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Beginning in 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work …
Lots of interesting stuff in this book, but for me it didn't hold together as a convincing story.
[Comment by Kim Stanley Robinson, on The Guardian's website][1]: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin (1969) …
The house was deathly quiet. That was the first sign that something was terribly wrong. …
What a great book, I couldn't put it down. It kept the uncertainty and twists going from start to finish, and I needed to continually revise what I thought might be going on. A really fun read.
Within the context of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a military project sends messages to alien …
I thought it started out really strong but became unnecessarily fantastical, which took away from it quite a lot. I also didn't feel the characters motivations were particularly convincing. Lots of cool ideas and interesting thoughts but the great overall concept and story line could have been a lot better.
A Desolation Called Peace is a 2021 space opera science fiction novel by Arkady Martine. …
Well written, interesting story. I would have given it a 3.5 if that were a choice. However, I didn't think it was exceptional, as the awards and acclaim seem to indicate.
Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe.
Avice is an immerser, …
Interesting. A bit longer than needed.
“You are the next step in human evolution.”
At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if …
Upgrade is not his previous two books I recently read, Recursion, or Dark Matter. Upgrade seemed to me uninspired. It felt to me like he needed to write another book, so came up with this story, rather than the other way around, where he had a story he wanted to tell, and so wrote a book. It was OK to read though.
Dark Matter is a science fiction thriller novel by American writer Blake Crouch, first published …
I really liked this book. It kept me engaged throughout and it's use of the many-worlds hypothesis was sensible and consistent. Highly recommend it.
"Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are …
A clear, pleasant to read book. I'd really give it a 3.5, but since I need to go up or down, it definitely needs to go up. It's always good to question fundamental assumptions, which is what this book is about. She does a good job of trying to get a variety of viewpoints, though I do think she may be overstating her case, but my lack of understanding of theoretical physics makes this difficult to judge. By suggesting that her critique applies to all science does seem like overreaching, though she only does this tangentially. This is particularly the case because a big part of her argument rests on the idea that theoretical physics has reached a point where it's difficult to obtain data, so a lot of what they do is conjecture, and they can get "lost in math" when there is no data to show if their …
A clear, pleasant to read book. I'd really give it a 3.5, but since I need to go up or down, it definitely needs to go up. It's always good to question fundamental assumptions, which is what this book is about. She does a good job of trying to get a variety of viewpoints, though I do think she may be overstating her case, but my lack of understanding of theoretical physics makes this difficult to judge. By suggesting that her critique applies to all science does seem like overreaching, though she only does this tangentially. This is particularly the case because a big part of her argument rests on the idea that theoretical physics has reached a point where it's difficult to obtain data, so a lot of what they do is conjecture, and they can get "lost in math" when there is no data to show if their theories are true in the real world. This is most definitely not the case in most fields of science which have the opposite problem of so much data that it is impossible to get to it all. Overall though it's a very thought provoking book, and may teach you a fair bit about theoretical physics along the way.
Had a few interesting thoughts, but it read like you never left the introduction. Not very analytical, and I got the sense that many of the examples used were cherry picked, and one could have come up with opposing examples.
For anyone who loves the outdoors, Paddling with a Naturalist offers an opportunity to gain …
I try to give readers a deeper understanding of the “why” in a way that I hope is enjoyable and easy to read. I’ve written it as a travelogue of a short canoe trip I took in Algonquin Park, Ontario. You’ll follow me through creeks and lakes, and along the portage trail, where we’ll discuss the things we come across - which is after all how the natural world presents itself on a canoe or hiking trip. By the end I hope you’ll find that you have a better understanding of the forces that make our beautiful natural world possible.
The story of rebuilding civilization after a plague nearly wipes out the human race.
I found it appealing that it is a post apocalyptic story without any weird, crazy things happening. A thoughtful look at how new societies might form through the eyes of one "survivor". A tad optimistic about how long some modern conveniences would continue to last me thinks, but that is easily overlooked. Well written.
Inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s archived letters, Duchamp versus Einstein is a science fiction novelette spanning …
Interesting little book. Very short.
The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so …
I liked the concept of uploading your memories to the internet, and having corporate incentives to share them. . However, this entire book felt like an introduction. New characters and new events, often in different time periods every chapter. They did become somewhat intertwined, but not in a way where I felt it all came together. At the end I didn't feel like I had any real sense of any of the characters or why they did the things they did. I also didn't find that it really stimulated my thinking at all about what a world where many uploaded their memories to the internet for all to see would be like. It was all just too disconnected. I have not read the first book, A Visit from the Goon Squad, where many of these characters were first introduced. Perhaps that would have helped, but I wouldn't recommend it as …
I liked the concept of uploading your memories to the internet, and having corporate incentives to share them. . However, this entire book felt like an introduction. New characters and new events, often in different time periods every chapter. They did become somewhat intertwined, but not in a way where I felt it all came together. At the end I didn't feel like I had any real sense of any of the characters or why they did the things they did. I also didn't find that it really stimulated my thinking at all about what a world where many uploaded their memories to the internet for all to see would be like. It was all just too disconnected. I have not read the first book, A Visit from the Goon Squad, where many of these characters were first introduced. Perhaps that would have helped, but I wouldn't recommend it as a stand alone.
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and …
Great story. Really gets inside the head of this fictional autistic child. I can't believe how much I related to how he thinks.
