The Sicilian by Mario Puzo

 Since I read the Godfather, it was my duty to read this one as well, but it was a big disappointment. While "The Godfather" had boring parts, it was essentially a good book, and especially the movie made it even better, with the great Marlon Brando being the quintessential Don Corleone. 

Well, "The Sicilian" is not a good book. It is boring as hell. That's why it took me almost two months to finish it. Too boring. Michael Corleone appears only in the first and last few chapters, while the rest is about Turi Guliano, a bandit and a type of Robin Hood in Sicily, who steals from the rich and gives to the poor.  The majority of the book is about Turi's exploits as a bandit and a lover of middle-aged widows, while trying to go against the government "in Rome" which is the most corrupt government, which is typical for Italy. 

Nevermind, the ending is that Turi's best friend betrays him and kills him (Aspano) and then he's poisoned by Don Croce, the 'cappo di tutti cappi' of Sicily's "Friends of Friends", as the Mafia is known locally.  The majority of the book is about the exploits of Turi, kidnappings, murders, the occasional massacre, and similar uninteresting stuff about some backwards sticks and boonies in Italy. All in all, a waste of time, but when I start something, I have to finish it, so I did.  

Oh yes, Michael Corleone eventually escapes Italy and returns to America where he is appointed successor of the Family, since his brother Sonny was killed.  So, this book ends at about 2/3 through "The Godfather", where the last 1/3 happens after the events of this book.  

2061: Odissey Three

 It seems that the quality of the writing is just going down with each subsequent book. While 2001 was a revolutionary book and a movie, the 2010 was a very good book and a movie, the 2061 is pretty forgettable book which is unlikely that anyone would make it into a movie anytime soon, because it is just not worth it.  

Europa is in again, but also the Haley's Comet, which I didn't really see (or I don't remember) in 1986, when I was a kid, but apparently it was a big deal for A. Clarke and the first half of the book is about a mission landing on the comet and finding the regular stuff (gasses and geysers) there. 

After a crash landing on Europa and some meetings with advanced local life, the Haley's comet crew is sent to save the Europa's hapless crew, which eventually happens.  And yes, the core of gas giants is made of humongous diamonds.  Maybe.

Eventually a message gets sent to the over-lord-uber-mensch-non-corporeal-anymore aliens, which is not good for the human race, as we've been deemed 'bugs', just like in the 'Three Body Problem.' 

But we will have to wait for 3001 to see how that turns out.

The regular fear of death topics that Clarke cannot escape abound throughout. Clarke had a very long and pretty peaceful life (buried next tot he love of his life in Sri Lanka), but the fear of death is the defining characteristic of all humans, especially the little bit more accomplished ones.

2010: Odyssey Two

 The second odyssey happens about 10 years after the action in the first book, the Cosmic Baby comes back, now as an emissary/servant of the mysterious god-like aliens that left the monoliths 3 million years ago. This book follow the events of the film, not the actual first book, so the action is centered on Jupiter, not Saturn.  Russian and American expeditions get on a Russian spacecraft "Leonov" (after Alexei Leonov, first human to conduct a spacewalk).  They want to go to the previous spaceship "Discovery" and recover anything that was left, including the disconnected HAL 9000, and also to examine the much bigger monolith (called "Big Brother" or "Zagadka") which created the "Cosmic Baby" in the previous book.

The Chinese send a spacecraft of their own, to overtake the Russians and Americans, and get to "Discovery" before them (and claim it as their own).  Since they had to take less fuel to make haste, the Chinese spacecraft is supposed to refuel on Jupiter's moon "Europa", but that does not pan out when it turns out that under the ice of Europa is not only water, but living beings, not microscopic, but huge, which destroy the spaceship. 

This is the main plot of the book, alien life forms on Europa, which the god-aliens of yore are trying to save (although one might wonder why it took them 10 years), by making Jupiter another sun (salaciously named "Lucifer").  The new sun thaws the ice on Europa and creates an atmosphere (not Oxygen/Nitrogen based), which accelerates the evolution on the planet, and in only 20,000 years, the "Europans" walk on the surface, have language and culture and are fully fledged sentient beings.

Overall, this book is much more boring than the first one, since the supercomputer going rogue plot is absent, and that plot is what made it huge success, and relevant even today. The plot of godlike aliens "seeding" and "weeding" planets with life is a very tired trope and somewhat of an escapism, religion-like, putting ones hopes in a higher power which should solve all of our problems including our unavoidable, final and immutable cessation of existence. 

Arthur C. Clarke died in 2008 at age 90, so 26 years after this book, but it is obvious that his unavoidable death was a deep inspiration and influence on writing this novel.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

 Clarke was my favorite sci-fi author, and definitely my favorite from the Big 3, as I found Asimov too dry and academic, and Heinlein too militaristic and self-indulgent.  My all-time facvorite book by Clarke is his first novel "Against the Fall of Night" even though it is not reflective of his later style that he used for the rest of his life.  I read the story "The Sentinel" that was the base of Kubrick's movie, but I did not find it compelling.  Until now, I haven't read this book, which was written in parallel with the movie, but differs from it.

The ape with the bone in the first part has a name in the book - "Moon-Watcher". In the second part "Discovery" is going to Japetus, a moon of Saturn, not Europa, a moon of Jupiter like in the movie.  Also, the movie extends the middle part the most; the interaction with HAL 9000 and the ultimate disconnection. While the third part in the movie is a very generic sequence of images, the "Cosmic Baby" in the book is very well developed, including the voyage to the space station with a sight of hundreds of different spaceships belonging to different races (including the huge derelict) and the pure-gold space ship encountered in hyperspace. 

The three parts go well together, but it is obvious they were derived from three separate short stories.  This is not a bad thing, Raymond Chandler did it all the time to great success.  The ideas are great, as always with Clarke. His Childhood's End is a masterpiece, both conceptually and as execution. I am not sure about the ending, as what is the "Cosmic Child" doing going back to Earth (which shoot a barrage of nuclear missiles at it)? Is it trying to destroy Earth? Or make it better? Unknown.

Anyways, the second book continues after the movie, not the first book, i.e. the "Discovery" landed on Jupiter's moon Europa and the "Cosmic Child" never came near Earth.  I guess that is better, since there is more continuity.  

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

 This is the first time I am reviewing a graphical novel (although I was highly impressed by "Maus"), since I guess comics are still not perceived completely as an artistic medium for serious creativity and topics, and not just for entertainment.  However, I was very impressed by Maia Kobabe's book which delves deep into topics of sexuality, gender, finding oneself, boundaries, making a life for oneself despite the world, etc.  The book is excellent in many ways, but at no time it is preachy, propagandist or cheap current fad.  The feelings and confusion that Maia experiences come across as deeply genuine and authentic to the point of being the foundation of er life and identity in every possible aspect. 

Maia is bisexual and asexual, assigned female at birth, and spends er teens trying to figure out where er sexuality and identity belongs, as e doesn't simply identify as 'gay' but more with 'queer' - the Q in LGBTQ.  Er relationships with other people and also with er own body and sexual organs is directly and honestly portrayed, as is er struggle to make sense of all that e feels. 

At the end e decides that e is fine the way e is, neither male nor female, nor gay nor straight, and decides to use the Spivak pronouns and live er life as e finds best.  Very uplifting and affirming book for anyone from any walk of life and of any identity.   

Godfather by Mario Puzo

 This movie has been my favorite for many years (decades) and yet, I haven't read the book until now. The book is great! It is much more detailed than the movie and the characters are developed much more in-depth, like Santino's and his affair with the bridesmaid who was 'big down there', but so was he. The book covers parts of Godfather II as well, with Michael (Mikele) Corleone being the main character in the second part of the book.  Marlon Brando was amazing as Don Vito Corleone in the movie, but the book gives a lot of background on how he became 'a man of respect' in the Italian neighborhood on Manhattan. 

The last third of the book feels rushed, as if Puzo wanted to finish it and publish it as fast as possible, so it doesn't have as much dialogue and description as the first two thirds.  Apparently Johnny Fontane was modeled after Frank Sinatra who was very angry about the fact.  Sinatra was an angry and disagreeable man in general who also like to beat his women, so when he met Puzo in a restaurant he tried to beat him up.  What a loser!

Anyway, Puzo wrote only two books in the Corleone universe, this one and 'The Sicilian", so that one is on my reading list now. Parts of it were also incorporated in the Godfather II movie.  Puzo wrote the scripts for the movies, so he further developed the ideas from the books and gave them a new spin.  Towards the end of his life, Puzo, who was a lifelong gambler, was assuming the role of an elder teacher of life's truths, but there weren't too many takers. 

This book really makes you root for Mikele Corleone, but one has to remember that he was a cold-blooded murderer, whatever the reasoning behind it.

Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

 It took forever to read this book.  One reason is that the book is very long (3 volumes) and the other reason is that the book is not very interesting.  It is written by Herbert many years after the second book in the Dune series, "Messiah", and is structured differently, not continuing the original story, as was the case with the second volume.  It happens 9 years after "Messiah", so Leto II and Ganima are 9 years old now, but have the personalities of a thousands of people, thousands of years old.  This has the result of them talking about sex with each other and other people, which is very controversial for 9 year old characters (i.e. prepubescent children), so in the TV versions, they are made older, closer to 18, rather than 9.

Leto II and Ganima are the future rulers of the Empire, however their aunt Alia rules in their stead as a regent, and seems to like power too much to give it up.  The grandson of the former Emperor Padishah, Farad'n is planning to kill them both and retake the throne (rather, this is his mother's plan, the daughter of the former Padishah).  Jessica, their grandmother has aligned again with the Bene Geserit order and is looking into different bloodline preservation, including the mating of her two grandchildren, the brother and sister producing offspring. 

Alia is possessed by the Baron Harkonnen, her grandfather, and one of the many personalities that live inside of her since she was born 'awake' because of the overdose of spice her mother Jessica took when pregnant with her. There is not much love left between mother and daughter, and they are actively planning to kill one another.  Alia is said to be possessed and thus becoming an 'abomination', which is punishable by death.  Baron Harkonnen has intense sexual urges which he satisfies by having Alia have sex with various men on her court.

The fremen are also rebellious and want Arakis to go back the way it was, a harsh desert planet, instead of the increasingly green and watery one, which happened after the Atreides started their teraforming projects.  The result of the planet being teraformed is that the sandworms becoming more rare, and thus spice production and availability becoming less.  Most entities in the empire like the Spacing Guild and CHOAM have huge stockpiles of spice, but are still anxious about where would their future supplies come from.  Several groups are trying to breed sandworms on other planets and thus ensure supply of spice, but these efforts all fail eventually.

 When the assassination attempt on Leto II and Ganima fail, Leto II merges with a larvae of sandowrm (sand trout) and becomes a different type of being, with great strength and resistance to all damage while being able to live for many thousands of years.  Leto II saw in this visions that this is the only way for the human race to survive and continue existing. Leto II eventually is victorious over all the other sanctions, marries his 9 year old sister formally, but informally gives her as a concubine to Farad'n and new era of peace and prosperity comes over the Empire.