I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov

This was probably very first sci-fi book I ever read, back when I was 13 or thereabouts. The time was ripe for a re-read and although I was not as wowed as I was back then, it still a really interesting and satisfying book. This is a collection of stories about the three law robots conceptualized by Asimov, how they were integrated in society, how they evolved, and how the three laws constrained their behavior. In absolute terms, this is great science fiction and only gets better in the Robot novels. If you want to read these short stories, read them in "I, Robot" and not in "Robot Visions" or in "Robot Dreams". Here they are part of the story of Susan Calvin, the first robopsychologist. In other books, you will miss this background thread that gives an interesting context to all short stories.

I, Lucifer, by Glen Duncan

If you're offended by blasphemy, stay away from this book. If your religious views are more open minded and you feel like a good challenge (even if infinitely more humorous than serious) to your beliefs is healthy, then have fun with this read. The storyline is not complex, but the tone is just insanely funny and ultimately, this is what made the book enjoyable to me.

The basic idea is that Lucifer is offered a second chance before the apocalypse hits us: if he can manage to live the last days in the body of a mortal with a semblance of virtue, then he will be redeemed. The book is narrated in first person by the prince of lies himself. The language is so foul and the subject matter often so profane that even the most derelict reader will at times feel blood rush to the cheeks. Still, I found this book worthwhile for the riotous fun and for the philosophical and the religious themes that permeate the story. Of course, I had to put aside all my religious sensitivities for a few days, while I read it or else I would probably have felt like I was condemning myself to an eternity of suffering in Hades.

Turing, by Christos H. Papadimitriou

Oh, well... this one didn't meet half the expectations that I had upon discovering it in the Supercomputing 2005 conference. It's a novel, yes, about computation, yes, but it fails miserably at telling a cohesive, engrossing, and entertaining story. The best I can say about it is that it's a novel for the computer science geek, like me, that may motivate one to go hit the books on computability and theory of computation again.

The plot is simple. A romance starts in the Greek isles between a cyberwizard woman and an archaeologist. She leaves Greece all of a sudden abandoning her lover Alexandros, who is compelled to seek her out later on the global internet. In this search, he stumbles upon Turing, who is purportedly, some type of AI program (perhaps one which can pass Turing's test). Turing would have been constructed as some kind of teaching tool to educate people on computation. As the character Alexandros and Turing interact, the reader is presented with many a lecture on computer technology and computation, which fail to advance the plot in any way, shape, or form. The tutorials are very interesting and present concepts in Math and Computer Science with considerable clarity, but then again, I failed to see how they fit in the story. (I find it extremely hard to believe, however, that anyone without a solid background in Computer Science could muster enough interest to get through these lessons.) In the meantime, the other two legs of the love triangle meet, fall in love, and develop a relationship, a plot element that was as exciting to me as watching an egg cook in boiling water.

Arguably, this "novel" would want to fit in the cyberpunk genre and reach a different kind of height than the works of William Gibson, but it doesn't. It seems to me it was only a vehicle for teaching scientific concepts poorly disguised as literature. The romance which develops into a love triangle is insipid, the characters thin, and the resolution of the story anti-climatic.

On the other hand... I enjoyed the discussions on Cantor's diagonalization proof, on Turing machines and the halting problem, and other Math/CS topics. They made me want to go back to my old books and refresh all that beautiful theory.

Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman

The only bad thing I could possibly say about this book is that it's not American Gods. That aside, though, there are many, I mean many, good things I can say about this engaging, imaginative, well-written, and ultimately fun read.

This is the story of Charles Nancy, an ordinary bloke living in London, engaged to the woman he loves, despised by his mother-in-law to be, and competent at his job, but thoroughly dissatisfied with it. Charles, aka. Fat Charlie, has a father who live across the pond, in Florida, who is quite the insufferable character, according to him. Fat Charlie's memories of his dad are not exactly the best, the worst arguably being a prank he pulled on Charlie on Presidents' Day, when he told Charlie that on that holiday all kids go to school dressed up as their favorite American president. When Fat Charlie's dad passes away, he is summoned to the States for the services and it is so that Pandora's box gets opened. It turns out that Fat Charlie descends from a divinity and that his brother Spider is the one who got to inherit all the supernatural powers. It turns out later that what remains of his family reunites and that really bumpy times follow. The story is written with great sense of humor and with the imaginative force that only Gaiman is capable of wielding today. Oh, yeah, there is one other bad thing I can say about this book: it ends. To make matters worse, it will probably take Gaiman a while to release another book, but I'll be waiting.

Across the Sea of Suns, by Gregory Benford

This was a really interesting and fun read. As a sequel to the first installment of the Galactic Center Series, this book really hit the spot: it was better written in that the focus became clearer and the story was very gripping. The disappointment I had was not with this book, which ended is a suspenseful and exciting cliff-hanger, but in the volume that follows it in the series. I rushed to buy the next installment hoping for continuity and what I found was a big leap in time starting off at a completely different place in the story, far ahead in the future. I got so annoyed at this reinventing of the whole storyline that I decided to put aside the third volume for a time. When I have managed to dissociate myself for where book 2 ended, I'll be in good shape for reading the rest of the series for what it is and not for what I wanted it to be.

How to be Good, by Nick Hornby

Very enjoyable book. Differently from About a Boy and High Fidelity, this book is centered on a female character showing that the author can be quite convincing at portraying the outlook on life from a woman's perspective.

The story revolves around Dr. Katie Carr, mother of two (Tom and Molly), married to David, a professional cynic who writes a newspaper column entitled "The Angriest Man in Holloway." When Katie's marriage is hanging by a thread and it seemed that life couldn't get any more unsatisfying, she indulges in an affair and contemplates divorce. Neither of these options turn out to be an easy way out for her. Given some time to think and talk things out with David, Katie sets in motion a chain reaction of transformations in her family. Things get laughing out loud crazy for the reader's enjoyment and to the poor character's nightmare. David does a complete about face in life and embarks on a spiritual quest to be good followed on his heels by daughter Molly. Katie's dilemma only worsens as almost everyone around her suddenly decides to do good for the rest of mankind, apparently forgetting to be good to Katie herself.

All this messy story of personal drama is brought to you by Hornby's talent to find the funny side in every tragedy without losing sight of the underlying ethical or philosophical discussion. Ultimately, while this is a hilarious read, it invites you to (re)visit what it means for one to attempt to be good while facing the worst of hers or his personal demons. It doesn't ever get corny in the process (at least as far as I'm concerned) and it was a rewarding read for me. Perhaps what really made me love this book was the story's conclusion, that is, how Katie finds a way to cope with the hardest challenges in her life. Her solution validates mine and makes me feel that, after all, the road on which I'm going down may not be all wrong...

Into the Ocean of Night, by Gregory Benford

This is one of Benford's earliest novels and it reads very much as such. For a writer that has become known for writing hard sci-fi, this one seems almost on the soft side of things. The book tells a story of first contact with an alien civilization and in that it walks on the same ground as Carl Sagan's Contact and Greg Bear's The Forge of God. Whereas Contact is self-contained and ultimately satisfying, this book (the first in the Galactic Center series) is arguably only a prelude and at that one that didn't feel very satisfying to me.

The story is centered on an Englishman astronaut, Nigel Walmsley, a crusty, maverick of a character who becomes the center player in the first contact with one or more alien visitors. I like the character in that he's not your ordinary "Tom Cruise" all around nice guy. The story starts with Nigel being sent on a mission to investigate an asteroid which turns out to be some kind of alien space probe. Years later, a second ship enters our solar system and Nigel establishes communication with it. He's again put in charge of investigating and studying this ship. What develops from there is very interesting, but not terribly deep in its scientific speculations. You get the feeling that you're only eating the appetizer and the main course will only be served if you pay the additional fee. What disappointed me was the way the book ends: the writing alternates between reality and what is going on in Nigel's head. The latter is a long series of thoughts strung together which don't seem to add substance to the story and yet you have to read it all just because. I will eventually continue the series because I like Benford's work and have some hope that this will develop into something more solid and satisfying.