Book Review: Merlin's Tour of the Universe: A Traveler's Guide to Blue Moons and Black Holes, Mars, Stars, and Everything Far

 

Merlin's Tour of the Universe is a book by Neil deGrasse Tyson, first published in 1989 and updated in 2024. In it, Tyson answers letters written by people asking science questions. He responds as a fictional character, Merlin, who is an alien who has visited Earth many times over thousands of years from his home planet in the Andromeda Galaxy. Within the responses, he explains concepts from almost every branch of science, including complicated astrophysics, with letters grouped in different topics that make up the chapters of the book. 

The hardcover version of the book is moderately long at just under 280 pages of substantive text. None of the responses to the letters is very long. Most are a paragraph or two. The shortest responses are a sentence or two long, and the longest are about a page. It is relatively easy to read and reads quickly. Although this was Tyson's first book, it is very similar to the style and tone that he has maintained in his subsequent works. He makes the topics easy to understand, and you do not have to be a scientist or engineer to follow what he is saying. It is absolutely worth reading if you are a fan of Tyson's, like or love science (especially astronomy), and/or just want to learn more about science. 

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Cheers: Season 3

 

The 25-episode third season of Cheers aired during the 1984/1985 TV season. All of the main cast members returned for season three, although there would be some upheaval in the cast as Nicholas Colasanto became ill and passed away during production. Because of Shelly Long's and Rhea Perlman's real-life pregnancies, episodes were shot out of order (since Long's pregnancy was not written into the show). Because of the shooting schedule, Colasanto's character, Coach, would appear more sporadically as the season went along and make a couple of appearances posthumously. The writers would usually insert a line or two explaining his absence in the episodes in which he did not appear. The main addition to the series this season is the character of Frasier Crane, who is brought on as a recurring character as a love interest for Diane and rival to Sam. Dan Hedaya made a couple of appearances as Carla's ex-husband, Nick, as did Jean Kasem, who played Nick's new wife Loretta. The other recognizable season three guest stars included Carole Kane and Michael Richards.

The blu-ray set is a three-disc set and reproduces the content of the original DVD releases. Again, the individual seasons are not available on blu-ray; you can (at least as of this writing) only get the blu-rays in a complete series set. The A/V quality of the blu-ray release is very good. The extras are all included on the final disc. Those include clips of Norm talking about his wife Vera (who never appear on screen), clips of Carla making fun of Cliff, clips of Fraiser's key moments in the season, a virtual tour of the bar, and a tribute to Nicholas Colasanto (which features interviews with Ted Danson, George Wendt, and Rhea Perlman talking about Colasanto and what he brought to the show and the character of Coach.

The series really found its footing by the third season. The show continued to be a mix of procedural weekly storylines and longer serial arcs. While the show's focus remained on Sam and Diane's relationship, the writers continued to expand the storylines for the supporting characters, particularly Cliff and Norm. Each of the supporting characters received at least one show devoted to him or her. As was the case in the first two seasons, there are definitely jokes that would probably not be used if the show were made today, and there are quite a few adult jokes, so while the series is mostly good-natured and wholesome, it is not entirely family-friendly. Ultimately, if you liked the first couple of seasons, this one is worth watching.

Book Review: Heretics of Dune (Dune #20 Chronological Order, #5 Publication Order)

 

Heretics of Dune, published in 1984, is the fifth of the original six novels in the Dune saga written by the original author, Frank Herbert. It is the 20th book in the saga (including the novels co-authored by Frank's son, Brian, and Kevin J. Anderson) if you read the series chronologically. In this novel, there is another significant time jump from the prior book. This book is set 1500 years after the events of God Emperor of Dune and Leto II's reign, with his "golden path" having been implemented. After an event known as "The Scattering," in which humans spread out across the universe, power is divided among three groups: the Ixians, the Bene Gesserit, and the Tleilaxu. A new matriarchal group called the Honored Matres begins to wreak havoc throughout the Old Empire through violence and sexual conquest.

The length of the book will depend on which version you have, but it is generally around 400 pages. The story is not all that easy to follow, especially since, aside from Duncan Idaho, most of the characters are new (because of the time jump). And this version of Duncan is a ghola (basically a clone), so he is really not the same character as in the original novel. The story also jumps around a lot, so it is not all that easy to follow what is going on, and the overall point of the story is not all that clear until the last couple of chapters. To me, because Herbert had the massive time jumps between his Dune novels, by the time you get to this one, it is so far removed from the original story that it does not really feel like it is part of the same story. It is just a new story set in the same universe, with the names of the original characters dropped in here and there. Ultimately, I would describe this as an okay story that improves toward the end of the book. I would not, however, call this a must-read, especially if you were only really invested in Paul's arc, since that story has almost nothing to do with the events in this book.