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The Compleat Enchanter (Incomplete Enchanter, volume 1) by L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt

Harold Shea seeks escape from mundane life in tales of myth and magic.

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/lost-in-a-good-book
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An average issue, with interesting stories by Michelle Z. Jin, Anne Wilkins and Ferenc Samsa.

• "Tomorrow. Today." by R.T. Ester: on the relationship between a father and his son, when the son has to make a decision about his life that may not be his after all.

• "Imperfect Simulations" by Michelle Z. Jin: on a human colony on another one world, one person hides his skill at predicting how people would behave by internally simulating their behaviours. But when Earth starts to cut off supplies to the colony, his simulations would reveal just what is happening. But what needs to be done may be a surprise, even to him.

• "The Cold Burns" by Anne Wilkins: in a 'Utopian' society where everybody is measured by how much they consume, one person struggles to lower his consumption footprint, which doing his job at moving frozen people to a new colony. Then he learns the truth about what really happens to the frozen people, and learns that his utopia is not one at all.

• "The Hole" by Ferenc Samsa: in an unusual country where 'golems' do most of the work, people indulge in entertainment shows (even peep shows) put up by other people. As two people has a conversation through a peephole, it is revealed that one golem has gone rogue and gained intelligence. One of the persons in the conversation is hunting the golem, but he may be the hunted by assassins sent by the golem, unless he can turn the tables.

• "Between Here and Everywhere" by Robert Reed: an archaic man may be the key to ending a search by a ship in space for a lost prize.

• "This Sepulchral Aegis" by Rob Gillham: a generation ship lost in space discovers a lifeboat harbouring a more advanced human. The human was to return to where it was found, but must convince the lonely captain of the ship to do so. But the way to do that may be via the captain's sleeping sister, and by revealing the secret to the captain's long life.

• "Home Grown" by Madeleine Vigneron: only one of two sisters can travel on a ship heading to another world. During the travel, she imagines the life her sister is having back on earth so vividly that she has a crisis and needs to recover to keep on living.

A fun little book that honour J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth by illustrating and rhyming about the deaths that feature in the books. It starts with “A is for Arwen, done in by sorrow.” and ends with Z, one of the more notable deaths in the books.

The A-Z list is followed by a note from the author about how the book got started. Then an appendix is given, showing how each death was illustrated, along with information about the character featured in the death. This is helpful for general readers not familiar with the works of Tolkien, and may persuade them to read the books to find out more about the character themselves.

A fascinating book that gathers together what is known about Spinosaurus, and related species, and presents them in a way that will interest both general readers and specialist (dinosaur and fossil lovers). The author is careful to state what the fossils actually tell us about Spinosaurus, and to provide speculations based on comparisons with other dinosaur families. At various times, the author does say that new fossil discoveries can invalidate what he says, so this should be not be considered an authoritative book with the final word on Spinosaurus.

The book starts out with an introduction to Spinosaurus and why it now in the limelight. Being the main dinosaur 'villain' in the film "Jurassic Park 3" made Spinosaurus well known to the public. Fewer fossils of Spinosaurus are known, especially compared to those for T. rex, and are fragmentary, resulting in media headlines whenever new significant fossils of Spinosaurus are discovered, helping to keep it in the news. But much of the public info on Spinosaurus is incorrect and not based on fossil evidence, which is fragmentary and more prone to reinterpretation.

Next, the author gives a brief history of dinosaurs and the position of Spinosaurus in the family tree, which is somewhat speculative due to a lack of early Spinosaur fossils that would help to place its location and origins.

The anatomy of Spinosaurus is then presented, starting with the head (which has more complete fossils), the neck, body, arms, legs and tail. Despite the lack of a complete skeleton of Spinosaurus, the fossil fragments reveal a very unusual dinosaur: one with a long head, a huge sail that rises above the back (with another sail above the tail) and comparatively short legs. This starts a debate over how Spinosaurus moved (two versus four legs) and whether it could swim. For now, the consensus is that it moved on two legs and can wade in water, but not swim.

The long head, which resembles alligators, presents a case that Spinosaurus was a fish eater. But this does not mean that Spinosaurus did not feed on other animals, like turtles or reptiles. The location of Spinosaur fossils indicates that it inhabits waterways and coastlines, and probably interacted with other animals (and dinosaurs) in those locations. While there is (yet) little evidence on what the sail on Spinosaurus is used for, the author speculates that it may be used as a social display or a mating display.

In the end, the author does a good job of separating fact from fiction about what is now known about Spinosaurs, making this a good book to read to learn about what it really is, rather than what is presented about it in films or hyperbolic press releases.

An interesting book that looks at how organisms lie and cheat to deceive others and gain an advantage. This lying is not planned; it arises by evolution by natural selection because any organism that gets ahead by lying would pass on its genes to future generations of liars. The author then ties in this lying in nature with the nature of human liars, showing that while people may knowingly cheat, the reasons for human lying are still the same: to get an advantage over another person.

The author first shows that lying and deception occur at all levels in nature and is done by many organisms, whether they may be animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, viruses, or even genes. And this lying is a driver for evolutionary change: if lying did not benefit an organism, it would not be passed on.

Lying naturally arises when animals communicate with other animals to get better access to resources. Cheaters can benefit by communicating false information that give them better access: like sending an alarm call to make others flee while it goes for food. Getting or prevent access to females is a reason for male animals to cheat. Cheaters can also bluff to intimidate rivals. But there is a trade-off: too much cheating might lead others to discount or ignore the cheating signals (like in the story of the boy who cried wolf too many times).

Deception can work because it is exploiting loopholes in the perception or behaviour of others. Acts like playing dead work because some animals prefer live prey. Feigning injury can cause a predator to chase the wrong kind of prey (ones that can later escape). Mimicry is another deception that can be used to either attract prey or to hide from predators. So is camouflage. These deceptions cause evolution to act to counter them, leading to an evolutionary race between deceivers and deception countermeasures.

Despite all these deceptions, it is still possible for honesty to arise. This is possible if the cost of cheating is higher than the cost of sending an honest signal. Animals can regulate behaviour, such that sending a false signal would result in punishment. Differences in males and females requires different kinds of honest signals. Females need access to resources (to produce and raise young), while males want access to females. One result of this is that while most females may be socially monogamous, they may not be sexually monogamous (to get access to a more sexually alluring male). For males, being more sexually alluring may mean sending an honest signal by handicapping themselves to prove their worth: like the tail of peacocks or the antlers of stags. For humans, this can also mean producing new works of art or acquiring items of worth.

One way females can cheat on resources is by making others raise their young. This brood parasitism is practiced by cuckoo birds and other animals, leading to countermeasures to prevent it. This will spur the production of new traits and behaviours, based on the need for cuckoos to continue cheating and for their victims to detect this cheating behaviour.

After showing how cheating works in nature, the author looks at cheating among humans and shows that our cheating behaviour comes about naturally for the same reasons. We cheat to get better access not only to resources, but also to increase our reputation or status. Humans are unique in that cheating can be institutional: people free ride at work to get paid for doing nothing, for example.

Humans can also deceive themselves, as shown in the Dunning-Krueger effect (where many people over-estimate their abilities). This happens because lying requires a larger cognitive load in humans (needed to keep 'the story straight' when lying). Self-deception is a way to reduce this cognitive load: by believing your own self-deceptions and lies, it can make it easier for other to believe your lies. Lying to yourself is also a way that placebos and alternative medicine works, but the benefits here depend on the person. But self-deception can also lead to over-confidence and cognitive bias against information that does not agree with the self-deception. Being humble and self-critical can counteract bias, and lead a person to have a better grasp of reality.

The author then looks at how we can live in a world when lying is normal. It turns out that in a society, honesty is more about social norms. While we should be personally honest, we do need to tell the occasional lie (white lies) for society to keep functioning, and for people to have socially acceptable behaviours. Thus, while lying can never be eliminated from society, it is possible to educate people to detect certain lies (like scams and frauds) that are not socially acceptable.

Abeni and the Kingdom of Gold (Abeni’s Song, volume 2) by P. Djèlí Clark

In which history long forgotten is recovered.

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/forgotten