A plethora of books lie across the top of a shelf just waiting to be read. What do I do? I go and put another hold or two on more books to join my to-A plethora of books lie across the top of a shelf just waiting to be read. What do I do? I go and put another hold or two on more books to join my to-read shelf. I’m not going to lie; the cover and the premise enticed me too much for me to just ignore. I ended up enjoying Ascension even if it was a little different from what I thought it would be.
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I feel like I should also add that the book is constantly shelved as mystery at bookstores, but it really shouldn’t be. This book read like a horror/sci-fi novel with all the tropes it uses.
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Ascension felt like a cross between The Anomaly by Michael Rutger and the movie Prometheus. (view spoiler)[ I would even say it is similar to a certain Indiana Jones film that is least liked by viewers. (hide spoiler)] I am a sucker for these types of books with an interesting sci-fi and horror premise while sporting actual applications of various scientific fields.
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The book was a fun ride where I didn’t take it too seriously (like watching a cheesy horror film). The overarching mystery kept drawing me in, and watching our main character face long buried feelings and trauma was an added bonus.
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Major twists are guessable with hints laid out through the book. (view spoiler)[ The only thing I was really surprised by was the final action a certain mountain climber took. (hide spoiler)] I enjoyed how the theoretical physics, biology and other fields covered was dumbed down enough for the average reader to understand. I also like the implications of the mountain in a historical and mythological context.
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I would have liked for more information on the (view spoiler)[ Leviathans (hide spoiler)] ... native life. The downside of the page count being lower is that certain things aren’t explored as in depth as they could be including character development. On the other side, the lower page count made it a fun and brief read where pages could have made it cluttered instead of insightful.
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Ascension is a book that I would recommend to horror, sci fi fans, or fans who like weird speculative fiction. Find this book and other titles within our catalog....more
What Moves the Dead is an exciting retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher.
I must confess though that I didn’t read the originaWhat Moves the Dead is an exciting retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher.
I must confess though that I didn’t read the original. I then decided to read the original right before this book since it was short. It might have ruined some key events for me, but it also created an interesting dynamic of being able to compare the two of them them.
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(No, not that Usher!)
I won’t bore you with a summary of the synopsis. Instead, I will bore you with some of the major differences between this book and the original.
For one, the narrator is not a stand in for the reader anymore. The main character has a full background and personality which was needed considering the page count increased by five times the original. Background characters received names and became fleshed out.
The story also did away with the paranormal in favor of a more biological explanation. Kingfisher built on Poe’s fascination with fungus from the original story and developed it into something of her own.
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I must confess that I was worried at first that the story would be just like the original, since the siblings had the same names as the original, but my fears were dismissed right away. The story kept the sense of gloom and doom that Poe had in the original, but it was used in a different way.
The author uses colorful and descriptive language to describe things such as the fauna that elevated the creepiness factor. I actually felt like this adaption was creepier especially with the rabbits and the hair of some characters. Kingfisher described a character’s smile that I pictured as spine-chilling due to having just watched the movie Smile.
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There wasn’t really anything surprising about the story (I mean reading the original already gave the general plot). The most surprising thing about this novel is at how in-depth the author researched fungi.
It was easy to see how the author used fungus, since Poe described them in depth in his original short story. I enjoyed this adaption and how it was developed, so I am looking forward to Mike Flanagan’s upcoming take on The Fall of the House of Usher to see if he has his own spin on the story.
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I ended up enjoying this adaption and all the changes that came with it. I like the changes to the characters, and I was glad that the almost twin, incestuous relationship was thrown out even if it lost the symbolism from the original.
This is a nice short read that I would recommend to horror enthusiasts or even people who enjoy a darker side of normal fiction. I continue to enjoy T. Kingfisher’s horror books and look forward to her ever-increasing catalog!
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Find this book and other titles within our catalog.
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Merged review:
What Moves the Dead is an exciting retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher.
I must confess though that I didn’t read the original. I then decided to read the original right before this book since it was short. It might have ruined some key events for me, but it also created an interesting dynamic of being able to compare the two of them them.
[image]
(No, not that Usher!)
I won’t bore you with a summary of the synopsis. Instead, I will bore you with some of the major differences between this book and the original.
For one, the narrator is not a stand in for the reader anymore. The main character has a full background and personality which was needed considering the page count increased by five times the original. Background characters received names and became fleshed out.
The story also did away with the paranormal in favor of a more biological explanation. Kingfisher built on Poe’s fascination with fungus from the original story and developed it into something of her own.
[image]
I must confess that I was worried at first that the story would be just like the original, since the siblings had the same names as the original, but my fears were dismissed right away. The story kept the sense of gloom and doom that Poe had in the original, but it was used in a different way.
The author uses colorful and descriptive language to describe things such as the fauna that elevated the creepiness factor. I actually felt like this adaption was creepier especially with the rabbits and the hair of some characters. Kingfisher described a character’s smile that I pictured as spine-chilling due to having just watched the movie Smile.
[image]
There wasn’t really anything surprising about the story (I mean reading the original already gave the general plot). The most surprising thing about this novel is at how in-depth the author researched fungi.
It was easy to see how the author used fungus, since Poe described them in depth in his original short story. I enjoyed this adaption and how it was developed, so I am looking forward to Mike Flanagan’s upcoming take on The Fall of the House of Usher to see if he has his own spin on the story.
[image]
I ended up enjoying this adaption and all the changes that came with it. I like the changes to the characters, and I was glad that the almost twin, incestuous relationship was thrown out even if it lost the symbolism from the original.
This is a nice short read that I would recommend to horror enthusiasts or even people who enjoy a darker side of normal fiction. I continue to enjoy T. Kingfisher’s horror books and look forward to her ever-increasing catalog!
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Find this book and other titles within our catalog.
“The immune system is the most complex biological system known to humanity, other than the human brain.”
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I think it’s safe to say that
“The immune system is the most complex biological system known to humanity, other than the human brain.”
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I think it’s safe to say that all of us to some degree, since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, have an elementary knowledge of immunology (the study of the immune system).
Terms often tossed around in the news were (are) “antibodies,” “antigen,” “immunization,” and even “cytokine storm.”
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The book Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System that Keeps You Alive is a gorgeously illustrated cliff-notes lesson on the immune system that will help you make connections between the latter word-salad from above, such as:
“An antigen is a piece of an enemy that your immune system can recognize.”
Meaning that artificially inducing immunity through vaccination introduces your body to say, the COVID-19 virus antigen (its unique molecular signature), so it can prepare defenses against the virus when you encounter it in the wild. (One of the most amazing things to me about the immune system is that it produces “memory cells” after an infection or vaccination, that “remember” a very specific antigen and can help the immune system respond more effectively next time.)
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Or, you may have heard “antigen” in the context of the early COVID tests, which look for viral antigens from your nasal swab to determine if you have COVID and you must quarantine for a while. (I gotta say, some of those sampling techniques are like having your brain poked. Not fun!)
To counter antigens and build up defenses against intruders, the immune system uses “antibodies,” which are just proteins with chemical puzzle pieces that match up to a specific antigen in an enemy (bacteria, virus, parasite, etc.) in order to destroy it.
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So, I ended up coming out of the book with remembering “antigen” and “antibodies” in the context that they are adversaries, e.g., antigens=bad guys; antibodies=good guys.
When the book was discussing how your immune system responds to viruses, I couldn’t help but continue to think of COVID, and how if the immune system responds too strongly to a virus, it could kill you. (I was glad that the book had its own chapter devoted to COVID-19.)
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I think that’s a strength of Immune, that it helps readers to get an overview of important concepts like immune responses, without getting too much in the weeds and overwhelmed, by using accessible, scientific language combined with the exploration of real-life (relevant) cases.
Because the book is so engaging, once you got past some of the essential vocabulary surrounding the cellular players in the immune response, I couldn’t stop reading it. (Well maybe that’s just me nerding out. But still!)
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“The best way to kill a lot of viruses is to destroy infected cells, and the viruses inside them. Let us pause for a moment to appreciate the magnitude of what we are talking about here. Your immune system needs to be able to kill your own cells. Your immune system has an actual license to kill you.”
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The above quote recognizes the extremely fine balance the immune system must walk. Immune cells (like T cells or macrophages) release “cytokines.” (Yes, I wasn’t about to forget cytokines. They’re an important piece of the puzzle.)
Cytokines basically are released by whatever immune cells are responding to an infection, leading to inflammation, which is basically a chemical signal for reinforcements, attracting the big guns needed in serious fights (such as Killer T Cells, a satisfyingly simple and logical name given to a cell whose purpose is, well, to kill invading enemies).
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Basically, the immune system is made up of a whole bunch of non-thinking parts of you (cells, proteins, molecules, etc.), that use various cytokines to communicate with each other. The more cytokines released, the more urgent the cells picking up the cytokine signal react, revving up the immune response.
Okay, this is where I get to the other term I mentioned in the beginning: “cytokine storm.”
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In certain severe cases of COVID-19, an excess release of cytokines kicks the immune system into overdrive against the virus. The immune system is very powerful, but is usually good at tempering its reactions, so as not to accidentally kill you.
However, not everyone has the exact same immune systems, and some are more predisposed to overreacting to a viral infection for whatever reasons (scientists think genetics is part of it, but not the complete picture) not understood too well currently.
(view spoiler)[ Viruses are sneaky little things, and will use your cells to disguise its presence, forcing the immune system to target any of your cells that are carrying the virus. Out of all disease-causing organisms mentioned in the book, viruses scared me the most. They’re fascinating, but mostly terrifying! (hide spoiler)] When the immune system gets too revved-up, its more likely to cause life-threatening complications.
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COVID-19 usually infects the lungs. So, that can lead to difficulties breathing (inflammation releases fluids into the infected area) as some areas of the lungs are swamped with fluids, and eventual organ failure. All very, very horrifying, and awful.
Overall, I experienced more excitement and wonder than dread when learning about the immune system in Immune. It makes me even more thankful for my own immune system and appreciative of the heavy lifting it does to keep me alive (it may be the most graceful part of me, a very, very clumsy person), with a crucial assist from vaccines. (Shout-out to both!)
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Give Immune a try! It’s a fascinating look into a system whose herculean work you don’t have to think about often when it’s going right.
La Crosse County Library
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