Monday

Welcome - 5Ws About the Author and Books

Hello reader,

Allen W. McLean is an author of speculative fiction, poetry and reviews.

He was born and raised in the Canadian suburbs of Brampton Ontario, and identifies as non-binary.

His wife April produces music and art as Electric Armchair; at her behest, Allen began sharing poetry on his book reviews and releases for the HaikuPrajna Collection, a library of his study notes for readers who will never consume the stories just as much as they are for those who have or want to.

Obsessed with forming stories since playing pretend as a child, his fiction today focuses on transcending one’s hindrances, with ideas from metaphysics, theology, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, and is inspired by sci-fi, comics and manga.

Allen has released over a dozen books, and his Bite-sized Insights have been collected online, in print and in public libraries around the Toronto area.

Thank you for reading.

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PS. This blog links to sites where readers can make purchases and where royalties are collected from one's membership; thank you for your support.

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. Read all of my books and writing online at HaikuPrajna

https://aprilandallen.square.site/haikuprajna

. April's psychedelic music videos, art and poetry is available on all streaming platforms at Electric Armchair

https://aprilandallen.square.site/electricarmchair

. Read more haiku, listen to April's music and follow online; all readers subscribed by email on Patreon, Substack and Medium get book reviews with poetry in their inbox and have access to a selection of eBooks--visit to submit to our public poetry prompt and view more features!

https://aprilandallen.square.site/social

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Book Page Links [ previews available ] :

. The 'Fluke' Series

... BATT-LE Colosseum

... ULTRAVIOLET

. The Wisps Book

... Summond the Scarecrow [Book IV]

... Ado the Owl [ FREE! ]

. Together in Forever

. Fishing for Caribou

. Escape Perennial City

. SM-SARA, Poetry and Other Stories

... Hector Blake [ FREE! ]

. Elephant in the Room

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. Book Review Analysis Summaries https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/book-review-summary-study-notes.html

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. 5Ws About the Author and Books https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2022/05/welcome-5ws-about-me-and-this-blog.html

20250825 . Uglies . HaikuPrajna . Book Review

The Ugly beauty’s \

above the Pretty ugly, \

nature’s magnetized

. Uglies . HaikuPrajna . Book Review

Thank you for reading and subscribing online at HaikuPrajna

Hello reader,

Reading the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld at April's request, and I enjoyed the first book more than what was expected!

The setting was based on the segregation of Uglies like Tally Youngblood from the Pretties living in New Pretty Town, whom people like Tally were in eager anticipation for the surgical procedure to be transformed into.

The history of the world was shaped by two disasters, one being an orchid epidemic that stripped the soil of moisture which created deserts, in metaphor for the Pretties, the other disaster having been a bacterial plague that burned the world's oil supplies.

This story was full of cool science fiction concepts, like the prominent anti-grav technology in both city infrastructure and out in the sprawling wilderness-ruins, with hovercraft abusing natural magnetic fields. The plot revolved around a false-reality narrative involving the Pretty-operation’s true purpose, a covert brain surgery upon the vast majority of Pretties to subdue conflict and difference of opinion.

Themes and philosophy were somewhat heavy handed, but the general messages of the gift of raw unaltered history, and the true beauty of nature against the manufactured beauty of the ideal got handled well.

Concepts such as somebody like David having never been in a city can make one stop to think. At the end of the book, Tally's final decision had come off as real sweet, too.

That said, there were some parts that just have to be put up with unless you are a fan of the genre; stuff like an abrupt boy drama and the choice of hoverboarding as the choice of transportation for the protagonist highlighted the juvenile-youth factor.

Had also thought that the brushings with topics like dysphoria could have been handled better, but their inclusion is an inevitable part of the kind of story being told here. Minor grievances like mid-narrative contractions and jarring chapter breaks or scene transitions were forgiven with little effort. Hoping that the sequels improved on those points.

Uglies was a romp through the dangers of maladaptive perfectionism with manipulative Pretties forcing their will upon those described as Ugly. Scott Westerfeld used this landscape to explore the consequences of unchecked idealism with a focus on the guilt, obsession and obligations of the choices we make.

. 20220817 . 20250814 . Off and on

Thank you for reading,

Until next time!

Allen W. McLean

Need more Bite-sized Insights to relieve your stress and suffering?

Share, subscribe or leave a comment, it means the world to authors and is the easiest way to support the work you read, as you will help reach other readers! @HaikuPrajna @ElectricArmchair

Read mindfulness meditation scifaiku and haiku poetry, book reviews and metaphysical stories, such as "Escape Perennial City", plus more writing online at HaikuPrajna! https://aprilandallen.square.site/haikuprajna

Show your support with our Handmade Art Works, Book Merch, and Clay Quirks at APRILandALLEN's! https://aprilandallen.square.site/

April's psychedelic music videos, art and poetry is available on all streaming platforms at Electric Armchair! https://aprilandallen.square.site/electricarmchair

Read more haiku, listen to April's music and follow online; all readers subscribed by email on Patreon, Substack and Medium get book reviews with poetry in their inbox and have access to a selection of eBooks--visit to submit to our public poetry prompt and view more features! https://aprilandallen.square.site/social

These poems will be collected in future editions of the HaikuPrajna Collection.

20250814 . Bartleby the Scrinivier . HaikuPrajna . Book Review

Office hermitage,\

the willingness to observe,\

learn from suffering

. HaikuPrajna . Bartleby the Scrinivier . Herman Melville . Book Review

Read online at HaikuPrajna

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Hello reader,

My enjoyment of Bartleby the Scrinivier, by Herman Melville, as in Moby Dick, was in an inverse proportion to the titular subject's complete lack of zest and enthusiasm in his outright refusal, without malice nor much retort, to work on certain requests.

Meaning, this story was a great read.

Instead of fighting with Bartleby’s hermitage, after finding himself unable to dismiss him, the Narrator worked around peculiarities such as Bartleby living in the office.

After at first deciding instead to continue utilizing Bartleby and calling on others to pick up on the work, the Narrator moves his entire office and all his other workers, just to find Bartleby forced back into his life again.

The Narrator insisted on understanding and helping, despite receiving a lack of an answer.

The Narrator at first pitied him, but the feeling merged with fear and repulsion, recognizing Bartleby’s afflictions could be caused by ills, his soul suffering in a way the Narrator was unable to help in the way the Narrator could Bartleby’s body.

Employing the copy of legal documents, the Narrator lived by and for the written law, so when he observed what he perceived to be a rule he found himself compelled to accommodate it, or else experience anguish. Bartleby was integrated to sate a desire to be rebelled against, and to fulfill the desire to feel like one was helping another in some way.

What was more important was the Narrator's condoning and observing of Bartleby's depression, the compartmentalizing and observing of a depressed individual in order to experience one's own feelings in a controlled environment.

The Narrator saw Bartleby in himself, was perhaps even anxious of it happening to him, and sought a logical remedy to employ in such an event.

The Narrator was able to see the good and bad in the people under his employment, and was able to utilize the best in people in spite of their faults. His willingness to rid himself of depression (from his own, to its personification in Bartleby) is melancholic, but it is in earnest and meant without ill will.

Where Bartleby himself experienced the nature of discarding that which lacked utility, the Narrator was willing to make some form of practical and personal good.

. 20241217 . 20241218 . One day birthday read

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Thank you for reading,

Until next time!

Allen W. McLean

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Need more Bite-sized Insights to relieve your stress and suffering?

Share, subscribe or leave a comment, it means the world to authors and is the easiest way to support the work you read, as you will help reach other readers!

@HaikuPrajna @ElectricArmchair

Read mindfulness meditation scifaiku and haiku poetry, book reviews and metaphysical stories, such as "Escape Perennial City", plus more writing online at HaikuPrajna!

https://aprilandallen.square.site/haikuprajna

Show your support with our Handmade Art Works, Book Merch, and Clay Quirks at APRILandALLEN's!

https://aprilandallen.square.site/

April's psychedelic music videos, art and poetry is available on all streaming platforms at Electric Armchair!

https://aprilandallen.square.site/electricarmchair

https://aprilandallen.square.site/social