Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!
Michael Crichton is arguably the king of the science-based thriller. But how sound is his science? Ten scientists weigh in with their opinions in THE SCIENCE OF MICHAEL CRICHTON: AN UNAUTHORIZED EXPLANATION INTO THE REAL SCIENCE BEHIND THE FICTIONAL WORLDS OF MICHAEL CRICHTON, edited by Kevin R. Grazier. The answer depends of the essayist: While one claims the author/doctor “did his homework,” another calls him a “master at fudging the lines,” and another finds him “hostile toward science.” Sergio Pistoi thinks the alien virus of THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN is realistic, but nothing a little soap couldn’t fix, and Dario Maestripieri says the talking ape of CONGO is pretty close, swearing excepted. Joel N. Shurkin takes more umbrage with the dialogue of TIMELINE than the time-travel aspect, and Sandy Becker tells us to relax, because we can’t “at this juncture” clone dinosaurs, thus avoiding a JURASSIC PARK debacle. Recent efforts NEXT, PREY and STATE OF FEAR also are covered in this entertaining, education anthology, written smartly, yet at the layman’s level.
You don’t have to cue up John Williams’ soundtrack album to enjoy INDIANA JONES: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE, but it sure helps. Written by James Luceno, this visually appealing hardback offers a nostalgic look back at the multimedia franchise, as if it weren’t fiction. Indiana’s story is told from start to finish, beginning with photos from the YOUNG INDIANA JONES TV series and ending with the movies, all in that facts-a-poppin’ style DK Publishing does so well, but seems like it would be an absolute headache from a production standpoint (yeah, I think about those things). I most enjoyed the pages toward the end, which spotlight Indy in comics, games and toys from around the world, and the rare concept illustrations producer George Lucas had artist Jim Steranko do, depicting Indy as a gruff, cigarette-smoking badass. For fans of the series, this one earns its ULTIMATE title.
Boy, did we ever get lambasted for our distaste-of-public-libraries piece! But Scott Douglas’ nonfiction work QUIET, PLEASE: DISPATCHES FROM A PUBLIC LIBRARIAN suggests we weren’t too far off-base. Despite botching the interview (“Old people like mysteries,” Douglas said), he got the job at a SoCal library, where he quickly found his coworkers to be fairly clueless. In sober, funny chapters, the author discusses the banning of MySpace from the library’s computers, the challenges in not speaking Spanish when most of the customers don’t speak English, talking down a teen who got hold of some bad weed, and dealing with unruly boys who call a 60-year-old female librarian a “cunt-sucking bitch.” The sidebars are enjoyable, such as the corny library pick-up lines. Check it out. (Ha! See what I did there?)
There really are a limited number of war stories to tell. This becomes painfully evident in SHOWCASE PRESENTS SGT. ROCK: VOLUME ONE, a collection of war comics’ most famous World War II hero, primarily from DC’s OUR ARMY AT WAR title from the late ’50 and early ’60s. Each issue plays out with the same theme: adversary presented, adversary overcome. And despite attempts to give the other soldiers of Easy Company individual identities and personalities, they’re all the same under those helmets. Thank goodness Rock has a 5 o’clock shadow, or he, too, might be lost among the fray. I did appreciate seeing Rock’s “origin,” as it were, from G.I. COMBAT #68, even if he says “C’mon — and fight!” 13 times in the span of 10 pages. Joe Kubert’s art is a joy, and this is one of the characters with which his name is forever linked. —Rod Lott
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