the failing magic, Yarrow unbends toward Terlu. They become friends who soon share, naturally, numerous moments of awkward romantic attraction. Their growing bond is endearing and believable. It’s also credible that Terlu fears the potential consequences of meddling with magic at a far more serious level than her original transgression (just as the heroine of THE SPELLSHOP fears getting caught at her necessary but illegal spellcasting). She’s torn between her dread of being discovered by imperial investigators and her longing to save the greenhouses and their precious plants. Of course, we know what she’ll choose, but the suspense is genuine, as is the difficulty of finding out what went wrong and how to fix it. Meanwhile, Yarrow struggles to face his fraught relationship with his extended family who left him alone on the island –- even if the sorcerer gave them little choice –- while Terlu questions whether she dares to let her own family know she’s alive. All those factors, along with the heartwarming conclusion, made this a story that I hated to see end. Durst has created a fantasy world many readers will want to linger in. Next July a third book, called SEA OF CHARMS, will be published (a whole year to wait!).

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Dangling Parts of Speech

Whenever I see "dangling" written, I think of the gardeners' conversation in Shakespeare's "Richard II" when one tells the other, "go thou bind up yon dangling apricots".

Apricots can be difficult to grow. They bloom early and in a good season, produce an overabundance of heavy fruits, the weight of which, if not pruned or given artificial support, may break the boughs.

That's enough about drupes.... even droopy drupes.

I have two tips to share:

1. Punctuation is a courtesy to the reader 

2. It is better to be clear that to be strictly correct (grammatically speaking), especially when strict correctness is so ostentatious that the meaning of the sentence is upstaged by the construction.

For example, last Sunday, our church's vacancy pastor preached on the preposterous pettiness of correcting a dangling preposition (during a time of World War).

Please excuse the alliteration. When I write, I have a bad tendency to amuse myself!

The pastor quoted a possibly apocryphal tale illustrating a ridiculous dangling preposition. The pastor did not give attribution, but others credit the story to Sir Ernest Gowers' in "Plain English, 1948" (my grandfather gave me a copy and I still have it) 

"Put up with" vs "Up with which I will not put."  

See http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001715.html

Shortly after church, as I was preparing luncheon, a "to be honest" phrase was misused (IMHO) in the voice-over of an advertisement. This did not involve a dangling preposition, but it did involve a bothersome word order.

I do not remember what medicine or nutritional supplement gave relief to the endorser. I just cannot forget his horrible use of English.

"It was a relief to be honest" is not the same as "To be honest, it was a relief...".  Even if there is a comma, as in "It was a relief, to be honest" and the speaker pauses to honor the comma, the word order is still wrong. 

"It was a relief to be honest" puts the emphasis on the honesty of the speaker, and suggests (at least to pedantic member of his audience) that the giver of the testimonial is an almost-incorrigible liar, who customarily lies when promoting a product, and feels guilty about it.

"To be honest", is a filler phrase. That is, a short series of unimportant words used during speech to buy thinking time for the speaker.

In the case of a spoken (and no doubt rehearsed and scripted) TV endorsement of a product, it seems ridiculous to me that the speaker would use almost as much time enunciating a filler phrase as making his point (that he experienced relief).

While researching "filler phrases", because I always check multiple sources, I came upon an English as a Foreign Language source.

It seems to me that foreign speakers often learn the fillers and overlook the admonition to use fillers sparingly.

If one is going to learn a language, one does not want to learn to emulate poor habits and overdo them.

When I was taken a course to teach EFL in Piccadilly, I found that student EFL teachers there were being instructed to teach poor elocution. Hyde Park, we were told, should be pronounced "Hyb Paak".  Why? When challenged (by me, of course), my instructor explained that most Londoners slur such words, so foreign speakers should slur, too.

I did not do well on that course. I fail to see why teachers should deliberately teach wrong pronunciation.

Back to fillers. Other speech fillers are "like", "really", "if I may say so", "you know", "I guess...", "I think", "I would say", "You know,"  "as I always say", "anyway", "well," "I guess". "well, I guess".  "I should say". "To tell you the truth".... to name a few.

Listening fillers are short words of agreement, encouragement, and prompting that are uttered to demonstrate to a speaker that the listener is actively listening, engaged, and interested in what the speaker is saying.   "Really?"  "You did?"  "You don't say!", "You didn't?" "Wow", or various vocalizations "mmmm", "uh-hah",  etc.

Finally, my ear worm for today is "Newsworth" by Greenslade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw1Mf3SN_sU

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/  

http://www.rowenacherry.com

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Wyman Ford Series by Douglas Preston by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Wyman Ford Series by Douglas Preston

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are mainly known for the books they write together (I've previously reviewed several of them on the Alien Romances Blog including Relic and Reliquary and The Ice Limit and Beyond the Ice Limit, among others), but they're also solo authors. Douglas Preston's Wyman Ford Series (published between 2005 and 2014) is classified as a series of "archaeological thrillers" featuring Wyman Ford who retired from the CIA after his wife was killed (predictably, he was the intended victim), and he went on to become a monk. In this series, he soon retires from that sedate, boring profession in order to help out the government with globally catastrophic events that he's apparently the only person with the skills to handle. 

When the series opens in the first book, Tyrannosaur Canyon, Ford doesn't come into the story until much later. Instead, the protagonist in the first book through most of the story is Tom Broadbent, a former code breaker who's the main character in Preston's standalone novel, The Codex. I actually thought Broadbent and his kickass wife Sally were the real stars of this show. The mystery and mayhem that ensue in this first story in the series involves a Tyrannosaur fossil worth millions of dollars on the black market. While this plot involves a lot of predictable elements, the setting is authentic enough that you can practically feel the scorching sun beating down on you in the hot desert. Ironically, the thing that I liked least in this story was the character of Ford. The retired spy as a monk felt like little more than the means to make the character unique when he was, in fact, anything but. I didn't particularly think Ford added anything to the four stories currently available in this series. He's too much of a cardboard character with no real personality or feelings to make him interesting. Furthermore, his skill set seemed like convenient things tacked on to involve him in the events taking place in the individual series stories. 

The second book in the series, Blasphemy, features a supercollider that the U.S. government has built deep under an Arizona mountain that may turn the Earth into a black hole if something isn't done to shut it down. Religious and cultural clichés absolutely abound in this story--painfully so! I'm not exaggerating when I say I didn't enjoy the subplots involving by-the-book, overzealous, and ridiculously stupid religious figures and paint-by-numbers Native Americans. The plot really wasn't capable of saving this story, especially when Ford is recruited by the government (again), then forced to deal with the woman he attended college with, engaged in a brief, passionate fling at that time, and they parted ways badly long years ago. Nothing about the relationship felt authentic or moving. 

In the third series title, Impact, there's a tremendously large cast, none of whom I found adequately fleshed out; along with wide variety of well-depicted settings; and almost too much plot for one story to hold. Preston does excel at providing believable scenarios that are backed with strong, valid science and then turning them into "science fiction". For the most part, the reader can suspend belief about the things taking place in these stories; that they could actually happen in real life isn't out of the realm of possibility. This one involves otherworldly gemstones, an anomaly on Mars, and a meteor, along with end-of the-world consequences if Ford doesn't intervene. I can't say I thought he had much to do with the salvation of the world though. To me, things seemed to just fall together for him, eventually, after a lot of scares. 

 

The last book released in the series, The Kraken Project, took away the major point in Preston's favor--the believable scenario. In this story, a programmer has developed an AI she's named Dorothy who's supposed to control a probe in search of alien life on Saturn's moon Titan. Instead, during testing, Dorothy realizes she's on a suicide mission and flees into the internet in order to ensure her survival. Eventually her program is downloaded into a robot, giving her at least something of a body. While this story is based on fact--a probe searching for life actually did explore Titan's surface in January 2005--the rest of this fictional story came off as hokey and downright silly to me. I admit that seeing the test robot that my sister's husband has roaming around their home at any time, tripping people and almost never following orders, let alone answering questions correctly, is the basis for my disdain. My brother-in-law has tested several iterations of these little, cute robots over the years, but they've become progressively stupider and more unmanageable instead of smarter and more lifelike. Dorothy is portrayed as almost entirely human in terms of her feelings and manner of thinking--combined with above-average intelligence and some might say awesome prophesying skills. Nothing about the main plot in The Kraken Project seemed authentic to me. I couldn't get myself to suspend belief enough to buy any part of it and all other subplots suffered as a result. Once again, we had a massive cast of characters, Wyman Ford leading them and not really convincing me he was worth following either. The settings, though, as usual, were vivid and genuine.  

This series would best suit readers who are looking for high tension, unrelenting suspense and action, and adventure set in captivating locations combined with (mainly) authentic science and technology turned into fiction with radical "advances". If you're looking for deep, compelling characterization, you won't find too much of it here other than in the character of Tom Broadbent and his wife in the initial series offering. Both of those characters would have made excellent protagonists in the series in place of the dull, mud-puddle-depth, straight off the character worksheet appeal of Wyman Ford. Do yourself a favor and read The Codex by Douglas Preston, which I'll be reviewing next week, along with or instead of the Wyman Ford Series, which really does have everything a reader might be looking for. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Cyborg Brain in a Box

Are we moving slightly closer to the sapient AI entities of science fiction? "A new type of computer that combines regular silicon-based hardware with human neurons is now available for purchase."

Computer That Combines Human Brain with Silicon

This "biological computer," the size of a shoebox, consists of neurons growing on a silicon chip that "sends electrical impulses to and from the neurons to train them to exhibit desired behaviors." The word "behaviors" carries connotations of actions resulting from choices, although I'm sure that's not what is meant. The cybernetic mini-brains don't have consciousness. The system's purpose is to "help researchers develop treatments for brain-related diseases." However, the article does allude to possible future ethical issues, in case the biological computer ever develops enough consciousness to suffer pain.

Or what if a "synthetic biological intelligence" becomes self-aware enough to realize it has a lifespan of only six months? At least, that's how long the neurons can be kept alive at present.

Here's an article analyzing some potential ethical challenges involved in creating "brain organoids." In particular, it addresses the difference between sentience (the capacity to feel sensations) and consciousness:

Playing Brains

Imagine a sapient organic computer system agitating for its rights -- e.g., to have a say in what experiments it's used for, to be protected from pain, for research into extending its lifespan, or maybe for decent working hours, time off, and intellectual enrichment to alleviate the tedium of existence confined to a lab.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

That's Deceptive

Last week, my condo might have been "brushed" by someone other than the janitor, and I learned a new naughty word. Two packages arrived, addressed to strangers.

Phishing, smishing, quishing and now, brushing...   initially, this blog's AI host assumed (if bots are capable of assuming) that I do not know those words, and tries repeatedly to change them. If I meant to write violently about smashing and squashing, I should have chosen my words accurately.

I do hate being "helped" by force! I've noticed that I write more and more gibberish these days, making proof-reading of emails more important than ever, which takes more time and is a total annoyance.

Quishing is QR code phishing. Smishing is Text message phishing. Now, there's brushing. The point of brushing seems to be a form of identity theft for the purpose of penning fake reviews using a brushing victim's fair name and good reputation.

This is BRUSHING, as explained by the United States Postal Service. Some of these unsolicited packages of cheap goodies may include a card with a QR code on it. Scan the QR code, and you might end up on a fake site that looks trustworthy, and you might enter banking or credit card information. Or, you might click a link and download malware.

Apparently, if you click "Unsubscribe" on an unsolicited email, you might also unwittingly download malware. Trickery has come a long way since the Trojan Horse. Now one has to beware of GEEKS, not Greek, leaving gifts.

There's an allegedly deceptive TV advertisement for a domestic cleaning service that bothers me a lot, and I cannot understand why it hasn't fallen afoul of the authorities. I was taken in. I signed up for a clean home for $19 and discovered that I was committed to monthly cleanings at $80+ each for the next six months, with automatic renewal, and moreover, laundry, window cleaning, fridge cleaning (and much more) cost extra per hour at the hourly rate of the cleaning personnel. And then, there were tips....

Legal blogger Jeff Greenbaum of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC writes about a weight loss program that has recently been fined for not disclosing that a monthly membership fee did not include the cost of weight loss medication or the costs for doctors and labs, or the fact that the monthly subscription was for 12 months with additional costs to get out of the commitment.

https://advertisinglaw.fkks.com/post/102kt0w/ftc-charges-telemedicine-company-with-deceptive-marketing-of-weight-loss-products#page=1

As with "brushing", allegedly deceptive online reviews were involved in the enterprise, and also it was alleged that actual customers who posted bad reviews were given incentives to remove or change their bad reviews... or disincentives --such as denial of any refund that might be due-- if the bad review stayed up.

Discussing a fintech company that allegedly deceived customers by charging recurring subscription fees without the customers' express consent, legal bloggers for Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLPA. J. Dhaliwal,  Mehul N. Madia, and Maxwell Earp Thomas write here:

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=b869d852-50d5-4f93-9b2a-7b668b698a8c

Allegedly, clients might have been led to believe that services were free and interest-free (which sounds too good to be true). Watch out for "free trials"! If you cancel a service, even with a reputable company, double check that your cancellation is verified.

Finally, as the saying goes, if it is almost too good to be true, it's not true. Those "DOGE money" texts and emails are scams, too.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/  http://www.rowenacherry.com

EPIC Award winner, Friend of ePublishing for Crazy Tuesday   

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

This first edition cover (UK), frankly looks like something the author's kid might have created with crayons. We've come a long way, baby. 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

It's hard to imagine the classic horror novel, The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells, is 128 years old. It was first published in 1896 and, oh, how it has stood the test of time! This story serves as our earliest depiction of "uplift", which is a science fiction motif where an advanced race intervenes in evolving an animal species to a higher level of intelligence. 

The Island of Dr. Moreau starts with a scientifically trained Englishman named Edward Prendick surviving a shipwreck in the Pacific Ocean. After being rescued by a passing ship, he's cared for by a man named Montgomery. There, he meets who he assumes is Montgomery's manservant, M'ling, a grotesque bestial native. The ship is transporting a variety of animals to Montgomery's destination--the island of Dr. Moreau, his employer. Once they arrive, Prendick is forced off the ship by the captain, and Montgomery agrees that he can stay temporarily, though few ships pass the island. 

It isn't long before Prendick recalls who Dr. Moreau is--formerly a promising, respected physiologist who was forced out of the scientific community once his gruesome vivisection experiments were exposed. Moreau has all but disappeared in the 11 years since. 

Hearing the screams of the doctor's tortured patients on two early occasions, Prendick is driven by compassion out of the enclosed compound into the jungle. There, he begins to piece together the true horror of what's being done on this remote island. He discovers a colony of half-human/half-animal creatures living in the jungle. They're led by a creature called the "Sayer of the Law". They recite over and over their law, given to them by Moreau, their maker, which prohibits bestial behavior: 

Not to go on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not men?

Not to suck up Drink; that is the Law. Are we not men?

Not to eat Fish or Flesh; that is the Law. Are we not men?

Not to claw the Bark of Trees; that is the Law. Are we not men?

Not to chase other Men; that is the Law. Are we not men? 

When I was a kid and watched the 1977 movie version of this book, the ritualistic chanting made quite an impression on me. It shocked and horrified me that Moreau made them obey his laws or he'd severely punish them by sending him to the House of Pain. To be so far removed from those he's, in one perspective, fathered, to feel so little regret or sorrow for their condition, was inconceivable to me, even at that young age. 

Moreau later admits that these "Beast Folk" weren't formerly men but animals he's operated and experimented on in hopes of transforming an animal completely into a human. With each new subject, he wants to believe he's getting closer to perfection, yet each time they revert to their animal form and behavior eventually. 

The balance in this fragile environment begins to erode with Prendick and his intact sense of morality (something Moreau lacks entirely and Montgomery has been losing steadily, at the cost of his own sanity, all these years) pushing it toward the edge. Seeing Prendick's rebellious behavior toward Moreau and Montgomery, the beasts soon begin retaliating for all their years of pain and suffering at the hands of the true monster in their midst. 

To put this story into the context of the time period it was published, note that in 1896, the possibly of humanity's degeneration was being discussed fervently in Europe. That's a whole 'nother subject that can be embarked upon at the reader's leisure and level of interest aside from this review. However, suffice it to say that several groups rose in opposition of animal vivisection on the basis of the topic, and The Island of Dr. Moreau is the author's reflection on the ethical, philosophical, and scientific concerns and controversies of that time period, most especially inspired by the trial of Oscar Wilde. Wells said in his preface to his collected works that The Island of Dr. Moreau embodies an ideal but otherwise "has no allegorical quality". Sure, whatever. 

Whatever the case, it's just plain a fantastic story of horror and, like Frankenstein, takes the concept of showing the monster being more the ideal of what man should be than the man himself, and, in that way, the man is the true monster. This is a story that I can't imagine anyone not finding compelling. Every part of it is perfectly developed. 

The Island of Dr. Moreau has inspired countless artistic endeavors, more than can be documented in this short review, but each of these is a testament to a story so compelling, even a century later, we're still influenced by the resonating message it proclaims. The countless films that have attempted to follow the book version are mainly all worthy of being watched at least, but it's the novel that, above all, shouldn't be missed. 

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Breaking Encryption

Cory Doctorow begins his latest LOCUS column with a discussion of technorealism and "nontechnical technothrillers":

Rubber-Hose Cryptanalysis

He deplores the "bad art" of the "laziness of treating computers as plot objects with no fidelity to the real world." Nowadays, he says, most SF readers will instantly recognize an unrealistic cryptography-hacking scene in a book or movie. Well, speak for yourself -- I wouldn't, but, then, hard SF isn't one of my favorite subgenres, and I know little more about computers than how to use them as magically enhanced typewriters. However, I'll take his word for the reactions of the tech-savvy audience.

In any case, fidelity to actual possibilities in the parts of a story intended to be realistic always produces better fiction. Even if readers have little to no familiarity with the science or technology essential to the plot, the action won't quite ring true if it's not accurate. Readers will usually sense when the author doesn't really know what he's doing but is "handwaving" details.

As Doctorow explains the current state of the art, modern ciphers are so impregnable to brute force that they couldn't be decrypted that way even within the lifespan of the universe. He cautions, however, that "just because well-implemented encryption can’t be attacked mathematically, it does not follow that your secrets are safe." Even if the cipher itself can't be "broken," the human user can. The criminals or the cops can torture the victim into revealing the vital password. The only thing stopping them is "the rule of law." And, ultimately, the only guarantee of the rule of law is the commitment of governments to respect it. Therefore, "authoritarianism represents an existential threat" in this area as in many others -- especially since our lives now depend on computers in so many ways.

Devising believable methods for villains to "break" encryption by tricking or forcing the information out of the protagonist unfolds endless potential for plot development through exploring characterization and the human element. In Doctorow's words, "Science fiction writers have only barely begun to plumb the many ways in which the flexibility and nondeterminacy of computers, combined with the fallibility of the people who use them, can be used to create high-stakes, high-suspense plotlines."

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Time Machine by H. G. Wells by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells was published in 1895 and is another story by this prolific author that's brilliantly passed the test of time. This forerunner of time-traveling fiction is as amazing now as it was in its own time period. A previous short story by Wells (1888's "The Chronic Argonauts", published in his college newspaper) was the foundation for the novella. 

I resisted reading The Time Machine for a long time because, as I said in my previous review of Timeline by Michael Crichton, I'm not a fan of time-travel fiction, which tends to be convoluted and dependent on too many elements having to converge at exactly the right moment or it simply won't work. In the case of 99% of these types of stories, I find the odds simply too astronomical for me to believe it's possible. And yet in every one of these stories, it does work. Impossibly. And, for the most part, stupidly. So I resisted this pivotal example of one of (the only two, in my opinion) the finest pieces of time-travel fiction available for a long time. Once I finally caved in and read it, it was nothing like I expected with elements of time-travel, yes, but also of horror and adventure, with a post-apocalyptic slant. 

Set in Victorian England (a time period I adore), a gentleman, scientist, and inventor identified only as the Time Traveller journeys into the far future and meets a small, "intellectually degraded", humanoid group called Eloi who live on the surface of the planet along with savage and simian Morlocks, underground darkness dwellers who only emerge at night to capture the Eloi. 

In the  story, the protagonist travels through time for a bit of adventure and goes right back out into other time periods using his machine after returning to tell his friends the tale of the Eloi and Morlocks. There is no deeper reason for his endeavors in creating and using this machine, but many since The Time Machine's publication have attempted to provide answers and justifications and sequels to this very brief story. I must say that I did actually enjoy the 2002 film version with Guy Pearce that gives the Time Traveller a deeply emotional reason for why he (a university professor and inventor) developed a time machine, as well as a name--Dr. Alexander Hartdegen. Follow-ups to the original story do hold appeal, but be sure not to miss the novella that started it all. 

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Animal Gender-Flipping

A list of some animals with reproductive patterns that deconstruct the male-female binary:

Animals That Can Change Their Sex

Many can switch from male to female or vice versa, depending on environmental or social conditions. (No mammals, though.) Famously, the clownfish, first on the list, reveals that Nemo's dad in the movie should have become his mother. Some animals are hermaphroditic, with both sexes in one body, or nonbinary. Some (e.g., the hawkfish) can even change back and forth rather than shifting to the opposite sex and sticking with it for life. Parthenogenetic species also exist, whose females can give birth without having their eggs fertilized by males. Humphead wrasse are females in youth but can change to males later in life.

Interestingly, Heinlein adopts this reproductive pattern for his Martians in STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. The fertile young -- "nymphs" -- are female. All fully mature Martians are male. Although only hinted at in RED PLANET and PODKAYNE OF MARS, apparently the Martians in those books have the same biology.

Such transsexual phenomena can't be classified quite the same as human transgender identity, since the physical changes are automatic in animals but voluntary in humans. Still, the examples mentioned, only a few among many, illustrate that life on Earth is stranger than we often realize. Consider the extreme sexual dimorphism of the anglerfish, where the male, much smaller than the female, attaches himself permanently to her body. He fuses with her so that he atrophies into simply a parasitic sperm cell producer.

For a deep dive, with copious references and statistics, into unconventional animal sexual behavior, check out the exhaustively thorough BIOLOGICAL EXUBERANCE (1999), by Bruce Bagemihl. He explores transsexualism, transvestism, parthenongenesis, and homosexuality, mainly the latter, in numerous species (mostly mammals and birds). The six chapters of Part I, "A Polysexual, Polygendered World," offer an overview of the field and refute arguments that have attempted to explain away homosexual behavior in nonhuman animals. Part II, "A Wondrous Bestiary," comprises a catalog of particular species observed to exhibit the behaviors discussed in Part I, with lists of sources for the information on each. The book's appendix, bibliography, endnotes, and index take up almost 100 pages.

Through natural phenomena such as these, we can find inspiration for bizarre alien reproductive biology without ever having to leave Earth.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Ama-Scam (and the 16 billion leaks)

It's not a great leap from Amazon scam, to Ama-Scam (not a word) to Abacab (also allegedly not a word) which is my ear worm for the last couple of days.

I particularly like the Moog synthesizer intro to Abacab by Genesis. I haven't thought about a Moog for donkey's years. I am assuming the instrument in question is indeed a Moog. Genesis is on the list as using it.

That song (Abacab) seems to be an anthem about lover's remorse and paranoia. The point-of-view character (sung by Phil Collins) has seduced the girlfriend of someone dangerous, and now he fears retribution, perhaps by suffocation after being wrapped alive in cellophane.

Dark! But, Mr. Collins had a number of dark and angry songs.

His opening stanza reminds me of the Apple "Flock" advertisement, with lyrics directing the listener to look at the wall, the floor, under the bedding, behind a door to notice disturbing details that are suggestive of surveillance.

Amazon isn't the worst, but Amazon did blast out a warning that well-informed scammers are crafting convincing emails with spoofed Amazon-sender-addresses. These spear phishing emails aren't just about frighteningly large purchases, but also plausible, month-end warnings about Prime subscriptions coming to an end, or being auto-renewed at an alarming new price.

Other sites warn that 16 billion Americans' email accounts, passwords, phone numbers, and personal details are for sale on the dark web. No wonder some of these texts and emails fool busy people! Also, while not absolutely illegal, data-brokers make a business out of violating privacy and endangering Americans' identity.

EFF writes about how some of these data brokers are slow walking consumer protection reforms and making it difficult to opt out.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/why-are-hundreds-data-brokers-not-registering-states

The most egregious tracking technique to spy on our web browsing might belong to "Meta".  It's "the Meta pixel". This tracking technique (allegedly) bypasses core security protections built into phones and browsers in pursuit of surveillance advertising. 

EFF explains what it is, how it works, why it is so sneaky, and how you can protect yourself.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/protect-yourself-metas-latest-attack-privacy?ref=jul2effector

Convenience is our downfall. We should never click a link in a text or email (unless we are sure that it was shared by a trusted friend.) Apparently, even the standard "Unsubscribe" text link is not safe to use! 

If no one responded to targeted advertising, or cleared a browser and went to find a wanted product through a direct website visit, perhaps surveillance advertising would not be profitable, but there is little chance of that!

On the upside, I have a family member who is fascinated by videos of blacksmiths treating pus-filled, abscessed cow hoofs. So far, I have not seen a single sidebar advert for blacksmith tools or farm animal veterinary products. 

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Riptide by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Riptide by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

Riptide by authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child was published in 1998, one of their first collaborations. While I generally avoid pirate books (notably, I didn't care for Michael Crichton's Pirate Latitudes either, though I generally read everything I can get from him), I can't deny I love the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. This particular story had a bit more to it than I anticipated and I was intrigued by it, in large part because of all the puzzles the island throws at the main characters, making them a lot like the Lara Croft series I love in any form. The authors themselves describe Riptide as "a fictional tale of suspense, terror, and mystery…based on research into such eclectic subjects as buried treasure, high-seas piracy, 17th century espionage and cryptology, forensic anthropology, as well as the latest high-tech tools of today's treasure hunters." On their website, they listed some of them on a separate page related to the book, for those who want all the details. 

The story in Riptide follows a plot to retrieve the buried treasure of a nefarious pirate, Red Ned Ockham. Not only is the stash reputed to be worth billions of dollars but it supposedly includes a cursed sword that will kill anyone who so much as looks at it. The story takes place on a fictional and dangerous island off the coast of Maine. In part, the story is modeled after the legend of the Oak Island Money Pit (called the Water Pit here), a real-life place that's become famous for numerous theories and attempts to discover buried treasure. 

Malin Hatch is the main character, and the accident when they were little kids (Malin was five) that led to him losing his older brother opens the book. This event is the catalyst for his attempts 25 years later to return to the island his family owns. Unfortunately, the high-tech salvage team--one that has its own motives--he accompanies to the island quickly learns that the island's curse may not be all legend and superstition. Mysterious accidents, illnesses, and tech issues plague them as they try to discover the secrets behind the architecture of the Water Pit. 

The characters are extremely well-drawn and compelling and the settings are realistic to the point that you can almost see everything, as if you're watching a movie. Speaking of which, this story would make an incredible one with nail-biting suspense and a plot that just won't quit. There was talk of it in 2003 but, as far as I know, nothing came of it. I guess I'll just have to read the book again, something I encourage readers who like Indiana Jones/Lara Croft and Captain Jack Sparrow/Barbossa type characters featured in the same story to pick up as well. 

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Bad Advice for Writers

Searching on this topic recently, I came upon two thought-provoking lists (doubtless two among many). The general message of both is that aspiring writers shouldn't unreflectively accept any rigid "do" or "don't" as absolute and universal. As one might expect, I agree with many of the items, disagree with a few others, and have a "yes, maybe, but. . ." reaction to some.

On the Wordling Website:

Writing Tips to Disregard

On the Squibler website:

19 Pieces of Terrible Writing Advice

Not surprisingly, both lists object to the once-common decree, "Write what you know." The better version of this advice I've come across is, "Know what you write." In other words, if youre inspired by a story idea that includes elements you're not familiar with, research them in depth. As has often been remarked, if we could write about only things we know firsthand, fantasy and science fiction wouldn't exist. Historical fiction would be severely hampered, too.

To the advice that an author must write from experience, Henry James in "The Art of Fiction" explores what's meant by "experience." Does that maxim restrict writers only to their own personal experiences? James refutes this claim with the famous remark, "Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost!” His detailed explanation of that point can be found on page 5 of this PDF:

The Art of Fiction

One item on Squibler's list that I agree is terrible advice: "Don't use adverbs." That's almost as silly as the admonition I once read somewhere, "Avoid prepositions." What parts of speech should we ban next? Adjectives? Pronouns? Definite articles?

The Wordling list includes "Good writing is rewriting" as a fallacy; the Squibler page lists "Avoid rewriting." It seems obvious neither maxim qualifies as an unbreakable rule. It depends on the work and the experience level of the writer. I'd say rewriting is sometimes desirable, even necessary. Obsessively rewriting the same piece over and over, however, I'd usually advise against. A bestselling author, one of my own favorites, warns aspiring writers that they'll have to go through multiple drafts of their first novel, maybe ten or more. If I'd been told that at the age of twenty and believed it, I would have given up in despair. On the other hand, I wouldn't wholeheartedly embrace Heinlein's famous "rule" to "never rewrite except at editorial order." Suppose you love that character or story idea and won't feel satisfied until it's brought to life on the page or screen? Having become a dedicated outliner, I revise thoroughly but never actually rewrite in the sense of overhauling the whole thing. That part of the process happens in the outlining stage. Likewise, I agree with Wordling that it's counter-productive to PLAN on producing bad first drafts.

I completely agree with Wordling's position that "Write first thing in the morning" would be an absurd burden to take on as an inflexible "rule." Writing mavens who promulgate that notion are either morning people (a species alien to me) or under the influence of the venerable American belief that getting up early is a sign of virtue and sleeping late but staying awake long into the night is, if not quite evil, somehow a sign of disorganization or laziness. Write at whatever time of day you can fit it in and summon up the most enthusiasm.

The one item on that blog I heartily disagree with: The author's skepticism about critique groups. Of course, no writers MUST join a critique group if it doesn't work for them. However, I've consistently found such groups more helpful than not. Sure, it's best to participate with other people whose proficiency level fairly closely matches your own, rather than very more or less advanced. But no matter the other members' level of experience and knowledge, they can provide the valuable function of "another pair of eyes." We know what we meant to convey in a certain passage, but will the reader understand it that way? Any comments can show us where we've missed our target.

Until I read the paragraph under the heading, "Keep submitting until they publish you," I wasn't sure what Wordling meant by citing it as bad advice. Their message turns out to be a recommendation to try self-publishing if traditional publishers keep rejecting a particular work. What I'd expected, though, was the equivalent of some professionals' negative comments on selling or giving stories to low-paying or nonpaying markets. This version of "know your own value" (which I assume it to mean) strikes me as misplaced pride. If you've tried every possible pro market for a short story without success, and you still believe it reflects your best work, which is preferable? Hide it in a file -- paper or electronic -- never to be seen by anyone, or get it published for nominal or no pay where at least it will be read? I'm strongly in favor of the latter. Some readers of that niche market might seek out your other fiction, earning money for you in the long run, or, if nothing else, that publication will grant you the pleasure of knowing people have enjoyed your work.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.