Eric Herboso

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Eric Herboso rated a book 3 of 5 stars

M 33 in Andromeda
by A.E. van Vogt

read in December, 2012

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This is a great collection of soft science fiction stories from a classic author. Well worth the read, though none of the stories in this collection jumped out at me as being particularly worthy of praise. Good consistent quality stories like this ra...more

Eric Herboso rated a book 4 of 5 stars

Tangents
by Greg Bear

read in November, 2012

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This collection of short stories from the early portion of Greg Bear's career includes several hits alongside a few misses in both hard and soft science fiction. There's even a nonfiction article on the state of technology included in the volume that...more

Eric Herboso joined the group LessWrong

Eric Herboso rated a book 3 of 5 stars

The Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow

The Rapture of the Nerds: A tale of the singularity, posthumanity, and awkward social situations
by Cory Doctorow

read in November, 2012

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Post-singularity scifi is always weird, but Doctorow & Stross do an excellent job of describing the weirdness rationally in a way that feels more scifi than fantasy. It's definitely a fun read, though I doubt I'd ever choose to pick up the book a...more Post-singularity scifi is always weird, but Doctorow & Stross do an excellent job of describing the weirdness rationally in a way that feels more scifi than fantasy. It's definitely a fun read, though I doubt I'd ever choose to pick up the book a second time.

While the largest defect of the novel was (for me at least) an inability to really empathize with the main character, the most visible defect was certainly the sheer number of obscure references packed into the book. Those not moderately versed in physics, philosophy, computer science, poliical philosophy, science fiction culture, and (of course) the singularity, will undoubtedly miss out on several references the authors make within. Whether it's Nightcrawler or daleks, Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov or Ayn Rand, this novel never stops calling back to outside ideas that most people will not be fully up to speed on, even as the plot relentlessly moves forward.

The profundity of obscurity in most of these references can only be intended as a way of letting the authors reward those readers who catch each reference again and again in an ever-increasing paroxysm of positive reinforcement that makes the reading of this book more akin to playing a video game than visually scanning a physical text. While I can't fault Doctorow & Stross for achieving what they've set out to do here, I can object on the ground that I'm not particularly into this kind of reference-intensive writing. I don't even like it particularly when James Joyce does it in Ulysses, so I hope it's understandable why I dislike how it is done here.

As such, I have decided upon giving this book a mediocre score. Not because it is mediocre per se, but because the area in which it excels is one that I'm just not all that impressed by. I can recommend this book only to those people that are into Joyce-style reference gang-bangs of pop culture mixed with science and philosophy alongside really, really weird post-singularity scifi. If you're into that stuff, read this. If not, stay away. And if, like me, you are slightly interested but not particularly amused by the FLCL-style hijinks, then it might be worth a read, even though it'll never be on your favorites list.(less)

Eric Herboso rated a book 5 of 5 stars

Stories of Your Life and Others
by Ted Chiang

read in November, 2012

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An absolutely wonderful collection of science fiction stories that cut across the genre, from soft to hard scifi, and even venturing into that rarest of subgenres: hard fantasy. These stories made me laugh, cry, and even shudder in ways that most boo...more

Eric Herboso rated a book 1 of 5 stars

Disgrace
by J.M. Coetzee

read in October, 2012

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I wanted to like this book. It was recommended to me by a friend who is using it as one of the books she's writing her apartheid literature thesis on. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into it.

The main character is wholly unlikeable in my eyes. I ca...more I wanted to like this book. It was recommended to me by a friend who is using it as one of the books she's writing her apartheid literature thesis on. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into it.

The main character is wholly unlikeable in my eyes. I can see that the author wanted us to sympathize at least a little with him, but every successive chapter involved him doing or saying something which made me think even less of him. Even in the later chapters, where it looks as though the author is trying to portray him as growing and becoming more morally aware, the result is just that I come to fully appreciate just how backwards his thoughts truly are, if this is what counts as moral progress for him.

Of course, the fact that I dislike a character does not mean I dislike a book; there are several books that I enjoy where every character is disliked in some fashion. But, unfortunately, my inability to sympathize with the main character defeats the purpose of this novel. I'll explain, but be aware spoilers are ahead.

Lurie, the main character of the novel, goes through a journey in this book. He starts out thinking there is nothing wrong with trying to seduce a student at the college where he works. But before you can even express disgust at how nonchalantly he treats the issue, he opts to not just seduce, but actively rape the girl. In the scene where he rapes her, his inner monologue justifies it as not being rape at all. I realize that the author is not condoning rape of this kind -- in fact, the author is trying to get people to see that rape like this is wrong later on in the book. But I can't go on this journey of moral discovery because I agree already that it is wrong, without even seeing the parallels later on that show why it is wrong.

Yet this is not what makes me dislike Lurie the most. Instead, it is idiotic view of the world. He is atheist, yet he believes in souls and continually talks about them as though they are what is truly important. His dismissal of animals is particularly cruel, which he justifies as acceptable due to them not having souls. Even later, when he starts to feel some measure of caring for animals, he STILL considers them soulless, and cannot intellectually accept his feelings of empathy. He even expresses disdain at the thought of owing moral duties to a friend of his daughter that he only just met.

All of the above is enough for me to just not get into the novel. But it gets worse. Since Lurie is a professor that's into poetry, he throws around poetry references and distinctions between declinations of words in different languages that just go completely over my head. I can't follow at all two of the chapters in the book (what they mean or are meant to portray is completely beyond my understanding) and several of his thoughts throughout the book that refer to how English words are insufficient due to baggage are ones I actively disagree with. The baggage he thinks is there is only present because he insists on infusing every word with baggage; yet if he would only take the speaker's intent into consideration rather than the specific words they use, he wouldn't have a problem. In one scene, a person speaks who has very little understanding of English, and Lurie can't get past the words the speaker happens to choose. Why can he not realize that the baggage of the words comes from Lurie's head, and not the speaker! The speaker can't possibly know all these poetic references, and is obviously meaning something quite direct that does not rely upon the connotations that Lurie insists are there.

But perhaps the most irritating to my eye were the characters that showed some level of compassion. Lucy starts out sounding great, but turns out to be an idiot. Bev seems approachable, but then it turns out she is more into new age crap than true deep thought. I was continually disappointed by all characters, but perhaps this was Cotzee's intention. Nevertheless, even if it was done on purpose, this lack of sympathy that continued throughout the entire novel really made it where I just couldn't relate. These people are just too different.

However, the book has won several awards and is apparently well liked by many critics who know much more about this kind of literature than I do. Perhaps my problem with the book is that I just didn't follow the real narrative, which I assume was lying just beneath the surface, unseen by my ignorant eyes.(less)

Eric Herboso rated a book 5 of 5 stars

Robots and Empire (Robot, #4)
by Isaac Asimov

read in October, 2012

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The action really starts to heat up in this entrant to Asimov's epic series of scifi novels. Daneel Olivaw and Giskard Reventlov make up one of the most interesting teams you'll find in any scifi story. This is one of my favorites in the Robot series...more

Eric Herboso rated a book 5 of 5 stars

The Sword of Good
by Eliezer Yudkowsky

read in October, 2012

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A fantasy enthusiast from our world is transported to a world of fantasy, wielding the Sword of Good. Dolf the wizard and Selena the pirate join him on his quest to confront the Lord of Dark.

More cannot be said without giving away the storyline, but...more

Eric Herboso rated a book 5 of 5 stars

Three Worlds Collide
by Eliezer Yudkowsky

read in July, 2012

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This short story describes a spaceship of humans in the future who make first contact with not one, but two intelligent alien races. The result involves spirited debate as each of the three realize they all have very different views on which moral fa...more

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Eric Herboso is now friends with Michael Moore
Apr 19, 2013 01:33pm · like
Eric Herboso rated a book 3 of 5 stars M 33 in Andromeda by A.E. van Vogt read in December, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is a great collection of soft science fiction stories from a classic author. Well worth the read, though none of the stories in this collection jumped out at me as being particularly worthy of praise. Good consistent quality stories like this ra...more
Dec 13, 2012 02:37pm · see review
Eric Herboso rated a book 4 of 5 stars Tangents by Greg Bear read in November, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This collection of short stories from the early portion of Greg Bear's career includes several hits alongside a few misses in both hard and soft science fiction. There's even a nonfiction article on the state of technology included in the volume that...more
Nov 27, 2012 04:58pm · see review
Eric Herboso joined the group LessWrong
Nov 26, 2012 01:26pm · like
Eric Herboso rated a book 3 of 5 stars The Rapture of the Nerds: A tale of the singularity, posthumanity, and awkward social situations by Cory Doctorow read in November, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Post-singularity scifi is always weird, but Doctorow & Stross do an excellent job of describing the weirdness rationally in a way that feels more scifi than fantasy. It's definitely a fun read, though I doubt I'd ever choose to pick up the book a...more
Nov 04, 2012 05:40pm · see review
Eric Herboso rated a book 5 of 5 stars Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang read in November, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
An absolutely wonderful collection of science fiction stories that cut across the genre, from soft to hard scifi, and even venturing into that rarest of subgenres: hard fantasy. These stories made me laugh, cry, and even shudder in ways that most boo...more
Nov 03, 2012 03:28pm · see review
Eric Herboso rated a book 1 of 5 stars Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee read in October, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I wanted to like this book. It was recommended to me by a friend who is using it as one of the books she's writing her apartheid literature thesis on. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into it. The main character is wholly unlikeable in my eyes. I ca...more
Oct 25, 2012 03:39pm · see review
Eric Herboso rated a book 5 of 5 stars Robots and Empire (Robot, #4) by Isaac Asimov read in October, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The action really starts to heat up in this entrant to Asimov's epic series of scifi novels. Daneel Olivaw and Giskard Reventlov make up one of the most interesting teams you'll find in any scifi story. This is one of my favorites in the Robot series...more
Oct 09, 2012 05:37am · see review
Eric Herboso rated a book 5 of 5 stars The Sword of Good by Eliezer Yudkowsky read in October, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A fantasy enthusiast from our world is transported to a world of fantasy, wielding the Sword of Good. Dolf the wizard and Selena the pirate join him on his quest to confront the Lord of Dark. More cannot be said without giving away the storyline, but...more
Oct 08, 2012 05:03am · see review
Eric Herboso rated a book 5 of 5 stars Three Worlds Collide by Eliezer Yudkowsky read in July, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This short story describes a spaceship of humans in the future who make first contact with not one, but two intelligent alien races. The result involves spirited debate as each of the three realize they all have very different views on which moral fa...more
Oct 08, 2012 04:52am · see review

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