Reviews and Comments

A nice and fascinating book that gives a look at a bird we are all probably very familiar with: the pigeon (to be more precise, the feral Rock Pigeon). From how it came to be, the various breeds that eventually came to form the pigeon, its behaviour, and we can live with it, this book will give you a good and quick guide. It also has a number of good illustrations of pigeon, which is no surprise as the author also publishes good web comics on nature at [ www.birdandmoon.com/ ].

Chapter one gives an overview of the family of pigeons (and doves): their natural history, some species of pigeons to be found and how the common (or rock) pigeon came to be found in human habitats all over the world.

Chapter two looks at the history of the relationship between the pigeon and humans. Domesticated in prehistoric times, the pigeon became a source of food and fertilizer for people. Later on, they became prized birds for breeders and a way to send messages over long distances. But the rise of other ways to communicate and other sources of food (like chickens) began to make pigeons unpopular.

Chapter three looks at the anatomy of pigeons from the outside in. Interesting parts include its lungs and air sacs that give birds a more efficient breathing system, a four chambered heart that evolved independently to that of mammals, and the mental abilities of birds and pigeons.

Chapter four looks at various pigeon breeds. Depending on what people want, pigeons have been bred to race, for meat, to show extremes of plumage, postures or other characteristics.

Chapter five gives an interesting summary on the genetics of current feral pigeons. A brief introduction to genetics and dominant and recessive traits is given first. Then, a quick summary of the various traits that control the colours of pigeons and the various combinations of patterns is presented, along with illustrations of the various patterns.

Chapter six looks at the behaviour of pigeons: the way they sound, fly and walk, find food and mates, build nests and raise their young.

Chapter seven gives some general advice on what to do to get rid of or care for pigeons. The best advice is to look for local pigeon or wildlife organizations that can help, as well as found more research.

An extra section at the end talks about other birds that can be seen in urban areas besides pigeons. These include birds that hunt pigeons like falcons and eagles, other kinds of pigeons, and other urban birds.

An interesting book about what may happen if an AI wants to spread chaos from behind the scenes, but let down by an ending that only tells you what happened without actually showing you.

Beginning where the previous book ends, Steph has enrolled in a new, hopefully more permanent, school. There, she meets another new girl, Nell, who had been homeschooled by her cult-religious mother. Nell's mother has apparently gone missing, forcing her to live with her estranged father and lived-in partners, and is now being sent to school.

Both are asked to sign up to a social network that, like Pokémon Go, gives them tasks to do separately and together in set locations to get 'points'. The tasks start out a bit unusual, but slowly turn serious when some tasks ask them to leave unusual messages for other people and even to steal items.

Steph and the CatNet AI, CheshireCat, believe that there is another AI out there, and Steph suspects the other AI may be behind the social network and maybe other networks, including one that Nell uses to keep in touch with her religious cult group. Not only that, the other AI is deliberately creating conflicts between the social network groups. It is only when various clues fall into place that Steph, Nell, CheshireCat and the other people on CatNet realize what it all leading up to and have to work out how to stop it.

As with the previous book, this story is told from a first-person viewpoint, switching between the viewpoints of Steph, Nell, CheshireCat and the CatNet group (clowder). We get an account of the investigations and clues that gradually lead them to conclude what the other AI is planning to do and how to stop it.

Unfortunately, the actual steps taken to stop the AI are rushed, which somewhat deflates the ending of a book that features a number of interesting YA and adult characters who can accomplish things you wouldn't expect them to be able to do.

Still, an interesting near-future story of a world that has AIs that may or may not have the interests of people in mind.

This was a fun YA book to read. I am not a teenager now and don't know how American teens may behave, but the book gives a believable portrayal of the life of a teen who has been on the run with her mother for much of her life (to hide from her abusive father who once kidnapped her mother), yet finds friendship in a social network called CatNet which, she later discovers, is being quietly run by an AI.

The AI itself likes pictures (especially cat pictures) and is eager to foster good relationships with the people on CatNet. When the teen, Steph, moves yet again to another town and finds actual friendship there and would rather just stay there, the AI decides to 'help' her, and ends up revealing their (singular they) existence to Steph to get her trust.

Unfortunately, the 'help' causes too much attention to become focused on her location. That, and her mother suddenly falling very ill, makes Steph decide to find out the truth about why she and her mother have really been on the run. The AI, and her friends on CatNet do some digging, inadvertently triggering some trip wires set by her father, who now knows where she is and is coming to get her.

As Steph goes on the run with her friends, the digging she, CatNet and the AI do finally reveal the reason why her father is really after her. But after her father nearly catches here, forcing the AI to act, the AI itself gets into danger. And now it is up to Steph and her friends to rescue them and, hopefully, stop her father and regain her mother.

The book is mostly written from the first-person, switching viewpoints between Steph and the AI, with occasional views of the 'clowder' (group) on CatNet involving Steph's friends. The writing is easy to get used to, despite my lack of experience with the life of a typical American teen in a near future scenario where self-driving cars and robots can be a fact of life.

One note: while reading the book, I was unaware of the use of the term, "Catfishing". It was only after reading that I looked up the term and realized how appropriate it is to the book as it involves people (and one AI) interacting and only later finding out about the reality behind the people on CatNet.

An interesting story about a journey of discovery though a world of many skies. Del, the main character, becomes custodian of a book discovered during an archaeological dig: "The Book of All Skies". But it is immediately stolen. We then get an introduction to the world that Del lives in.

'Hoops' are found in Del's world and when you pass through them, you are still on the world, but transported to a region that features a different sky, implying that the Hoops are a way to connect different regions of the universe together. But Del's world is restricted: an impassable mountain blocks the path through the Hoops in one direction and in the other, the world 'ends' and the Hoops lead to an empty sky with no ground.

In the past, some people from Del's land somehow made it through the mountains to a place called the 'Bountiful Lands' and people have been trying to find the path through again. But Del gets involved in an audacious scheme to bypass the mountains in another way: a journey that would eventually succeed but would be filled with dangers.

As we follow Del's journey, we learn more about the world of the Hoops, including how it may have come about. Through a copy of "The Book of All Skies", we would learn about the hubris of Del's people in the past who though they could control the Hoops and how the world that Del knows came about. And we also learn about people who would reject any change to their way of life and would do anything, including killing, to keep the world the way it is.

The author has a website that contains more information on the physics of the Hoops [ www.gregegan.net/ALLSKIES/AllSkies.html ].

The next adventure of Delilah Dirk and Selim, this one has the pair struggling to disable the defences of a port town, under the control of a cruel person, to allow a ship to enter during a storm. Job done, they encounter a Dutch journalist who sets them off on a quest for hidden treasure. Joining them on the quest, they discover artefacts that appear to point to the location of a mysterious city known as the Third Pillar of Hercules.

On their journey, they would encounter an old enemy. But their greatest danger may well be with them, for the journalist accompanying them is not above embellishing the story of their adventures, as well as having a hidden agenda for finding the fabled city that is only revealed at the end.

This book is not quite as exciting as the second one, for the stakes involved are not quite as personal to Delilah Dirk (compared to the second book). However, the excitement does get turned up at the end when hidden agendas are finally revealed and old enemies meet again, perhaps to come to a kind of stalemate.

After the earth shaking events in this book, who knows what will happen next to Delilah Dirk and Selim as they settle back, drink some tea, and wait for their next adventure.

An interesting issue, with good stories by Brian Trent, Matthew Hughes, Nuzo Onoh, E. A. Bourland and Carl Taylor.

• “The Haunted Hills Community and Country Club” by Lincoln Michel: a real estate agent gets a job selling haunted houses at a community. As first, it goes well, as the houses sell at below market rates and the owners don't mind the hauntings. But then comes a horror that no real estate agent can overcome.

• "The Scorpion and the Syrinx" by Brian Trent: a fascinating story of an alternate world where the Roman Empire reached the Americas and allied with Native Americans against the Aztec empire. On a river between both sides, a supernatural investigator looks into the death of a tutor, and discovers magic being used to bring death and settle historical scores between enemies.

• “Ice Fishing on Europa” by Erin Barbeau: a researcher in Europa meets an unusual friend, and together they learn about each other's loneliness as they make a journey together.

• “The Forlorn” by Matthew Hughes: a light fantasy about an investigator sent by a magical scholar to find a common acquaintance. The journey would lead into a desert that used to hold a temple that made the mistake of trying to contain a god that did not want to be there. The end of the adventure hints of more magical journeys in the future.

• “Seedling” by Octavia Cade: an alternative Hansel and Gretel tale, where Hansel is left in a forest, finds an unusual girl he calls Gretel, and they both do others things to survive when there is no Gingerbread House.

• “The Abomination” by Nuzo Onoh: an African fantasy-horror story about a person who becomes known as The Abomination and shunned by villagers. But one day, she meets a spirit king and makes a request that, in time, would lead her to fulfil her revenge on the village for shunning her and later using her to appease the gods for a famine that now ravages the village.

• “To the Honorable and Esteemed Monsters under My Bed” by E. A. Bourland: a series of letter exchanges between a boy and monsters under his bed starts off sounding humorous but gradually gets a horrifying edge when they make agreements with each other to stop bullies and an apparently abusive parent.

• “Split the Baby” by Carl Taylor: in the future, when parents divorce, both can take digital representations of their child with them. But things take a turn when the child disagrees with being divided up in this fashion and comes up with his own solution to keep the family together.

• “And in Rain, Blank Pages” by Lora Gray: an urban fantasy about a young person escaping an abusive relationship, only to stumble into another unusual one with a man with a strange ability with words.

• “Her Dragon” by Amal Singh: in a land where imaginary creatures can be created by Makers, a young girl struggles to form a dragon like her grandmother. When she is thrust into the role of Maker, she goes on a journey to discover how and what she is meant to make.

An exciting sequel in the continuing adventures of Delilah Dirk and her sidekick, Selim. After helping a Portuguese family (in the midst of the war between British and French forces), Delilah is captured and accused of being a French spy by a British officer. She escapes, discovers clues that point to the actual spy and has to actually return to England to clear her name, much to the delight of Selim.

Delilah's reluctance to return to England and ask the help of her family (and military connections) form part of the puzzle that Selim has to figure out, while trying to keep up the pretence that Delilah Dirk isn't a swashbuckling heroine he knows her to be in the family's presence. It all comes to a climax when the spy's plot is revealed, and there is no time for niceties as Delilah races to stop the spy's plot to sink England's plans to stop the French in Portugal and Spain.

An exciting sequel with lots of good humour, in the family situation, as well as swashbuckling and fighting action as she takes on the spy at the climax of the story.

A fascinating book about ants. A good introduction to the biology and ecology of ants and what makes them such amazing social creatures that are able to take over the world and our homes, if we let them.

Chapter one gives an introduction to ant biology and society, asking with an entertaining account of life in the field for ant researchers.

Chapter two looks at the queen ants, who grow up on very nourishing food to get ready to (mostly) fly off to make and produce new colonies. But other kinds of behaviour, like multiple queens in a nest, staying in the old nest and even forcibly taking over the nest of another queen are also covered.

Chapter three looks at the organization of an ant colony and shows that our usual perception that the queen ant controls the colony is wrong. Using the idea of genetic kinship, the authors show that the workers are in control, and have individuality. The chapter closes with a look at how the ants' eusocial system may have come about.

Chapter four gives a look at how ants recognize and communicate with each other, mainly through scent and sometimes through touch. The ants can produce a large array of scents and are sensitive to very small amounts, which is used to identify each other and to lead others to food sources or new nest locations.

Chapter five looks at how ants navigate their environment and find their way back to their nest, using scent trails and sun. Through experiments, it has been shown that ants can sense polarized light, measure their strides and remember visual markers as they forage for food and make their way back.

Chapter six looks at army ants and shows their reputation for ferocity and for being mostly unstoppable to be well deserved. Their life on the move is described as well as what is known about them, although much is not known about some species of army ants.

Chapter seven looks at leaf cutter ants and their close relationship to a fungus. The ants feed the fungus with cut up and pulped leaves and in return, the fungus provides food for the ants. The huge size of their nests is described, and their food gathering method.

Chapter eight looks at other relationships between ants and plants. From living in a pitcher plant to housing provided by plants, ants return the favour by providing nutrients and protecting the plants. Weaver ants, meanwhile, use their young to produce silk to bind leaves together to build their homes.

Chapter nine looks at ants as farmers. Among the 'livestock' they take care of are aphids, which proved the ants with honeydew. Other relationships with mealybugs, caterpillars and other creatures that sneak into ant nests are shown, sometimes benefiting the ants, sometimes benefiting the creatures.

Chapter ten looks at various kinds of slave ants and the strategies used by then to raid the nest is other ants, and what other ants do to try to fight back against the raids. Differences in behaviour and make up of the colonies of slave ants and other kinds are also mentioned.

Chapter eleven looks at the pathogens that affects ants. Among them include mites, parasitic tapeworms and mind controlling fungus. The methods ants use to fight back include keeping each other clean, antibiotics and, when all else fails, self-sacrifice by leaving their colonies to die alone.

Chapter twelve looks at invasive ants that have spread all over the world and looks at what makes them so successful at invading new territories. One factor is that the invasive ants tend to form huge supercolonies because they start from a few related or a single queen, so they are all related to each other. A brief look at ways to fight back are given, but much work remains to be done.

Chapter thirteen takes a look at some more unusual ants. From ants that can glide back towards the tree they fell from, trapjaw ants, ants that can block entrances with their heads, and ants that explode to fight their enemies, it's clear that there are many ants with unusual abilities to be found.

A great adaptation by 2000AD of three stories by Harry Harrison on the Stainless Steel Rat. This re-released edition includes the original coloured panels produced when the series was first published in 2000AD.

• The Stainless Steel Rat: gives an introduction to James Bolivar diGriz, also known as Slippery Jim or The Stainless Steel Rat, a conman and thief in the future. He gets out-conned after a caper and gets enlisted into the Special Corps to hunt down other thieves. But he discovers a plot to build a warship, which turns out to be by Angelina, another con artist with a murderous bent. He eventually hunts her down and catches her. Cured is her murderous tendencies, she teams up with diGriz to do other capers.

• The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World: in this story, diGriz gets sent back to the past on Earth in order to save the future. A mad person known only as He is changing the past to wipe out the Special Corps. diGriz ends up in the 20th Century and stops He from blowing up the Americas. But He escapes further into the past, to London in the 18th Century. There, diGriz again foils He's plan, sending He far into the future. In a final conflict, He apparently wins, but somehow diGriz foils him again with a time paradox that traps He in a time loop.

• The Stainless Steel Rat For President: diGriz gets message for help from a world under the thumb of a dictator. After answering the call for help, diGriz decides that the best way to get rid of the dictator is to run as a candidate of President against the dictator. Of course, diGriz will need every dirty trick he can find in the book to make sure he can outmanoeuvre the dictator and rig the vote in his favour. And he will need the help of his wife, Angelina and his sons James and Bolivar to do so.

An entertaining story on the first adventures of Delilah Dirk and Selim.

The story actually starts with Selim, a Jannissary officer whose loves tea and apparently not happy with his life as an officer. Then, he gets called to interrogate one Delilah Dirk in prison. He then reports his interrogation to the Turkish Sultan, which fills in the history of Delilah Dirk as an English lady with a love for adventure.

And that is where the adventure starts, for Delilah breaks out of prison to steal the Sultan's treasure, and Selim gets involved when the Sultan believes he's a traitor and is in league with her. Together, they escape in Delilah's flying boat, where Delilah then reveals her next adventure is to steal a pirate's treasure.

At this point, Selim is still half wondering whether he should still be involved but makes up his mind to do so, and in the nick of time as they rush to escape the wrath of the pirate. They eventually get shot down and, after escaping again, Selim apparently makes up his mind to leave Delilah and stay with a family they encounter.

But as time passes, the taste of adventure builds in Selim, and he goes to find Delilah. Which he does, still in the thick of action. And so, their adventures are set to continue.

The story's unconventional heroine, who is the swashbuckler, while her sidekick is a somewhat bumbling but useful companion, makes for a fun story to read.

An above average issue with interesting stories by Alexander Glass, Tim Major, Cécile Cristofari and Shauna O'Meara.

• "A Hollow in the Sky" by Alexander Glass: a story set in a time when most of Earth's human population are joined together in a gathering of minds. But some individuals are still around, and one has been sought out to assist in the return of another individual who has travelled with an alien group mind and maybe returned with a message of hope.

• "The Andraiad" by Tim Major: an interesting story about a man who works and repairs pianos and other mechanical objects for a living. As the story progresses, it would appear that the man may not be a man at all, but a creation made to replace another man. But this premise may need a re-examination when an accident reveals more about what he may actually be made of.

• "Pace Car" by Lyle Hopwood: in a world where teleportation gates that only let organic organisms through have devastated the world, a woman gets a person to work on her salvaged vintage cars. As the story progresses, we learn more about the state of the world after the gates appeared, and how it has changed what remains of mankind, as well as her thoughts on what is pure and original and what is not.

• "An Island for Lost Astronauts" by Daniel Bennett: a rambling take about life on an island soon to be flooded, and a former astronaut who also lives there, lost in the past.

• "A Stray Cat in the Mountain of the Dead" by Cécile Cristofari: a story of a nurse who works at an elderly home where a cat also roams. Due to the hot weather, some residents began to die. But the nurse starts to wonder whether it is actually due to the cat, for it is found to be in the laps of residents before they die.

• "Nemesis" by Matt Thompson: a story is a woman in medication struggling to put her life back together and complete her job. But it is interrupted by strange visions of comets in the sky and a strangely familiar woman who reminds her of Nemesis, a possible companion start is the sun, and another job she is to fulfil.

• "The Mischief that is Past" by John Possidente: another 'Humbolt station' story, this one has a journalist chasing a story while being chased by 'shadowy forces' and involves a strange story involving a UFO and a frozen body.

• "The Egg Collectors" by Lavie Tidhar: a story of two sisters on Titan, the moon of Saturn. A storm forces their balloon down, and they take shelter, while reminiscing about their time together and trying to decide if they should stay together.

• "Without Lungs or Limbs to Stay" by Shauna O'Meara: a sad but thoughtful story about people living in a generational spaceship heading nowhere. To survive, they periodically 'recycle' people still in hibernation. But this time, the sleeper is awakened first, and dreams of forgotten people are awaken with her.