Book Reviews

A Time Foreclosed
by Edward M. Lerner

This a one of the best time travel stories I have read. It is a good, solid story with a classic feel to it. I'm surprised it is not more widely known.

Come, Hunt an Earthman 

by Philip E. High

This is a 1970s pulp science fiction romp with an engaging premise but less-than-believable characters. It is told in plain language and presents unambiguous views on morality through stereotypical heroes and villains, focusing on a seemingly endless series of conflicts between alien and human military technology in which the underdog predictably comes out on top in the end.

Somewhere along the way it makes a strained foray into the philosophy of our place in the universe, but to the end remains incautiously optimistic about the capabilities, ingenuity, and integrity of humankind.

Although the book is reasonably well written and may be of interest to readers who revel in imaginatively destructive fictitious technologies, those who prefer character-driven novels and more contemplative content could find it becoming tedious before they are halfway through.

The Hercules Text by Jack McDevitt

The Hercules Text, which was first published in 1986, was Jack McDevitt's first full-length book, and it is a fine debut novel. I found that it had some definite similarities to Ancient Shores, a work written by McDevitt some ten years later and another excellent example of speculative fiction. Both books ask 'What if...?' certain prodigious events took place, changing mankind's view of reality and the universe, and both examine the implications of certain discoveries for science, politics, military affairs, the economy, and the everyday lives of ordinary people. While Ancient Shores involves the discovery of alien technology, The Hercules Text is a first-contact story. The aliens, however, never make an appearance because the message which scientists intercept was sent in the distant past.

What I enjoy about many of Jack McDevitt's novels is that they occur in realistic settings and revolve around characters to whom we can easily relate. The people in the story have their own strengths and weaknesses, and react in believable ways to extraordinary situations. This gives the plot developments a pleasing mixture of both the unpredictable and the predictable. And although the scientists working on the decoding of the alien message are experts on recondite subjects which laymen would have difficulty comprehending, the necessary details are presented by the author in a way which is accessible to the average reader.

In my view, this is an example of speculative fiction at its best, since it not only asks ‘What if...?’ but also compels readers to ask themselves what decisions they would make if they found themselves in the positions of the people in the story. At the same time, we are encouraged to consider the greater implications and possibilities for the future of humanity. Readers who enjoy quieter and more thoughtful science fiction which focusses on the human aspects of newly-gained knowledge will likely appreciate this novel.

Hearts, Hands and Voices
(aka The Broken Land)
by Ian McDonald

Other reviewers have described this as a challenging book to read and finish, and I am inclined to agree with that assessment.

The biopunk world building is absorbingly creative, and the excellent quality of the writing has an almost lyrical feel to it, while many of the descriptions are both dreamlike and disturbing.

The basic premise involves a conflict between two civilizations and religions in the far future when chemical and genetic engineering have reached remarkable heights.

Anyone familiar with the UK "Troubles" will recognize what is being obliquely referred to in some of the characterizations. But since many African place names are also mentioned, the reader may also be reminded of the intractable conflicts in that area of the world.

The principal message I took away from this story is related to the nature of politics, mainstream religions, and cultic organizations.

Through the narrative, politics is shown to be tribal and cultic like religion, since it causes divisions and conflicts in similar ways, which can be enumerated as follows:

1. Gross oversimplification of complex issues leading to
2. Black and white thinking, devoid of nuances and grey areas, producing
3. A 'them and us' mentality and entrenched prejudices.
4. A perception that "sitting on the fence" or maintaining a neutral stand is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable. One cannot be neither nor. Those who are not for us are against us.

Indeed, this may be one of the reasons that extreme political and religious views are often to be found inextricably intertwined with each other.

The only character who honestly attempts to treat people fairly and on an individual basis ends up being hated by both sides.

The ending seems to imply that entrenched positions and hatreds, whether political or religious, could only be overcome by physically altering the makeup of humans in some way at the genetic level, although other readers may come to different conclusions of what is meant.

This book is highly imaginative and memorable, but somewhat grim and nightmarish, and probably not suitable for someone who prefers a light and entertaining read.

Marcus Aurelius The Dialogues
by Alan Stedall

This is a short and highly readable imaginary account of the discussion that the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius may have had with a famous physician and an Egyptian priest in Aquileia in 168AD. The meeting evidently really did take place, but no one now knows what was said. It is likely, though, that the Emperor made the most of this opportunity to discuss science, religion, and philosophy with those present.

After providing an introduction to Marcus Aurelius' background and philosophical beliefs, Stedall sums up what he sees as the essential points of The Meditations through a dialectical discussion that the Emperor has with the two distinguished and influential personages. Fundamental philosophical concepts are defined and elaborated on, and conclusions on such questions as the meaning of life and pursuit of happiness are accepted or discarded depending on whether they accord with reason and logic. One particularly interesting point which is made is as follows: "...one could argue that religion - any religion - is not an imposition of understanding on reality but a conscious and willing surrender of any attempt at understanding ultimate reality in the face of the impossibility of the task - a surrender of reason to faith. Each of these naturally selected or socially evolved strategies offers the individual a buffer against a potentially catastrophic conflict between man's fundamental drive to understand and the essentially incomprehensible nature of reality on the other."

A conclusion is provided through a dream which the head of the Praetorian Guard has of a final conversation with the Emperor after his death.

This book is very well written and the factual and fictional sections fit together fairly seamlessly. While is it a good introduction to the ideas of Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations themselves are of course much more memorable and contain a greater amount of timeless wisdom and effective practical advice applicable to everyday life in our day.

I think Alan Stedall might also do quite well if he turned his hand to writing a thought-provoking science fiction or fantasy novel, as he certainly seems to possess the skills and imagination needed to produce fiction.

The Tea Master and the Detective 

by Aliette de Bodard

This is another standalone novella in Aliette de Bodard's Xuya Universe, and is science fiction set against a background of Vietnamese culture.

Both of the main characters have traumatic pasts which drive them to search for truth. The Shadow’s Child is a sentient spaceship, or mindship, who was traumatized by her war experiences in the "deep spaces", and after losing her crew or "family" has to make her own living in a provincial backwater of the empire mixing special teas which can alter mental states and help people function in stressful or dangerous situations.

Long Chau, a private detective, hires her to help recover things from the deep spaces (which the shipmind is pathologically afraid of due to her harrowing experiences there) so she can study them. What they find sparks an investigation that threatens to expose their own private secrets as well as the illegal activities of others.

As with the other novellas in the Xuya series, the principal plot dynamics are powered by a conflict of personalities, this time between the shipmind and the arrogant and seemingly inscrutable private detective.

The Tea Master and the Detective obviously took its inspiration from the tales of Sherlock Holmes, and the dynamics of the relationship between the characters are similar to how Holmes and Watson interact, albeit with more emphasis on their inner lives than on action. The Shadow's Child is astonished and disturbed by Long Chau's deductive skills and worried by her reliance on drugs, and Long Chau is not impressed by the shipmind's "guesswork". But in the end, it turns out that they need each other in order to solve the mystery.

I think this story could well become the first of a series of tales featuring the same protagonists, and I am sure it would find a welcoming and eager readership among people who enjoy both science fiction and detective novels.

The Citadel of Weeping Pearls 

by Aliette de Bodard

The Citadel of Weeping Pearls is the sequel to On a Red Station, Drifting, although it can also be read as a standalone novella. It is set in the "Xuya" Universe, which proposes an alternative historical setting in which Asian cultures, rather than Western ones, rose to become technologically dominant and forged empires in space. In this story, the galactic empire of Vietnam (Dai Viet) is ruled over by an aging empress.

The main plot revolves around the disappearance of an eminent scientist who was trying to find a citadel founded by a young rebellious princess which disappeared decades ago. The questions of where the citadel vanished to and whether it is possible to travel through time to find it in the “deep spaces” of the universe are also important strands of the story. The empire is facing invasion from outside by another spacefaring civilization, and the empress desires to locate the citadel so that she can acquire the use of the superior weaponry that she knows her estranged daughter, the Bright Princess, once possessed.

As in the first book, everything is set against a background of high technology and quasi-traditional Vietnamese culture, and the Linh (the protagonist of On a Red Station, Drifting) makes another appearance as a middle-aged advisor to the empress. We again encounter “mindships” and man-made living environments in space overseen by artificial intelligences. An added element in this work is time travel, and the author approaches this from an interesting angle, demonstrating in a rather tragic way why it is impossible for one of the characters to change the past, even though she seems to have managed to travel there successfully.

Both stories are very much about family ties and relationships and the complexities and implications of these. The Citadel of Weeping Pearls beautifully portrays the pain of loss and the memories we may have of those who are no longer with us. Everyone in the story is highly sensitive to the significance of family obligations concerning themselves, except for the principal male character who sometimes misunderstands the motives of others due to a lack of awareness in this area.

The book comes to a somewhat sudden conclusion after the central mystery is in a way resolved, and I found myself wishing that it was longer and also included the progress and outcome of the war against the invaders.

It is rather astonishing that the author has managed to create such a rich and internally consistent universe in only two novellas, and The Citadel of Weeping Pearls has really spurred me on to read the other related Xuya stories. The reflective and melancholy tone and convincingly imagined galactic Viet empire is both moving and engaging. And I think it is true that science fiction with a strong human element can be science fiction at its very best.

On a Red Station, Drifting 

by Aliette de Bodard

On a Red Station, Drifting is a novelette set in the "Xuya" Universe, which proposes an alternative historical setting in which Asian cultures, rather than Western ones, rose to become technologically dominant and forged empires in space.

In this story, Vietnam has become a galactic empire (Dai Viet) currently ruled over by a young and ineffectual emperor against whom warlords have rebelled resulting in an ongoing war which is badly depleting the resources in many of the areas still under imperial control.
The main events take place on the space station of Prosper, which seems to be located in an obscure backwater corner of the Dai Viet Empire. Quyen is mistress of the station and responsible for its administration, although her abilities are limited by her educational background, social standing, and lack of imagination.

The principal plot revolves around Mistress Quyen and Cousin Linh, a refugee and distant relative of the Prosper family group, who until recently had been Magistrate over a planet before fleeing due to the civil war. Since Linh is both a family member and a high-ranking official Quyen reluctantly allows her to board and live on Prosper, but the two women find it impossible to coexist harmoniously. Linh resents having her life controlled by a "provincial housewife", while Quyen views Linh as ungrateful and overbearing.

This personal conflict is set against a background of high technology and quasi-traditional Vietnamese culture, which is a fascinating and somewhat contradictory mixture. The concept of “mindships” and space-station living environments run by artificial intelligences reminded me a little of books like The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey.

Aliette de Bodard is a talented stylist who very successfully evokes sights, sounds and smells through a prose replete with cultural references, and I found this highly creative and engaging.
When I was browsing reviews before I decided to read this work, I noticed that an unfamiliarity with Asian cultures seems to have detracted from the enjoyment of some readers, and I think it is true that if the reader has some knowledge of Asian traditions they are likely to understand the story more readily. My long experience with Chinese culture may have helped with comprehending the motivations of the characters and certain underlying themes, and remembering names was not too difficult since in some cases there were obvious Chinese cognates.

Although the book did not draw me in right away, after about thirty pages or so I was hooked and am very glad I persevered with it. I am now looking forward to reading another work set in the same universe, The Citadel of Weeping Pearls.

There Will Be Time by Poul Anderson (1972)

As an infant Jack Havig learns that he can move through time at will, and later on an older version of himself warns him to hide that ability from other people. The story employs a traditional storytelling device by having it narrated through Havig’s childhood doctor, Robert Anderson, through whose eyes the reader gets to know the protagonist and watches him develop as a person.

The premise of the story encourages the reader to consider how life could or should be lived by an individual with such a gift. Of course, on the one hand time travel could be very useful in mapping out your personal future and avoiding danger. On the other hand, however, it could be highly unpredictable and hazardous too. And in what time and location could you hope to find other people with the same natural ability (assuming there are any), and why might you want to contact them? One obvious place (which has also been used by other writers of time-travel stories) might be First Century Jerusalem, especially around the supposed time of Jesus’ ministry and death.

The somewhat idealistic Havig hopes that fellow time travelers can unite to create a bright future for mankind, and he discovers that an organization apparently engaged in such a mission is already in operation. Alas, abuse of power is a powerful temptation, and prejudices and hatreds brought from the ages in which the individual travelers were born are not easily overcome. When Jack’s secret idyll which he creates in ancient Byzantium (which is beautifully and poignantly described, as it is in Anderson’s book The Boat of a Million Years) is ruthlessly and mercilessly destroyed by other members of the organization, he resolves to establish his own to counter their nefarious disregard for basic human decency.

The book employs time travel as a means to show that societies and political entities naturally develop and disintegrate, and that it is impossible for them to endure forever. The intelligence and perspicacity of the author as a thoughtful observer of human nature is also powerfully manifested in this work.

There Will Be Time is relatively short at less than 180 pages, but there is so much packed into it that it may give the impression of being longer. That it is probably one of Poul Anderson’s better works is evidenced by the fact that it was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1973.

Here are some passages which I particularly enjoyed:

The air was cold and smelled of earth. Birds twittered. “Beyond one or two hundred years back,” Havig once said to me, “the daytime sky is always full of wings.”

“If anything does change man,” he said, “it’s science and technology. Just think about the fact--while it lasts--that parents need not take for granted some of their babies will die. You get a completely different concept of what a child is.”

I’ve seen photographs which he took on different occasions, and can well imagine this scene. It was less gaudy than you may suppose, who live in an age of aniline dyes and fluorescents. Fabrics were subdued brown, gray, blue, cinnabar, and dusty.

“Give them their religion, make the priests cooperate, and you have them.”

I’ve seen what happens when you try to straitjacket man into an ideology.

Mortal combat corrupts, and war corrupts absolutely.

A man can do but little. Enough if that little be right.

Nature never has been in perfect balance--there are many more extinct species than live--and primitive man was quite as destructive as modern. He simply took longer to use up his environment. Probably Stone Age hunters exterminated the giant mammals of the Pleistocene. Certainly farmers with sickles and digging sticks wore out what started as the Fertile Crescent.

But there are no happy endings. There are no endings of any kind. At most, we are given happy moments.

“…our freedom lies in the unknown.”

Above everything else, perhaps, was today’s concept of working together. I don’t mean its totalitarian version, for which Jack Havig had total loathing, or that “togetherness,” be it in a corporation or a commune, which he despised. I mean an enlightened pragmatism that rejects self-appointed aristocrats, does not believe received doctrine is necessarily true, stands ready to hear and weigh what anyone has to offer, and maintains well-developed channels to carry all ideas to the leadership and back again.

The Man Who Folded Himself
by David Gerrold

This is, of course, a must-read for anyone who is seriously interested in time-travel fiction. It seems to include every convolution of time travel you can think of, and deals with it all very succinctly and convincingly. As such, it is seriously confusing in places, and the reader can clearly feel the protagonist's puzzlement and consternation. The time loops are fascinating and complex, and (in a similar to Heinlein's All You Zombies and By His Bootstraps) most of the characters turn out to be alternate versions of the same person. Published in the mid 1970s when it became possible to include more controversial views, the book is well-known for its introspective and positive treatment of homosexuality.

I find the style and "voice" in some respects somewhat similar to those of Heinlein, Silverberg and Niven, all of whom were writing during the same period and none of whom I am overly fond of. Of those three, I prefer Heinlein. I disliked Silverberg's Up the Line quite intensely. So while Gerrold's classic time-travel novel is interesting and possesses considerable depth, I cannot say that I really enjoyed it.

In addition, if the reader is hoping for a time-travel "adventure" with a clear storyline, this book will probably also fall short of the mark. Concerning those kinds of stories, Poul Anderson (Time Patrol), Jack Finney (Time and Again) or Jack McDeviit (Time Travelers Never Die) are much more representative.

Thunderbird by Jack McDevitt

Thunderbird (McDevitt) was a wonderful book, even better in my opinion than Ancient Shores (to which it is the sequel). Judging by reader reviews, however, many people evidently did not like it very much.

I have considered reasons for the negative reviews, and come up with the following possible explanations:
1. Neither Ancient Shores nor Thunderbird are particularly action-oriented, and Thunderbird arguably has the least action of the two.
2. Readers may have been hoping for more focus on the exploration of other worlds through the newly-discovered alien teleport system in the sequel, but the action remains tantalizingly limited and restrained. Precedence continues to be given to the reactions of ordinary citizens, the mass media and the government, as well as to the effects on the human psyche, rather than to adventures on other planets. But I did feel that the experiences at other locations in the universe were fascinating, and the final trip was suitably gripping as a climax.

I think Thunderbird will likely appeal more to those who enjoy relatively detailed and slow-moving stories, and to those who like thought-provoking and introspective science fiction. One of the attractions of both Ancient Shores and its sequel is that the humility and humanity of the author is evident in the narration and permeates the whole text. Thunderbird features a handicapped character who was based on Jack McDevitt’s own daughter, and becomes an integral part of the development of the story and its conclusion.

And the feelings of despondency naturally evoked by the ending are ultimately offset by a heartening development in the Epilogue.

In conclusion, I must say that I found Thunderbird to be a highly enjoyable and engrossing tale throughout and a worthy sequel to Ancient Shores.

Ancient Shores by Jack McDevitt

This 1996 novel by Jack McDevitt is an epic story of big ideas. The premise immediately captured my imagination. An alien artifact is found buried in North Dakota, and provides a clue which prompts the protagonists to excavate in another area where they uncover a portal leading to alien worlds. The first half of the book recounts the discovery and subsequent use of the portal and is permeated by a compelling sense of wonder, while at the same time being firmly grounded in a realistic setting. In the second half, the tension is maintained, but the focus is shifted to problems and conflicts caused by the psychological, social, economic and political ramifications of the world-changing find.

Readers who enjoy more action-oriented science fiction may find Ancient Shores a little slow, but I must say that I did not find it hard-going or plodding at any point, and I was always eager to get back to my reading of it.

As the plot builds to its climax, there are some slightly unlikely occurrences, but I am not inclined to find fault with these since they are, on the whole, woven seamlessly into a sufficiently strong story.

McDevitt writes quite succinctly, expresses all main points clearly, and succeeds in producing a modern story infused throughout with a Golden-Age ambience. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I am now tempted to move directly on to reading the sequel, Thunderbird, which was published nearly twenty years later in 2015.

Star Well by Alexei Panshin

First of all, if the reader expects another novel like Panshin’s Rite of Passage, Star Well may cause some disappointment, since this book is very different in content and style.

Some reviewers have described Star Well as a “comedy of manners”, something like a Jane Austen novel set in a future space-faring civilization or like a less overtly ludicrous The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I wonder if Douglas Adams ever read it, as there are certain similarities in the style of the narration. The narrator has definite opinions, and often expresses them with mild sarcasm. A similar feature to Rite of Passage may be found in the pithy and often humorous observations about the nature of life, the universe and society.

The protagonist, Anthony Villiers, is a very likable, mild-mannered gentleman with hidden depths. I identified with him because he loves books and has a tendency to walk about in public absorbed in reading (which can at times also provide Villiers with an excuse for ending up where he is not supposed to be), something I used to do frequently in my younger days. He is evidently practiced at searching antiquarian book sellers, which makes him a man after my own heart. The observation of the narrator that physical books never lost their popularity because nothing else of similar usefulness and portability could be invented to replace them has of course in our day to an extent been invalidated by the capacity of devices like mobile phones to store and display thousands of different texts, which you could conceivably become immersed in while navigating thoroughfares on foot.

Villiers’ invariably polite but highly intelligent and strategically witty conversational responses are one of the most amusing aspects of the story. The reader gradually realizes that there is more to this man than at first meets the eye, but you never really get a handle on exactly how ingenuous or calculating he really is.

And this brings us to Torve the Trog. I must admit that I chose to read this book on the basis of a fascination with this name and its promise of an unforgettable character. Torve is a book-loving alien who looks something like a man-sized furry toad, and he has a view of reality which is at variance with that of the humans around him, including Villiers, who apparently finds the Trog’s ideas impossible to comprehend. Torve’s central belief (which he maintains is a wholly scientific and self-evident fact, although others misunderstand it as being philosophical or religious in nature) is that causality does not exist, and that apparent links between events are simply coincidental interconnected “lines of occurrence” which may be either pleasingly serendipitous or discouragingly infelicitous. Denying causality might seem rather dangerous, but it works for Torve, who even seems able to use his method to predict how matters will turn out. Villiers claims to be non-plussed by all this, but I get the feeling that he understands more than he admits, and this way of thinking actually benefits him and gives him uncommon insight into events. However, I stress to add that this could just be my interpretation and may not have been the intention of the author.

In summary, Star Well is a light science fiction novel which is both quick and fun to read. The plot is adequate but rather basic and predictable. The most memorable aspects are arguably the quotable passages of narration and the witticisms. Here are some of them:

“Power does corrupt. Total personal honesty is a myth. Secret wrong righting is a make-believe game for children to toy with.”

“When you wish to insult a man — the Cut Direct. When you wish to snub a man — the Cut Indirect. The Studied Insult, the Pertinent Reflection — to be overheard, of course — even the smiles available for twelve separate effects.”

“You can take it as an axiom: celebrities who travel meet only fools, creeps, panhandlers, and climbers. People they would truly like to meet never have the bad taste to present themselves. The quality that makes them worth meeting automatically determines they will never be met.”

“While he lied little, he was excellent at being oblique.”

“It is a pity that the game of hare and hounds should suffer from savage rabbits and hen-hearted hounds, but if the world was as it ought to be we would all be playing wooden whistles and eating bananas in Eden, as my mother used to say.”

“Perhaps, if our minds were trained to accept the idea and our language permitted, it would be altogether better not to believe in causality.”

“Duels aren’t fair if the wrong people win them.”

“Look at him: Hisan Bashir Shirabi, a man near the end of the line. Purple robes, dark face, sharp nose, black mustache. Everything for total menace except the element of presence.”

Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin

Mia Havero was born on one of the seven great starships constructed from hollowed-out asteroids, originally intended to transport colonists from Earth to more than one hundred colony worlds. But then the people of Earth destroyed their own planet, and the survivors among mankind are now scattered among these colonies, with the Ships continuously traveling between them, trading technical knowledge for raw materials. When teenage inhabitants of these vessels reach the age of fourteen, they undergo Trial, which involves being abandoned on one of the colony worlds to fend for themselves for a month without any contact with their respective Ships. They are given comprehensive training in the months before they leave and are provided with a small amount of survival gear. But since the colony worlds can be dangerous, a small percentage of these young people do not survive. This loss helps to keep the strictly-controlled population within safe limits while weeding out those who may be less fit for survival. Those who do return are granted full rights as adults, hence the title Rite of Passage.

The first half of the book does not contain much in the way of adventure. It is a description of the everyday life of Mia, a young girl living on one of the Ships, told from her perspective and replete with her opinions and musings. Mia tells us about the culture and prejudices of those who live alongside her, and she shares the views of her influential father on most issues. Many of Mia’s experiences are common to all young people everywhere. The only hints of adventure in this part of the book are a dangerous exploration of the ventilation system in an unfamiliar part of the Ship, and the ‘borrowing’ of spacesuits to conduct a potentially fatal spacewalk on the exterior of the asteroid which encases the Ship.

Although Mia seems to make up her mind very easily about the relative values of philosophical systems, she really only has a very superficial grasp of the complexities of these ideas, and many obvious questions do not even occur to her until during and after her period of Trial. In this way, the book realistically portrays the confidence and the folly of youth. The second half of the book is much more action-packed, and describes Mia’s period of Trial on a particularly unfriendly colony planet.

Moral and ethical questions which seemed clear-cut to Mia before Trial, now appear much more complicated, and when some of these issues are discussed openly by a Ship’s Assembly in the final part of the story, Mia is forced by her newly-acquired convictions to take a stand diametrically opposite to that of her father.

Some of most thought-provoking content consists of Mia’s musings on the nature of things. Here are some direct quotes from the book:

"I don't like the idea of people who don't sing to themselves when they're all alone. They're too sober for me. At least hum-- anybody can do that."

"The truth is, I guess, I just find it easier to cope with things than with people."

"It doesn’t hurt to like the inevitable."

"I had never realized before that adventures took so much doing, so much preparation and so much cleaning up afterward. That’s something you don’t see in stories. Who buys the food and cooks it, washes the dishes, minds the baby, to swing from, blows fanfares, polishes medals, and dies beautifully, all so that the hero can be a hero? Who finances him? I’m not saying I don’t believe in heroes — I’m just saying that they are either parasites or they spend the bulk of their time in making their little adventures possible, not in enjoying them."

"The trouble with stoicism, it seems to me, is that it is a soporific. It affirms the status quo and thereby puts an end to all ambition, all change. It says, as Christianity did a thousand years ago, that kings should be kings and slaves should be slaves, and it seems to me that that is a philosophy infinitely more attractive to the king than the slave."

"Whether or not your actions are determined, you have to act on the assumption that you have free will. If you are determined, your attempt at free will loses you nothing. However, if you are not determined and you act on the assumption that you are, you will never attempt anything. You will simply be a passive blob that things happen to."

"I believe in judging people by their faces, myself. A man can’t help the face he owns, but he can help the expression he wears on it. If a man looks mean, I generally believe he is unless I have reason to change my mind."

"Maturity is the ability to sort the portions of truth from the accepted lies and self-deceptions that you have grown up with. "

"I've always wondered what it would be like to be a spear carrier in somebody else's story. A spear carrier is somebody who stands in the hall when Caesar passes, comes to attention and thumps his spear. A spear carrier is the anonymous character cut down by the hero as he advances to save the menaced heroine. A spear carrier is a character put in a story to be used like a piece of disposable tissue. . . . The trouble is that each of us is his own hero, existing in a world of spear carriers. We take no joy in being used and discarded. "


"If I had the opportunity, I would make the proposal that no man should be killed except by somebody who knows him well enough for the act to have impact. No death should be like nose blowing. Death is important enough that it should affect the person who causes it."

"If you meet life squarely, you are likely to make mistakes, do things you wish you hadn't, say things you wish you could retract or phrase more felicitously, and, in short, fumble your way along. Those "mature" people whose lives are even without a single sour note or a single mistake, who never fumble, manage only at the cost of original thought and original action. They do without the successes as well as the failures."

I think this book would have been viewed as considerably unconventional when it was first published in 1968, and that is partly why it won a Nebula Award for Best Novel and was nominated for a Hugo. It is a very well-written and structured piece of work which still contains much of relevance for readers today, and it clearly has a unique place among science fiction coming-of-age stories.

Star Ka’at by Andre Norton, Dorothy Madlee

Andre Norton wrote many science fiction books about cats and other animals, and as the title and cover suggest, this is one of them. However, the Star Ka’at Series is for a younger audience than most of her works, and I think would probably be enjoyed most by people between 10 and 12 years of age. This book was first published in 1976.

The basic idea fueling the plot is that terrestrial cats are the descendants of a telepathic star-faring race of beings called Ka’ats who visited and settled on Earth in the distant past. At first, mankind could communicate with these alien visitors and respected them as equals (hence the ancient Egyptian obsession with cats), but this gradually changed as human civilization developed. Over countless generations, most of the Ka’ats on Earth lost their original sentience and became cats, but some still retain traces of their former powers.

The extraterrestrial Ka’at civilization has learned that humanity is about to destroy itself through greed and selfishness, and so embarks on a mission to rescue any earthly cats who can still respond to their call. The Ka’at operatives are commanded not under any circumstances to forge close connections with any humans, as this species is seen as too capricious and unreliable. The rescue operation seems set to run smoothly until a couple of the Ka’at scouts encounter two orphaned children who have the ability to respond to their telepathic messages. This presents the two scouts with a thorny ethical dilemma and potentially threatens the success of their whole mission.

This story is definitely well-suited to the age-group for which it is intended. The characterizations are generally good, and the descriptions of the children’s thoughts and feelings are quite convincing. Although they are both orphans, they come from widely different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, and this situation is realistically reflected in the ways they think about the world and their places in it.

Themes and undercurrents related to environmental protection and stewardship responsibility for the planet run through quite a few of Andre Norton’s books, and this story may help young readers to become more aware of related issues.

Adult readers will find this a simple story and a quick read. While I think people of any age could enjoy it, those of the intended target group may especially be interested in the creative concepts, unfamiliar vocabulary, and the notion of super-intelligent talking cats from another planet! And the detailed and attractive pencil illustrations throughout the book will likely be appreciated by young and old alike.

The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner

This highly prescient novel by the British author John Brunner was published in 1975. Although by this time computer viruses were becoming a reality, I think that Brunner may have been the first to show the amount of disruption that a skilled hacker might achieve. He may also have been the one who coined the term "worm" to describe a malicious program infecting a network.

Some reviewers have not found the plot and the characterizations found in this book to be wholly satisfying, but I do not feel inclined to criticize either. The story starts off a little slowly (perhaps by design), but it soon becomes engrossing. The true character of the protagonist (Nick Haflinger) becomes gradually clearer, especially after he is able to throw off his false identities and embark upon a journey of self-discovery, but I felt that the main female character encapsulated the soul of the story.

As others have pointed out, Brunner took certain ideas which were circulating at the time and made them accessible in the form of a novel. One of these was the realization that technological advancement may become problematic if it outpaces the speed at which people can adapt socially and psychologically. It may be argued that the effects of this phenomenon are being experienced today, perhaps making this book even more relevant today than it was in the seventies.

The Shockwave Rider is a very well-written piece of work, and there are many memorable and quotable passages in it. To conclude, I have selected some of the ones which particularly resonated with me, and which I highlighted while I was reading.


There are two kinds of fools. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, "This is new, and therefore better."

Ah, you don't have to know everything. You just have to know where to find it.

...from the patronizing stage to the persecuting stage has always been a very short step.

But they don’t compel where they can persuade. They're not stupid. They're aware that one volunteer working his guts out on their behalf is worth a score of reluctant conscripts.

One needs solid perceptual food same as one needs solid nutriment; without it, you die of bulk-hunger.

In this age of unprecedented information flow, people are haunted by the belief they're actually ignorant.

If there is such a phenomenon as absolute evil, it consists in treating another human being as a thing.

The way to go faster is to slow down.

While Triceratops sported his triple horns, while Diplodocus waved his graceful tail, something without a name was stealing their tomorrow.

In an age when we have more choice than ever before, more mobility, more information, more opportunity to fulfill ourselves, how is it that people can prefer to be identical?

You don't have to live by logic. You're wise. And that can transcend logic.

Governments rely on threat and trauma to survive. The easiest populace to rule is weak, poor, superstitious, preferably terrified of what tomorrow may bring.

...the history of liberty. It's the story of how principle has gradually been elevated above the whim of tyrants.

AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU YOU

Sargasso of Space by Andre Norton

This is a well-paced adventure with a mystery to solve.

The crew of the Solar Queen, a free-trader starship, buys commercial rights to a distant world at an auction. At first, they are disappointed to learn that the planet is just a war-ravaged remnant of what it once was, but after arriving there they find much more than they had bargained for.

The story is well written and quite absorbing, but it does not possess much introspective depth. Characterization of crew members is also a little bland, although descriptions of their different personalities are distinct enough. There are no female characters, and even the shipboard cat (Sinbad) is male. The book was originally published under the pseudonym "Andrew North".

It has a couple of elements which I really like, such as a planet with ancient advanced technology left behind by a vanished alien race, and a graveyard of crashed spaceships, some of which are at least centuries old. I found the archaeological aspect intriguing, along with the idea that the geometry and colors of "Forerunner" buildings and structures cause human observers to feel considerable unease.

Although some of the equipment used by the crew seems primitive by today's standards (for example, their communications devices and perhaps even the shape of the spacecraft), these details are not hard to forgive considering that this story was first published in 1955. I enjoyed the explanation of the dangers of hyperspace travel, and I certainly think that there are plenty of other fascinating ideas and descriptions in this work to keep the reader engaged.

Daybreak 2250AD by Andre Norton

Daybreak 2250AD was originally published as Starman's Son in 1952, and was one of the early published works that launched Norton’s career lasting half a century.

This is a seminal example of a story set some time after a nuclear holocaust, and is a solid and well-written piece of pulp fiction.
At the time, the Cold War terrified people with the prospect of nuclear annihilation, so the subject of this novel would certainly have been something that was on the minds of the American public.
Humans have reverted to non-technical tribal societies, and while they are hostile to each other, they also have a common enemy in the mutant Beast Things which inhabit the ruined cities.

The hero, Fors, also has certain strange physical traits and abilities (explained as the effects of radiation), and since he is not truly accepted by his own mountain people, he decides to leave for the wild world outside where he intends to fulfill his late father's ambition to find an as-yet undiscovered ruined city. Fors is fascinated by the technology which the ancestors possessed and hopes to learn more about it from the artifacts he may uncover. Like other works by Norton, the main character has a telepathic link to a feline companion.

Norton was ahead of her time in using her science fiction to address racial issues in an age before the American civil rights movement got fully underway, as well as to examine what it means to be 'normal'. The protagonist encounters a man from a dark-skinned tribe who shows himself to be at least the equal of Fors in both strength and intelligence.

Although this is in many ways a traditional tale of adventure in which many highly unlikely coincidences occur in order to keep the heroes alive, this may be part of what makes it a compelling read. The story ends on an optimistic but predictable note.

Catseye by Andre Norton

This is the first book by Andre Norton I have read, and it was certainly intriguing.

Catseye is classed as Juvenile or Young Adult fiction, and it is a coming-of-age story about a young man named Troy Horan who is an orphan living in ghetto for subcitizens on an alien planet.
Young people may relate to Troy's thoughts on how to carve out a place for himself in the world. He manages to secure employment in a business selling offworld animals as pets, and he hopes to pursue a career there. But the chance discovery that he shares a telepathic link with certain animals imported from Earth derail his plans and turn him into a fugitive on the run from both the law and certain dangerous underworld figures.

Fleeing into the wild with five animals, Troy eventually enters a maze of subterranean tunnels under the remains of an ancient alien city where a scientific expedition was previously lost under mysterious and frightening circumstances. This part of the story reminded me a little of At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft. Through all the danger and uncertainty, Troy is able to find a measure of true companionship with his animal friends, even though these look, think and feel differently than he does.

This novel was written in 1961, around sixty years ago, but clearly advocates the protection of the natural world and its resources. It also shows the need to be honorable in dealings with others, while maintaining a healthy wariness of their possibly sinister motives. Another theme which is emphasized is how wars and political machinations often selfishly set the wants of the few over the needs and rights of the many. Although Catseye is written in the style of an action adventure and thriller, all of the above elements are woven into a memorable narrative set in a convincingly realistic fictional society.

I think that a couple of complaints could be that the characters except for the protagonist are not very three-dimensional, and the expectations created by suggestive occurrences in the passages beneath the abandoned alien city are not brought to an entirely satisfying conclusion, but apart from these possible weaknesses the story is told in a competent and engaging manner.

I will certainly go on to read more books by Andre Norton.

Superluminal

by Vonda N. McIntyre

"She gave up her heart quite willingly" is the arresting first line of Superluminal.

Figuratively? Literally? Or both?

This novel has three protagonists who seem equally important to the story. Laenea Trevelyan has submitted to physical alterations in order to pilot starships at superluminal speeds safely. Ordinary crew members must remain in a drug-induced sleep during transit in order to survive, and waking up prematurely means certain death. Laenea is anxious to embark on her first training flight so that she can experience for herself what no pilot has ever been able or willing to explain to any outsiders.

Radu Dracul is a crew member who accidentally regains consciousness during faster-than-light travel, but who suffers no ill effects. He eventually discovers he can even perceive dimensions which are closed to most pilots, and this deepens his special relationship with Laenea.

Another crew member, Orca, is a "diver", a genetically modified human who is most at home in the ocean with her killer-whale "cousins".

As the plot unfolds, the adventures of these well-drawn characters take them to the end of the universe and among the wise denizens of the oceans, and they begin to discern that these seemingly largely dissimilar realms may in fact be closely connected with each other.

The story is not as tightly plotted as McIntyre's The Exile Waiting, which packed a huge amount of detail into just over two hundred pages. Superluminal moves at a relatively slow place in parts, but this may be in keeping with the more transcendent subject matter.

An overall theme would seem to be the limitations of language to express the unique experiences of individuals, although by the end of the book at least partial solutions to this difficulty are entering within the range of possibility.

The narrative ends quite abruptly, and the fact that many of the fascinating ideas introduced are never fully explored may disappoint some readers. The author could certainly have extended this novel or written a sequel, but she did not do so. In some ways, it might be more poignant to leave to our imaginations the eventual fates of the characters. 

The Exile Waiting

by Vonda N. McIntyre

Like many good books, I think The Exile Waiting can be read on different levels. If I was still in my teens, I would probably feel that it is simply an engaging post-apocalyptic adventure story. More mature readers, though, will likely identify the complex web of dysfunctional and tragic relationships as what stands out most clearly. And it is these relationships which power much of the story.

The Exile Waiting (1975) is set in the same world as Dreamsnake (1978), but cannot really be considered a prequel. The characters are all different and the stories are unrelated, although there are points of convergence. In Dreamsnake, the people who have to fend for themselves in the outside world seem to imagine the inhabitants of Center (an enclosed enclave, and supposedly the last bastion of civilization remaining after a global nuclear war) as enjoying a high standard of living and technology, but in The Exile Waiting we see that in some ways they suffer more than their outdoor counterparts. In Dreamsnake, tunnels behind certain desert caves in which cave panthers dwell are thought to lead into Center, and these dark galleries beneath the city are the focus for some of the most important events in The Exile Waiting. Similar to Dreamsnake, this novel also features a strong female lead character, in this case a determined young girl named Mischa.

The overarching theme of the book seems to be how people react and behave under various forms of slavery. Some of the characters are bound in physical slavery, and some are controlled by manipulative individuals or by their own fears and vices. One is dependent on a certain kind of drug. Prejudice and mistreatment due to perceived differences or disabilities is another theme, and Mischa has to conceal carefully the way in which she is different from the others around her. Eventually, many of those who on the surface appear strongest prove to be weak, and those considered the weakest triumph through their reserves of inner strength and their willingness to learn and adapt.

The above description probably sounds somewhat grim and depressing, but I found the novel quite uplifting. Other reviewers have identified certain details they see as weaknesses in the plot, but I did not even notice these and they did not affect my enjoyment in any way. I think this work is at least as good as Dreamsnake, although I would not like to choose between the two books. After finishing The Exile Waiting, the reader can also ponder on the meaning of the title.

Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre

Vonda N. McIntyre wrote books with well-developed female characters at a time when they were relatively uncommon in science fiction literature. I think you would be hard-pressed to find another novel from the 1970s which features a stronger female lead role. And Snake is no cliched Amazon warrior woman. In fact, she is quite the opposite, since she eschews violence whenever possible on principle. Rather, Snake is a healer, and is described with all the nuances and contradictions that a complete human being should have.

The worldbuilding in this post-apocalyptic story is superb, which is surprising if you consider how little we are told about it by the author. There are no tedious information dumps masquerading as conversations, and everything about the history and state of the world is achieved through well-timed hints and oblique references. The landscape of the semi-desert environment is described in sumptuous detail, but this is seamlessly merged into the lyrical and fast-paced narrative so that the reader absorbs the atmosphere effortlessly. The author evidently devoted considerable effort to developing the emotional identities of her principal characters, since the novel possesses a strongly introspective element which adds a satisfying dimension of depth and meaning.

Since Snake is a practitioner of medicine in a world which has in many ways returned to primitive conditions, and probably due to the need for sufficiently powerful and convincing scenarios to drive the plot forward, some of the descriptions of medical conditions and procedures may be disconcerting to more squeamish readers. Also, this may not be the ideal book for people who suffer from herpetophobia, unless they are actively seeking to overcome the condition. While reading the first third of the novel, I was impressed by the author's ability to make me feel quite an intense level of concern about the fate of one particular snake, which I think is quite an achievement in itself.

Dreamsnake works well on several levels, not least as a tightly-plotted mystery and adventure story which culminates in a gratifying climax. For me, the whole work was suffused with a surreal quality which evoked an engaging sense of wonder.

Barbary by Vonda N. McIntyre

Since I have been reading science fiction literature related to cats lately, I thought I would have a look at this classic story from the 1980s.

This is a work of children's/young-adult fiction, so more mature readers may feel that the content is a little lacking in depth. It is a relatively short book, and the writing style of the author makes it engaging and very easy to read.

The main plotline is about a twelve-year-old girl who smuggles a cat onto a space station, while a first-contact subplot unfolds in the background.

The characters are well developed and realistic, and there are women in positions of influence in science and government. The young people (Barbary and Heather) care about the kinds of things you would expect. Thus, while the attention of the adults in the story is firmly fixed on the alien craft swiftly approaching the space station, the two girls are more concerned with the activities of Mickey the cat.

Although this book was written in the relatively recent 1980s (which I remember well), there are aspects which make it feel dated. Firstly, the spaceport security is frighteningly lax, which marks this as a pre-911 work of fiction. Secondly, although the girls interact with talking computers, there are none of the handheld devices which now rule the lives of many people.

Despite those excusable divergences from our reality, the ways in which the laws of physics affect life on a space station are described very convincingly, and are more detailed and accurate than the depictions in many novels written for more mature audiences. Vonda McIntyre's Barbary would undoubtedly be a good introduction to hard science fiction for young people. In addition, the aliens are also quite believable and certainly not of the stereotypical little-green-man kind.

I am sure that if I had read this book as a child, I would have thoroughly enjoyed it. As an adult and regular reader of science fiction, I still found it satisfying. So much so, in fact, that I have gone on without delay to read the award-winning novel Dreamsnake by the same author.

Beginning Operations
(Sector General #1-3)
by James White

I was looking forward to reading this book because I had very much enjoyed a couple of the later works of this author. However, Beginning Operations (which is an omnibus of the first three Sector General novels) did not quite live up to my expectations.
This is classic science fiction from the 1960s, but with a rare pacifist message.

The book is really a series of short stories or vignettes which unfold in the setting of the same massive galactic hospital.
While the content is very imaginative and positive, it certainly has a dated feel to it.

James White proved that he had a fertile imagination through the aliens he envisaged, who are certainly not of the Roswell kind. He described oxygen, chlorine, and methane breathers, and the many strange shapes and sizes of those from planets with wildly different environments and gravitational strengths. There are even some who need hard radiation to survive, and like to bathe in the heat of atomic furnaces.

However, it will probably be noted that the author failed to predict technologies and attitudes of the coming decades. For example, despite the many widely differing environments on the hospital station, many of which would be instantly lethal to a being unsuited to them, people can simply walk in and out through the airlocks without any security measures like ID cards or passwords. For this reason, a runaway shape-changing alien is able cause havoc on the station. Also, the staff do not carry portable communicators, and have to rush to the nearest wall unit to answer urgent messages.
All the doctors and administrators seem to be male, while the nurses who get ordered around are female and sometimes objects of desire. At one point, the protagonist's superior states that misogyny is an allowable neurosis. So, while some elements of the story may be considered groundbreaking, in other ways it is very much a work of its time.

Although this is pacifist literature in an age dominated by military science fiction, and features many species of aliens all working together toward a common objective, the way that humans sometimes refer to their alien colleagues and patients is less than flattering, and seems to imply an overall sense of human superiority. Some of the medical cases are quite interesting, but the minimal character development can sometimes make the stories feel a little flat and unengaging.

I would, however, highly recommend other works by this author. All Judgement Fled (1968) is in some ways similar to Hospital Station, but has more complex and convincing characters and a more interesting plot. The Silent Stars Go By (1991) shows a far greater level of maturity, and is probably his best work.

A Beautiful Friendship

(Honorverse: Stephanie Harrington #1)
by David Weber

A Beautiful Friendship is a revision and expansion of a novella published in 1998. It is a work of young adult fiction by an author who usually specializes in more mature military science fiction.
The Manticore star system has only been colonized by humans for a short time, and twelve-year-old Stephanie Harrington has moved there with her parents. The planet Sphinx has seasons lasting several terrestrial years, high gravity, a coldish climate, unfamiliar flora and fauna, and few human settlers.

Stephanie's parents forbid her to explore the bush on her own, since dangerous creatures roam the areas unfrequented by humans. But precocious Stephanie is determined to investigate a mystery that piques her curiosity, and this leads her to discover a hitherto unknown sentient species. The first treecat Stephanie meets forges an empathic bond with her, and this semi-telepathic link is what drives many of the plot elements as the novel progresses.

Of course, the discovery of a tool-using sentient species on Sphinx threatens certain business interests and investments. In addition, a greedy pet dealer arrives from outside the Manticore system because he sees the potential for huge profits from the capture and sale of treecats.

A Beautiful Friendship is a competently written and readable book, but I fear some of the young adults it is aimed at would not appreciate all of the lengthy conversations and infodumps which the reader has to plow through. The impression left in my mind is of a book which has a couple of very engaging high points separated by much more tedious sections. The best part is undoubtedly Stephanie's second meeting with the treecat Climbs Quickly (Lionheart), at which their friendship is cemented in a dramatic and moving way.

 

The description of treecat culture and society is also very imaginative. I found the defeat of the unscrupulous dealer in the final part entertaining but somewhat cliched and predictable. Overall, A Beautiful Friendship was enjoyable and memorable, but not to the point that I feel compelled to go on to read the sequels.

The Uplift War

(The Uplift Saga #3)

by David Brin

The senior races which make up Galactic civilization are engaged in a dangerous struggle for power, which is accumulated by becoming patrons of client races, uplifting them to sentience and thereafter binding them in servitude for many thousands of years before permitting them to exist in their own right. Some of these senior patron races are highly displeased when human 'wolflings' appear on the scene and in no time at all acquire two clients of their own, dolphins and chimpanzees. To make matters worse, these upstart humans apparently bootstrapped themselves into sentience, something which is considered impossible by all Galactic races.

The title of the book may lead some to imagine that this is a work of military science fiction, but that would be an incorrect assumption. So, what war is referred to here? Firstly, there is the general warring between the Galactics for status and the right to uplift other races, and then there is the specific war which becomes the focus of this story. This is the conflict between the avian Gubru and humans who have been granted a charter to care for the ecology of a backwater planet named Garth. The Gubru intend to employ superior military force and their detailed knowledge of Galactic Law to demonstrate that humans are not qualified to serve as a patron race to the sentient chimps, and they are prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to take those clients and the planet Garth away from mankind. So, while it is true that certain battles are described in some detail, the overall emphasis is always on the process and implications of Uplift rather than on military technology and strategy.

One of the strengths of Startide Rising and its sequel The Uplift War is the outstanding quality of David Brin’s world-building. Each alien race has its own rich culture, thought patterns and foibles. They all find it almost impossible to comprehend one another. One of the few alien civilizations which is openly friendly to humanity is that of the Tymbrimi, who are known for their highly-developed and rather wicked sense of humor. And since the narrative alternates between several protagonists, we get to view what is happening through alien eyes, as well as through those of humans and uplifted chimps.

A reader expecting this book to answer the questions raised in Startide Rising regarding the Dolphin starship Streaker and the ancient derelict fleet it discovered may well feel somewhat disappointed. I think it is natural to hope that a sequel would provide more information on the mythical progenitors, which patron race originally uplifted humanity, and why they disappeared. However, David Brin fails to do the obvious by satisfying the reader's curiosity on those points, and perhaps this in a sense makes the story more realistic.

There is a lot of science in this book, and some of the fields drawn on include linguistics, biology, chemistry, and environmental science. Although it certainly contains many fantastic elements, The Uplift War can still be considered hard science fiction because many of the plot drivers involve plausible scientific and technological developments.

One main theme seems to be this: In the same way that humans consider themselves vastly superior to animals, the Galactic patron races consider themselves infinitely more advanced than humans and client races. However, throughout The Uplift War, we see that all walk a fine line between rational behavior on the one hand and purely instinctive responses to situations on the other. In Startide Rising, we saw how the senior patron races of the Soro and the Tandu frequently act in vicious and animalistic ways, and how many of these Galactics are tainted by religious fanaticism. Now, in the sequel we see how the Gubru are almost completely bound by convention, ritual and genetic programming. Readers can draw their own conclusions from this, but what the author intended is hinted at in a postscript at the end of the book.

Startide Rising

(The Uplift Saga #2)

by David Brin

Startide Rising won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and after reading it I am inclined to agree that it deserved them. This is a hard science fiction space opera which manages to be action-packed and thought-provoking at the same time. The premise is one of the most original I have encountered in my reading of science fiction literature. There are sentient species scattered across the Galaxy, and some believe that all life originates with the mythical Progenitors. When races reach a certain level of development, they are entitled to 'uplift' other species which are on the verge of sentience through genetic engineering. The survey spaceship Streaker, with a crew of humans and uplifted dolphins, makes an unexpected discovery during its trial mission, and is then pursued by hostile aliens and forced to hide on the ocean world of Kithrup. The tale is about how humans and their dolphin clients work to outwit their foes and make their escape so that they can deliver the details of their discovery to those who will handle it properly.


When I first began to read about dolphins piloting a spaceship, I was doubtful if I would be able to maintain the suspension of belief required past the first few chapters. However, I was quickly convinced by the vivid and believable descriptions of the interactions between humans and their uplifted clients, and by the intriguing plotline. Although it was written in the 1980s, the technologies envisaged do not seem in the least dated. The dolphins have their own culture, logic, and poetry, and these add depth and realism to the story. In short, David Brin was able to take an idea which seems ridiculous on the surface and turn it into a classic of science fiction by creating an immersive world complete with history and philosophies. The only minor flaw might be that since the story is told from the point of view of many different individuals rather than a single narrator, character development seems to have suffered slightly. In addition, if the reader prefers more action-oriented traditional space operas, parts of Startide Rising may seem a little sluggish. For me, though, the tempo was just right, and I found it to contain the perfect blend of action and rumination.

The Practice Effect by David Brin

David Brin has made his name writing hard science fiction, but this earlier work (1984) is one of his softer pieces.

The premise of a new world which has slightly different physical laws from Earth, and how those laws affect everyday life, is fascinating. However, the reader should not expect any great depth of insight from this novel, since is it written in the manner of a nonstop action adventure. It is highly readable in the manner of pulp fiction like Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, and science fiction is mixed with traditional fantasy elements such as castles, dungeons, an imprisoned princess who needs rescuing, and an calculating baron who wants to take over the world.

The storytelling is engaging, but the characters could perhaps have been developed more fully and the central concept explored in more depth. But on the other hand, it is evident that Brin was not aiming for any great profoundness of meaning when he wrote this work, since a light-hearted humor permeates the whole book.

Although it is an action adventure, it reads more like science fiction than fantasy, and Brin provides a scientific explanation (albeit not a very convincing one) for everything at the end of the novel.

For me it was a light but thoroughly enjoyable read.

The Boat of a Million Years

by Poul Anderson

With its theme of immortality and its sheer breadth of vision, this reminded me somewhat of Charles Sheffield's Tomorrow and Tomorrow. However, in other ways it is a very different creature. While Sheffield's immortality is achieved through storing consciousness by artificial means, the characters in this work by Poul Anderson seem determined to preserve the intactness of their humanity, even when it eventually makes them misfits among their own species.

The greater portion of the book concentrates on the efforts of several ageless characters to survive through the centuries. Various places and times in antiquity are beautifully recreated, and the real power and depth of the story lies in its rich undercurrents of history and mythology. Anderson is very clever in that he weaves detailed information throughout the text without affecting the flow of the narrative. The lyricism of the writing just carries the reader along.

The characterization is excellent, and although the names of the main players change at various points (ageless people must constantly change their identities in order not to arouse suspicion), the reader can often intuitively determine who individuals are from their personalities.

I do think that the story weakened a little after the viewpoint changed to the future of mankind. One reason for this might be that the main characters seem to become overly concerned with petty personal squabbles. One could argue, though, that Anderson was implying that even people who had lived for millennia may still find it hard to transcend selfish inclinations and view life from a broader perspective all of the time. This may be an inherent part of the humanity that the ageless ones are loath to relinquish.

As with all great literature, the reader will remember for a long time to come not just the story but also the reading experience itself.

Sherlock Holmes : The Ultimate Collection

by Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle was certainly an excellent storyteller. The atmosphere of Victorian England is wonderfully evoked through his tales. Despite the fact that the solutions to some of the cases may sometimes be a little unsatisfying, the initial mysteries keep the reader fully engaged, and it is hard to abandon the reading of any story once you start. Holmes is an intriguing character in that he possesses uncommon insights into human nature while almost completely eschewing every form of social contact. He rarely goes out except on professional business, and is usually immersed in old books or scientific experiments in his bachelor flat. Perhaps for this reason, Watson, while in awe of his friend's powerful intellect, seems quite protective of him at times. (Today, psychologists would probably assign Holmes a place on the autism spectrum).

Something I found interesting is that in Arthur Conan Doyle's stories Holmes' ideas are not always correct. Although his reasoning is always solidly based on the known facts, occasionally his theories prove to be wrong, or he is unable to assist the police to apprehend criminals (examples are the cases of The Yellow Face and The Engineer's Thumb). I actually welcomed this as making the character more realistic and human. The story of The Three Students, on the other hand, is a good instance of where Holmes possesses enough of the facts to arrive at wholly correct conclusions using his deductive method. Other cases, such as The Stock-Broker's Clerk, require that Holmes actually be present while events unfold and the truth is gradually revealed. Thus, while on the surface the stories may seem to progress in a similar manner to each other, in fact the details and the processes involved in bringing the cases to their conclusions can be very different.

I would definitely recommend that people who are only familiar with the TV or film versions of Sherlock Holmes read at least some of the original stories for themselves, since these allow the reader to discern more clearly how the author intended this rich and complex character to be understood.

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: War of the Worlds by Manly Wade Wellman, Wade Wellman

This is a pastiche crossover novel featuring Arthur Conan Doyle's two characters Sherlock Holmes and Professor Challenger, and H.G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds. The stories within were published separately in magazines in the late 1960s, and were afterwards brought together into this single volume in 1975. The stories work well together because they recount the same events from three different perspectives, namely those of Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger and Doctor Watson. Eventually, these three come together to deal with the alien menace.

I was prepared to be disappointed when I started this book. However, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the execution. Although the story intentionally departs from some of what Doyle and Wells wrote, this is done in a way that makes the reader feel like they are gaining insights into previously undisclosed details regarding what occurred during the alien invasion. Having said that, I thought the Holmes character was a little weaker than the other two, and I am pretty sure Sherlock Holmes purists would find him a little hard to swallow.

If the reader comes to this novel without any knowledge of the stories it is based on, they will probably miss many of the finer points. It would therefore be a good idea at least to read the short story The Crystal Egg and the novel The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells before starting on this one. Other reading could include a couple of the original Sherlock Holmes adventures, and a story or two featuring Professor Challenger.

Although a few Americanisms present in the text were not spotted by the editors, the narrative is nevertheless a largely successful attempt to write in the style of late nineteenth-century England. And while the novel is not deep or introspective, it is certainly a well-told and enjoyable tale of deduction and adventure.

Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer

                                                                       

I have been meaning to read Calculating God for quite some time, but never quite got around to it. I am now very glad that I finally did so. I enjoy novels which are set in real locations (most of the action in this one takes place at the Royal Ontario Museum) because you can find out more about those places online and view maps and photos while you are reading. Reactions to this novel seem to be polarized. If a reader has a prior commitment to either purely naturalistic evolution or young-earth creationism, it is unlikely that the message of the novel will go down well. However, for people who have no such commitments and can see the shortcomings of both arguments, the speculations which run throughout this work of science fiction take a fascinating middle road. Of course, this is a fictional account of visits by aliens to our planet, and it is not entirely clear where the author himself stands on some of the issues presented, but I feel that the story does no disservice to the true spirit of scientific inquiry. In a slightly weaker subplot, religious extremism is condemned, although this may just be a device used by the author to prove to readers that he has no desire to support traditional religious ideas of creationism. I feel that the story is well-written, the characterizations (even of the principal alien character) are convincing, and the fact that it addresses some of the perplexing issues related to the human condition make it a captivating read.

The Best of Murray Leinster

                                     
                          



Sidewise in Time (1934)
This does not describe conventional time travel to the past or future, but rather alternate realities on parallel timelines. The idea is similar to that in Paratime written by H. Beam Piper in the 1940s and 50s, and Richard C. Meredith's Timeliner Trilogy (1970s). There is an interesting take on the possible nature of hyperspace. It must be said that the story is repetitive and drags a little, but the concepts are fascinating.


Proxima Centauri (1935)
This story has been dismissed by some reviewers as pulp fiction having no merits, but I think that is extreme. It is at the very least imaginative, even if the weak and weepy female character makes it feel dated. Prior to the 1970s, well-developed and realistic women are few and far between in science fiction. On the positive side, there is interstellar travel (apparently at half the speed of light), which the author tries to make seem as real as possible. That life on board is similar to that on an ocean-going vessel is probably due to the fact that when this novelette was written space travel was still a couple of decades in the future, so a limited amount was known about it. The aliens are frequently described as 'fiends', but they are nevertheless interesting. Their buildings and spaceships are not built but are grown from plant matter which is then held in stasis. They value animal flesh as men crave wealth or gold. Thus, when we are made to feel disgust at the unreasoning and destructive actions of the Centaurians, we might reflect on similar crimes perpetrated by avaricious humans. Apart from this, the relationship between humans and Centaurians is presented in a very black-and-white manner, and the deus-ex-machina finale does nothing to add sophistication to the story. However, it was probably what most readers in the 1930s would have wanted.

The Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator
This short story is a humorous account of a young man who inherits a time machine capable of replicating matter from his uncle. It is a madcap tale of dissatisfied fiancées, cigarette-eating kangaroos and thwarted policemen. It was mildly amusing, but a little over the top. Fortunately, it was not too long.

First Contact
This is one of the works Murray Leinster is remembered for. It was one of the first science fiction stories to address the practical aspects of first contact with an alien race. The aliens are neither all good nor all bad, but are in many ways just like humans. The dilemma is caused by the fact that they encounter each other in deep space and then do not dare to leave in case the locations of their homeworlds are revealed. Both groups would like to trust the other, but cannot take the risk. I immediately thought of the Dark Forest (黑暗森林) principle from Liu Cixin's Three Body Trilogy, even though Liu's aliens are much more predatory in nature. In First Contact, there is a universal translator with similarities to the one in the story Proxima Centauri, which was also written in 1935. The fact that the translator system uses cards in its output makes the story feel a little dated, but at the time the start of the digital age was still four decades away, so it would not really be fair to criticize this point. I guessed the solution to the impasse between the groups slightly before it was revealed, but on the whole this was a compelling read and deserves its place as a classic of early modern science fiction.


The Ethical Equations
This story was published 1945. I must say that I really enjoyed it. Some reviewers raise the point that because the equations mentioned in the title are not based on real scientific principles (the equations state that what goes around comes around, good begets good and vice versa), this story cannot be considered a work of hard science fiction. While this may or may not be true, short stories appearing in Astounding magazine in the 1940s principally had to meet the requirements of being entertaining and thought-provoking, and I think The Ethical Equations certainly succeeds in meeting those standards. Probably owing to the similar titles, I immediately thought of The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin which appeared in the same magazine in 1954 and which I read a few months ago. I am not sure whether the parallelism between the two works is coincidental or not. The Cold Equations ends with the equation balanced by the forfeit of a human life, thereby averting a disaster. A catastrophe is avoided in Leinster's story by satisfying the ethical equations.
A curious point is that, although the protagonist in Leinster's tale is absolutely convinced that the principles behind the ethical equations are real, nobody else in the story seems to care about them one bit. This could mean that the equations are in fact a personal superstition of the lead character, or that they are an established fact which most people choose to ignore. At any rate, acting in accord with the ethical principles embodied in the equations provides a farsighted solution to the problem at hand and saves the day. Even though 'what goes around comes around' is not true from a scientific point of view, if more people believed it the world would probably be a much happier place.

Pipeline to Pluto
This short story was also first published in Astounding magazine in 1945. It is a little different from the first five pieces in this book because it is a science fiction horror story. Despite the fact that it is pretty tame by modern standards of horror, and although I had a premonition of how it would end, it does produce a chilling effect on the reader. That it was successful in its day can be seen from the fact that it was included in an anthology entitled Science Fiction Terror Tales edited by Groff Conklin ten years later in 1955.

A Logic Named Joe
A 1946 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine ran a short story by Murray Leinster that contains an amazingly accurate prediction of the technology and culture of our day. Leinster describes a society in which every home possesses a "logic", a machine that can provide entertainment and virtually unlimited access to information. Each "logic" accesses a central "tank" where raw data are kept on "plates". Sound familiar? The eponymous "logic" becomes self-aware due to a slight flaw in the manufacturing process and, in order to be helpful, decides to provide humans with the answers to any questions they ask through the network. On the surface, this sounds like a good idea, but Leinster continues to show how human moral deficiencies make this a less-than-desirable development. We should keep in mind that this story was written in an age when most people had a naively optimistic view of science and before science fiction was known for warning about the potential dangers of technology. What also makes it fascinating to read is the fact that in 1946 computing machines still filled whole rooms and the first phase of the internet would not come into existence for another 23 years. This story has been included in many science fiction anthologies over the years, and rightly so, since it was predictive of personal computers, computer networks, and artificial intelligence.

Symbiosis
This 1947 tale tells of a small and peaceful country which is invaded by a powerful and ruthless neighbor state. The conquered people, however, are prepared and apply an intriguing medical solution to the problem, much to the dismay of the aggressors. I am not sure if it is, but this might be the first example of biological warfare in science fiction literature. Of course, H.G. Wells' invading Martians in The War of the Worlds were wiped out by bacteria, but that was a fortuitous occurrence rather than the result of deliberate action. Symbiosis is certainly a fine example of how to write a short story.


The Strange Case of John Kingman
This tells a story about John Kingman, who is a patient in a mental asylum. Despite the fact that he has an obvious physical anomaly, not much notice is taken of him because he is aloof and uncommunicative. It is assumed that he is foreigner who cannot speak English, and that he is paranoid with delusions of grandeur because his manner is so supercilious. A young and enthusiastic doctor decides to check the asylum records, and is shocked to discover that Kingman has been an inmate of the institution for more than 160 years. When the doctor expresses an interest in him, Kingman draws intricate diagrams which turn out to be explanations of scientific processes not yet known to humans. When this comes to the attention of the authorities, the government is anxious to extract more technological information in order to secure a firm advantage in the arms race against enemy nations. The methods they use eventually render the patient unable to provide any further assistance. On the surface, this might appear to be merely an entertaining story. I think, however, that it possesses hidden depths. Something which is noticeable is that Kingman is thought all along by everybody to be insane, even when doctors conclude that he is probably an extraterrestrial, and when he shows his superior knowledge and a high level of intelligence. Readers may find themselves asking if the patient or the humans who handled his case showed more evidence of madness in thought and action. It is possible that the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan about three years earlier (this story was published in 1948) had caused Leinster to wonder whether military considerations would always be a principal catalyst for technological development, and whether a desire for knowledge would always be linked to mankind's baser instincts. Perhaps Kingman's condescending attitude towards the humans around him was not unjustified.

The Lonely Planet
This 1949 story is about a planet-wide organism which humans name Alyx after its homeworld. Through serving the needs of men, Alyx learns and becomes self-aware, only to find its very existence threatened. In an interesting twist on the "dark forest" theme, we see that the miscommunication between men and Alyx all seems to be the result of a human inability to conceive of an intelligent being which would not be as predatory as mankind. Fortunately, not all humans are so narrow-minded, and at least some are willing to embrace the mutually beneficial symbiosis envisioned by Alyx. This is another very absorbing and thought-provoking short story by Murray Leinster.

Keyhole
This story was published in 1951, and is another one which paints humanity in a less-than-positive light as far as relations with extraterrestrial lifeforms is concerned. Of course, individual people are a different matter, since these may think up ways to persuade their contemporaries to act with a greater degree of foresight than they would have done otherwise. The Moon creatures in this story are subjected to study by humans who wish to identify their weaknesses. However, in the end the specimen the men capture manages to learn much more about humanity than human scientists can learn about its people. It is another warning that appearances can be deceptive.

Critical Difference (aka Solar Constant)
This is a solid story about a planetary survey officer who tries to overcome technological problems in order to save human colonists on two worlds. The characterization is quite good, perhaps because it is a slightly later story which was first published in 1956. The author may have by that time got to grips with how to make his characters a little more three-dimensional and interesting. The self-effacing quality of the protagonist which never allows him to take full credit for his achievements may be something some readers can relate to. This is a good example of a hard science fiction story which uses most of its length to describe technical details, but also has a romance element thrown in to make the plot more absorbing.

Leinster's strengths are showcased very clearly in the works in this book. He is adept at defining or identifying problems, and then working logically through his plots to provide solutions without letting readers guess the endings too soon. Although perhaps a little pessimistic on the surface, many of his tales do have positive outcomes. While very entertaining, the stories are obviously also written to convey deeper meanings, but this is achieved in subtle ways and without the author needing to moralize or preach. Probably the only easily detectable weakness is in his characterizations, which never really allow you to get into the minds of the protagonists. But, overall, this is an excellent short-story collection which is well worth reading if you are interested in the history and development of science fiction literature.

The Runaway Skyscraper by Murray Leinster

                    
                       

                                                             

This novelette is considered a seminal work of science fiction. After reading it, it is not hard to see why. It was first published in a general-interest fiction magazine in 1919 (there were not yet any magazines devoted to science fiction, and the term had probably not even been coined at that time).
It was Murray Leinster's first published work of science fiction.

In the story, a New York skyscraper is suddenly transported back in time to Pre-Columbian America with all of its C20th occupants, who then have to devise ways to survive in the new setting. The mechanism for the time travel, while not wholly convincing, is one of the strangest I have come across. This work is clearly a precursor of later "hard" science fiction because the author attempts to describe everything in a scientific way and explain the reasons behind why things happen. Where real science is involved, the writer clearly wishes to be accurate. An attempt is made to provide plausible reasons for the fantasy elements too. While it exhibits the biases of gender and race prevalent at the time, the narrative has a very obvious human side to it in that it probes into the effects that suddenly being uprooted and sent back into a more 'primitive' environment would have on individuals and on a group. If people living in 1919 would have had serious problems, how much more true that would be for people living in developed countries today, where they might hardly ever come into direct contact with nature. It also shows that people who are not considered very successful in one environment might come into their own when sudden changes occur. From the point of view of historical interest and story content, it is a worthwhile read. It is good that is now free to read from gutenberg.org.

Legacy by James H. Schmitz

This title is a little difficult to review. I found myself enjoying it, and then suddenly feeling it was tedious, and then getting absorbed again. Firstly, the storytelling itself is quite go0d, and the female protagonist is very likeable. The original book, A Tale of Two Clocks, was written in 1962, and was reissued as Legacy in 1979. The story holds up quite well considering that it was written more than half a century ago. Of course, there are attitudes which reflect the time in which it was written, mainly sexist ones, which would not go down so well today. But that is part of the fascination with reading vintage novels. So although the main character is a strong-willed and independent girl, gender roles are very traditional. What I found a little irksome was that the plot moves along too slowly. I think there is a lot of dialogue in the book which could have been omitted or condensed to make the pacing more brisk. Also, although we are introduced to the Plasmoids which have been left over from a vanished ancient galactic civilization, no serious attempt is made to evoke a sense of wonder about what they are and what secrets they may conceal. In some ways Legacy reminded me of Charles Sheffield's Heritage Universe series, but Sheffield created that sense of wonder very successfully. Legacy was an interesting read, and there were some imaginative ideas and technologies described in it. It is however essentially a rather two-dimensional action novel which includes little of an introspective nature in its narrative.

All Judgment Fled by James White

This author is quickly becoming one of my favourites. James White was an excellent storyteller, and a sadly underrated master of the science fiction genre. I thoroughly enjoyed his novel The Silent Stars Go By, and All Judgment Fled certainly exhibits the same standard of writing. As a Big Dumb Object book, it invites comparison with Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama and Niven's Ringworld, but it was actually written in 1967 before either of those two novels were published. Personally, I found it more thought-provoking than those standard works, too. While it is undoubtedly now classed as old-school science fiction, it does not feel especially dated and is, in my opinion, definitely worth reading.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

This is more of a political satire than a true time-travel novel. It was first published in 1889, and at first seems to be a eulogy of modern scientific progress and American democracy in comparison to absurdities of the British hereditary aristocratic system. However, as the book progresses, we see that things are not quite as they at first appear. The descriptions of the final battle, with electrified fences, trenches, explosives and machine guns are eerily prophetic of First World War battlefields. Nineteenth Century rational thinking and technology was unable to win out against the ingrained superstition and religious dogma of King Arthur's age. The protagonist sets out on a mission to enlighten and educate the ignorant people of the Sixth Century, but in the end commits atrocities which are at least as bad as those perpetrated by the Catholic Church and its supporters. And he did these things on the basis of reason, and so cannot offer religious brainwashing or superstition as excuses. The book is a little long-winded and tedious in places, but there are many well-written episodes of high adventure which more than balance these out.

A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum

This was a short and interesting read. The dialogue feels dated, but there is a real effort to depict the alienness of extraterrestrial lifeforms which defy human logic and are not readily understandable to the protagonist. It was certainly something entirely new when it was first published in 1934.

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

I read Bester's The Demolished Man (which won a Hugo) a few years ago, but it did not leave much of an impression. I enjoyed The Stars My Destination much more. This is an intense and frenetically-paced novel manifesting many different science-fiction elements. There is space travel, teleportation, cybernetics, telepathy and time travel. Since it was written in the 1950s, much of the content and manner in which the story is told is necessarily experimental and innovative. I am not usually keen on books in which the main protagonist is an antihero, but the reader can relate to Foyle's obsessions and the educational and introspective processes which raise him up from savagery. I am sure that this story will leave a deep impression, and that I will remember the images it evoked for a long time to come.

English Grammar Guide for Teachers

Introduction




Firstly, this manual does not pretend to be an exhaustive excursion into English grammar. The intended readers of this short book are teachers of English as a second language who either have never really studied the mechanics of grammar, or who studied it at school but have since forgotten the meaning of much grammatical terminology.




All grammatical terms which are deemed useful are included in the pages which follow. There is a short explanation attached to each one and, in most cases, some examples of usage. The reader need only browse through this pamphlet once or twice to be reminded of the essentials of English grammar. This basic knowledge should aid the teacher when he or she comes to explain certain features of English to students who are studying English as second language.










R. P. Hopwood,

Tainan City,

Taiwan,

April 1997




















































Contents




Page

1-2 Linguistic Devices




3-4 Syntax




5 Adverbial Clauses




6 Sentence, Clause or Phrase?




7-8 Adjectives, Pronouns and Adverbs




9 Agreement of Plurals, Comparative

Degree, Superlative Degree, The Verb




10 Subject, Object of the Verb, Transitive and

Intransitive Verbs




11 Indirect Object, Verbs of Incomplete

Predication




12 Verb Tenses




13 Perfectives, Modals




14 Indicative, Imperative and Subjunctive

Moods




15 The Infinitive




16-18 Non-Finite Verbs













Linguistic Devices




Alliteration: Use of the same initial letter. “You little liar!”

Anaphora: commencement of successive sentences with the same words. Anaphoric phrase.

Anthropomorphism:

Ascribing human qualities to something not human.

Apposition: “You, the public” , “The Queen, Elizabeth II....”

Assonance: Employing identical vowel sounds. “Hate” and “Bake”.

Bathos: Linguistic let-down or ludicrous anticlimax, usually because of textual

incongruity. The sudden descent from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Caesura: A sense pause or break in poetry

Enjambment: (Poetry) The running of an idea from one line to the next without a

syntactical break.

Euphemism: A term used to avoid a more explicit or distasteful expression.

E.g. ‘Pass on’ = ‘die’

Heavy Postmodification:

A list of related adjectives placed after a noun.

Heavy Premodification:

A list of adjectives placed before the noun which they

modify.

Hyperbole: Exaggeration or overstatement, usually used for emphasis.

Litotes: Ironic understatement in which a positive statement is made by

denying its opposite. E.g. “I shan‘t be sorry.” , “She’s not a bad driver.”

Metaphor: Describing an object or situation in a way which is not literally

applicable.

E.g. The sun smiled down upon all creation.

The wind howled outside.

Oxymoron: Paradoxical or contrasting lexis. E.g. ‘bitter-sweet’

Palindrome: A word which is the same read backwards as forwards. E.g. ‘Hannah’.

Parallelism: Use of the same words or grammatical constructions in successive

sentences or paragraphs. This device is often used in poetry and

advertising.

Pathos: Language evoking a feeling of pity, compassion or sorrow.




1







Phrasal Verb:

A simple verb followed by a preposition or adverb. The meaning of

a phrasal verb can be very different from the root verb. In fact, the meaning is often idiomatic.

E.g. give up go in for carry out

Simile: A direct comparison made using ‘like’ or ‘as’.

Transferred Epithet: (Also called ‘Synecdoche’)

A linguistic device in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part. An often cited example is ‘ten sail’ for ‘ten ships’ . Another example is: ‘Many cities are trying to solve the problem of urban poverty’ meaning that the members of many cities’ governments are trying to solve this problem.

Three-Part Build-Ups:

“Friends, Romans, Countrymen....”

Two-Part Contrasts:

“To be or not to be.”


























































2




Syntax

Simple Sentence

A simple sentence has one finite verb (subject and tense).




I read the book. You eat dinner




Compound Sentence

A compound sentence contains two finite verbs in two simple sentences joined by

a conjunction

.

The cat pounced and caught its prey. (‘and’- coordinating conjunction)




Complex Sentence

A complex sentence must contain at least two finite verbs. It consists of a simple

sentence and a subordinate clause.




The man who was walking near the lake was impressed by the sunset.




Relative/adjectival clause in subordination to the main clause:




The man was impressed by the sunset.




The relative clause adds information about the man. The sequence can be rearranged to produce a different kind of sentence:




Walking near the lake, the man was impressed by the sunset.




‘Walking’ is now non-finite. (i.e. has no subject / is not indicative of tense / is

not affected by any other verbs in the sentence. If the tense of the main clause

changes, ‘walking’ remains the same.)

Here ‘walking’ is a PARTICIPLE, or verbal adjective. In some languages the

adjectival nature of the participle is more obvious. For example, Chinese can express

this idea as ‘The walking-near-the-lake man’ or ‘The walking man’, where ‘walking near the lake’ is clearly adjectival in function.

3










Noun Clauses:

These define nouns, unlike relative clauses which simply add information about a

noun.




Fear that he might be seen kept him in hiding.




The theory that the earth is flat was eventually proved wrong.




Syntactical Analysis:




The eerie light was shining faintly through the misty night.




Definite Article/Adjective/Noun/Auxiliary Verb/Verb. Present Participle/Adverb/

Preposition/Definite Article/Adjective/Noun.




Aspect

The action of a sentence can be perfect (complete) or imperfect (incomplete) in aspect. The participle is an indicator of aspect.




I am going.(Present Participle) I am gone.(Past Participle)




Adjectival Clause: Adds information about a noun.

Adverbial Clause: Adds information about a verb.





































4










The Eight Kinds of Adverbial Clause




These add information about the verb in the main clause.




1) TIME: I am going to do it after I eat my dinner.

‘After’ is a subordinating conjunction.




2) PLACE: You will find the book where you left it.




3) RESULT: The dinner was left in the oven so / therefore it burned.




4) MANNER: Peter turned bright red as though he were about to cry.




5) PURPOSE: I went to bed early so that I would not be tired next day.




6) REASON: He failed his exams because he did not revise his work.




7) CONDITION: I will do it if I have time.




8) CONCESSION: He did very well even though he did not do any work.











































5







Sentence, Clause or Phrase?

1. Sentence: Contains a finite verb. Is complete in itself and makes perfect sense

standing alone.

2. Clause: Includes a finite verb and a part of a sentence, but cannot stand alone.

3. Phrase: A group of words not containing a finite verb.




Examples:

1. Sentence: She has a pleasant personality.




2. Clause: She has a personality which is pleasant.




3. Phrase: Having a pleasant personality, she is popular with everyone.

‘Having’ = non-finite verb. This is an ADJECTIVAL PHRASE. ‘Having’ is a participle relating to ‘she’.







Having a pleasant personality makes her popular.



Here, ‘Having’ has nothing to relate to, therefore cannot be adjectival. ‘Having’

is not a participle. This is a NOUN PHRASE. ‘Having’ is a nominal infinitive or

gerund.




Abstract Nouns:

Abstract nouns are words which function grammatically as nouns, although being abstract in nature. Examples are words like ‘kindness’ , ‘cruelty’, and ‘generosity’.



Concrete nouns are objects which have form and shape, such as ‘house’, ‘table’,

‘dog’ and ‘computer’.

















6







Adjectives:

Phrases such as ‘twenty-four hours’ and ‘third day’ contain the numerical

adjectives ‘twenty-four’ and ‘third’ which describe the nouns ‘hours’ and ‘day’.




Interrogative Adjective: Adjective + noun

Which way?

What impressions did you get?

Whose car is this?

Demonstrative Adjective:

This man That house

These women Those dictionaries

Demonstrative Pronoun:

This is the one I mean.



Note that interrogatives occurring with verbs are not adjectives. They are

interrogative adverbs.




What are you doing? When does it happen? Why is he angry? How does it work?

Where are my keys?



The answers to these questions all add information about the verb. This is also because interrogatives occurring with verbs include the prepositional element or adverbial phrase.



When? = at what time? How? = in what way?

Where? =in which place? Why? = for what reason?




Interrogative Pronoun

An interrogative pronoun is a question word which can be replaced by a pronoun or noun when answering the question.



What is in the box? It is in the box.

What do you want? I want it.

Where do you come from? I come from there / that place.

7






‘There’ - adverb or noun?:



That man there is my boss. there = in that place (ADVERB)




I left there in a hurry. there = that place (NOUN)






Relative Pronoun: This is what I do best. what = that which

(I do it best.)



Relative Adverbs: Where = the place in which

Why = the reason for which

When = the time at which

How = the way in which



This is where I like to be.

That‘s why I did it.

Six-thirty is when I get up.

This is how it should be done.




Adjectival Equivalents:

Nouns sometimes can function as adjectives.

E.g. Chocolate cake spring sunshine corner shop



Emphatic Adjectives:

Used to describe and emphasize a noun.

This is his own work. I study every day.





















8










Agreement of Plurals

To say ‘I like those kind of magazines’ is incorrect. ‘Kind’ should agree with the plural nature of ‘those’.



‘I like those kinds of magazines.’ is correct.

Or ‘I like that kind of magazines.’




Another common mistake occurs when using ‘less’ and ‘fewer’.

‘Less’ can only be used with uncountable nouns, whereas ‘fewer’ should only

qualify countable nouns.




I earned less money this year.

I have fewer coins in my pocket than I did yesterday.



Comparative Degree

This is used to compare two objects or people.

Who is the older of the two brothers?

Who is the more intelligent of the two sisters?




Superlative Degree

This is used to compare three or more objects or people.

Who is the oldest of these three children?

Who is the most diligent amongst you?




The Verb:

Subject and Predicate



Subject Predicate

The man fed his dog.

John walked to school



Predicate Subject

At the back of our house is a small garden.

9









The Subject of the Verb:



He likes candy. (Here, ‘he’ is in the subjective case)



The sun in its magnificence shone forth over the land.







The Object of the Verb:

Receives the action of the verb.



She hit him. (Here, ‘him’ is in the nominative case)







Verbs which can take objects are called TRANSITIVE VERBS.

‘To hit’ is a transitive verb because its action can be carried over or ‘transferred’ to an object.




She hit him.




The actions of some verbs cannot be carried over to an object. These verbs are called INTRANSITIVE VERBS. Many verbs can be transitive or intransitive depending on where they appear. ‘To sleep’ is an intransitive verb. It cannot take an object. You cannot ‘sleep’ something. ‘To burn’ and ‘to melt’ can be transitive or intransitive.



I burned the cake. The cake burned.

He melted the ice. The ice melted.




Verbs which can take two objects are called DITRANSITIVE VERBS.



I gave my friend some money.

(See Indirect Object)










10






Indirect Object



The man grabbed the woman’s purse.

= The man grabbed from the woman her purse.



What did the man grab? He grabbed the purse. Therefore, ‘purse’ is the direct object of the verb. However, his action also affected the woman. So ‘the woman’ is the indirect object of the verb ‘to grab’.






Other examples are :

They gave me the keys. = They gave to me the keys.

The indirect object in this sentence is ‘me’.




She asked them the reason. = She asked from them the reason.

The indirect object in this sentence is ‘them’.




Some verbs are called Verbs of Incomplete Predication.

This expression is used to describe verbs which are incomplete in themselves.

They must take adjectives or adverbial phrases in order to make sense.

For instance, ‘I think’, ‘He runs’, ‘They talk’, though not being complete

sentences, still make sense standing alone. However, ‘It seems’, ‘It becomes’, or ‘I was’ are not complete concepts. These latter verbs are Verbs of Incomplete Predication.



Verb of Incomplete Predication Complement

The summer was at an end.

He seems strange.

I became angry.
















11







Simple Tenses:

Present: I eat

Past: I ate

Future: I will eat

(Subjunctive: I should eat / He would eat)




Continuous Tenses:

Present: I am writing (present participle)

Past: I was writing

Future: I shall* be writing

(Subjunctive: I should be writing / He would be writing)



Perfect Tenses:

Present: I have written (past participle)

Past (Pluperfect): I had written

Future: I shall have written

Past in the future#: I should have written




*According to traditional English grammar, the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘We’ take

‘shall’ in the future form, all other pronouns taking ‘will’. However, in modern

spoken English this ‘rule’ is not commonly observed.

#This describes an action which, at some time in the past, was regarded as

future.

e.g. By next week I should have finished this work.


































12







Present Perfective:

This describes an action which is completed at the present time.

E.g. I have done it.

He has finished the book.




Pluperfect:

This means ‘more than perfect’ and is sometimes called the ‘past in the past’

form. It describes an action which was completed in the past.

E.g. I had done it.

He had finished the book.




Sentences can be in either the passive or the active voice. In an active sentence

the subject performs the action of the verb.




I finished the work.

She ate the cake.




In a passive sentence the subject is the recipient of the action of the verb.




The work was finished.

The cake was eaten.




The passive is formed from the any form of the verb ‘to be’ plus the past

participle of the verb. Here, the verb ‘to be’ is called the passive auxiliary.




























13













Modals:

Modals are auxiliary verbs which express the mood of a sentence.

Modals can express necessity, permission, requests, suggestions, invitations,

ability, certainty, probability, possibility, questions or negatives.

Some examples of modal auxiliaries are listed below:




I must (have to) finish this work tonight. (necessity)

May I come in? (permission)

Could you help me for a moment? (requests)

You could try John’s method. (suggestions)

Would you like to come for dinner? (invitations)









She was able to complete her last novel before she died. (ability)

That must be the Eiffel Tower over there. (certainty)

We ought to tell them where we’re going. (probability)

It could be very dangerous. (possibility)

That might be a good idea. (possibility)

Would you come with me? (question/request)

They couldn’t understand what he meant. (negative)




Indicative Mood:

The indicative mood simply states a fact or asks a question.

E.g. He is clever. Is he clever?




Imperative Mood:

The imperative mood expresses a command.

E.g. Do as you are told! Don’t do that!

Tell me your name, please.
















14







Subjunctive Mood:

The subjunctive mood states a wish, condition, purpose or doubt based on

certain facts. It often employs the third person plural indicative verb form.

E. g. If I were rich…..

May you prosper!

If she were a little younger……..

God save the Queen.

I require that he send me his documents.

Statements in the subjunctive mood are hypothetical.

If he should pass by my home…….

I would if I could, but I can‘t.

If only I were a young man again......

I wish that he were here.

The verb ‘to be’ is also sometimes used in the subjunctive sense.

I demand that I be allowed to see the prisoner.




























































15







The Infinitive:

The infinitive form of the verb has no subject and no tense. It is unaffected

by any other verbs in the sentence.




e.g. I want to go. I wanted to go.

He is going. He will be going.




Present Infinitive:

He likes to eat fish. I want to see it.

I forced him to admit his mistake.

I made it happen.

I made him do it. I will make him understand it.

I saw her go.

Perfect Infinitive:

‘To have’ + Past Participle of the Verb.

I want to have finished it by Friday.

I wanted to have read it by Friday.

I will want to have seen it by Friday.

Passive Infinitive:

‘To be’ + Past Participle of the Verb.

I would be nice to be helped.

It will be nice to be driven to the airport.

It is appropriate for him to be honoured.

Future Infinitive:

English has no proper future infinitive form.

However, events which are to take place in the immediate future can

be expressed by means of ‘about’ + infinitive.

I am about to go.






















16







Non-Finite Verbs:

Non-finite verbs can be explained as parts of verbs which possess no subject.

There are three kinds of non-finite verb:




1. INFINITIVE: The infinitive can be verbal(see above) or nominal (see the third

kind of non-finite verb).




2. PARTICIPLE: The participle is a verbal adjective which modifies a substantive

or noun. True to the nature of non-finite verbs, the participle has

no subject BUT MUST RELATE TO ONE. The participle

indicates ASPECT, whether an action is progressive (continuous)

or perfective (completed).




Eating the banana, he looked like a monkey.



The subject ‘he’ belongs to the phrasal verb ‘to look like’.

The participle ‘eating’ has no subject, but relates to ‘he’ in that

it describes or adds information about why he looked like a

monkey. To demonstrate that ‘eating the banana’ is adjectival

a relative clause can be used to express the same idea.



He (who was eating the banana) looked like a monkey.




The PRESENT PARTICIPLE is identifiable by its ‘ing’

ending. The PAST PARTICIPLE is the form produced by

perfects and passives.

I have done it. He has looked at it.

It is/was done. It was looked at.





Fallen on the battlefield, he was left to die.

He (who had fallen on the battlefield) was left to die.




The past participle ‘fallen’ relates to the subject ‘he’ in the

main clause.

17







Eaten in the morning, the food was not available for supper.

The food (which had been eaten in the morning) was not

available for supper.




Some languages can actually express the idea this way:

The eaten-in-the-morning-food was not available for supper.

(在早上已被吃完的食物)



Since a participle is relative or adjectival in function it must

be clearly related to a noun or a word functioning as a noun.

Thus,

Fallen on the battlefield, they left him for dead.



exhibits incorrect use of a participle. ‘Fallen’ cannot relate to

‘they’, since ‘they’ left the man who had fallen on the battlefield.

Since ‘him’ is the object of the sentence, ‘fallen’ cannot relate to ‘him’ either. Unrelated participles are sometimes carelessly used

in everyday speech, but in written work can cause much confusion. A useful rule to remember is that the participle should

be as close to the noun it modifies as possible.



Another example of an unrelated participle is:



Being rainy, we could not go out.



‘We’ cannot possibly be described as ‘rainy’, so the writer

must be thinking of the weather.






A sentence containing a participle must also include the noun it describes

Being rainy, the weather was not suitable for hiking.

Feeling happy, I went over to visit them.



18










In some sentences the noun and the participle can appear in the

same phrase.




The weather being rainy, we decided not to go out.



Here the participle phrase is called an ABSOLUTE CONSTRUCTION because it contains an idea complete and

separate from the rest of the sentence.




3. The third form of non-finite verb is the NOMINAL INFINITIVE (noun infinitive) or GERUND.



Stealing is wrong.

Studying a foreign language is difficult.



In these sentences the non-finite verb forms function as nouns.




It should be noted that possessives must be used with gerunds.




Often people will say things like:




He doesn‘t like John talking to you like that.




If strict grammatical rules are applied, this sentence should be rendered as




He doesn‘t like John’s talking to you like that.



Here, ‘talking’ functions as a gerund. What he doesn‘t like is John’s speech, not

John himself.
















19

Egyptian-Chinese Dictionary 埃漢詞典 Download Link

 http://www.mediafire.com/file/afdcnslqxtibthm/Egyptian_-_Chinese_Dict.pdf/file

http://www.mediafire.com/file/afdcnslqxtibthm/Egyptian_-_Chinese_Dict.pdf/file

Poem: THEN

 THEN.

Hollow shadows lying in 

Tangled webs of 

    Ages - a piano

  Waits in a rising mist of Ebony

Ivory keen in the moon's fleeting gaze, watchful in

   Respect through the drapes, torn and dark, Hanging

Heavy. Lying in state. Upon the shaped expanse,

     Bathed in a 

Cold brightness and stifled by the gaunt 

Quiet

  She lives on, captured within in gilded frame in 

   a moment

    Eternal, silent notes long since faded.

    And

      Her, gone where? Gone when? Joy in dark eyes,

        Some memory of 

Some time. Then, across the keys

     I glimpsed celestial fingers gliding on the 

              Faintest music, the spirit of the 

  Spiritless and perfume of

    Roses. A

  Ghost of summers long ago.

Aurelius' Meditations: Inspiring Passages with Chinese Translation

 Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill. But I, because I have seen that the nature of good is the right, and of ill the wrong, and that the nature of the man himself who does wrong is akin to my own (not of the same blood and seed, but partaking with me in mind, that is in a portion of divinity), I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth. To work against one another therefore is to oppose Nature, and to be vexed with another or to turn away from him is to tend to antagonism. 

(Aurelius Meditations Book II:1)

每日清晨該提醒自己說：我今天將要遇到好管閒事的人，忘恩負義的人，狂妄無禮的人，狡詐的人，嫉妒的人，和孤傲的人。他們之所以如此，乃是因為他們不能分辨善與惡。但是因我已領悟了那美麗的 「善」的性質，那醜陋的「惡」的性質，那和我很接近的惡者本身的性質──他不僅與我在血統上同一根源，而且具有同樣的理性與神聖的本質，所以我既不會受他們任何一個的傷害（因為沒人能把我拖到墮落裡去），亦不會對我的同胞發怒或心裡生恨。我們生來是要合作的，如雙足，雙手，上下眼皮，上下排的牙齒。所以彼此衝突乃是違反自然之道；表示反感和厭惡便是衝突。(奧理略沉思錄 II:1)

Do things from outside break in to distract you? Give yourself a time of quiet to learn some new good thing and cease to wander out of your course.  (Aurelius Meditations Book II:7)

身外的事煩擾你嗎？忙裡偷閒去學習一些好的新事吧，不要再被外物牽惹得團團轉。(奧理略沉思錄 II:7)

But the nature of the Whole would not have winked at these things either out of ignorance or because (though it knew of them) it had not the power to guard against them or to put them right; neither would it have made so vast an error, from want of power or skill, as to permit good and ill to befall indifferently, both good and bad men equally. Now death, and life, good report and evil report, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, these all befall men, good and bad alike, equally, and are themselves neither right nor wrong. They are therefore neither good nor ill. (Aurelius Meditations Book II:11)

整個宇宙絕不會因愚昧而疏忽，或一旦發覺有疏失，無力去防禦或糾正之；亦不會因蠢笨無能而造成重大過失，以至令善與惡的報應毫無差別地同樣落在好人與壞人的頭上。但死亡與生命，尊榮與恥辱，苦痛與快樂，財富與貧窮，的確是無分善惡，可能落在任何人身上。因此這必定是宇宙運作的正常方式，而不是甚麼錯誤。(奧理略沉思錄 II:11)

Even were you about to live three thousand years or thrice ten thousand, nevertheless remember this, that no one loses any other life than this which he is living, nor lives any other than this which he is losing. Thus the longest and the shortest come to the same thing. For the present is equal for all, and what is passing is therefore equal: thus what is being lost is proved to be barely a moment. For a man could lose neither past nor future; how can one rob him of what he has not got? Always remember, then, these two things: one, that all things from everlasting are of the same kind, and are in rotation; and it matters nothing whether it be for a hundred years or for two hundred or for an infinite time that a man shall behold the same spectacle; the other, that the longest-lived and the soonest to die have an equal loss; for it is the present alone of which either will be deprived, since (as we saw) this is all he has and a man does not lose what he has not got. (Aurelius Meditations Book II:14)

縱使你的生命可以延展到三千年，甚至三萬年，要知道一個人只能死一次，也只能活一回。因此，最長的壽命和最短的都是相同的，我們離世所放棄的顯然僅是'一刻'的時光而已。沒有人能失去過去或未來。他如何能被剝奪他根本不擁有的東西呢？所以有兩件事要記住：第一，自亙古以來一切事都是一遍一遍的重複翻演，一個人在一百或二百年間或甚至永恆所看見的必定是同樣的戲碼演來演去。另一件便是，長壽的與夭折的人所失去的是一樣的，因為都只被剝奪了一刻的時間。事實上，人只擁有當下的這一刻，而所沒有的東西當然是無法失去的。(奧理略沉思錄 II:14)

Everything is what you judge it to be. (Aurelius Meditations Book II:15)

要記住，一切均取決於你的態度與看法。(奧理略沉思錄 II:15)

Do not waste the balance of life left to you in thoughts about other persons, when you are not referring to some advantage of your fellows. (Book III:4)

除非你是為大家的益處著想， 不要浪費你的餘生在空想別人的事。(奧理略沉思錄 III:4)

You should stand upright, not be held upright. (Aurelius Meditations III:5)

在道德上該自己站穩，不是被扶助才能站直。(奧理略沉思錄 III:5)

Never value as an advantage to yourself what will force you one day to break your word, to abandon self-respect, to hate, suspect, execrate another, to act a part, to covet anything that calls for walls or coverings to conceal it. (Aurelius Meditations III:7)

如果看出現在的任何事可能日後迫使你言而無信，捨棄自尊，令你懷恨，猜疑或詛咒人，行事虛偽，或引誘你參與見不得人的勾當，切勿以為這樣的事對自己有益。(奧理略沉思錄 III:7)

Therefore throw all else aside, and hold fast only these few things; further calling to mind at the same time that each of us lives only in the present, this brief moment; the rest is either a life that is past, or is in an uncertain future. Little the life each lives, little the corner of the earth he lives in, little even the longest fame hereafter, and even that dependent on a succession of poor mortals, who will very soon be dead, and have not learnt to know themselves, much less the man who was dead long years ago. (Aurelius Meditations III:10)

拋棄一切其他的想法，只把握住這些；要記住，人的生命只存在於目前這片刻，其餘的不是早已過去了，便是在人無法掌握的未來。每個人實在渺小極了，所生存的範圍也僅是地上小小的一隅罷了。即使有垂諸久遠身世之譽也是微不足道的，因為那只是靠一些可憐的凡人輾轉傳述，而他們本身也很快就要逝去。人未必能了解自己，更何況說認識老早以前死去的人。(奧理略沉思錄 III:10)

Nothing is so able to create greatness of mind as the power methodically and truthfully to test each thing that meets one in life, and always to look upon it so as to attend at the same time to the use which this particular thing contributes to a Universe of a certain definite kind, what value it has in reference to the Whole, and what to man. (Aurelius Book III:11)

最能培養高尚胸襟莫過於對人生遭遇的一切作確實而有條理的考究，試圖明白當前的事對整個宇宙有何效用及價值，對人有何價值。(奧理略沉思錄 III:11)

All that your eyes behold will change in a moment and be no more; consider how many changes you have already witnessed, and think continually of that. The Universe is change, life is what our thoughts make it...Get rid of the judgement; you are rid of the ‘I am hurt’; get rid of the ‘I am hurt’, you are rid of the hurt itself. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:3,7)

眼見的世界瞬息萬變，各事趨於消滅；要不斷思索你親眼見到的事物有多少已改變了。「宇宙不停地變化，而人生由我們的思想所創造。」 若能剷除「我心裡受了傷害」的觀念，受傷的感覺立刻也就會消失。(奧理略沉思錄 IV:3,7)

Don’t live as though you were going to live a myriad years. Fate is hanging over your head; while you have life, while you may, become good.

How great a rest from labour he gains who does not look to what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only to what he himself is doing. (Aurelius Book IV: 17, 18)

莫以為你還有一萬年可活; 你的命在須臾了！要趁你還活著，還來得及，好好做人。人不管同胞的言行思想是否正確，只管注意自己的行為，內心會安寧多了!  (奧理略沉思錄 IV:17,18)

Does an emerald become worse than it was, if it be not praised? (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:20)

一塊翡翠因無人讚賞便會失去它的價值嗎？(奧理略沉思錄 IV:20)

Democritus has said: ‘Do few things, if you would enjoy tranquility.’ (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:24)

古希臘哲學家德謨克利特說過，「兼顧的事要少，才能心享寧靜。」(奧理略沉思錄 IV:24)

Love the art which you were taught, set up your rest in this.....making yourself neither despot nor servant to any. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:31)

不論多卑微， 該珍視自己所學習的技藝，安心樂業於其中， 既不盛氣凌人亦不甘為奴僕。(奧理略沉思錄 IV:31)

All is ephemeral, both what remembers and what is remembered. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:35)

一切都是朝生暮死的，人的記憶也非常短暫。(奧理略沉思錄 IV:35)

Constantly think of the Universe as one living creature, embracing one being and one soul; how all is absorbed into the one consciousness of this living creature; how it compasses all things with a single purpose, and how all things work together to cause all that comes to pass, and their wonderful web and texture. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:40)

總要記得宇宙乃一個活物，只有一種本質和精神；一切事物都歸回到這唯一的知覺；一切事物都是發自於這唯一的動機。要思索所有現存的事物是怎樣共同配合來產生我們所經歷的一切，支支的線條是怎樣奇妙地錯綜交織在一起的。(奧理略沉思錄 IV:40)

There is a kind of river of things passing into being, and Time is a violent torrent. For no sooner is each seen, than it has been carried away, and another is being carried by, and that, too, will be carried away. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:43)

時間好比一條河，一條急流，其中變化無窮無盡。我們一見到一件新事，它立刻就被沖走了；看呀，又有一件湧現，又消逝得杳無蹤影! (奧理略沉思錄 IV:43)

Be like the headland on which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and about it the boiling waters sink to sleep. ‘Unlucky am I, because this has befallen me.’ Nay rather: ‘Lucky am I, because, though this befell me, I continue free from sorrow, neither crushed by the present, nor fearing what is to come.’ For such an event might have befallen any man, but not every man would have continued in it free from sorrow. On what grounds then is this ill fortune more than that good fortune? Can what has befallen you prevent your being just, high-minded, temperate, prudent, free from rash judgements, trustful, self-reverent, free, and whatever else by its presence with him enables a man’s nature to secure what is really his? Finally, in every event which leads you to sorrow, remember to use this principle: that this is not a misfortune, but that to bear it like a brave man is good fortune. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:49)

要像一塊岬角上的岩石，任憑海浪不斷地沖擊，仍然卻屹立不搖，四周洶湧的波濤不久便消沉下去了。

　　「啊，我的運氣太糟，竟會遭遇到這樣的事！」不，反而應該這麼說:  我好幸運，因雖然遭遇這事，我內在的人並未傷心欲絕，既未被現狀所粉碎，對將來亦全無恐懼。因為類似的事可能落在任何一個人身上，但並不見得每個人的內在都能不受其所傷害。既然如此, 為何認為那是不幸，而不視為幸事呢？所遭遇的事能迫使你減少一丁點的公正，高尚，自律，明智，謹慎，誠實，謙遜，意志自由，或其他健全人格所不可缺少的美德嗎？將來如有任何情事使你感覺受了傷害，就當憶起以下原則：沒有一樁不幸的事是不能由於勇敢承當而轉成幸事的。(奧理略沉思錄 IV:49)

Run always the short road, and Nature’s road is short. Therefore say and do everything in the soundest way, because a purpose like this delivers a man from troubles and warfare, from every care and superfluity. (Aurelius Meditations Book IV:51)

做任何事總要跑最短的道路；最短的路乃自然之道。這條道路把人引入理性和言行健全的境界。能下此決心，便可免除困難和衝突，遠離煩惱和虛浮的行徑。(奧理略沉思錄 IV:51)

To pursue the impossible is madness: but it is impossible for evil men not to do things of this sort. (Aurelius Meditations Book V:17)

心中好高騖遠，追求不切實際的目標是瘋狂的，但惡人行事不可能不如此。(奧理略沉思錄 V:17)

Repeatedly dwell on the swiftness of the passage and departure of things that are and of things that come to be. For substance is like a river in perpetual flux, its activities are in continuous changes, and its causes in myriad varieties, and there is scarce anything which stands still, even what is near at hand; dwell, too, on the infinite gulf of the past and the future, in which all things vanish away. Then how is he not a fool who in all this is puffed up or distracted or takes it hardly, as if he were in some lasting scene, which has troubled him for long?

Call to mind the whole of Substance of which you have a very small portion, and the whole of time whereof a small hair’s breadth has been determined for you, and of the chain of causation whereof you are how small a link. (Aurelius Meditations Book V:23, 24)

要常加思索，一切現存的以及即將要發生的事都瞬息即逝，何等迅速地消失啊! 因為一切都川流不息，千變萬化，起因也受無窮變化所支配，幾乎無固定不變者。在我們出生前有無限的過去，在我們離去之後一切要發生的事也都會被無限的將來所吞沒。 在這種情形之下，一個人若是自鳴得意，或是感到困擾，或是覺得懊惱，好像惱人的事是長期永久的場景一般，這人豈不是愚昧的嗎？

要記住，在整個宇宙中，你不過是佔著微小的一部分；還有宇宙存在的時間，你所分到的只是比一根頭髮還細的一段。在永恆的因果鏈中，你只不過是極其渺小的一環罷了。 (奧理略沉思錄 V:23, 24)

Don’t be carried away by imagination which sees only the surface, but help men as best you may and as they deserve, even though their loss be of something indifferent. Do not, however, imagine the loss to be an injury, for that habit is bad. (Aurelius Meditations Book V:36)

要提防被感官表面印象和自己的想像所迷惑。 反而要盡你所能提供人們應得的協助; 即使他們的損失對你來說是無關緊要的，仍該這樣做。 然而，不要以為損失是一種傷害，因為這心態是不健全的。(奧理略沉思錄 V:36)

Alexander the Great and his stable boy were levelled in death, for they were either taken up into the same life-giving principles of the Universe or were scattered without distinction into atoms. (Aurelius Meditations Book VI:24)

馬其頓王亞歷山大大帝和他的小馬夫不分貴賤都被死亡送到了同一境界，不是同歸於宇宙賦予生命的真髓，便是毫無區別地被分散成原子。(奧理略沉思錄 VI:24)

It is absurdly wrong that, in this life where your body does not give in, your spirit should be the first to surrender. (Aurelius Meditations Book VI:29)

面對生活的考驗, 肉體若尚未屈服心靈卻先行瓦解，這是一件大憾事。(奧理略沉思錄 VI:29)

Take heed not to be transformed into a 'Caesar', not to be dipped in the purple dye; for it does happen. Keep yourself therefore, simple, good, pure, grave, unaffected, the friend of justice....kind, affectionate, strong for your proper work. Wrestle to continue to be the man Philosophy wished to make you.....Life is brief. (Aurelius Meditations Book VI:30)

要當心不要變為一位妄自尊大的'凱撒王'， 也不要沾染那種色彩，因為人人都有這種危險。反而該認真做一個樸實而善良的人，純潔，嚴肅，平易近人，愛好公道，寬厚，仁愛，勇於負責。要努力在健全哲學的薰陶下做人。人生如白駒過隙，飛快地奔向盡頭。(奧理略沉思錄 VI:30)

Whenever you desire to cheer yourself, think upon the merits of those who are alive with you; the energy of one, for instance, the modesty of another, the generosity of a third, of another some other gift. For nothing is so cheering as the images of the virtues shining in the character of contemporaries, and meeting so far as possible in a group. Therefore you should keep them ready to your hand. (Aurelius Meditations Book VI:48)

每當你需要一點鼓勵，可以想想同儕們的優點; 例如，一個人做事很積極，一個謙遜有禮，一個慷慨好施，又另一個有其他值得欣賞的特質。 在同時代人的品格中閃耀著的美德要常記在心上，並儘可能找機會聚集在一起，因為沒有甚麼更能振奮人心。因此要盡力與他們保持聯繫。 (奧理略沉思錄 VI:48)

Habituate yourself not to be inattentive to what another has to say and, so far as possible, be in the mind of the speaker. (Aurelius Meditations Book VI:53)

該訓練自己細心聆聽別人說話，避免心不在焉; 盡可能要推己及人。(奧理略沉思錄 VI:53)

(A procession’s vain pomp, plays on a stage, flocks, herds, sham fights, a bone thrown to puppies, a crumb into fishponds, toiling and moiling of ants carrying their loads, scurrying of startled mice, marionettes dancing to strings.) Well, then, you must stand up in all this, kindly and not carrying your head proudly; yet understand that every man is worth just so much as the worth of what he has set his heart upon. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:3)

你置身在這環境中，要心平氣和，不可盛氣凌人，也必須知道一個人的價值跟他一心追求的事可以等量齊觀。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:3)

Do not be ashamed to be helped; the task before you is to accomplish what falls to your lot, like a soldier in a storming-party. Suppose you are lame and cannot scale the wall by yourself, yet it can be done with another’s help. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:7)

不要羞於接受援助。你的義務只是做好份內的事，好比一個突擊隊的士兵完成身上的任務一樣。 假如你瘸腿，無法全靠自身之力爬上牆堞，旁人伸手拉你一把豈不是一件美事嗎? (奧理略沉思錄 VII:7)

Let not the future trouble you; for you will come to it, if come you must, bearing with you the same reason which you are using now to meet the present. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:8)

別讓未來令你感到憂慮；即使你所擔心的事無法避開，只要繼續應用目前已有的理智去面對，也能度過。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:8)

Is it change that a man fears? Why, what can have come to be without change, and what is dearer or more familiar to Universal Nature? Can you yourself take your bath, unless the firewood changes? Can you be nourished, unless what you eat changes? Can any other service be accomplished without change? Do you not see that it is precisely your changing which is similar, and similarly necessary to Universal Nature? (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:18)

人通常會害怕生活中的改變，但有甚麼比這種變動對宇宙更要緊呢？除非燃料產生轉變，你怎能把水加熱洗澡呢? 食物在體內不轉化，你能得到需要的營養嗎？ 情況不轉變，人的需要能獲得滿足嗎? 你難道沒有看出，你個人的改變與宇宙自然的變化相似，同樣是必要的嗎？(奧理略沉思錄 VII:18)

When a man offends against you, think at once what conception of good or ill it was which made him offend. And, seeing this, you will pity him, and feel neither surprise nor anger. For you yourself still conceive either the same object as he does to be good, or something else of the same type; you are bound, therefore, to excuse him. If, on the other hand, you no longer conceive things of that kind to be goods or ills, you will the more easily be kind to one whose eye is darkened. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:26)

當一個人冒犯你時，該立即思索他對善惡的甚麼觀點導致他這樣做。 你若能了解別人對你行惡的原因，就能同情、理解他們，而因此避免感到困惑或發怒。 通過思考另一個人為何會以某種方式行事，或許可看出自己對善的看法與他相似而原諒他，或者發現看法不同而憐憫他思想扭曲到會犯如此大的錯誤。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:26)

Do not think of what are absent as though they were now existing, but ponder on the most fortunate of what you have got, and on account of them remind yourself how they would have been missed, if they had not been here. Take heed at the same time not to accustom yourself to overvalue the things you are thus contented to have, so as to be troubled if at any time they are not here. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:27)

別妄想擁有你所沒有的東西。 相反，該常思忖屬於自己的最大福分，並自我提醒要真心珍惜這些。 然而，同時也要注意，不要過度依賴那些美好的物事，否則失去了而造成不必要的苦惱。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:27)

Delve within; within is the fountain of good, and it is always ready to bubble up, if you always delve. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:59)

要向內看。善的泉源是內在的； 如果你肯發掘，它便會不斷地湧上來。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:59)

Perfection of character possesses this: to live each day as if the last, to be neither feverish nor apathetic, and not to act a part. (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:69

最理想的性格是這樣的: 每天要過得彷彿是活在世上最後一天似的，不激動，不麻痺，不虛偽。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:69)

When you have done good and another has been its object, why require a third thing besides, like the foolish—to be thought to have done good or to get a return? (Aurelius Meditations Book VII:73)

對人施恩，其人受惠，此外何必再要求甚麼呢? 別像愚昧人那樣，還期望旁人注意你的善舉而加以稱讚或酬報。(奧理略沉思錄 VII:73)

Accept without pride, relinquish without a struggle. (Aurelius Meditations Book VIII:33)

受惠而不驕傲，捨棄而不掙扎。(奧理略沉思錄 VIII:33)

Do not allow the imagination of the whole of your life to confuse you, do not dwell upon all the manifold troubles which have come to pass and will come to pass, but ask yourself in regard to every present piece of work: what is there here that can’t be borne and can’t be endured? You will be ashamed to make the confession. Then remind yourself that it is not the future or the past that weighs heavy upon you, but always the present, and that this gradually grows less, if only you isolate it and reprove your understanding.  (Aurelius Meditations Book VIII:36)

不要拿人生的過程想像成一個整體來折磨自己； 要避免沉浸在過去各樣臨到過你身上的痛苦，或未來怕要面對的麻煩。 反而該針對目前的個個困難捫心自問：“這裡真的有甚麼是我無法忍受的嗎?” 你大概會羞於承認情況並沒有所想的那麼無望! 然後提醒自己，造成苦惱的不是未來或過去，而是現在的境遇，而你若專心一一排除眼前的困難，生活便能漸漸順遂起來。(奧理略沉思錄 VIII:36)

If you suffer pain because of some external cause, what troubles you is not the thing but your decision about it, and this it is in your power to wipe out at once. But if what pains you is something in your own disposition, who prevents you from correcting your judgement? (Aurelius Meditations Book VIII:47)

遭遇外界挫折而感到煩惱時，使你困擾的其實不是事情本身，而是你對那件事的看法與判斷。這判斷你能立刻改變而消滅淨盡。再說, 如果你性格中有令自己苦惱的地方，誰能阻止你將它糾正過來呢? (奧理略沉思錄 VIII:47)

The cucumber is bitter? Put it down. There are brambles in the path? Step to one side. That is enough, without also asking: ‘Why did these things come into the world at all?’ (Aurelius Meditations Book VIII:50)

 「黃瓜是苦的嗎?」把它扔掉吧。「路上有荊棘嗎?」轉到一邊走就行。這樣已足夠了，用不著再苦惱地加上一句「世上為什麼竟要有這些令人不愉快的東西呢？」(奧理略沉思錄 VIII:50)

Today I escaped all circumstance, or rather I cast out all circumstance, for it was not outside me, but within, in my judgements. (Aurelius Meditations Book IX:13)

我今天脫離了一切煩惱，或該說我主動驅除了一切煩惱; 因為煩惱不是外在的，而是內在的，在我自己的心中。(奧理略沉思錄 IX:13)

All things are in change, and you yourself in continuous alteration and in a sense destruction. So, too, is the Universe as a whole. (Aurelius Meditations Book IX:19)

萬事萬物都在變化中，而你本身也正在某種意義上不斷地被銷毀並改變。整個宇宙亦是如此。(奧理略沉思錄 IX:19)

All that your eyes behold will very quickly pass away, and those who saw it passing will themselves also pass away very quickly; and he who dies in extreme age will be made equal in years with the infant who meets an untimely end. (Aurelius Meditations Book IX:33)

你眼所看見的一切不久就要消逝，看著那一切消逝的人不久同樣也要消亡；在儕輩中後死的和那夭折的嬰兒在墳墓裡是毫無差別的。 (奧理略沉思錄 IX:33)

Loss is nothing else but change. (Aurelius Meditations Book IX:35)

損失與變化，兩者性質完全相同。(奧理略沉思錄 IX:35)

The gods are either powerless or powerful. If then they are powerless, why do you pray? But if they are powerful, why not rather pray them for the gift to fear none of these things, to desire none of them, to sorrow for none of them, rather than that any one of them should be present or absent? That man prays: ‘How may I know that woman’; but you pray: ‘How may I not desire to know her.’ Another prays: ‘How may I get rid of him’; but you pray: ‘How may I not want to be rid of him.’ Another: ‘How may I not lose my little child’; but you pray: ‘How may I not be afraid to lose him.’ Turn your prayers round in this way and see what is the result. (Aurelius Meditations Book IX:40)

諸神要麼有力助人，要麼無能為力。 如果他們無力，你祈禱不是枉然的嗎？ 但是，他們若確實有能力，為甚麼請求不可能的事, 而不是祈求他們讓你無所畏懼，無所求，面對甚麼挫折而不感到悲痛呢？ 一個人可能祈禱：“我怎麼接近那位女孩呢?”； 但你該說：“我要如何才能不想認識她?”  另一個祈禱：“我怎麼能擺脫那個討厭的傢伙呢?”； 但你該求：“我要如何才能不想擺脫他?” 還有一個乞求：“我怎麼能避免失去我的小孩子?”； 你卻該改口說：“我要如何才能無懼失去他?” 你這樣將所求的反過來，看看結果如何。(奧理略沉思錄 IX:40)

Epicurus says: ‘In illness my conversation was not about the sufferings of my body, nor used I’, he says, ‘to talk to my visitors about such matters, but I continued to debate leading principles of science.  (Aurelius Meditations Book IX:41)

聽聽哲學家伊比鳩魯的怎麼說：「生病的時候，我不說出任何有關身體受苦的話，也不對來探病的人提這些事，只繼續跟他們談論科學最重要的原則。」(奧理略沉思錄 IX:41)

They despise one another, yet they flatter one another; they want to get above one another and yet bow down to one another. (Aurelius Meditations Book XI:14) 

他們互相蔑視，但還要彼此奉承；巴不得勝過別人，卻仍在對方面前匍匐鞠躬。(奧理略沉思錄 XI:14) 

How rotten and crafty is the man who says: ‘I have made up my mind to deal plainly with you.’ What are you about, my friend? This preface is not necessary. The intention will reveal itself, it ought to be graven on the forehead; the tone of voice should give that sound at once; the intention should shine out in the eyes at once. The simple and good man ought to be entirely such. But the affectation of simplicity is like a razor; nothing is uglier than the wolf’s profession of friendship. The good and simple and kind has these qualities in his eyes and they are not hidden. (Aurelius Meditations Book XI:15) 

人若對你說：「我要正直地待你！」那人何等地腐敗，何等地狡詐！這人，企圖到底何在？人根本無需這樣表白。誠意自然應刻在額上，顯在語調和眼神中。純正而良善的人本該如此。但冒充純潔的人好比一把短劍。狼對羊講交情，是天下最可惡之事。反而, 良善和藹的人的眼裡露出的好品德無可隱藏。(奧理略沉思錄 XI:15)