John J. Vinacci

Clearly not one of Arthur C. Clarke’s best works. Childhood’s End begins with the presence of aliens Overlords already established, with a human – U.N. Secretary-General Stormgren – as their mouthpiece. The Overlords begin their occupation as a veiled force that thrusts utopia upon humanity at the cost of humanity’s freedom and cultural identities with their human collaborators appearing to be largely trustful of the aliens’ unknown motives. But are the aliens trustworthy; do they have our best interests in mind? Or do they have some other motive for foisting utopia upon humanity? One would think this would be a major theme of the book but it’s actually not. Instead, the book meanders its way to being an occasionally interesting analysis of human purpose. The meandering is the book’s greatest flaw as it reads more like a series of loosely connected, extended vignettes rather than having a univocal message, or at least not an obvious one. For instance, with almost a fifth of the boo...

Starter Villain  by John Scalzi’s is my follow up read to his lighthearted Kaiju Preservation Society . From beginning to end, Starter Villain is packed full of soft (and sometimes sardonic) humor with a side of social commentary as it follows Charlie, a destitute, down-on-his-luck ex-business journalist turned substitute-teacher. Charlie’s only asset is the house of his late father, which really belongs to his siblings as well who want him to move out so they can sell it. Other than his faithful cat, Hera, life sucks for Charlie. After Charlie’s estranged uncle dies and leaves behind his fortune, allegedly attained from his parking garage empire, Charlie’s contacted by his uncle’s assistant who informs him that it was the final wish of his uncle to purchase his house from the family trust and gift it to Charlie outright, but only if he stands for his uncle at the funeral. And that’s when the fun begins. Charlie soon realizes there was more to his uncle’s life than being a parking...