Is there a purpose and meaning behind history? Or is it all just random human activity playing itself out on the world stage? From the very beginning of the Iliad Homer ponders what “the will of Zeus” can be. But have we really seen the will of Zeus being done? What exactly was accomplished by all this brutality and tragedy on the beaches of Troy? A broader question comes to mind regarding the meaning of history. We’ve seen many Greeks and Trojans hurled down to their final destiny in the house of Hades. When the last page of the Iliad is turned the reader comes to these closing lines: “So they performed the funeral rites of Hector, tamer of horses.” We would do well to go back and see how this whole sad story began: “Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians, hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished…” We’ve seen the anger of Peleus’ son Achilles.
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Bazarov rejects all authority, all so-called truths that are based on faith rather than science and experience. At the novel's center stands Evgeny Bazarov, medical student, doctor's son, and self-proclaimed nihilist. It's true today and it was true in Russia, in 1862, when Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons first appeared. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influencesbiographical, historical, and literaryto enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.
James Blish A Case of Conscience 1958 is an interesting example of the premise of faith versus science, but the contest never really happens in the book. Take it from me anyone who doubts evolution now is on a hiding to nothing. Most people are probably not abreast of recent developments. It has never been challenged but has been built on by the revolution in molecular biology and computer technology. The modern synthesis theory of evolution was formulated in the 1930s. Darwin was wrong about several things because he didn’t have the knowledge at the time. To counter creationism: Charles Darwin was a genius but he didn’t invent evolution. (One can always drag up an extreme scientist or pseudo-scientist, not part of the mainstream, to help.) Creationism or anti-evolution and climate science are good examples. An age it seems where peer reviewed science can be debated as if there could be another side. The genre has been in decline for some time, perhaps because we’ve entered an age of ignorance about science. A box of my old books turned up out of a time warp and I’ve decided to re-read them. I’ve been a keen science fiction reader most of my life, though less so in recent years as there seems to be less SciFi about. This essay first appeared at his blog, Breadtag Sagas.Ī Case of Conscience by James Blish is #59 on the Classics of Science Fiction list. If that seems hard to wrap your head around, well, that’s rather the point: At the heart of Leckie’s series is a profound grappling with the way identity-our very sense of self-is imagined, is regulated, and shifts over time. Breq is One Esk Nineteen, a single segment of Justice of Toren, but she also is the A.I. Every now and then, for one reason or another, a book sometimes gets lost in the shuffle and ends up back. Ancillary Mercy Breq and her crew must stand against an old and powerful enemy and fight for their own destinies in the stunning conclusion to the New. Adjoa Andoh is simply outstanding as the narrator. Ann Leckie wraps up her Ancillary series with a tense, complex and immersive take. (The three novels in the trilogy are named after the three classes of ships: Justice, Sword, and Mercy.) The protagonist of the series calls herself Breq she was once an ancillary and is the sole survivor of the destruction of the Radchaai ship Justice of Toren. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch 3). Ancillary Mercy By: Ann Leckie Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins 4.5 out of 5. The enormous spaceships Radchaai use to annex and regulate planets are installed with artificial intelligences these A.I.s control “ancillaries,” people from conquered planets who are implanted with technology that wipes out their identities and renders them human appendages of their ships. In the far-future space of Leckie’s trilogy, the Radchaai Empire has controlled a vast portion of the galaxy for thousands of years through the annexation of human-occupied planets. |