Epinions Recent Reviews for tomgray

Handmaid's Tale: And a terribly grim one it is.

Fri, 26 Oct 2001 10:01:59 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - Kansas this isn't

In her best-known novel, The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood gives us a world in which society has changed, almost overnight and almost out of all recognition:

* The "Republic of Gilead," a...

Uncle Scrooge Comes Home: Tralla La: Economics 101, captivatingly told (Disney for Em! w/o)

Mon, 15 Oct 2001 11:25:55 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - You are reading a contribution to the Disney ~*~ When You Wish Upon A Star Write-Off!

Emily Rose, the young daughter (15 months old) of fellow Epinion member ImAmes (http://imames.epinions.com/user-imames) is battling...

Challenger's Hope: When Duty is all that's left

Fri, 5 Oct 2001 08:02:58 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - With Challenger's Hope, David Feintuch's space-navy series centered on mythic hero Nicholas Seafort takes a definite turn for the worse. I've marked it "recommended," but narrowly, and only because it provides background for future novels in the...

Earth Abides: But you may wish it hadn't.

Fri, 28 Sep 2001 07:48:22 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - Wordlessly, he activated the computer and prepared to set down his thoughts on Earth Abides. The laptop's pale rectangular screen glowed dully as he searched for the words, the right words, the words that would truly...

Wilderness Tips: Mapping the jungle of life

Thu, 13 Sep 2001 09:17:18 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - The book shed does it again.

Our town dump maintains a free book exchange--what a concept! Hours of free entertainment, if only from the browsing, and then there is the occasional gem that turns up, introducing me to a new (for me) author at...

Midshipman's Hope: Gripping military SF yarn

Wed, 5 Sep 2001 12:26:52 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - Midshipman's Hope is the strong first entry in David Feintuch's "Seafort Saga," a space navy SF series similar to C.S. Forester's Hornblower historical novels about the British navy or David Weber's Honor Harrington SF books.

Feintuch's...

Planet of the Apes: Every dog has his day

Thu, 30 Aug 2001 21:09:06 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - I actually was pleasantly surprised by the 2001 version of the B-movie classic Planet of the Apes. I wasn't expecting much, but there is plenty in this rendition that is worth the admission price.

Plot summary

Mark...

Thoughtful SF with stellar writing

Fri, 24 Aug 2001 15:30:26 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - The premise of Stephen Leigh's Dark Water's Embrace is arresting, and probably scientifically unsound. A small party of human colonists was marooned three generations ago on a hostile planet, once populated by a long-dead alien race. The aliens,...

The filmmakers with no brains

Sat, 11 Aug 2001 15:31:50 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - The Man With Two Brains stars Steve Martin as a famous brain surgeon targeted by Kathleen Turner, an evil gold-digger who marries wealthy men and "has headaches" every night--while cavorting in her husbands' absence with any attractive male in the...

Intriguing blend of SF and mythology

Tue, 7 Aug 2001 23:09:39 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - Arwen Elys Dayton may not be the world's best writer of snappy dialogue, but she solves that problem in Resurrection simply and straightforwardly: her characters say about as little as possible.

It's a glaring deficiency, but not a...

Taut and powerful

Mon, 30 Jul 2001 12:44:26 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - (For the few folks who read this previously, thanks for rating it and sincere apologies--I spaced briefly when posting and placed it under the wrong title. Arrghh.)

Fisherman's Hope by David Feintuch is part of a space navy SF...

Strong thriller, difficult style

Wed, 2 Aug 2000 13:54:16 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - Patricia Anthony's Conscience of the Beagle is a tautly-strung SF detective story set in the distant future. Its protagonist is Major Dyle Holloway, billed as Earth's toughest cop (he's certainly hard-boiled enough) and sent to the planet...

Can business be greened?

Mon, 24 Jul 2000 15:26:31 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - It's not the book I would have written.

(Authors are always making that mistake. When will they learn? 8^))

Gee, this was an exasperating book. As a committed environmentalist, I really wanted to like it, but Hawken didn't...

A good planet is hard to find

Mon, 17 Jul 2000 18:39:09 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - Kay Kenyon's Rift is another fine book from a skilled writer, this time centering on a quest, far in our future, to save a planet that has blown a thriving human colony back to the Stone Age or thereabouts.

Dramatis personae...

The First Eagle: Mystery of the microbes

Sun, 16 Jul 2000 10:01:18 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - The First Eagle is another classic in Tony Hillerman's series of mysteries featuring Navajo Police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Like others in the series, it is carefully plotted, with detailed and memorable characters.

The...

Pirsig%2C Robert: Understanding reality

Thu, 13 Jul 2000 21:58:20 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - This review is in response to a write-off proposal from Markham Shaw Pyle (mshawpyle) that a number of us write about our favorite authors. It's a tough choice for me--I've always been one who reads books and then, wackily enough, tries to make use of...

Trading drama for Dharma

Thu, 6 Jul 2000 23:12:31 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - Charlotte Joko Beck's Nothing Special: Living Zen (edited by Steve Smith) is a valuable little instruction book that is likely to serve many students of this spiritual practice well. However, it assumes some knowledge of Zen, and is therefore...

Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Pushing the boundaries

Mon, 3 Jul 2000 11:15:01 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - Asimov's Science Fiction, as far as I can see, is consistent about one thing--under editor Gardner Dozois, it delivers the best writing available, often pushing the boundaries of the genre into horror, fantasy, and other related areas of fiction...

Witty, thought-provoking young-adult SF

Thu, 29 Jun 2000 15:21:07 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - Robert A. Heinlein's The Star Beast is an excellent book for young adults, well-written and very witty and providing many insights into human nature and the world and perspective of grownups.

Lummox, the Star Beast, is the aptly-named...

Complex, intelligent adventure

Wed, 28 Jun 2000 15:24:54 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - Sarah Zettel's first novel, Reclamation, is an effective reminder of how challenging it is to write really good fiction. Reclamation has a lot of things going for it--a raft of high-concept technological ideas, an intricate plot, and...

Takes its time, connects

Sat, 24 Jun 2000 00:36:11 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - The Straight Story is a quiet, thoughtful movie that does about as much as possible with the main story line, the true-life tale of an old man who drives a riding lawnmower on highway shoulders for hundreds of miles to visit an elderly brother who...

Here there be dragons?

Fri, 23 Jun 2000 23:50:23 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - Beyond the Limits, by Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, and Joergen Randers, is an extremely well-written overview of the problem of humanity's current pattern of unsustainable growth and destruction of the natural environment.

...

Lean, spare, expertly done

Wed, 21 Jun 2000 22:33:33 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - I haven't read any of Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn/Chee mysteries for a while, and I'm glad, because Dance Hall of the Dead, one of his best, comes as a surprisingly refreshing change from the complex SF novels I've been into lately. I've read it...

Stylish, original SF

Tue, 20 Jun 2000 00:06:14 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - Scott Westerfeld's Fine Prey is the stylishly written, highly original story of Spider Stone, a young woman attending an exclusive school where she is receiving intensive training in the extremely dense, complex language of the Aya, Earth's...

Hubbard, L Ron: The Invaders Plan: Lame, but very long

Sun, 18 Jun 2000 12:18:13 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author tomgray - It was a chore to finish L. Ron Hubbard's The Invaders Plan, the first in his (shudder) 10-volume "Mission Earth" series, but I swore to myself that I would press on so that I could honestly give it a negative review here. I'm...