Book Review: "What is Life?" by Addy Pross

In this book Addy Pross presents a theory on the origin of life.  He describes some recent research into the systems chemistry of self-replicating chemicals.  Using this he shows how this chemistry matches the behavior of simple living creatures.

Research into chemical systems indicates that these systems display properties that individual chemicals do not.  The one that matters for Pross’s argument is Dynamic Kinetic Stability (DKS).  DKS is similar to entropic stability of chemicals in that it is the tendency of a system to remain the same.  It differs in that the molecules in the system can all be constantly changing while the overall system maintains the same concentrations of those molecules.  The research demonstrates that some self-replicating RNA does tend to persist in this way.  It also shows that these RNA molecules exhibit other properties normally associated with biology.  Where there are several types the one that replicates better dominates and replaces the worse replicators.  When more than one competes for a single resource eventually one of them will replace its competitors.  Where there are several possible resources different types can dominate.

This is an interesting book.  The question is the origin of life and the evidence provided supports the argument Pross makes.  It is also a short book at just 200 pages.  It probably should have been shorter.  Pross has a tendency to layout familiar points in excruciating detail with multiple illustrations before getting to his point.

It can be bought on Amazon.

Book Review: "The King of Elfland’s Daughter" by Lord Dunsany

This bit of beautiful, lyrical, poetic prose was originally published by Lord Dunsany in 1924.  The plot is quite simple.  The characters are simple as well, mostly filling particular roles.  It couples and contrasts human ways with entirely alien Elf ways. 

The local Parliament of Erl decides it would be good for the town to have a lord that is just a bit magical.  The local lord sends his son Alveric to bring the Princess of Elfland, Lirazel.  He succeeds with the help of a witch.  When the princess is brought back to the human fields the priest has some difficulty identifying an appropriate wedding ceremony and Alveric becomes the Lord of Erl.  They have a son, Orion, and the witch is appointed the nursery maid.  Then her father sends a Rune to return his daughter to Elfland.  The priest’s difficulty is only the first as Lirazel mostly doesn’t adjust to human ways.  Lirazel is returned to Elfland.  Alveric goes on a quest in search of Lirazel and Elfland, abandoning his duties as Lord of Erl.  Orion grows up and spends most of his time in hunting.  Orion catches and kills a unicorn, in a mildly graphic scene.  The members of parliament are satisfied with this level of magic.  Orion, however, wants to hunt more unicorns.  In order to do this he recruits trolls to help manage the dogs.  A troll recruits will o’ the wisps to provide light for hunts during pitch black nights.  The members of parliament are distraught at the town being swamped with magic.  They ask the witch for a spell against magic and are told off.  The King of Elfland uses another Rune to answer Lirazel’s prayers.  This brings Alveric and Orion into Elfland, which incidentally draws the magic, and a little bit of Erl’s fields, back to Elfland. 

I enjoyed this book tremendously for the lovely flowing language and the beautiful otherness of Elfland.  Having said that this isn’t a modern story and it is very much not a swords and sorcery tale.  The plot is simple and lacks twists.  The characters are flat and mostly don’t change.  When they do, it is a transformation into another flat role.  It felt less like a novel and more like a spell calling, “Come away oh human child…”  Some are caught by that beauty while others just aren’t.