Ahmed Writes

Book: ISLE OF THE DEAD Writer: Roger Zelazny Ace 1969 - First Edition This is not one of the best Zelaznys but, written in first person, it has his usual larger-than-life characters, poetic settings and thought-provoking inner monologues. In fact, my reason for selecting this book to include in the Bookscan blog series is one such monologue. Starting on page 61 and continuing on to page 62, I found this gem of thought: Inwardly, I wept for thee, Mother Earth, and the prodigees wrought upon thee. A government is born, it flourishes, strong is its nationalism and great its frontiers, then comes a time of solidification, division of labor unto specialization, and layers of management and chains of command, yes, and Max Weber spoke of this. He saw beaureaucracy in the necessary evolution of all instituions, and he saw that it was good. He saw that it was necessary and good. While it may be necessary, put a comma after that word and after the last one add "God" and an exclam...

Book: SACKET'S LAND Writer: Louis L'Amour Bantam, Louis L'Amour Collection Edition, 1982 This book, like so many of L'Amour's westerns, is fluff but entertaining fluff. This is one of his series of novels about the Sackett family and features Barnabas Sackett, who was the first of the Sacketts to move to America from Britain. Though there is nothing really special about the novel, the reason for selecting it for a Bookscan blog is that it took me into some side excursions - and I like side excursions. The book mentions some people from history. One of them was Hannibal. Looking up Hannibal lead me to Pyrrhus who has the dubious distinction of giving the expression "pyrrhic victory" to the English language. As defined by Merriam-Webster, a pyrrhic victory is a victory that comes at a great cost, like most of the actual victories of Pyrrhus. Two other names from the book that I looked up were John Leland (an antiquarian from Britain) and Richard Hakluyt...

Book: THE DREAM MASTER Writer: Roger Zelazny Paperback, Ace, 1966 - First Edition This novel incorporates Zelazny's Nebula Award winning novella, "He Who Shapes". This book displays Zelazny's signature writing style - poetic and complex - but in spite of it (or because of it?) it is a smooth read. The main character, Render the Shaper, is a psychiatrist who tries to help his patients by shaping dreams for them - dreams that have the potential to aid the patient in coming to terms with reality. There are some very interesting, and even insightful, passages in the book. For example, at one point, Render muses on the rising rate of suicides: The power to hurt has evolved in a direct relationship to technological advancement. Man's potential for working simple mayhem has been multiplied by mass-production; his capacity for injuring the psyche through personal contacts has expanded in an exact ratio to improved communication facilities. This passage took me on a ...

In this new year of 2022, I will be blogging information about some of the books that I read and enjoy. If any of those books take me on side excursions, I will be sharing those journeys too. "Bookscan" is the name I have given to this series of blogs. And here is Bookscan #1 Book: THE STARCROSSED Writer: Ben Bova TOR Paperback, 1988 This is a novel that I thoroughly enjoyed, starting from the gorgeous cover itself. In a way, the book is a tribute to Harlan Ellison and is dedicated to Cordwainer Bird. If you don't know who or what Cordwainer Bird is, I suggest googling it. Ellison, in the guise of the writer Ron Gabriel, is one of the main characters of the book. Obviously, Ben Bova had great fun writing this novel and this sense of fun leaps of the written pages. Definitely a good start to my 2022 book reading.

My book, Sparks, is now available for purchase at Amazon . Please check it out - and if you do buy it, email me your feedback at khan.ahmeda@gmail.com and I will post it on my blog.

The anthology, SF Waxes Philosophical, edited by me is now available from ZC Books . If you want to order a copy, contact ZC Books. It is a limited edition and will go soon.

Just found out that "Guardian" is blogging the Qur'an on a regular basis. Should be an interesting blog to follow. The introduction is HERE and the actual blog link is HERE .