Reviews and Comments

Although technically the third of a trilogy (but the end leaves plenty of room for more), this is really a direct sequel to the first book, A Fire Upon the Deep, which was somewhat hazy in my memory. So at the very least, this installment provides a valuable service in reminding me of the cool worldbuilding - all three stories are based in the clever Zones of Thought universe, but the first two books have different sets of aliens. Or rather, humans are the aliens, since they're the ones who drop out of the sky on these worlds. The native species here are the warm fuzzy doggy telepathic group intelligence type, which I might have found a bit confusing if I hadn't read the first book, and it's hard to read without constantly thinking "puppy! puppy!" but just like my neighbor dog who's always trying to take a bite out of my shin there's not all nice, the villains resembling a mixture of Cujo and a Bond villain. So there's some violence, not graphically depicted but pretty clearly stated, and, now I remember this from the first book, since most of the protagonists (and some antagonists) are youngsters, this did bother me (ever since the Hunger Games, it seems all YA novels are like The Purge). And there are huge stretches of everyone's falling for the villain's lies like they're a bunch of dummies, which is also irritating in real life. In fact, if I didn't know the publication date, I would have assumed the story's broad strokes were directed at the current political situation (there's even a group called The Deniers). So I wonder if the author was still with us today, what would he be writing?

Somewhat drily written, not to the extent of an academic paper but long sentences and some with semicolons, so this was a long bit by bit read for me. The authors are anti-indoor cat (which I gather is the general sentiment in England, but maybe living by an LA freeway will change your mind) and, somewhat interestingly but kind of bothers me, propose more selective breeding for cats to tone done their hunting instincts. Admittedly, they are experts who cite a lot of research (and point out the lack of some, e.g. with the accusations that cats are decimating endangered species), have actually trained their cats in a non-forceful manner that respects their independent and paranoid natures (the elaborate training prescriptions may have you thinking might as well get a dog instead), and obviously love their cats. I could have used this book two cats ago, and if I break down and get another one I'll give this a refresher read.

I've read one or two of Carter's autobiographical works, the biography by Jonathan Alter, and now this one. From what I can remember of Alter's work, that is the one I still highly recommend, but there's no reason you should read just one Carter bio, and this one is also comprehensive, I would say lighter on the childhood and early years (in fact, the section covering his early political career seemed so choppily written I speculated the author was impeded by a bout of covid, the timing seems right, or an overly aggressive editor), but really digs in through the presidential years, especially, a topic painful to my heart, the likelihood that the Reagan campaign sabotaged the Iranian hostage release. The post-presidential years are some consolation, and my e-reader told me there was another 20 percent of the book covering that but was misled, a huge chunk of that is the acknowledgements (well worth reading, too), bibliography, photo gallery, and book notes, so I guess I'd like to see a book devoted to the post-presidential accomplishments - this one highlights Carter's cowboy diplomacy negotiation of a nuclear freeze with North Korea (to the benefit and irritation of the Clinton administration) just as American troops were about to be sent over, but doesn't mention his similar dealing in Haiti that also obviated the need for an American troop landing, which I only know because I read it in the Alter bio. So again, for this president, one bio is not enough.