Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to Taking the Blame, the second book in the ‘Loki’ Series by Louie Stowell, is about the Norse God Loki, as an 11-year-old boy. Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, goes missing and Loki’s ‘earth family’ all blame him, including Thor.
Loki and Thor then think that it must have been the frost giants, the greatest enemies of the gods, who stole it. On Loki’s first day back at school he notices a new girl called Georgina. He gets suspicious, and thinks she is a hammer stealing frost giant in disguise. Loki comes up with a hilariously dumb plan to try and get it back, and then doesn’t even follow it! His actions lead to him and Thor getting captured, needing to be rescued by the Goddess Sif, with surprising plot twists to ensue.
Lovers of mythology, fantasy, adventure and humorous stories will be captivated by the originality of Louie Stowell’s sequel. If you have also enjoyed Maz Evans’ ‘Who Let the Gods Out’ series should also get their hands on this series. ‘Loki’ includes lots of comedy, sound effects, cartoons and funny moments, and these are just some of the many reasons I love this engaging book.
Reviewed by Charlie, Year 6
Anglican Church Grammar School East Brisbane Qld
Age Guide 9+
In the Blink of an Eye is an immensely enjoyable, fast-paced thriller featuring the feisty but vulnerable Chief Detective Superintendent Kat Frank.
With crime rates rising dramatically, the UK police are under increasing pressure to solve missing person crimes. According to a recent government report, one person goes missing every 90 seconds. That’s over 300 000 cases a year to solve, and there are just not enough ‘Bobbies’ on the beat.
Returning to work after a long leave of absence, DCS Kat Frank is asked to lead a pilot with AIDEs (artificially intelligent detecting entities) to solve cold missing person cases. The controversial trial that ensues poses a whole range of challenges for Kat. Kat has a formidable reputation for solving complex crimes and opposes the use of AIDEs. While analysing data quickly is helpful, she strongly believes that solving crimes involves the ability to follow your gut instincts.When the case escalates to reveal a potential serial killer, Kat knows she must act fast.
Kat is a flawed and vulnerable heroine that you warm to immediately. Still grieving the loss of her husband, she worries too much about her teenage son who is getting over depression. Kat’s small team are also battling with their own issues and demons around love, tragedy and loss.
As the case progresses, Kat finds her leadership under threat. Will the facts and figures that the AI entity reveal help identify the killer? With so many lives at risk will classic policing provide the answers in time?
This is an engrossing enjoyable, fast-paced thriller that goes by in the blink of an eye.
Reviewed by Karen William
MORE ABOUT THE BOOK AND AUTHOR
Jo Callaghan is a British fiction author. In The Blink of An Eye is her crime debut which is the first in a series.
Dr Catherine Ball believes we need to get better acquainted with technology; the future is already here. Converge offers an enjoyably compelling snapshot of emerging technologies within a wide range of authentic and often complex contexts – social, environmental, cultural, and corporate. A range of technologies are intelligently explored, including robotics, social media, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, cybernetics, big data, medical techniques, and genetically modified food.
Dr Ball outlines ways the technology might potentially be used to address a range of needs across agriculture, environmental pollution, mental health, financial markets, crimefighting, tourism, and corporate workplaces. And how we might use technology well. A thought-provoking example is how robots and drones might be used for either destructive purposes – fighting and warfare – or in ways that are more positive and productive; such as transportation, sports, monitoring crops and oil spills, or reporting on bushfires.
Dr Ball suggests we open up educational opportunities so we can strive for what we want. By challenging assumptions around the related economics, governance, and politics we might have more significant input into what these technologies could be. The end-of-chapter sections ‘Get back in the driver’s seat’ offer practical suggestions for follow up.
Given the rapid changes in technology, it would be an interesting exercise to revisit Converge in a few years, just to see how things have panned out. A compelling reason to read Converge right now! Dr Ball optimistically concludes, when people work together as a species, there’s nothing we can’t solve.
Reviewed by Mark Parry
FROM THE AUTHOR
One of my earliest memories is from the famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s. My mum remembers me asking endless questions about how we could let something like that happen. Mum didn’t have all the answers. I can revisit that memory by watching the news article that was on the BBC over 30 years ago today on YouTube.
“Humans can do terrible things”
I also remember the Live Aid concerts, and the performances on the telly, chatter on the radio, and endless music sessions delivered by cassette tape. People donating, rock stars getting angry, children asking unending questions about ‘why’ these things happen. Even with events today we still find people fighting against the dark.
“Humans can do extraordinarily good things”
Looking to the future now, with my two children, I wonder what their ‘Ethopian Famine’ moment will be. Bushfires? Floods? The Bee Crisis? Climate Change? Killer Robots? And I also wonder what can be done right now to stop those terrible moments from happening. Where and how and when can we make the choice to do extraordinarily good things?
Industry 5.0 (the next (5th) industrial revolution) should tip the invisible hands of economics towards a purpose-driven economy, and let it be a natural transition via investors, subsidies, government policy, and media campaigns. But Industry 5.0 won’t be able to reach its full potential unless we all care enough to act accordingly. The future of work is already here, it is just not distributed the same way across different socio-economic, gender, nor geographical locations.
Australia has the capability to become a lighthouse for #techforgood and other purpose-for-profit business models.
I started getting into entrepreneurship because I had identified a number of gaps between technical capability and tangible action. We have technologies that can be applied to do some amazingly good work, but there are management, insurance, business-culture, and other human reasons why these changes are not making it to business as usual in a traditional economic model. The start-up ecosystem is fundamental to creating and curating innovation at low risk to traditional, large business.
A good friend of mine survived a terrible terrorist act. When asked what advice people should be given when watching such horror unfold she said to me “look for the people helping”. And the same can be said for the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) community: There are always people investigating new ways of doing things, trying to help, working on a better way. From cancer drugs to ethical artificial intelligence, from methods of clean up for ocean plastics to using drones to monitor endangered species. If we can focus on the good that people are doing and share it across our networks then we amplify the voices of the excellent people doing extraordinarily good things.
Interesting opportunities are emerging from the digital technology space that will help people feel like they’re actually making a difference, this should encourage others to build purpose into their business models, whilst satisfying shareholders.
My works are a long love letter to my sons. After all, the future is theirs.
Jerry Saltz is a New York-based, award-winning art critic. This book is a collection of pieces he’s written covering the period from 1999-2021 and is divided into time periods reflecting geopolitical events. The first section, ‘The World Before and During: 1999-2001’ is indicative of Saltz’s approach. It deals with art around the time of the Twin Towers terrorist attack. Saltz doesn’t look at art in isolation – it lives in the context of its time, and Saltz explores what he sees in relation to that. This is far more than just a book on aesthetic appreciation.
Saltz has an acute sense of irony. Critics are often stereotyped as failed artists, so Saltz’s second piece, ‘My Life as a Failed Artist’ addresses that with candid humour. He’s also bemused by ego. Artists have it; museum and gallery curators have more of it; but the cup of art buyers’ egos runneth over. Buyers appear to need the publicity of spending money in front of others. As he says, ‘For nearly 10 years, starting in the late ’90s, art and money had sex in public. Lots of it.’
Museums and galleries are also in Saltz’s sights. The Whitney Museum of American Art failed to follow through with erecting a sculpture because of ‘America’s hysteria and mania around race’. Saltz’s seminal piece, ‘The Whitney Rejected This Masterpiece Sculpture’ crystallises his perception, wit and unflinching willingness to call out artistic cowardice when he sees it.
Saltz’s pieces argue that art mirrors our experience – trying to make sense of the illogicality of existence while keeping a foot in the world itself with its petty and profound machinations, both political and economic. Wonderfully witty and erudite writing.
The literal translation of euthanasia from Latin is ‘good death’. Readers will not be surprised to learn that a good death revolves around pain and suffering but may be astonished to learn that the amelioration of them was not always sought.
Caitlin Mahar relies on both qualitative and quantitative research of end-of-life preparations from the late 19th century through to current viewpoints. Her research has a narrow focus on Anglo-Australian attitudes to death throughout those times. Reference is made to Indigenous Australians and the cultural confusion over the concept.
The book begins in Victorian England where a good death meant pain and suffering. Death was viewed as an ‘avenue of redemption’. Christ suffered on the cross so those expecting an eternal afterlife should too. As medicine developed analgesic relief, a good death became a pain-free exit.
Over time, medical advances have been able to extend life. This has obvious benefits but also downsides. Philosophical and ethical issues are debated as to when a life should be extended or terminated. There’s also a blurring of lines as to what suffering might mean when people living with a disability might have had a lifetime of the same ‘suffering’. This raises the spectre of eugenics, and its nuances are covered in a balanced manner.
This is a well-argued, heavily researched, fair account of preparing for death.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Caitlin Mahar lectures in history at Swinburne University of Technology. She completed a PhD in history at the University of Melbourne in 2016 and was awarded the Society for the Social History of Medicine Roy Porter Essay Prize, the Australian and New Zealand Society for the History of Medicine Ben Haneman Memorial Award and the University of Melbourne’s Dennis-Wettenhall Prize.
Jo Callaghan is a British fiction author. In The Blink of An Eye is her crime debut which is the first in a series.
