Review of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Complete Radio Series by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Complete Radio Series by Douglas Adams is a radio play series that follows the adventures of Arthur Dent, who manages to escape the Earth after it is destroyed, with his friend Ford Prefect. There's not much of a central plot to this series, but a lot of subplots as Arthur and the people he meets experience one improbable event after another. This series is hilarious, zany, and nonsensical, and I never get tired of listening to it, so I highly recommend it. I would say that I enjoyed the radio plays even more than the books. While the books are very funny, there is just some humor that is better expressed through an actor's voice and with music and/or sound effects. I would strongly suggest that any fans of the books should give the radio plays a chance. I would even recommend listening to them multiple times, because even though this is at least my third or fourth time around, I'm still picking up on things that I don't remember hearing before.

Review of Whom God Would Destroy by Commander Pants

Whom God Would Destroy by Commander Pants is a satirical novel that makes fun of both religion and the mental health industry. In this story a mental health caseworker named Oliver meets Jeremy, the owner of a new age shop, through one of his clients. Oliver quickly becomes enamored with the extremely charismatic shop owner, and begins to rethink his life while Jeremy does everything in his power to recruit Oliver as his first follower. In addition to Jeremy trying to bring about a new religious movement, this novel also follows the stories of multiple mental health patients who aren't quite as ill as they appear. I thought this book was hilarious and I highly recommend it. Please don't read it though if you think you will be easily offended by the subject matter, which includes explicit sex as well as the religious and mental health satire.

Review of Alice in Wonderland: The Vampire Slayer by J. J. Maddox and Lewis Carroll

As indicated by the title, Alice in Wonderland: The Vampire Slayer by J. J. Maddox and Lewis Carroll is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland set in a world in which vampires are real. Alice's profession is vampire slaying, and she ventures to Wonderland in order to destroy the Blood Queen hoping to put an end to the vampire war once and for all. This short story was an ok read, but I don't think I'd have any interest in reading it again, and I'm not entirely sure I'd recommend it. For those that are curious, it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to read it though. For the most part, the story seemed to stick fairly close to events from the original tale with details changed here and there up until the end. When reading this story, I got the feeling like I was reading fanfiction, which I suppose it essentially is, but it also had more of an amateurish feel to it. There were also a few errors here and there in the text, which would be much easier to overlook if this was a free piece of fanfiction posted online rather than a published work. I really don't think that this short story is worth the price it is being sold for on Amazon.com, so if you really want to read it, I'd suggest waiting for when it goes on sale for free like I did. This short story is also labeled as being the first in the Vampire Wonderland series. I have no plans to read any additional stories in this series unless I can pick them up for free like I did with the first one.

Review of Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett

In Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork receives a letter from the Agatean Empire demanding that a great wizard be sent to them. He relays this message to the Arch-Chancellor of Unseen University. After conferring with the wizard staff of Unseen University, they come to the conclusion that none of them want to undertake the journey, so they decide that they should send the inept wizard Rincewind. They summon Rincewind through magical means, and then subsequently transport him to the Agatean Empire. Once there, Rincewind finds himself being forced to participate in a revolution quite against his will that it turns out was inadvertently started by an old friend of his. Rincewind wants no part in the revolution and seeks only to escape, but Fate has other plans for him.

This was a really fun and hilarious book. I really love the characters Rincewind and Twoflower, and I was delighted that the Luggage made a reappearance in this book. I highly recommend it to fans of Terry Pratchett and the Discworld series, or anyone that enjoys British humor. While it's probably not necessary to read all of the Discworld books that come before Interesting Times prior to reading it, I would recommend at least reading The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic first, and perhaps Sourcery and Eric as well.

Review of The Complete Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Kent David Kelly

The Complete Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Kent David Kelly contains much more than the original stories of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. This edition also contains two additional versions of Alice in Wonderland, which are Alice's Adventures Under Ground, which was the original first draft of Alice in Wonderland, and The Nursery Alice, which was a version written for young children. Also contained within this text is a missing chapter from Through the Looking Glass, called The Wasp in the Wig, and a long poem somewhat related to The Jabberwocky, called The Hunting of the Snark.

This book contains lots of wonderful commentary and annotations that tell of the background behind how these stories were created, as well as explain references that have been lost in obscurity in the modern age. While some of the commentary I found dull and tedious, a lot of it was really quite interesting. I think my favorite bit of commentary was regarding the number 42. This number will make any fan of Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy grin, and as such I could not help grinning every time it came up in these stories. One bit of commentary after The Hunting of the Snark said that Lewis Carroll was actually obsessed with the number 42, and that the reason Douglas Adams gave that number such high significance in his book was because he was doing it as a tribute to Lewis Carroll. I am unsure how much truth there is to this statement, but it certainly is a lovely thought, and it put a smile on my face.

Depending on how big of a fan of these stories you are, there may be some parts that you'd want to skip. Alice's Adventures Under Ground may or may not be worth reading depending on your point of view. As I previously stated, this was the original first draft of Alice in Wonderland, and as such it contains much of the same material as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but has quite a few scenes missing. It might be interesting to some to read it though, just to see the differences in certain story details in the original draft, and there are different illustrations as well. I wouldn't really recommend reading The Nursery Alice at all. Even taking into account that it was meant for little children, it seemed like a poorly written version and I didn't really enjoy it at all. The Wasp in the Wig was an ok chapter, but I can see why it was originally cut out. It's still somewhat interesting, and it won't take up too much of your time if you decide to read it. I highly recommend reading The Hunting of the Snark, especially if you enjoyed The Jabberwocky poem. Alice does not appear in this poem story at all, but it does take place in the same setting as the other stories, and many references are made to things from The Jabberwoky. It was a very humorous poem, and I really enjoyed it. Overall I'd highly recommend this edition to anyone who is a big fan of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, especially if you'd like to learn more about the background of these stories and of the author.

Review of Soul Music by Terry Pratchett

Soul Music by Terry Pratchett is the story of a young musician named Imp who journeys from his small mountain town to the big city of Ankh-Morpork hoping to make it big. He meets up with a couple other musicians and they form a band but they have little success. When Imp's harp is accidentally destroyed, his band mates purchase a strange looking guitar for him from a mysterious music shop. Imp seems to have no trouble learning to play this new instrument and it seems to cast a spell upon him, his band mates, and everyone who hears his music and he becomes an instant celebrity. Unfortunately there are those that are not a fan of this new music and will go to great lengths to put a stop to it.

This book was pretty funny, and as always I loved Pratchett's use of humorous imagery and phrasing as well as the hilarious footnotes. I also loved all of the music related puns throughout the book. I'd definitely recommend this book to fans of Terry Pratchett and the Discworld series.

Review of Troubling a Star by Madeleine L'Engle

Troubling a Star by Madeleine L'Engle is the last book in the Austin Family series. In this story Vicky Austin is granted a very generous gift from a friend of the family to take a trip to Antarctica. Vicky is very excited about this trip until she receives some anonymous warnings from someone who would prefer her to not go on the trip. She disregards the warnings and goes on the trip anyway and finds herself in the middle of an international conspiracy and her life is put in danger by those who think she knows more than she actually does. This was an ok read, but it was a bit tedious in places. I think I actually enjoyed the descriptions of scenery and the characters interactions with the wildlife than I did the actual plot of the story. One thing I didn't like that much was the use of a flash forward scene at the beginning of each chapter. In general this is a literary device that I don't enjoy and find that it just makes the story harder to follow.

I don't think it's strictly necessary to read any of the other books in the series before reading this book, but I would recommend reading the rest of the series first, plus The Arm of the Starfish, if you'd like some background information on the characters and previous events in their lives. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of The Austin Family series or of the author, but I'm not sure how much someone not familiar with the series would get out of this book.

Review of The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett

The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett is an amusing commentary on the behavior of cats and how the author feels that some cats are more real than others and gives a comprehensive guide on how to tell a real cat from an unreal one along with some hypothetical musings. This was a fun quick read and I especially enjoyed all of the references to Schrodinger's cat. I also thought it was hilarious that some of the "real" cats that the author seemed to be describing seemed very much like the cat Greebo from his Discworld series. This is a must read for cat lovers and you might even enjoy it even if you're not a cat person like me, but are still exposed to cats enough to be familiar with their behavior.

Review of Prince Lestat by Anne Rice

Prince Lestat by Anne Rice is the newest book in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series. In this story there is a mysterious disembodied voice that plagues Lestat and numerous vampires around the world. At first the voice is just harmless and taunting, but soon it gains the ability to manipulate the more weak minded vampires into doing its bidding. The book recounts the stories of the different vampires that have been affected by this voice and how they must all come together to put a stop to it. I did enjoy this book for the most part even if some of the turns of events it was quite obvious what was going to happen beforehand. It was quite verbose and drawn out, but not nearly as tedious as some of Anne Rice's other books.

This book provided a nice recap of the events from many of the previous books from the series which was a good refresher for people already familiar with those books eliminating the need to read them again before reading this book. It's probably not strictly necessary to read the previous books before reading this book if you've never read them before, but you will get the most out of this book if you have read them. I would recommend reading the majority of the series before starting this book. The only books that can probably be skipped are Merrick, Blackwood Farm, and Blood Canticle because those are crossover books with the Mayfair Witches trilogy and there is no mention of the Mayfair Witches in this book. You also probably don't need to read Vittorio the Vampire either because that book was a completely standalone novel and the protagonist of that book does not make an appearance in this one. I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the Vampire Chronicles.

Review of Second Universe by John A. Ayala

I'm not sure why I even bothered to read Second Universe, the sequel to Primordial Labyrinth by John A. Ayala when I really didn't like the first one at all. I suppose I was hoping the sequel would help me understand the first short story better, but it really did not have that effect. This story was slightly easier to follow than the first one, but not enough to earn it more than one star. The most I could gather from the plot was that the protagonist and a couple of companions fled from war to a different universe where they then multiplied and then eventually started war in the second universe and dragged a few other universes into the war as well. Like Primordial Labyrinth, I feel like this short story was more like an outline for a story rather than a story in and of itself and that the author just tried to pack way too much stuff into too short of a story. I definitely don't recommend reading this story, and I doubt I will be reading anything else from this author.

Review of Primordial Labyrinth by John A. Ayala

I don't really have too much to say about the short story Primordial Labyrinth by John A. Ayala. I'm not even entirely sure what this story was about because it was so confusing and hard to follow. The best I could make out was that it involved some sort of space war to try to defeat some sort of labyrinth that may have been putting the entire universe in danger, but I'm not even entirely sure what exactly the labyrinth was. This short story seemed more like an outline for a story rather than a story itself. Maybe it could have been good if it was turned into a full length novel but it's pretty awful as it currently stands. I think the author tried to pack way too much into too short of a story without really bothering to explain a lot of things. I definitely would not recommend reading this story.

Review of Klarity by C. J. Anderson

Klarity by C. J. Anderson is a short story about a scientist who creates a miracle drug that will cure Alzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases. He rushes to test the drug on his ill son, and while the drug works, it has the serious side effect of turning him into an atheist. As an extremely religious man, this is a side effect that he cannot live with and he must make the decision whether or not to destroy his groundbreaking discovery. While I thought the concept of this story was interesting, and in some ways reminded me of Flowers for Algernon, I thought it was poorly executed. The writing seemed amateur and awkward in many places and the timeline jumping around was somewhat confusing. I also felt the religious zealotry in this story was over the top. I know there are religious extremists out there, but the way it was done in this story wasn’t very believable to me and it almost seemed like it was meant to be satire, but if it was, it wasn’t very funny. I also did not find the ending to the story to be at all satisfying and for the most part didn’t seem to have too much to do with the rest of the story. Overall I don’t think I enjoyed this story very much and wouldn’t recommend it. It’s a shame really because it was such an intriguing story premise, but it could have been done so much better than it was.

Review of The Dark Side of the Sun by Terry Pratchett

The Dark Side of the Sun by Terry Pratchett is the story of a young man named Dom who has been appointed to a powerful position on his planet, but unfortunately there have been multiple attempts on his life. It has been foretold that it is his fate to discover the world of the race of beings that seeded life in the universe and there are those that would prefer that this information not get out. This book follows Dom's adventures as he sets out on his quest to find answers and fulfill his destiny.

I have to say that I honestly didn't enjoy this book very much. It was completely different in style to everything else I've ever read by Terry Pratchett and if it weren't for the use of some terminology that was also used in his Discworld series, I wouldn't have even known I was reading one of his books. The humor that I've come to know and love in his writing just wasn't present in this book. There were some things that seemed like they were meant to be funny, but really just weren't. I did try to be open-minded about reading something more serious by Pratchett, but the lack of humor in the book wasn't the only thing wrong with it. I just found the book very hard to follow and I found myself feeling lost and confused at least a third of the time when reading it if not more. I think it would have helped if the author had spent more time explaining the various alien races in more detail as well as the technology used. I also felt the ending to the book was weird and really not that satisfying. It's a shame because the premise of this story was interesting and I did like how ancient alien theory was worked into the story, but it could have been done so much better than it was. At least it was a fairly short read so I didn't waste too much of my time on it. I really wouldn't recommend this book unless you're a hardcore Pratchett fan who absolutely has to read everything he's ever written.

Review of A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle

A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle is the fourth book in the Austin Family series. This is a hard summer for Vicky and her family. They are spending an extended vacation with her grandfather who is dying of leukemia, but as if that wasn't enough to deal with, one tragedy after another strikes the community. Vicky tries to keep herself busy helping out with a dolphin communications experiment, but all of the horrible things that are happening definitely take their toll on her. On top of the various tragedies, she's also got three different guys vying for her attention and she has to figure out who she really wants to be with. She spends a lot of time with her grandfather and in his illness he imparts a great deal of wisdom to her. Even that isn't enough to heal her soul though, and she can only find comfort and solace in the dolphins that she has come to know and care for.

This is a very sad book, but it's also probably my favorite in this series and I'd highly recommend it. I just love reading about the spiritual connection that the main character has with the dolphins and with the guy leading the experiment. This book can probably be read as a standalone, but would be a good idea to read the previous books in the series plus The Arm of the Starfish for background story.

Review of Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett is the second Discworld novel featuring the Night Watch of Ankh-Morpork. There is a string of mysterious murders and the victims were killed by a strange new weapon. It's up to the Night Watch to investigate these murders and figure out how they were killed and by whom, all while the captain of the Night Watch is getting married and retiring and new recruits are being trained. This was quite a humorous murder mystery novel and I think I liked it somewhat better than the first Night Watch book, Guards! Guards!. This book takes place after Guards! Guards! and while it's not strictly necessary to read that book first, it does provide background on the characters.

Review of The Young Unicorns by Madeleine L'Engle

The Young Unicorns by Madeleine L'Engle is the third book in the Austin Family series. After moving to New York city, Dr. Wallace Austin begins research on a new device that will pave the way for major advancements in the field of medicine. Though he is unaware of this, there are those that would want to misuse this technology and his children are put at risk by people who want to get their hands on it. One friend to his children finds himself caught up right in the middle of this conspiracy with both sides vying for his assistance. He's not sure who to trust and by the time he figures it out, it may be too late.

This book is mainly a mystery thriller with some light science fiction mixed in and I thought it was an ok read. I think I did enjoy it more than the first two Austin books, though those two were more realistic fiction. It's not necessary to read the first two Austin books before reading this one unless you want some background on the characters. This book does connect with The Arm of the Starfish though and has a bit of character crossover so I'd recommend reading that book first, but again it's not entirely necessary. This book is in fact very similar to The Arm of the Starfish. Both books feature the head of the family making some sort of scientific breakthrough that ends up putting their family at risk as well as the world at large and someone connected to the family ends up caught in the middle of it and playing a major role. I should note that there aren't any actual unicorns in this book or anything in the book that would give me a clue as to why it was titled the way it was.

Review of A Book of God's Love by M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

A Book of God's Love by M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen is a short book discussing spiritual topics such as unconditional love, forgiveness, and others. Some parts of the book definitely resonated with me more than others, but I didn't find it too hard to take the wisdom that was meaningful to me and discard the rest. Even when reading parts of the book that I didn't particularly resonate with, I still felt a sense of peace when reading it. One thing I particularly liked about the book was the theme that one should forever be a student and never stop learning and questioning the world around us. I think that people who have more traditional spiritual beliefs would get even more out of this book than I did.

Review of Return to Avalon by Jennifer Roberson

Return to Avalon edited by Jennifer Roberson is an anthology of Arthurian short stories. With the exception of Lady of Avalon(not to be confused with the novel by the same name), none of these stories have anything to do with Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon. Lady of Avalon is set some time after the events of The Mists of Avalon and tells the story of the current high priestess being captured and turned into a slave by a Saxon king. It was a pretty good story and I enjoyed reading it. Most of the other stories I'd rate as three stars with some four star ones scattered throughout the book. Of the other stories there weren't any that stood out as particularly good or particularly bad. One thing that was curious is that a lot of the stories in the book I would hesitate to classify as Arthurian fiction. There were many that had more the feel of fairy tales to them and didn't seem to have anything to do with Arthurian legends as far as I could tell. There was also one Shakespearian short story that seemed really out of place. I thought it was a good story and I did enjoy it, but it just really didn't seem like it belonged in this collection. Overall I'd say this book was an ok read and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes Arthurian and medieval fiction, though I think I liked the Out of Avalon anthology better. To anyone wanting to read this book just for the Lady of Avalon story, it's probably only worth it if you can borrow the book or get it for a low price unless you are a really big fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon series.

Review of The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle

The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle is the story of a young man named Adam Eddington who has landed a summer job abroad with a renowned marine biologist, Dr. Calvin O'Keefe. Due to unforeseen circumstances he winds up caught in the middle of an international conspiracy between Dr. O'Keefe and those that would steal his work. Adam must figure out who he can trust and decide whose side he wants to be on, but this decision is not as simple as he would like.

This book was an ok read. It was mostly a mystery thriller type novel with some light science fiction mixed in. The scientific concepts presented in the book were very interesting and there was a good bit of action as well. I'm not sure I entirely liked where the book ended though and felt it could have done with one more chapter to provide some additional closure, but I suppose the author wanted to leave that up to the reader's imagination. This book crosses over with L'Engle's Time Quintet series and features characters from that series, but all grown up with children of their own. This book takes place between books four and five of the Time Quintet and while it's not necessary to read the first four books before reading this book, I would recommend reading this book before reading the fifth book of the Time Quintet.

Review of Awakening: A Sufi Experience by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Awakening: A Sufi Experience by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan gives a good overview of the beliefs and ideals of Sufism. Admittedly there was some material that was over my head, but a surprising amount of what I read was familiar to me. This is because Sufism draws from many different religions and cultures and there were concepts discussed in this book that closely resembled things I had learned when studying new age spirituality. There is a lot of emphasis on meditation in this book and it describes many different meditation and breathing exercises. Some of these I was already familiar with, but many of them were new to me. One thing that I thought was really cool about this book is that scientific principles are often used to help explain metaphysical and spiritual concepts which certainly made them easier for me to understand. I thought this was an excellent book and I'd highly recommend it to anyone new to the subject. I really enjoyed reading it and just the act of reading this book helped me to feel more peaceful.