LarryC

Golden Age was not so golden

Revisado: 12-20-24

This 1962 novel is a classic of its era I guess. The plot makes no sense. An interstellar ship piloted by clones encounters trouble when the human brains that are supposed to steer the thing go insane and have to be terminated. As the clones grapple with what to do next, they soon realize that they are not really an interstellar exploration crew but a scientific experiment to create an artificial intelligence far enough away from Earth to Do. no harm if things go terribly wrong. As they had for the previous six expeditions.

Most of the action consists of long incomprehensible debates between the characters about what exactly the nature of consciousness is, mixed up with a lot of technobabble. So many pages of this. The last couple of chapters are where the ship gains consciousness and goes all Hal on them.

And oh yeah the sexism. The one female character is the only character whose physique is described ("she had the kind of figure men like to look at") and she gets horny whenever one of the male scientists delivers a particularly clever speech.

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Paint by Numbers

Revisado: 12-20-24

We follow the initial invasion of Earth and counter efforts through the eyes of an earthy simple soldier. He distinguishes himself in an early skirmish, goes through boot camp, and off to his first deployment. He and his fellow soldiers, stereotypes from a variety of backgrounds, make earthy jokes to one another. Sound familiar? For the first half I was wondering if it had been written by AI.

Speaking of which. The book picks up quite a bit about halfway through when our everyman hero discovers an ancient artifact that is a sarcastic mouthy super intelligent artificial intelligence produced by a long extinct race. Skippy (as he names the AI) and he and a ragtag band go on adventures and eventually free the Earth from alien dominion.

This eventually became a fun, mindless entertainment to listen to while exercising or doing yard work. I don't think I'll listen to the rest of the series though.

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No Right to be This Good

Revisado: 08-10-24

An absolutely wonderful exploration of my favorite DS9 character. The beginning is a little slow but stick with it.

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Great world building but ...

Revisado: 07-21-24

Beneath some very elaborate and creative world building, this is your basic young wizard coming of age story. And there's no clear denomment. This reads more like the first half of a book rather than the first book in a series.

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Wait, what?

Revisado: 06-18-22

This book is everything I love and too much of it. Complex plot? Oh heck yes. New major plot elements introduced on page 600! Rich characters? So many. So so many. A complex and interesting future universe? See above. And then it--just ends. I don't mind a few loose ends to carry into the next book, but not a single storyline (of the ever so many!) is resolved.

Now I am entertaining sunk cost fallacies and thinking I might buy the next one anyway. But I do wish I hadn't bought this.

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Kinda funny

Revisado: 05-07-22

It's a good concept and funny in places, but a lot of the jokes are too obvious.

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Stunning work of history and literature

Revisado: 12-16-21

I cannot think of another recent work that is both path breaking environmental history and breathtaking work of literature. The research is deep and the argument persuasive, this would be an important work if the writing were pedestrian. But the writing is luminous. So many times I stopped to savor a phrase, so perfect. This is the best work of history I've read in years.

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The Centrality of Slavery to American History

Revisado: 06-12-21

In this brilliant work of historical synthesis, Baptist shows how slavery built the economy and shaped the development of the United States. And also how the system was even worse than we thought we knew.

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And then...nothing happened.

Revisado: 04-24-17

Any additional comments?

God, at first I thought I was going to love this book so much. The universe is richly-imagined and unique, with everything I love. Hard science? Check. The story centered on a spaceship? Check. A universe with multiple species with unique perspectives and abilities? Check. Deep political skull duggery that threatens to upset the balance of power? Check. Exciting action to drive the story along...? Not so much.

Almost nothing happens in this book, except heavy-handed and cloying exposition of the crew. Kizzy is so Zany! Rose has a secret! The captain is so wise! The grumpy plant guy is grumpy--but you know he will come around, and he does. Doctor Chef is so nurturing! Did we mention how zany Kizzy is?

By the time the first flicker of action occurs, when space pirates board the ship half way through the book, I was hoping the pirates would kill everyone so we could start over in this wonderful, squandered universe. Maybe they could be replaced with the crew of the Rocinante? No such luck.

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esto le resultó útil a 8 personas