Some rather hard science fiction, but fortunately I already have heard of most of the math Egan is dipping into to spin his premise. It's a crazy ride, full of what are apparently his favorite post-singular themes of universe-creation, abiogenesis, and weirdness due to quantum effects, simulation, time-relativity. The only fault I find with it is the ending seemed kind of abrupt and unresolved. ]]>
Starts off by being laughable mid-90s fractalpunk, finishes with unconscionably absurd Hofstadter-nightmare metaphysics, but I JUST LIKE IT SO MUCH. ]]>
bookshelves: didn-t-actually-finish
Picked this up because the public library had a little display of Ballard's stuff since he passed away recently. A collection of very haunting, perplexing little tales from a futuristic desert suburbia - an unheimlich assortment of heiresses sleepwalking down towards death, flowers and statues that sing, and scorpions bearing gemstones. It's not quite the page-turner I was expecting, and it doesn't exactly make any sense, but it's beautifully weird writing. Feels like Borges living in a hybrid Arizona/Florida, but stripped of his ontological gimmicks. ]]>
bookshelves: didn-t-actually-finish
Urgh couldn't stomach the overwhelming cyberpunkiness. ]]>
Jason ("jcreed")
took the never-ending book quiz.
| questions answered: | 8 |
| correct: | 6 (75.0%) |
| skipped: | 0 |
| best streak: | 4 |
| questions added: | 0 |
Holy crap, this is some of the best science fiction I've read in a long while. It's the intimate yet epic tale of a race of ultrasound-psychic hive-mind space-puppies and their human pals, who are fighting a reawakened billions-old internet-cthulhu with the help of sentient potted plants on scooters and a red-headed swashbuckling Ghengis Khan/Jesus. And you think I'm kidding. ]]>
Picked this up at random after hearing Octavia Butler praised as an author. Interesting premise, but the execution seemed shaky. I appreciated the novel take on an old (and currently trendy?) mythological archetype. Couldn't stand the dialogue and omg-the-main-character-is-so-badass-ism. ]]>
Pretty good description of very interesting research. Started to drag a bit at the end, though. ]]>
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