Wearing the Cheese: 2013

Book Review: Downbelow Station

Title: Downbelow Station (Company Wars #1)

Author: C. J. Cherryh

Genre: Sci-fi

Publisher: Daw Books
Publication date: December, 1981
My version: Paperback, 526 pages (started with the audiobook)

Back cover:

The Beyond started with the Stations orbiting the nearest Earth. The Great Circle the interstellar freighters traveled was long but not unmanageable, and the early Stations were dependent on Mother Earth. The Earth Company which ran this immense operation reaped incalculable profits and influenced the affairs of nations.

Then came Pell, the first Station centered around a newly-discovered living planet. The discovery of Pell's World forever altered the power balance of Beyond. Earth was no longer the anchor which kept this vast empire from coming adrift, the one living mote in a sterile universe.

But Pell was just the first living planet. Then came Cyteen, and later others, and a new and frighteningly different society grew in the farther reaches of space. The importance of Earth faded and the Company reaped ever smaller profits as the economic focus of space turned outward. But the powerful Earth Fleet was still a presence in the Beyond, and Pell Station was about to become the final stronghold in a titanic struggle between the vast, dynamic forces of the rebel Union and those who defended Earth's last desperate grasp for the stars.

So, my main reason for reading this book was that it was Sword & Laser's book of the month for March 2013. And I was so happy they picked it! It was hard to get a hold of it in France (although I think they would've had it in British Amazon, I forgot to check that one) or you could get it but it took weeks. So, I got the audio version to start with. But what I learned (which I already suspected) was that I'm not an audiobook person. I'm very picky about the reader and I just don't take the time to listen. And when I do have time, I have all these podcasts I want to listen. But once I got the book (I was about 40 % done by the time), I finished it quite quickly: because it was awesome! I love multiple point of views and character driven stories. I loved that you could see many sides to the conflict, although I think you can see which people the writer prefers.

My definite favorite of the characters was captain Signy Mallory and I wish there was more about her. She was totally awesome, but flawed which made her a real person and she just didn't take crap from anyone. And I love the way she's unapologetically selfish and knows it. She wants to do things her way, but at the same time she's a fair leader and the crew knows they can trust her. Also, what I love about the book is, that in general there was women as well as men in all the levels of hierarchy. And it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't in any way commented, it was just characters interacting with each other. And also: some people just are married and that's that. It's not like they have to have all these crises and other women/men, that's just part of their life. Well, that's life in general, but sometimes I feel this is forgotten, especially in the sci-fi genre.

What I was really surprised about was that I hadn't heard of this book before. I mean it is a Hugo winner, after all. And yes, I haven't read that much sci-fi, so this might be the reason, but then again I have heard writers like Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert even before I read them. Well, I actually haven't read them... Only The Foundation from Asimov. But that's my point. This was SO MUCH BETTER! I don't know if Cherryh is just undervalued because she's a woman, or if the character driven stories have been undervalued in sci-fi in general. But that was the main weakness in Foundation in my opinion. I mean, they talk about psychology and how everything can be predicted, but if you read any history or science books about human behavior you learn, that humans are actually quite unpredictable. I just found Foundation very unbelievable. But Downbelow Station was totally believable and I can't wait to read more of the series.

Cheese slices:

Book Review: Moon Called

Title: Moon Called (Mercy Thompson #1)

Author: Patricia Briggs

Genre: Urban fantasy

Publisher: Ace
Publication date: January, 2006
My version: Kindle ebook, (print length: 317 pages)

Book description (back cover):

'I didn't realize he was a werewolf at first. My nose isn't at its best when surrounded by axle grease and burnt oil...'

Mercedes Thompson runs a garage in the Tri-Cities. She's a mechanic, and a damn good one, who spends her spare time karate training and tinkering with a VW bus that happens to belong to a vampire. Her next-door neighbour is an alpha werewolf - literally, the leader of the pack. And Mercy herself is a shapeshifter, sister to coyotes. As such, she's tolerated by the 'wolves but definitely down the pecking order. As long as she keeps her eyes down and remembers her place, the pack will leave her in peace.

I have read this book before and now I read it again, because it was coming up as group read in one of my GoodReads groups: Paranormal Addicts & Newbies - Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy (yes, I know it's a book for April, I was a little bit ahead of schedule...). I had forgotten a lot, but in the end my opinion of the book was pretty much the same. Maybe a bit improved, but I remembered the things that bothered me.

I this this is pretty much a run-of-the-mill urban fantasy book. It has a female main character who is special someway and then some action and romance. I think this was altogether an entertaining read, I wanted to keep on reading (not as much as in I couldn't put it down) and I think the plot was interesting and well executed, which are the things that improved my opinion.

Then again, there were some problems, which is why I'm not going to keep on reading the series. One of them was that besides Mercy, there are really no other female characters in the book. Well, there's Adam's daughter Jesse, but we don't really see her a lot. And there are some minor characters that sort of flash in the story, but we really learn nothing about them. Except that most of these other women (like all the werewolves) don't like Mercy. And this is my other sore point. That she's the special one, who gets along with guys so well, but when it comes to women, no one really likes her, because she's the cool exception. And of course, the thing that I hate most about books that feature any kind of romantic plot: love triangle. I think it's done to the death already. Or I don't mind if it's there sometimes, but really does every book have to have it?

So, I thought it was an enjoyable read, but nothing special. If you like urban fantasy in general, then this might be your thing. Especially, if the above mentioned problems don't bother you. Then again, you might've read it already, since it did come out in 2006. I did read it all the way through this second time, so it wasn't so bad, but as I said, I have no interest in reading the series further.

Cheese slices:

P.S. One thing I forgot to mention in the last post: I ripped the review template from The Book Smugglers. Go check them out!

Book Review: Brainstorm

Title: Brainstorm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences

Author: Rebecca M. Jordan-Young

Genre: Non-fiction

Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: September 2010
My version: Hardcover, 394 pages

Book description (back cover):

Female and male brains are different, thanks to hormones coursing through the brain before birth. That's taught as fact in psychology textbooks, academic journals, and bestselling books. And these hardwired differences explain everything from sexual orientation to gender identity, to why there aren't more women physicists or more stay-at-home dads. In this compelling book, Rebecca Jordan-Young takes on the evidence that sex differences are hardwired into the brain. Analyzing virtually all published research that supports the claims of 'human brain organization theory,' Jordan-Young reveals how often these studies fail the standards of science. Even if careful researchers point out the limits of their own studies, other researchers and journalists can easily ignore them because brain organization theory just sounds so right. But if a series of methodological weaknesses, questionable assumptions, inconsistent definitions, and enormous gaps between ambiguous findings and grand conclusions have accumulated through the years, then science isn't scientific at all. Elegantly written, this book argues passionately that the analysis of gender differences deserves far more rigorous, biologically sophisticated science. 'The evidence for hormonal sex differentiation of the human brain better resembles a hodge-podge pile than a solid structure...Once we have cleared the rubble, we can begin to build newer, more scientific stories about human development.'

This book stood on my shelf for a long time, but when I was moving I started to read it in case I could get rid of one more hardback. Well, I didn't finish it before the move... It was recommended to me by Ginger Campbell of the Brain Science Podcast (there is also a GoodReads forum). I had just read Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender, which I thought was interesting, well researched and just a pure joy to read. Ginger recommended this book and also Lise Eliot's Pink Brain, Blue Brain, which I started to read, but didn't think was as interesting mainly because it's more about practical advice on parenting and also I found it a bit repetitive. Anne Fausto-Sterling's book Myths of Gender: Biological Theories about Women and Men is also something I would be interested in reading. I just found it while looking at some references for this blog post. If anyone has read it, I would love to hear your opinion in the comments.

So, let's look at the book in question. The preface starts:

Most books set out to answer questions. This book sets out to question answers. The answers I question have to do with the nature and causes of differences between men and women, and between straight and gay people. Specifically I question what we "know" about male and female brains, or gay and straight brains.

I feel like this is what the book does. It first explains the theories and gives examples of the studies. It gives you an idea what was studied and how the studies failed or succeeded in their goal. The first chapters concentrate on the the theory of brain organization. These were kind of hard for me to read. It's not a book that you read when your concentration is not all there.

The idea of brain organization theory is that the brain is like an extra reproductive organ. Because of this function the brains of men and women are different, so that they are predisposed to behaviors and desires that lead to reproduction. The formation of the brain differences are explained by hormones, mostly the prenatal ones. But the brain organization theory is not only used for explaining the differences relating to sexuality, but also things like spatial ability (considered as a male trait) and verbal ability (considered as a female trait). In the research the brain organization by hormones has been accepted almost as a fact, even though there is very little support for this.

Jordan-Young has read an amazing amount of studies which she compares and tries to make sense of what have been discovered. Mostly, it's a big fat nothing. The is that the studies that find no difference between sexes usually remain unpublished and the ones that are published usually exaggerate the difference. And often they contradict other studies in the field. Sometimes it's also hard to see which studies agree with each other, since the definitions of masculine and feminine vary from study to study. Even the definition of gay is not always so simple. Also the researchers seem to forget that correlation doesn't mean causality. The bigger picture is often forgotten.

For me, this book was definitely an interesting read. The research was thorough and explained to the detail. The most interesting chapters for me were the last 2 chapters, that actually brought some new insight to me. Lot of the other information was somewhat familiar to me after reading the Delusions of Gender and some of it felt a bit repetitive. Although repetition wasn't always bad, it also cleared things up. The biggest problem I had with the book was the language: it just didn't flow. This is often a problem with academic writing, in my opinion. This is meant to be a popular science book, however, and the language made an already hard subject even harder. So, in this sense I think the book could've been better. However, I think this is an important book and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in brain science and sex differences, although if you don't know much about brain science, I would suggest to start with Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender. Still: read this!

Cheese slices:

The Revival

After many years, I decided to revive this blog. I've lately gotten really addicted to GoodReads and also some awesome pop culture blogs with a feminist viewpoint. I think it's time to say what I think again. I haven't been very good with regular updates in the past, but I try to be better. That said, although I'm deliriously happy about any followers, I'm not going to stress about this. I hope you enjoy my ramblings. Be sure to check out the blogs linked in the sidebar (there's some awesomeness there). And if you're interested on my new grading system, be sure to check the About section of the blog.