Bone Hunter, by Sarah Andrews. St. Martin's Press, 1999. 353 pp. 0-312-97317-9.
... in which a forensic geologist tracks down the murderer of a famous paleontologist.
This poor little battered up paperback has been following me around the United States since the summer of 2007, when I picked it up in a little bookshop in Jackson, Wyoming. It then traveled with me to Montana, Idaho, back to Wyoming, back to Idaho, Missouri, back to Idaho again, and then Ohio. Only now did I get around to reading it, and now I kind of see why I was putting it off, despite my natural affinity for geologists named Emily.
The premise is interesting... a geologist Emily Hansen has earned a reputation for using her geological knowledge to help detectives crack their murder cases. Bone Hunter is from somewhere in the middle of the Em Hansen mystery series, but I did not find that previous knowledge of the series was necessary. The story opens with Em arriving in Salt Lake City to attend a paleontology conference. She's staying with a famous paleontologist, the sort of guy you see in documentaries on National Geographic. Unfortunately for her, her host ends up dead in the Utah desert, and Em is the prime suspect. To clear her name, Em teams up with a local cop and starts digging into the murder victim's secrets and questioning his colleagues.
As far as murder mystery protagonists go, Em Hansen is pretty unique. She's not a cop or an FBI agent, and she doesn't have a special animal sidekick... all she has is a good understanding of stratigraphy and sedimentology. The rest of the characters, however, are pretty by-the-book.
The plot of the book was pretty bland... it might be because Em was a suspect in the murder case, but she seemed to do a lot of following the cop around and reacting to what she learned from him, as opposed to much active investigation of her own. She also doesn't get many opportunities to actually exercise her knowledge of geology, but that is probably also due to the fact that she's a suspect, not an independent consultant brought in to help on the case. So, most of the book revolves around her chatting with the paleontologists at the conference, and finding out that the murder victim was involved with some Fundamentalist Mormons who lived deep in the desert. The ending of the book is fairly action-packed, which makes up for the slower pace of the rest of the novel, but unfortunately the killer ends up being the most obvious person. Never a good thing in a mystery.
I feel like this book was on the edge of being something really good... but ended up falling a little short. From researching the series online, I gather that this book is actually something of a transition novel, since it introduces one character who becomes important later in the series. In the end, I'd be willing to read other books from the series, not because of the strength of Bone Hunter, but because of the hint of what kind of book it could have been.
3/5 stars.
Showing posts with label paleontology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paleontology. Show all posts
Monday, April 25, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Remarkable Creatures, by Tracy Chevalier
Remarkable Creatures, by Tracy Chevalier. Penguin Books, 2009. 312 pp. 978-0-452-29672-5.
... in which two women in 19th century England hunt for fossils and change the course of paleontology as a science.
Remarkable Creatures is the fictionalized account of the lives and friendship of two real women, Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, who lived in Lyme Regis, a small town on the southern coast of England. The story begins when Elizabeth Philpot moves to Lyme with her two sisters. The Philpot sisters are members of the respectable upper class of English society, but when it became clear that all three sisters were destined for spinsterhood, their brother sent them from London to live modestly in a cottage in Lyme. Upon arriving in Lyme, Elizabeth discovers a fondness for walking along the beach and finding fossils hidden in the cliffs exposed by the ocean. Mary Anning, the daughter of a cabinetmaker in Lyme, soon begins to accompany Elizabeth on her fossil-hunting walks. Although twenty years younger than Elizabeth, Mary soon proves to be a more talented fossil hunter and eventually Mary and Elizabeth form an unlikely friendship, despite being separated by England's rigid social strata. The story follows Mary and Elizabeth through decades of friendship, as their discoveries of fossilized dinosaurs and marine reptiles begin to make their way to museums and are studies by the greatest scientists of the day.
This novel is certainly not an action-packed story. Instead, the primary focus is on the unlikely friendship between the two women, and their continuous battle against the restraints imposed on them by their rigid society. As a reference point, Elizabeth Philpot is a contemporary of Jane Austen, so all of the rules that applied in Austen's work are also present here. The story alternates between Elizabeth's perspective and Mary's perspective, offering us glimpses into their lives in the respectable upper class and in the working class, respectively.
Probably the most fascinating part of this book is the novelized glimpse it gives us into events which turn out to be historically significant. When Elizabeth and Mary were finding their fantastic fossils of plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs, the scientific and religious communities of Europe were first beginning to address issues like extinction, age of the earth, and geologic change. Scientists were tentatively suggesting that the earth was not created in seven days, and that at some point in the earth's history, animals had lived and gone extinct. These ideas were challenged by the more literal-minded members of society, who insisted that the earth was 10,000 years old and that the concept of extinction challenged the supposition that God's creation was perfect and unchanging. Mary Anning, considered to be one of the most significant women in the history of science, contributed greatly to this debate with her discovery of her fossils, and Elizabeth Philpot taught Mary about all of the ideas being presented by the great minds of geology. Unfortunately, neither woman received much recognition for their contributions, though Mary Anning did achieve some fame for being a good specimen hunter.
The book is also peppered with appearances by some of the most significant scientists in modern times. William Buckland, a prominent geologist who spent his life trying to bridge the gap between geologic evidence and Biblical literalism, is an important character in Mary and Elizabeth's lives, and is one of the first to publicly recognize Mary's contributions. Georges Cuvier, the famous anatomist, makes a brief appearance. At the end of the novel, a young Charles Lyell even drops by to pay a visit to Mary. For those of you not well versed in the history of science, Charles Lyell is to geology as Isaac Newton is to physics. Charles Lyell would go on to write his famous Principles of Geology, which went on to inspire ideas in people like Charles Darwin. I wish I had read this book when I was a junior in college writing a term paper on the role of religion and geology in the 1800s!
But I digress. The strength of this book is in the voice it gives to two extraordinary women who have been passed over by history. As a fictionalized account of real events, I know the author had to have taken some artistic liberties, but nevertheless we are presented with two fully realized, three dimensional characters who defy the standards of their time to make their mark on the world. My only complaint is that I wish the book had been longer, because the ending feels a bit rushed and crammed and story ends decades before either Mary or Elizabeth pass away.
Recommended reading for anyone with an interest in historical fiction, fossils and paleontology, or geology.
5/5 stars
... in which two women in 19th century England hunt for fossils and change the course of paleontology as a science.
Remarkable Creatures is the fictionalized account of the lives and friendship of two real women, Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, who lived in Lyme Regis, a small town on the southern coast of England. The story begins when Elizabeth Philpot moves to Lyme with her two sisters. The Philpot sisters are members of the respectable upper class of English society, but when it became clear that all three sisters were destined for spinsterhood, their brother sent them from London to live modestly in a cottage in Lyme. Upon arriving in Lyme, Elizabeth discovers a fondness for walking along the beach and finding fossils hidden in the cliffs exposed by the ocean. Mary Anning, the daughter of a cabinetmaker in Lyme, soon begins to accompany Elizabeth on her fossil-hunting walks. Although twenty years younger than Elizabeth, Mary soon proves to be a more talented fossil hunter and eventually Mary and Elizabeth form an unlikely friendship, despite being separated by England's rigid social strata. The story follows Mary and Elizabeth through decades of friendship, as their discoveries of fossilized dinosaurs and marine reptiles begin to make their way to museums and are studies by the greatest scientists of the day.
This novel is certainly not an action-packed story. Instead, the primary focus is on the unlikely friendship between the two women, and their continuous battle against the restraints imposed on them by their rigid society. As a reference point, Elizabeth Philpot is a contemporary of Jane Austen, so all of the rules that applied in Austen's work are also present here. The story alternates between Elizabeth's perspective and Mary's perspective, offering us glimpses into their lives in the respectable upper class and in the working class, respectively.
Probably the most fascinating part of this book is the novelized glimpse it gives us into events which turn out to be historically significant. When Elizabeth and Mary were finding their fantastic fossils of plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs, the scientific and religious communities of Europe were first beginning to address issues like extinction, age of the earth, and geologic change. Scientists were tentatively suggesting that the earth was not created in seven days, and that at some point in the earth's history, animals had lived and gone extinct. These ideas were challenged by the more literal-minded members of society, who insisted that the earth was 10,000 years old and that the concept of extinction challenged the supposition that God's creation was perfect and unchanging. Mary Anning, considered to be one of the most significant women in the history of science, contributed greatly to this debate with her discovery of her fossils, and Elizabeth Philpot taught Mary about all of the ideas being presented by the great minds of geology. Unfortunately, neither woman received much recognition for their contributions, though Mary Anning did achieve some fame for being a good specimen hunter.
The book is also peppered with appearances by some of the most significant scientists in modern times. William Buckland, a prominent geologist who spent his life trying to bridge the gap between geologic evidence and Biblical literalism, is an important character in Mary and Elizabeth's lives, and is one of the first to publicly recognize Mary's contributions. Georges Cuvier, the famous anatomist, makes a brief appearance. At the end of the novel, a young Charles Lyell even drops by to pay a visit to Mary. For those of you not well versed in the history of science, Charles Lyell is to geology as Isaac Newton is to physics. Charles Lyell would go on to write his famous Principles of Geology, which went on to inspire ideas in people like Charles Darwin. I wish I had read this book when I was a junior in college writing a term paper on the role of religion and geology in the 1800s!
But I digress. The strength of this book is in the voice it gives to two extraordinary women who have been passed over by history. As a fictionalized account of real events, I know the author had to have taken some artistic liberties, but nevertheless we are presented with two fully realized, three dimensional characters who defy the standards of their time to make their mark on the world. My only complaint is that I wish the book had been longer, because the ending feels a bit rushed and crammed and story ends decades before either Mary or Elizabeth pass away.
Recommended reading for anyone with an interest in historical fiction, fossils and paleontology, or geology.
5/5 stars
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The Dechronization of Sam Magruder, by George G. Simpson
The Dechronization of Sam Magruder, by George Gaylord Simpson. St. Martin's Griffin, 1996. 136 pp. 0-312015514-X.
... in which a scientist from the future accidentally slips in time and ends up in the Cretaceous.
Every now and then, one reads a book that makes the reader simultaneously feel very smart and somewhat stupid. This book is one of those. Written by one of the most celebrated paleontologists to ever live, this novel has an impressive scientific pedigree that's apparent just from reading the author's name on the cover. In addition, the book has an introduction by Arthur C. Clarke (!!!), and an afterword by Stephen Jay Gould (!!!!!!!!!). I don't think you could cram much more nerd/intellectual street cred into a book of this length. So, just by reading a book with these three names on the cover, one automatically feels smart.
The book is really a story within a story. The "outer" story, if you will, involves a group of scholars in the very far distant future. These scholars have no names, and are instead given titles like the Universal Historian, the Pragmatist, the Ethnologist, the Common Man, etc. These scholars are sitting around discussing the curious discovery of stone tablets from the Cretaceous. These stone tablets were engraved with the writings of a man who "slipped" back in time from the year 2162 to 80 MYA. The story within the story, or the "inner" story, is of course the text of these stone tablets.
The scientist who "slipped" is called Sam Magruder, and he was a chronologist, ie, an expert in the study of time. At the time of his accident, he was attempting to differentiate between the concept of linear time vs time-as-a-particle. The Universal Historian describes his studies as the "two time universes. One has motion but is without time dimensions or growth. The other is motionless but has a single dimension and grows steadily in one direction within that dimension" (11). This is where the "this book makes me feel dumb" part comes in, because I had to reread the two pages explaining the time universes multiple times before I really understood it. If you have a good understanding of physics, you might understand it this way: the time-motion universe is akin to the Eulerian description of motion in physics, and the motionless time universe is somewhat more like the Lagrangian description of motion. Sort of. Lagrangian and Eulerian descriptions of motion explained here.
Anyway, so Sam Magruder accidentally finds himself slipping from his lab to a swamp in the Cretaceous. Of course, the time slip only affected Sam himself, and not his clothes, so he not only has to find a way to eat and avoid being eaten, he has to clothe himself and generally keep himself healthy. He knows that there is no way for him to return to his original timeline, so in the interest of science, he records his life in the Cretaceous on stone slabs and hopes that at some point in the future, they will be discovered.
One of the more interesting aspects in the story is how Dr. Simpson's history as a paleontologist really shines through. It is clear that the story is being written by someone who really knows dinosaurs, and knows their anatomy. For the most part, Sam's story reads as a sort of scientific narrative: these are the dinosaurs I have seen, this is what they look like, this is how I avoided being eaten by them. However, in the second-to-last chapter, Sam finds himself pondering some small rodent-like mammals and contemplates himself playing God by selectively breeding them and hopefully speeding up the evolutionary processes that would eventually lead to modern-day mammals. This leads to what is probably the best little bit of text in the whole book:
The biggest drawback to the book is not really Dr. Simpson's fault. The book was found in his notes by his daughter, who was going through his notes after her father's death. The majority of the story was probably written in the 70s, but between Dr. Simpson's death in 1984 and the time of the book's publication, a lot changed in the field of paleontology. For example, Sam describes the dinosaurs as being incontrovertibly exothermic, ie cold-blooded, when the modern-day general consensus is that dinosaurs were probably at least partially endothermic. There are a few other spots where his knowledge is a little dated, particularly in the nomenclature for certain dinosaurs, but none that really take away from the plot.
The previously mentioned introduction and afterword by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Jay Gould are really integral to the reading of this book. Clarke does a remarkable job writing the introduction, making it a discussion of time travel in fiction and reality. Dr. Gould, who was one of the world's most celebrated paleontologists and evolutionary biologists in his own right, wrote a remarkable afterword, discussing the roles of fiction in science, and the dinosaurs, evolutionary theory, and philosophy seen in the book.
Definitely a recommended read, particularly for anyone with an interest in time travel stories, evolution and dinosaurs, or just good old-fashioned science fiction.
5/5 stars.
... in which a scientist from the future accidentally slips in time and ends up in the Cretaceous.
Every now and then, one reads a book that makes the reader simultaneously feel very smart and somewhat stupid. This book is one of those. Written by one of the most celebrated paleontologists to ever live, this novel has an impressive scientific pedigree that's apparent just from reading the author's name on the cover. In addition, the book has an introduction by Arthur C. Clarke (!!!), and an afterword by Stephen Jay Gould (!!!!!!!!!). I don't think you could cram much more nerd/intellectual street cred into a book of this length. So, just by reading a book with these three names on the cover, one automatically feels smart.
The book is really a story within a story. The "outer" story, if you will, involves a group of scholars in the very far distant future. These scholars have no names, and are instead given titles like the Universal Historian, the Pragmatist, the Ethnologist, the Common Man, etc. These scholars are sitting around discussing the curious discovery of stone tablets from the Cretaceous. These stone tablets were engraved with the writings of a man who "slipped" back in time from the year 2162 to 80 MYA. The story within the story, or the "inner" story, is of course the text of these stone tablets.
The scientist who "slipped" is called Sam Magruder, and he was a chronologist, ie, an expert in the study of time. At the time of his accident, he was attempting to differentiate between the concept of linear time vs time-as-a-particle. The Universal Historian describes his studies as the "two time universes. One has motion but is without time dimensions or growth. The other is motionless but has a single dimension and grows steadily in one direction within that dimension" (11). This is where the "this book makes me feel dumb" part comes in, because I had to reread the two pages explaining the time universes multiple times before I really understood it. If you have a good understanding of physics, you might understand it this way: the time-motion universe is akin to the Eulerian description of motion in physics, and the motionless time universe is somewhat more like the Lagrangian description of motion. Sort of. Lagrangian and Eulerian descriptions of motion explained here.
Anyway, so Sam Magruder accidentally finds himself slipping from his lab to a swamp in the Cretaceous. Of course, the time slip only affected Sam himself, and not his clothes, so he not only has to find a way to eat and avoid being eaten, he has to clothe himself and generally keep himself healthy. He knows that there is no way for him to return to his original timeline, so in the interest of science, he records his life in the Cretaceous on stone slabs and hopes that at some point in the future, they will be discovered.
One of the more interesting aspects in the story is how Dr. Simpson's history as a paleontologist really shines through. It is clear that the story is being written by someone who really knows dinosaurs, and knows their anatomy. For the most part, Sam's story reads as a sort of scientific narrative: these are the dinosaurs I have seen, this is what they look like, this is how I avoided being eaten by them. However, in the second-to-last chapter, Sam finds himself pondering some small rodent-like mammals and contemplates himself playing God by selectively breeding them and hopefully speeding up the evolutionary processes that would eventually lead to modern-day mammals. This leads to what is probably the best little bit of text in the whole book:
I have a fair smattering of genetics and of practical animal breeding, learned in citizenship school before I specialized as a chronologist. I toyed long with the idea of selectively breeding the little mammals. I knew their tremendous possibilities, and I have no doubt that I could have speeded up their evolution, perhaps by some millions of years. But for what good? They have the spark, themselves. They are going to make it. Their descendants will be men, and they'll get there under their own power. Interference from one of those same descendants, even as a boost along the way, is not necessary. It would, in fact, be sacrilege. What is holy in mankind is that mankind, through this little beast, and so many others, has created itself. p 102.
The biggest drawback to the book is not really Dr. Simpson's fault. The book was found in his notes by his daughter, who was going through his notes after her father's death. The majority of the story was probably written in the 70s, but between Dr. Simpson's death in 1984 and the time of the book's publication, a lot changed in the field of paleontology. For example, Sam describes the dinosaurs as being incontrovertibly exothermic, ie cold-blooded, when the modern-day general consensus is that dinosaurs were probably at least partially endothermic. There are a few other spots where his knowledge is a little dated, particularly in the nomenclature for certain dinosaurs, but none that really take away from the plot.
The previously mentioned introduction and afterword by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Jay Gould are really integral to the reading of this book. Clarke does a remarkable job writing the introduction, making it a discussion of time travel in fiction and reality. Dr. Gould, who was one of the world's most celebrated paleontologists and evolutionary biologists in his own right, wrote a remarkable afterword, discussing the roles of fiction in science, and the dinosaurs, evolutionary theory, and philosophy seen in the book.
Definitely a recommended read, particularly for anyone with an interest in time travel stories, evolution and dinosaurs, or just good old-fashioned science fiction.
5/5 stars.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Calculating God, by Robert Sawyer
Calculating God, by Robert J. Sawyer. Tor Books, 2000. 334 pp.
...in which aliens land on Earth and say "Take me to your paleontologists."
The premise and plot of this book (which was a finalist for the Hugo Award!) are fairly simple: A group of aliens come to visit Earth, and request to see paleontologists and other scientists around the world. Their purpose for exploring the universe is to prove the existence of a god. The story follows one particular alien, Hollus, and a paleontologist Tom Jericho, who works at the Royal Ontario Museum. Hollus believes in a god, and Tom is a die-hard atheist. This book, a very, very satisfying throwback to classical science fiction, is less about plot and more about the conversations that take place between Hollus and Tom.
This book should appeal to anyone who enjoys science fiction, including atheists, religious folk, and everyone in between. The aliens' perception of god is not really a religious perception... they believe in a god, but they don't worship god, they don't attach any kind of morality or dogma to their belief in god; they simply believe god exists and has, in some sense, impacted how life came to be on various worlds. They don't pray, they don't have churches. The way in which the aliens explain their belief in god is neither spiritual nor anti-science; in fact, they explain god almost purely in terms of science, and they do so in a way that does not at all interfere with principles like the antiquity of earth or evolution. There is nothing mystical or omnipotent about their god; to them, god, like everything else, follows a cycle of life that ends in death.
Tom, as an atheist and scientist (a vertebrate paleontologist), disagrees with the aliens' belief system, for two reasons. First, as a human on Earth, the concepts of "God", "religion", "morality", and "souls" are inextricably linked; the aliens do not have these limitations in their beliefs. The second reason is that Tom, through absolutely no fault of his own, is dying of cancer. Because many theistic religions on earth would call this the "will of God", Tom is very understandably not jumping with joy at the chance to join a church.
Because most of the scientific evidence that the aliens cite for god's existence is evidence from other planets, that also means that most of the science has been fabricated for the purpose of this book. As a result, I don't think this book was intended to convince people of the existence of a god, nor was it meant to be any kind of declaration of beliefs on the author's part. Indeed, the main atheist character is portrayed in a much, MUCH more sympathetic light than the religious fundamentalist characters that appear in the book. Instead, I think it's meant to be read as an interesting hypothetical conversation, and the reader can take from it what they like.
In the end, my own religious and scientific convictions remained completely unchanged after reading this book, but I am still very glad to have read it because it was extremely interesting, well-written, and nicely thought out. To people who know that science fiction is more than space battles and weird looking aliens, this book should be a refreshing read.
...in which aliens land on Earth and say "Take me to your paleontologists."
The premise and plot of this book (which was a finalist for the Hugo Award!) are fairly simple: A group of aliens come to visit Earth, and request to see paleontologists and other scientists around the world. Their purpose for exploring the universe is to prove the existence of a god. The story follows one particular alien, Hollus, and a paleontologist Tom Jericho, who works at the Royal Ontario Museum. Hollus believes in a god, and Tom is a die-hard atheist. This book, a very, very satisfying throwback to classical science fiction, is less about plot and more about the conversations that take place between Hollus and Tom.
This book should appeal to anyone who enjoys science fiction, including atheists, religious folk, and everyone in between. The aliens' perception of god is not really a religious perception... they believe in a god, but they don't worship god, they don't attach any kind of morality or dogma to their belief in god; they simply believe god exists and has, in some sense, impacted how life came to be on various worlds. They don't pray, they don't have churches. The way in which the aliens explain their belief in god is neither spiritual nor anti-science; in fact, they explain god almost purely in terms of science, and they do so in a way that does not at all interfere with principles like the antiquity of earth or evolution. There is nothing mystical or omnipotent about their god; to them, god, like everything else, follows a cycle of life that ends in death.
Tom, as an atheist and scientist (a vertebrate paleontologist), disagrees with the aliens' belief system, for two reasons. First, as a human on Earth, the concepts of "God", "religion", "morality", and "souls" are inextricably linked; the aliens do not have these limitations in their beliefs. The second reason is that Tom, through absolutely no fault of his own, is dying of cancer. Because many theistic religions on earth would call this the "will of God", Tom is very understandably not jumping with joy at the chance to join a church.
Because most of the scientific evidence that the aliens cite for god's existence is evidence from other planets, that also means that most of the science has been fabricated for the purpose of this book. As a result, I don't think this book was intended to convince people of the existence of a god, nor was it meant to be any kind of declaration of beliefs on the author's part. Indeed, the main atheist character is portrayed in a much, MUCH more sympathetic light than the religious fundamentalist characters that appear in the book. Instead, I think it's meant to be read as an interesting hypothetical conversation, and the reader can take from it what they like.
In the end, my own religious and scientific convictions remained completely unchanged after reading this book, but I am still very glad to have read it because it was extremely interesting, well-written, and nicely thought out. To people who know that science fiction is more than space battles and weird looking aliens, this book should be a refreshing read.
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