Reviews and Comments

Maxim

Iamgmm@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 6 months ago

Software PM, bridge teacher, board game geek. Interested in stock markets and rational thinking.

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Neal Stephenson: Reamde (2011, William Morrow)

Reamde is a speculative fiction novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2011. The story, set …

Unexpected

Expectations: a thoughtful, magnificent mind-blowing world similar to those in "Snowcrash", "The Diamond age", "Cryptonomicon", or "Anathem".

Reality: a scenario for a Guy Ritchie criminal action movie. Russian mafia, Chinese hackers, and a manhunting puma assaulting islamic terrorists.

Reamde is still a fine piece of prose, just don't expect Platonic philosophy in this one.

reviewed A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge (Zones of Thought, #1)

Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon The Deep (Paperback, 1993, Tor Science Fiction)

Thousands of years in the future, humanity is no longer alone in a universe where …

Captivating and thought-provoking

It is way deeper than just a "space opera". Just to say Vernor Vinge offers a brand new explanation of the Fermi paradox. Few sci-fi writers can boast that.

reviewed Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game, #1)

Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game (Paperback, 1994, TOR Books)

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games; he is, in fact, …

Should have read it when I was 10, not 40

Started reading it because it was top-rated by several friends. It is an excellent young adult novel but for a middle-aged person it feels like "yet another child's heroic path to victory".

Roger Zelazny: The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth (Paperback, 2004, I Books)

Mortality is the closest to immortality when it accepts a challenge to itself

A masterful blend of science fiction and poetic prose, pondering over the thin line between humanity and divinity. Definitely recommend it to anyone interested in philosophical sci-fi, and a must-read if you like Lord of Light.

Thanks @jonn for digging out this little-known treasure.