Customer Reviews

Otherness

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Overall, I give the book four stars. Here's a brief summary of its contents, with each story/essay independently rated. From * "I did not like it at all" to ***** "I loved it". I was expecting something like Kiln People.

The Giving Plague: A scientist tries to avoid catching a plague in which discovery he took part. ***

Myth Number 21: A super short story. To say more would spoil it. *

Dr. Pak's Preschool: Early stimulation on babies is taken to the extreme. ****

Detritus Affected: Some archaeologists in the near future make grim discoveries at a site. ***

The Dogma of Otherness: An essay about the newness of caring for other. **

Sshhh...: Humanity looks for its secret unique talent in the Universe. *****

Those Eyes: A radio talk show profoundly affect a UFO crew. ****

What to Say to a UFO: An essay about how the story came to be. ***

Bonding to Genji: Introduction to the world of Genji. *****

The Warm Space: In the future, natural humans will be left out of the space race from robo humans, so a man makes a choice to be remembered. ***** The best of the book.

Whose Millennium? An essay on Y2K and its relative irrelevance from a millennial standpoint. It was a good one before y2k. **

NatuLife: A city dweller and his ancient virtual world. ***

Piecework: Using natural resources for production. *****

Science versus Magic: An essay comparing Science and Magic. **

Bubbles: One stranded spaceship makes an astounding discovery. ****

Ambiguity: An scholar discovers he's done more than he thought he would. **

What Continues... and What Fails... Evolution on a universal scale. *****

The Commonwealth of Wonder: An essay talking about ideas that spread and other topics. **

David Brin is certainly a talented author, but there are far too many preachy spots in this book for my taste. That he is a disciple of Richard Dawkins was evident from a line in "The Giving Plague" taken directly from the title of Dawkins' book, "The Selfish Gene". He makes it obvious by the final essay.

He also appears to like the surprise twist at the end of the story as several of these short stories have them. The end of "Dr. Pak's Preschool" seemed to me to be a bit contrived, as did the end of the (much better) "The Warm Space", but "Piecework" was such a fabulous, delightful story that I read it several times over even before I went on to finish the book. "NatuLife" was also a fabulous story with many layers of meaning and significance. A fascinating premise that first appears in "Ambiguity" takes a decidedly preachy turn in "What Continues...and What Fails...", a story that crystalizes the author's (and Dawkins') views on evolution.

When it comes to the essays, "The Dogma of Otherness" is both clever and interesting. Brin's sense of humor comes through quite well. Starting with "Whose Millenium" the essays get preachy though, and the mask came off in the final one which was both predictable and boring for anyone who has taken part in internet debates on evolution or religion.

I own this book, having picked it up when the local library discarded it to make room for others. Most of the stories are definitely worth reading, but it isn't likely to find a permanent spot on my shelves either.

I've tried to read David Brin books before and found them either too subtle for me, or just plain boring. Though, I have read the blurbs on many of his books, and always thought he had some surprising ideas -- as if he'd been practicing those lateral-thinking puzzles for years. I was quite surprised to find a great collection of very provocative ideas that kept me interested all the way through. From a Japanese culture where the ultimate work-ethic means babies are tutored within the womb and are hooked up to computers at their birth, to "organic humans" discovering themselves useful again after years of uselessness in a culture and society of ultimate "cryo-mechanical humans": I was impressed. He even touches on theories of the existence of the entire universe(s) in a highly entertaining way. My recommendation is forget his longer (and long-winded) novels and devour his short-fiction. The ideas/stories in this collection are crystalised and involving. This one may actually cause me to look more closely at his other novels...

Some of the best, most interesting sci-fi short stories I've read (reread) in a long while.

As this was a reread, I'd forgotten they were written by David Brin, but some of these stories have stuck with me as my all-time personal favourites for years.
And just to show there's something for everyone, my favourite 5 star stories were the ones only rated *** by another reviewer - Natulife, Detritus Affected, and we agree on Piecework, and then I'd give at least a 4 for The Giving Plague - nice use of the rationalising mechanism of consistency, and good insight/character progression for such a short story!

I hope I don't spoil anyone here - I'm trying to be ambiguous, but skip this if you're really worried...
It wasn't until a re-read or two that I realised one of the stories could be a conceptual sequel/spin-off of the original 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' movie. Duh!
Took me awhile to catch on, but worth it. ;)



Was less interested in his essays, but still, they're not un-intelligent, but the ideas are less revolutionary or interesting than his stories.
His otherness meme suffers from a major flaw - as a culture, we *don't* like 'otherness', we like nice, safe, *exotic* otherness that we can pat ourselves on the back for our acceptance of.
Eg Dolphin intelligence over Pig intelligence, even if they were both to be uplifted. Acceptance of different cultures is better for immigrant populations, especially the new and different, than for already existing 'different' cultures, ie historical immigrant communities or (especially) black communities in America (referring to a study done recently, sorry for not referencing).

Startide Rising is not only my favorite Brin book, but also one of my top 3 favorite SF books--period..I bought Otherness because the themes of the book seemed related in a way to Startide...Otherness turned out to be a generally good read, but only one story stood out as one I'd read a second time..."Shhh". This snippett of a story seems worthy of a novel of its own...It raises the question...Are humans special at all or is it only our belief that we are unique that keeps us striving to grow? Some of the other short stories seem to -almost humorously- illustrate one man's (Brin's!)struggle to understand the "otherness" of women. Oh well, I give him credit for trying.

Otherness is the uniting theme for the short stories and essays collected in this book. Don't let the silly cheap science fiction cover fool you: there's some pretty deep thought inside the covers. The short stories vary from great to ok, but the essays offer the best value in the collection. Brin writes about UFOs, science versus magic and what he calls the dogma of otherness. It's all very interesting and enlightening.

The short stories aren't a waste of space, either - the best of them are captivating and contain marvellous ideas. Brin writes good science fiction, especially if you value interesting ideas. Those looking for fresh thought to chew on will find a nice dose from this collection.

This book was great. I had to read it for a project in Chemistry. I loved the colection of stories in it. My favorite was The Giving Plague. I want ot deal with things like this in the future and I liked the story line. I also liked Dr. Pek's Preschool. I like how it brought every one to this place to have their children used to help man kind. I have always thought that the fetus is the best time to ask questions. They have no preconceptions of anything and David Brin sees that too. This is an excelent book and I would/have recomended it to others. For I am a nerd and I know this but this book would interest anyone.

Years after reading this collection, it stays with me. A treatise on natural selection, even to universes. I've read SF from all the eras. For provoking thought, this is the best.

While sifting through the rows of paperbacks on my dusty bookshelf, I came across Otherness. It had been given to me for one of my birthday's a few years ago, but I'd never read it. Too busy to venture into a new author, I had stuck it on my shelf. However, one day, looking for something to read, I found this book, and on a whim, picked it up and started it. And boy was I entranced! From the first few stories I was hooked. Later, however, my entusiasum died down I and puttered through, to be picked up again at the end. It was a great book. Full of insightful thought provoking observations or statements that really make you ask yourself, "What if that was true?". Purely, one of the best short story coladborations I have read. I'd reccomend it to anyone with a mind that thinks out of the box. Thought it was a little slow in the middle, one is rewarded at the end. I give it five stars for its in-depth thinking, and especially the putting of American views into a Dogma, the Dogma of Otherness. Excellent! Wonderful! A+. By Gosh, he's done it again!

The ideas flow freely, however there is a central theme. DB obviously had babies in mind when writing / compiling this book!

What makes this collection different is his essays on 'otherness', which I sometimes found more stimulating than the stories that they separate.

His last essay, however, I found off beam. The conjectures he offers didn't quite hit the mark, and I felt they needed more development - as Mr Brin would ordinarily do to his short fiction.