A dark, intense character study of a man who offsets many personal acts of valor and selflessness with a few acts of horrifying cruelty. Literal warfare as a metaphor for the main character’s inner turmoil. Big Philosophical Questions about good and evil, the ethics of interfering with less advanced civilizations, finding purpose in a post-scarcity society, and most interesting of all, what it means to be human in an era when machines do everything better than people, including the things we thought made us uniquely human.

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The high spirits I felt at the election of Barack Obama were tempered upon hearing of the death of Michael Crichton, one of my all-time favorite authors.

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I recently finished reading Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley, the 11th and final novel in the acclaimed Easy Rawlins mystery series (the one that President Clinton made famous when he declared it his all-time favorite). Like the 10 installments before it, it was excellent. Instead of reviewing this particular book, I want to commemorate the end of the series by sharing a few personal thoughts on the collection as a whole. I’ll try to avoid spoilers.

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