Muhtasar Hayatü’Üs Sahabe (Karton Kapak) - M. Yusuf Kandehlevi itibaren Ravza Yayınları içinde LIT biçim

Tayna Flores Flores taynarflores — Farklı ya da kıskanç ya da her neyse, herkesin uzun sürmesi gerektiğini düşünüyorum.

Anna Gialluca annagialluca — Two hundred years from now we’ve run out of fossil fuels (mostly – some countries are still scrapping over the last few remaining lumps of coal), global warming has raised the world’s ocean levels and Thailand is a world superpower that has a complex system of pumps stopping the land from flooding. Foodstuffs are plagued with genetic diseases, pests and bio-engineered rot the result of destructive genetic modifications. The world is powered by giant springs used to store energy which are turned by GMed mammoth-type livestock called Megadonts. Multinational businesses called “Calorie Companies” who use genetic engineering and bioterrorism to maintain their power now rule the world. Governments are mere puppets for their global plans to maintain the status quo of huge profits and a tightly controlled market. This is a world in which the free market fundamentalists have won and humanity seems to lurch from crisis to crisis. Into the story come two very different people. The first is Anderson Lake, an employee of one of the Calorie Corporations who has travelled to Thailand to discover the location of a stockpile of seeds and bring it under the company’s control. Seeds are strictly controlled and are sterile so that they cannot be cultivated; the seedbank can change all that and give the Thai government an edge. The second character is Emiko, the titular “Windup Girl”. She is a genetically modified plaything, slave and sex toy. Anderson and Emiko are thrown together and find themselves at the centre of a brutal power struggle between two warring factions. So now we have another -punk to add to the science fiction subgenre. The Windup Girl is one of only a handful of books in the subgenre of Biopunk. The tone, like steampunk and dieselpunk and cyberpunk, is very much a little on the weird side. This is not a bad thing. This is, after all, two hundred years into the future with no fossil fuels and the very worst predictions of climate change realised. Genetic engineering is a necessity but like a lot of global markets have arguably become corrupted by greed. If it is an action-packed rollercoaster ride you want then you are best off looking elsewhere. This is light on action and you could count the quantity of fast-paced scenes on one hand. However, if you prefer deep and engaging novels that tackle big issues of today through a lense into the future, and you enjoy global political manoeuvring and the complexities of being a human being living in a very different world, then this will certainly be up your street. It is a metaphor, a warning against letting corporations or “job creators” continue to screw up time and time again. Yet despite this apparent anti-corporate philosophy, the enviornmental movement within Thailand are just as power hungry and use brutal henchmen, the “whiteshirts”, to push their own agenda. There is so much to like about this novel. The characters are not simple hero, villain or anti-hero. The protagonist, Anderson Lake, works for one of the bad guys and is not particularly likeable. Emiko is passive and though probably the only truly good character she is not beyond acts of aggression, even killing people in vengeful rage. All are realistic with flaws and personal qualities that we can admire or resent in equal measure. Very few writers outside of hard literature seem to want to write in this style, fewer still in science fiction. Notable exceptions are Kim Stanley Robinson and Alastair Reynolds. In a lot of cases people are a product of their environments and as such will have different values from what we might expect. The only thing I did not like about it was that Bacigalupi throws us in at the deep end right from the start. There is no slow build up, a process of easing us into this world and taking careful moments of strategically placed exposition to give us the back story, but a proverbial skydive right into the heart of the busiest market in Bangkok with a compass thrust into your hand with nothing more instructive than “get on with it.” This jars and makes it difficult to absorb yourself into. Even over halfway through with plot plunging onward it is easy to feel remote from the plot. This is not a particularly enjoyable book but it is a parable for the modern age, rather like so many dystopia novels it is a work to appreciate rather than one to love. See more book reviews at my blog

Mitch Denton mitchdenton8955c6 — We are proud to announce that Infectious Diseases: In Context (Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, K. Lee Lerner, eds.) created for Gale (a division of Cengage Learning) was named an Outstanding Academic Title for 2008 by the American Library Association. As editors, Brenda and I are grateful to the truly global group of scholars, researchers, and writers who contributed to Infectious Diseases. We owe special thanks to highly respected advisors and authors Stephen A. Berger, M.D., in Tel Aviv, Anna Marie Roos, Ph.D, at Oxford, Constance K. Stein, Ph.D., at SUNY, and to Jack Woodall, Ph.D. A co-founder of ProMED and recognized as one of the world’s leading epidemiologists and international scientists, Dr. Woodall’s writing provided both expert insight and compelling reading. The 2008 awards list is published in January issue of Choice magazine, published by the American Library Association. This prestigious list reflects the best in scholarly titles reviewed by Choice and brings with it the extraordinary recognition of the academic library community.

Tomasz Siepsiak chileanempire — I have to say that this wasn't my favorite Sarah Dessen book. I'm not sure whether that was because the plot just didn't do it for me, or if because it lacked something. Even though I can rarely ever relate completely with her characters (having lead a remarkably tragedy-less life, knock on wood) I can at least feel some of the forward motion of the story, as though that resonates somehow, and this one didn't have that. Still worth reading though.