Back in the 1990s, VH1 and MTV issued compilation CDs with various themes. VH-1 8-TRACK FLASHBACK: THE ONE-HIT WONDERS presents a variety of “hits” by performers and groups who had their moment in the sun…and then faded away. Do you remember these songs? Any favorites? GRADE: B

TRACK LIST:

Here is another volume in the SCIENCE FICTION COLLECTION series by the Science Fiction Book Club. PRESS ENTER was first published in 1984 and this edition with David G. Hartwell’s excellent Introduction was published in 1997. John Varley’s PRESS ENTER is a NEBULA WINNER from 1984 and a HUGO WINNER from 1985.

Press Enter is a story ahead of its time. Written in the early 1980s when cyber technology was crude, this story anticipates the sinister aspects of computers and Artificial Intelligence. When Korean War veteran, Victor Apfel, discovers his neighbor, Charles Kluge, has died and bequeathed a significant inheritance to him, he’s suspicious. But the Los Angeles Police Department is satisfied that Kluge died by suicide. Yet an investigation by Caltech computer expert Lisa Foo reveals that Kluge was hacking  into dangerous, secretive government agencies who may have been involved in his death. Following Kluge’s trail exposes Apfel and Foo to potentially the same fate that Kluge encountered.

With the current crisis with hackers shutting down the oil pipeline (which is sending gas prices skyward!), it’s astonishing Varley anticipated this kind of computer menace nearly 40 years ago!

When I first read PRESS ENTER in 1984, I was blown away by John Varley’s story. But I was also outraged–like many fans were–with the story’s conclusion. Nonetheless, PRESS ENTER is one of those dazzling SF stories that successfully predicts the Future. GRADE: A

I’ve been a fan of revenge books and movies since I read Brian Garfield’s novel Death Wish in 1972 and saw the Charles Bronson movie of the same name from 1974. Bronson decides to seek revenge on criminals after his family is attacked.

Carey Mulligan plays Cassie Thomas, a 30-year-old medical school dropout who works in a coffee shop and lives with her parents.  Cassie dropped out of med school after her best friend, Nina, was gang raped by fellow students. The crime was reported, but nothing was done.

Cassie now goes to bars and pretends she’s drunk. Men take Cassie home and try to have sex with her, but Cassie confronts them and ruins their plans.

Emerald Fennell, who wrote and directed Promising Young Woman, puts Cassie in danger. She makes risky decisions. But, when Cassie learns the truth about her boyfriend, and comes into possession of a key bit of evidence about the rape, she goes into full revenge mode. Promising Young Woman is a powerful movie that stay with you days after you’ve watched it. GRADE: B+

Michael Lewis follows a group of healthcare professionals who discovered the Pandemic before any of the Government agencies did. My favorite character is Charity Dean, a gifted California health official, who recognizes the threat of the Covid-19 virus way before the Centers for Disease Control had it on their radar. And Dr. Dean takes action, which the CDC avoids.

I also admire Richard Hatchett and Carter Mecher, who were part of the pandemic planning team under the George W. Bush administration and continued to work on pandemic preparedness under the Obama administration. John Bolton, Trump’s national security advisor, fired Tom Bossert (the Homeland Security Advisor) and demoted or fired everyone on the biological threat team (p. 163). After that, the Trump Administration had no contingency plans for pandemics.

Michael Lewis shows how a country with advanced medicine and vast health resources completely failed to protect its citizens from the coronavirus. New estimates claim close to a million Americans died from Covid-19. Joe DeRisi, a brilliant biologist, estimated that the U.S. should have lost 180,000 if all the pandemic preparations had been put into practice. Obviously, they weren’t.

The Premonition is in some ways a sequel to Lewis’s last book, The Fifth Risk (you can read my review here). In The Fifth Risk Lewis showed how Trump loaded the Federal agencies with political hacks and incompetent staff. Lewis predicted that when things would go wrong, the Federal Government would be inept at meeting the challenges. Lewis was right.

The Premonition is the best non-fiction book I’ve read in 2021. It’s funny, it’s sad, and it’s real. I highly recommend it. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction: The missing Americans — xii

PART 1

Prologue: The looking glass — 3

ONE: Dragon — 10

TWO: The making of a public-health officer — 23

THREE: The pandemic thinker — 50

FOUR: Stopping the unstoppable — 78

FIVE: Clairvoyance — 112

PART 2

SIX: The red phone — 135

SEVEN: The redneck epidemiologist — 160

EIGHT: In Mann Gulch — 186

NINE: The L6 — 209

PART 3

TEN: The bug in the system — 241

ELEVEN: Plastic flowers — 270

EPILOGUE: The sin of omission — 297

Acknowledgments –303

I really enjoyed Catfishing on CatNet (2019) which won an Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery (you can read my review here). Chaos on CatNet has just been published and I enjoyed this sequel just as much as the original novel.

Naomi Kritzer puts teenager Steph and her programmer mother in danger in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Steph meets a new friend at school, Nell, whose mother is an ardent follower of a religious cult. The cult’s social media encourages destructive and violent acts. Steph and Nell, with the help of their Artificial Intelligence ally, CheshireCat, try to discover the source and strategy behind the rioting.

Once again, the teenagers are way ahead of the adults in investigating the strange conspiracies swirling around the cult and the social media app. If you’re in mood for following a group of intrepid teenagers threatened by mysterious forces as they penetrate the secrets that have national implications, Chaos on CatNet amps up the suspense and thrills! GRADE: A

This new collection of Science Fiction stories by Robert Silverberg includes some classics like “In Another Country” and “Ship-Sister, Star-Sister” as well as some very early stories from the 1950s and early 1960s like “The Sixth Palace” and “Why.”

“In Another Country” is a companion story to C. L. Moore’s very moving “Vintage Season” where a group of Time Travelers visit the Past at certain key moments. “Ship-Sister, Star-Sister” concerns a pair of sisters who are linked through telepathy. But when their thoughts are interrupted by static, they make an incredible discovery.

“The Sixth Palace” is a puzzle story. A robot guards a deserted palace full of rare and valuable objects. The robot will only let someone have access to the riches if they answer its questions correctly. Many have failed (and were destroyed by the robot) but two adventurers are willing to try anyway.

“We Are For the Dark” is the longest story in this collection. It concerns a religious cult that seeks to form a galactic empire, but at the extreme margins, something is going very wrong. A trouble-shooter is sent to find out what is happening and discovers something astonishing.

In addition to these great stories, Silverberg also provides interesting Introductions to each story putting them in context and revealing how the stories actually came to be written. If you’re looking for some wonderful reading, I highly recommend Voyagers. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction by Robert Silverberg — i

In Another Country — 1

Travelers — 81

Chip Runner — 101

Looking For The Fountain — 119

Ship-Sister, Star-Sister — 144

The Changeling — 173

We Are For The Dark — 196

The Trouble With Sempoanga — 271

The Sixth Palace — 283

Why? — 297

The Pleasure Of Their Company — 312

Thebes Of The Hundred Gates — 331

Back in the 1990s, TV shows started issuing soundtracks just like movies did. One of those TV shows was Mad About You.

Mad About You was an American sitcom television series starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a married couple in New York City. The series proved successful with a total of 164 half-hour episodes for seven seasons.

Mad About You  aired on NBC from September 23, 1992, to May 24, 1999, winning numerous awards including four Golden Globe Awards and twelve Primetime Emmy Awards. The show’s theme song, “Final Frontier”, was composed by Paul Reiser and Don Was.  “Final Frontier” was originally performed by Andrew Gold, but a version performed by Anita Baker made its debut in Season 5, Were you a fan of Mad About You? Do you remember this music? GRADE: B

TRACK LIST:

Subterranean Press published this Alastair Reynolds novella in 2008 and I just got around to reading it. Ariunaa Boecheng (aka, Yellow Dog) is an secret agent for a Mongol dominated galactic empire. But, at the edge of the Empire, mysterious phantom ships keep appearing. Ariunaa is sent to investigate, but is discovered and tortured by the local warlord, Qilian. Qilian, once he determines who Ariunaa really is, puts her in charge of the search for more phantom ship artifacts.

When a live survivor from one of the phantom ships is recovered, Qilian joins Ariunaa and the pilot on a mission to find the source of these alien incursions.

Like most Alastair Reynolds stories, space opera aspects dominate the action. If you’re in the mood for some galactic adventures, The Six Directions of Space will deliver some epic thrills. GRADE: A

Whether you like Mark Wahlberg (aka, Marky Mark) or not, you’ll appreciate the relentless work ethic this actor and entrepreneur displays in this HBO documentary series. In six half-hour segments, we watch Wahlberg trying to get the businesses he’s invested in to become successful. F45 is a workout company with a number of gyms for people who want to be physically fit. Wahlberg not only shows his rigorous workout routine, he makes commercials for F45.

Municipal is a start-up clothing company that Wahlberg thinks has potential to appeal to an audience who want comfortable clothing with basic style. Wahlberg is also interested in investing in Green Zebra, a healthy food chain of convenience stores. And, of course, there’s Wahlburgers, the restaurant chain run by Wahlberg’s brother, Bob. And all this activity is filmed by Wahlberg’s production company, Unrealistic Ideas.

All of these businesses come crashing down when the Coronavirus Pandemic hits. Wahlberg’s relentless work ethic can’t overcome the effects of the virus as the gyms close, his movie is put on hold, the clothing company’s rollout is delayed, and Green Zebra starts shutting down stores. If I was still teaching Business at the College, I’d show this series to my students. Hard decisions are made, people lose their jobs, tons of money are lost. I hope there’s a Season Two of Wahl Street in the works. GRADE: A