There are a lot of reviews that state this book mixes the comic, bizarre and frightening. I found nothing frightening about it.
Universities, Independent research labs, pharmaceutical companies all have blanket patents on genes. this is fact, legally in America today.
Next explores what happens when companies go beyond what they've gotten legal rights to do and create more. The problems with genetic modification, the problems with a company owning your "unwanted" tissue samples and feeling entitled to replenish their stock if something happens to their supply. Where does ownership end? their children? can that take it from you while still living?
How many types of genes separate humans from apes, what do these genes do? what can we do to them can we make a hybrid trans species ape that talks and reasons? What if it works? What do you do with the essentially child like creature when the company wants it destroyed as so much test subject waste?
At the end of the book are recommendations from Michael himself:
1 stop patenting genes.
2 establish clear guidelines for the uses of human tissue.
3 pass laws to ensure that data about gene testing is made public.
4 avoid bans on research
5 Rescind the Bayh-Dole Act. (from rjladya: I don't know if this has been done or not.)
Then there is a whole slew of books on genetics listed in a bibliography in the back.
Good book, makes you wonder about what is going on in places where research will never see the light of day. I recommend it highly.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
A Little Magic by Nora Roberts
Ok This is a collection of three romantic stories, they delve deeply into the beliefs and legends of Ireland.
Yes when I am depressed I read romance novels. sigh I admit it but I am very picky about the authors I choose and the type of stories I choose.
Spellbound- A man has dream of a woman through his whole life, she grows with him and he can not find a living woman to compare. Taking a break from his life as a photographer he travels to Ireland and much to his astonishment finds her.
Ever After- A woman who is more of a dreamer than practical is working as a tour guide helper to her sister. She loses her way and finds a lonely man living in the woods, a famous sculptor. She brings life and joy to his home and even though he was told she was meant for him he doesn't want to live his life the way fate dictates. Little does he know love freely given is not the chains he once feared.
In Dreams- A man who wields magic is betrayed by a woman he loved. He took a life and is punished for it by living in a dream state doomed to only have seven days of existence every hundred years. A woman in the midst of a personal crisis untouched by love wrecks her car in a storm and finds her way to him. IF she stays at the end of the seventh day she will live his existence with him. She doesn't believe in fairy tales but maybe this one man can teach her how to dream.
These three stories are short, novellas. The intimate scenes are romantic, not the descriptions of bodies writhing like in so many other romance novels.
Nora Roberts leave you with the feeling that in modern times you can find your fairy tale ending if you trust to fate, and a little magic.
Yes when I am depressed I read romance novels. sigh I admit it but I am very picky about the authors I choose and the type of stories I choose.
Spellbound- A man has dream of a woman through his whole life, she grows with him and he can not find a living woman to compare. Taking a break from his life as a photographer he travels to Ireland and much to his astonishment finds her.
Ever After- A woman who is more of a dreamer than practical is working as a tour guide helper to her sister. She loses her way and finds a lonely man living in the woods, a famous sculptor. She brings life and joy to his home and even though he was told she was meant for him he doesn't want to live his life the way fate dictates. Little does he know love freely given is not the chains he once feared.
In Dreams- A man who wields magic is betrayed by a woman he loved. He took a life and is punished for it by living in a dream state doomed to only have seven days of existence every hundred years. A woman in the midst of a personal crisis untouched by love wrecks her car in a storm and finds her way to him. IF she stays at the end of the seventh day she will live his existence with him. She doesn't believe in fairy tales but maybe this one man can teach her how to dream.
These three stories are short, novellas. The intimate scenes are romantic, not the descriptions of bodies writhing like in so many other romance novels.
Nora Roberts leave you with the feeling that in modern times you can find your fairy tale ending if you trust to fate, and a little magic.
Incubus Dreams by Laurel K. Hamilton
This is another one of her Anita Blake vampire hunter series, published in 2004
There are more Anita Blake novels but I haven't gotten to them yet. Yes this is another paranormal romance but there aren't very traditional romantic scenes in the book.
Anita is second to the master vampire of the city, has her own metaphysical bond to five different men for different reasons. Some of which are wereleopards,vampires, a vampire servant and some because thy were there at the time she hit a metaphysical crisis. Her day job is raising zombies, her night job is to assist the local police with crimes they might think are vampire related. Vampires have legal rights as citizens now but that doesn't make her job easier.
spoilers:
OK we all know that the Anita Blake books revolve around "intimate moments" to feed her vampire hunger, her wereanimal hungers, to keep her triumverates alive, and the ardeur, but my god there was so much of it with different pairings in a row that i started skimming for it to stop. After about twenty pages three quarters through the book I felt as if I had lost some plot in there somewhere. Yes Anita gets over some of her hangups and treats Nathanial the way he wants ot be treated, gets some of the closure she needs from Richard and helps Jean-Claude but somewhere I missed some plot. I don't know if its true but it feels like it.
oh I think I have a mental crush on Requiem.
658 pages long and it took me most of the day to read it. Have fun!
There are more Anita Blake novels but I haven't gotten to them yet. Yes this is another paranormal romance but there aren't very traditional romantic scenes in the book.
Anita is second to the master vampire of the city, has her own metaphysical bond to five different men for different reasons. Some of which are wereleopards,vampires, a vampire servant and some because thy were there at the time she hit a metaphysical crisis. Her day job is raising zombies, her night job is to assist the local police with crimes they might think are vampire related. Vampires have legal rights as citizens now but that doesn't make her job easier.
spoilers:
OK we all know that the Anita Blake books revolve around "intimate moments" to feed her vampire hunger, her wereanimal hungers, to keep her triumverates alive, and the ardeur, but my god there was so much of it with different pairings in a row that i started skimming for it to stop. After about twenty pages three quarters through the book I felt as if I had lost some plot in there somewhere. Yes Anita gets over some of her hangups and treats Nathanial the way he wants ot be treated, gets some of the closure she needs from Richard and helps Jean-Claude but somewhere I missed some plot. I don't know if its true but it feels like it.
oh I think I have a mental crush on Requiem.
658 pages long and it took me most of the day to read it. Have fun!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Vampire of the Mists (Ravenloft Books Book1)
I have the September 1991 version with the old Ravenloft logo and original cover art.
TSR decided that it would be a good idea to make a bunch of open ended Ravenloft books, this is the first one in this series. That way the only thing that continues the story is the main villian Count Strahd Von Zarovich.
WARNING: the ending is not a happy one, fitting yes happy no.
Jander Sunstar is a sun elf. He is native to Evermeet in the Forgotten Realms. Yes TSR makes their worlds connect. Jadar was turned into a vampire at the young age of 200 barely the beginning of his elven existance. Five hundred years later, while wishing he could kill himself and get it over with he meets a woman in an asylum who was magically cursed and seemed insane. He takes care of her and when she dies it destroys what little is left in him of the light. He screams to the heavens for vengance against the one who made her this way and the mists answer.
He finds himself transported to the realm of ravenloft and there is where his downfall starts. Add a gypsys, a young priest some good folklore, and sit down with a box of tissues because our Elf does not survive.
Its a good start to the Ravenloft books. I still hate Strahd but its one of those fun kind of hates that we have for a favorite villian.
If you are a dragonlance, ravenloft, forgotten realms or other d&d world fan this is like old home week. have fun, took me three hours to read.
TSR decided that it would be a good idea to make a bunch of open ended Ravenloft books, this is the first one in this series. That way the only thing that continues the story is the main villian Count Strahd Von Zarovich.
WARNING: the ending is not a happy one, fitting yes happy no.
Jander Sunstar is a sun elf. He is native to Evermeet in the Forgotten Realms. Yes TSR makes their worlds connect. Jadar was turned into a vampire at the young age of 200 barely the beginning of his elven existance. Five hundred years later, while wishing he could kill himself and get it over with he meets a woman in an asylum who was magically cursed and seemed insane. He takes care of her and when she dies it destroys what little is left in him of the light. He screams to the heavens for vengance against the one who made her this way and the mists answer.
He finds himself transported to the realm of ravenloft and there is where his downfall starts. Add a gypsys, a young priest some good folklore, and sit down with a box of tissues because our Elf does not survive.
Its a good start to the Ravenloft books. I still hate Strahd but its one of those fun kind of hates that we have for a favorite villian.
If you are a dragonlance, ravenloft, forgotten realms or other d&d world fan this is like old home week. have fun, took me three hours to read.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Dark Tower by Stephen King (Book 7)
I put off reading this book because I didn't want to end the tale, and an epic tale it is.
Mr. King started the dark tower series in 1970 and finished it in 2003.
(I take a knee and say Thankee-sai King)
This book is well worth waiting for. All of our epic struggles, the fear, the hopes the years of waiting to hear how this was going to end and I can't even begin to describe it to you.
~
Roland, the gunslinger, must stop the Crimson King from reaching the Tower, if he does not all worlds, all versions of our world will be destroyed (thrown into Discordia). Roland is the last of his bloodline, (the line of Eld) and only he can climb the stairs and save the tower.
~
Do you want to know if he makes it?
Does Everyone die?
Does Roland live through it?
What about the other characters and references from over fifteen other books King has written outside of these seven?
~
You learn everything here, and more than you wanted to know.
(let me know when you get out of odd's lane.)
I am trying not to give away secrets from this book or any of the others and this is hard, there's a part of my heart that wants to sing the song of the rose to the heavens, and a part of me that weeps, actually did weep as I closed that back cover.
Stephen King said at the end of this book, I am going to paraphrase a paragraph into a sentence here:
If you don't like the ending don't yell at me this is how its supposed to end.
~
He's right, you won't like all of it, you may not like any of it, but the ending feels RIGHT.
That's why I cried and I'm going to save these books and give them to my son when he's old enough to read them for himself.
Mr. King started the dark tower series in 1970 and finished it in 2003.
(I take a knee and say Thankee-sai King)
This book is well worth waiting for. All of our epic struggles, the fear, the hopes the years of waiting to hear how this was going to end and I can't even begin to describe it to you.
~
Roland, the gunslinger, must stop the Crimson King from reaching the Tower, if he does not all worlds, all versions of our world will be destroyed (thrown into Discordia). Roland is the last of his bloodline, (the line of Eld) and only he can climb the stairs and save the tower.
~
Do you want to know if he makes it?
Does Everyone die?
Does Roland live through it?
What about the other characters and references from over fifteen other books King has written outside of these seven?
~
You learn everything here, and more than you wanted to know.
(let me know when you get out of odd's lane.)
I am trying not to give away secrets from this book or any of the others and this is hard, there's a part of my heart that wants to sing the song of the rose to the heavens, and a part of me that weeps, actually did weep as I closed that back cover.
Stephen King said at the end of this book, I am going to paraphrase a paragraph into a sentence here:
If you don't like the ending don't yell at me this is how its supposed to end.
~
He's right, you won't like all of it, you may not like any of it, but the ending feels RIGHT.
That's why I cried and I'm going to save these books and give them to my son when he's old enough to read them for himself.
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