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You're killin' me, Clarke. Another chapter copied from 2010 and already reused in 2061? That's three of the last six chapters.

Clarke sure likes to repeat himself. For the third book in a row he's using the same chapter to describe the Europan sea floor. (not exactly identical; the version in 2061 and 3001 includes a sentence referring to what happened at the end of 2010).

A bit more world building in the middle section, plus a lecture about how barbaric we 21st century people are, especially when it comes religion. Oh my Deus you guys, religion is just the worst thing ever and it caused all the wars in history, because they certainly weren't about resources, power, respect, or anything like that.

So far this is shaping up to be a lot like 2061, less of a novel and more of an exercise in imagining the distant future. We're nearly 40% of the way through and the hero is just now getting the Call To Adventure.

This is the second Odyssey book in which someone has spent so much time in a low-gravity environment that they can never return to Earth. Why not though? Couldn't they use weight training, electric muscle stimulation, or exoskeletons?

I haven't even gotten to Page 1 and I've had my first "what the hell is wrong with humanity" moment: In 1906, Ota Benga was put on display in a cage with an orangutan in the Bronx Zoo.

Onward to the fourth volume in the Odyssey trilogy. If you cut out the Acknowledgements and an excerpt from another book, this final installment checks in at 247 pages, just barely longer than 2001.

Part 5: Dave moving over the face of the waters.

Through Part 4: Rendezvous with the enigma.

Chapter 3: Good morning Dr. Chandra.

Through Part V, Book V. Just 16 chapters to go.

Through Part 4, Book 11, where forces are gathering for revolution. (Though this is a French revolution, it is not The French Revolution. That was nearly forty years ago.)

End of part Three. The last section (chapter 20 in particular) was really long but captivating, which gives me hope that I'll finish in time. I believe we're also through most of the long digressions; the Waterloo section back in Part II really wore me out.

One curious effect of reading this book is that it shows how much and how little everything has changed since 1994. Most of the story could just as easily take place today, but then I'll find myself asking something like "how did she get his cell phone?" and realize it's one of those that was installed in the car.

So far it's mostly been the usual celebrity memoir stuff about growing up and moving to New York City. Of course every childhood is quirky in its own way, and Rainn's involved a year in the Nicaraguan jungle and many weekends devoted to marathon D&D sessions.

Pretty good story so far. I don't know that I'd call it award-winning, but her ideas for the species and tribes are creative. I have a pretty good idea of how the plot's going to play out; let's see if she can surprise me.

Chapter 6: This is the story of the British period of rule, told through the story of expert rabble-rouser Sylvia Pankhurst. When the Brits took over Ethiopia, they cheerfully dismantled and confiscated the country's industrial hardware, using the familiar line of "they wouldn't know what to do with it." Miss Pankhurst spent decades exposing their acts to an apathetic British public.

Chapter 5: Here we turn our focus to Ethiopia, Eritrea's larger neighbor, and a legend stating that God Himself declared the Ethiopians to be His new chosen people. This readily lends itself to further claims that certain lands are theirs by divine right, for example that strip of land on the coast.

Chapter 4: World War II comes to Eritrea, and the Italian era comes to an end. As was often the case with such conflicts, the armies fought largely by recruiting locals. Whether they lived or died, the local troops were pretty much immediately forgotten once the fighting was over.

Describing a hovel on the outskirts of Paris: "An interesting and picturesque feature of this type of residence is the enormous size of the spiders."

(⊙△⊙✿)

Through Part 2 (Cosette), Book III.

Chapter 3: Italy elects Benito Mussolini, who says the best way to pump up national spirit is to start a war abroad. He pours money into East Africa for a war against Haile Selassie (aka Ras Tafari). This leads to a building boom in Eritrea, but also brings in thousands of Italians who feel they deserve more respect from the locals. Italian Eritrea passes apartheid laws much like those later seen in South Africa.

Chapter 2: Italy, having just united under a common banner itself, joins the Scramble for Africa. They take a small territory on the Red Sea, but early leadership is more concerned with feathering their nests than with developing the colony. The King sends MP Ferdinando Martini to investigate, who basically says "I wish we'd never gone there, but the extermination is already underway. May as well see it through."

Foreword and Chapter 1: An introduction to Eritrea, a small country that split back off of Ethiopia in the early 1990s. In its early days, things seemed to be going well; Eritrea seemed to have avoided the ethnic infighting and totalitarian governments that characterize much of postcolonial Africa. It couldn't last though, and hopeful foreigners were left wondering if they'd ever really understood the place.

Some okay parts here about practical applications of empathy. The author also points out that empathy isn't always the warm and fuzzy thing we think it to be. Imagine the bully who always seems to know how to hurt you or the salesman who uses mirroring to build trust so he can talk you into buying things. They're thinking about your feelings and state of mind too, but for their own ends.

I should really know by now to just skim the epilogues to celebrity memoirs. They always seem to wind up as a dumping ground what whatever random musings the author couldn't fit in anywhere else. "It's controversial to say that you can get fit without going to a gym..." Only if you live in the land of infomercials.

The author mentions Naomi Wolf's "The Beauty Myth", which is an important book and I don't want to take away from it, but I feel like the author (circa 2001) misuses it. All through the book she's talked about her super competitive nature and her mother's inadvertent lesbian-shaming, but she reads Wolf and suddenly it's all Hollywood's fault.

Concerned family confronts the addict, addict promises to change, promise is quickly broken. Sad but not surprising.

"Every script I read described the female. Leads as 'beautiful yet doesn't know it' it 'naturally thin and muscular and doesn't have to work at it.' Effortlessness is an attractive thing. And it takes a lot of effort to achieve it."