Gasping for Air: How Breathing is Killing Us and What We Can Do About it
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Breathing is a continuous battle between our need for oxygen and forces in nature that attack our...
Phytonutritional Improvement of Crops
Book
An in-depth treatment of cutting-edge work being done internationally to develop new techniques in...
Radium and the Secret of Life
Book
Before the hydrogen bomb indelibly associated radioactivity with death, many chemists, physicians,...
The Taste of Tomorrow: Dispatches from the Future of Food
Book
Journalist Josh Schonwald set out on a journey to discover what the salad, meat, seafood, and Kung...
Science and Technology Policy in the United States: Open Systems in Action
Book
During the latter half of the twentieth century, federal funding in the United States for scientific...
The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam #2)
8.5
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The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin...
Sci-fi Dystopia Genetic engineering
Hazel (1853 KP) rated The Switch in Books
Aug 16, 2017
“Harmony welcomes it model citizens.” The Switch by Justina Robson takes place on a … planet? … space station? … named Harmony. Only perfect people are allowed to be part of society, which is bad news for orphans Nico and Twostar. No defects are allowed, including homosexuality, which puts the main characters in a dangerous situation. So, when they are offered a chance to escape, they leap at the chance without stopping to think about the consequences.
In order to be truly free, Nico has to have some form of artificial intelligence inserted into him. What he does not realise is that this will make him more trapped than he was before. Someone wishes to control him in order to find out information. Only when that task is fulfilled will he and his friend Two be free. Until then, Nico has to survive being sentenced to death for a murder he has no recollection of committing.
The Switch is a very complicated and confusing story. To be completely honest, I have no idea what happened in it. I got the vague gist of the story, which I have just summarised, but the rest of it went straight over my head. It all seems to be about artificial intelligence versus some weird religion … I think. Genetic engineering appears to be some kind of theme, too, although I may be wrong. One thing that definitely features in the story is violence; too much violence.
Hand in hand with the violence is filthy language. There is far too much swearing that it becomes meaningless and comes across as a lack of vocabulary on the author’s part.
It is hard to review a book that you do not understand. Either it is written really badly or my brain is not wired in the right way to understand all the sci-fi language and ideas.
The Chemical Century: Molecular Manipulation and its Impact on the 20th Century
Book
This fascinating new volume provides a comprehensive yet concise overview of the chemical aspects of...
Rachel King (13 KP) rated Wither (The Chemical Garden, #1) in Books
Feb 11, 2019
The main character, Rhine Ellery, is forced into a polygamous marriage at the age of 16 to the rich Linden, age 21, along with the flighty 14-year-old Cecily and ex-prostitute, 18-year-old Jenna. Rhine's main goal is escape, but each girl in the marriage has her own motivations and goals. I found their relationships with one another far more interesting than each one's relationship with Linden. Poor Linden lives under the illusions that his aging father feeds him while suffering from the loss of his first love, Rose. While Rhine makes part of her goal to avoid consummating the marriage with Linden, her sister wives have other ideas, but ironically, jealousy among the wives is not the green-eyed monster that I think many would expect. While Cecily is typically self-absorbed and high maintenance, she still wants her sister-wives to bear children, and even Jenna, who hates Linden from the first day, sees no hypocrisy in sharing a bed with him. I also admired Rhine for her extreme patience and endurance with Cecily's immature and naive behavior, though I don't think I would have chosen denial over full disclosure to both Cecily and Linden.
Rhine's secret relationship seems to find it's power in free-formed friendship, without any expectations or requirements. Simply put, Rhine wants her freedom, and she will find it in any form she can grasp. Except for Rhine's memories, almost the entire book takes place on the grounds of Linden's mansion, so I am anxious to see what will happen in the next book in the series, Fever.
XCOM®: Enemy Within
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***NOTE: Compatible with iPad 3, iPad mini 2, iPhone 5 and up. WILL NOT be able to run on earlier...