A bike mechanic living in intentional community, reading a lot of hopeful stuff and waxing poetic above their station.
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Highly unusual After the Holocaust novel. In the far future, 20th century texts are preserved in a monastery, as "sacred …
Highly unusual After the Holocaust novel. In the far future, 20th century texts are preserved …
The timing on picking this book up for me was wild, as Behind The Bastards just did a 5 part series on "The Men Who Might Have Killed Us All," and both of these works speak to the constant low-grade anxiety I am plagued with living under the nuclear sword of Damocles.
As I write this, the Doomsday Clock is set to 89 seconds to midnight, and even if we somehow manage to avoid blowing ourselves to Kingdom Come, we'll have climate change to contend with, and I don't think we're gonna dodge that bullet. I think Canticle speaks to a world where either eventuality lays us low. Most of the paths ahead of us lead to the vultures eating well.
Act one's protagonist is a cringingly pathetic man who manages, in spite of being the wettest blanket to ever live to leave an indelible mark on the …
The timing on picking this book up for me was wild, as Behind The Bastards just did a 5 part series on "The Men Who Might Have Killed Us All," and both of these works speak to the constant low-grade anxiety I am plagued with living under the nuclear sword of Damocles.
As I write this, the Doomsday Clock is set to 89 seconds to midnight, and even if we somehow manage to avoid blowing ourselves to Kingdom Come, we'll have climate change to contend with, and I don't think we're gonna dodge that bullet. I think Canticle speaks to a world where either eventuality lays us low. Most of the paths ahead of us lead to the vultures eating well.
Act one's protagonist is a cringingly pathetic man who manages, in spite of being the wettest blanket to ever live to leave an indelible mark on the world and his faith. Every page of his arc left me feeling hollow and sad for the waste of the life of a soft and timid mouse, and yet he played his role.
Act two has a large cast of consequence as we navigate the politics of a Neo-rennaissance, humanity growing back into its mantle it nuked itself out of, while the specter of our war-like nature looms over all...
And act three finds us back in a pre-Leibowitzian state: All the world's powers are armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, and itching to have a go at each other, until the inevitable happens. And yet somehow the lives and choices of people in the face of this inevitability still have weight. Yes, yes, Catholics in space or whatever, but the starship is an afterthought to the drama that unfolds on earth in the last days, minutes, seconds before annihilation, not complete, but complete enough.
It's a confusing time to be alive. Perhaps every time is a confusing one. All I know is I grew up watching Star Trek and believing humanity's future was out among the stars, and if we smash-cut to today I think everyone who is trying to get us off this rock is a horrifying ego-maniac who will accelerate our march to a planet-wide mass grave. A world that is, at any given time, seconds away from Mutually Assured Destruction is a very difficult world to be hopeful for, but if the end is inevitable, if the question isn't if, but when, then maybe it becomes easier to live a life of service and principle in the face of all of that.
Bummer, man.
Highly unusual After the Holocaust novel. In the far future, 20th century texts are preserved …
Another Feral Historian discovery, backed up by partner \
Another Feral Historian discovery, backed up by partner \
Centuries in the future, Terrans have established a logging colony & military base named “New Tahiti” on a tree-covered planet …
I had not intended to read this coinciding with my Frankenstein deep-dive, but the parallels are start, I feel that Hardaker understands Wollstonecraft-Shelley better than anyone who has attempted to make a direct adaptation. "Composite Creatures" left me with a hollow pit of horror in my stomach that GDT's "Frankenstein" got nowhere close to competing with.
I had not intended to read this coinciding with my Frankenstein deep-dive, but the parallels are start, I feel that Hardaker understands Wollstonecraft-Shelley better than anyone who has attempted to make a direct adaptation. "Composite Creatures" left me with a hollow pit of horror in my stomach that GDT's "Frankenstein" got nowhere close to competing with.
Kathy, a clone about to donate all her organs and die, reflects on her past about her school and the …
Anther Feral Historian book
Reading aloud to partner. Had started reading years ago on my own, never finished
Reading aloud to partner. Had started reading years ago on my own, never finished
Won the 2020 Hugo for Best Novel. Ambassador Mahit Dzmare is posted far from her mining station home, to the …
Won the 2020 Hugo for Best Novel. Ambassador Mahit Dzmare is posted far from her …
Content warning Speculation about the plot, having read up to chapter 9
Theory time! I do not have a good grasp of the astro-politics yet, in chapter 9. I am definitely under the impression now that the gates pre-date the Teixcalaanli. They almost feel like a cargo cult. We've had very little exposure to their scientists and engineers so far, and the ixplanatl seem... dumb as shit, and unspecialized. Morgue attendant? Ixplanatl. Doctor? Ixplanatl. Paramedic? Ixplanatl. Civil engineer? Ixplanatl. They seem like all that got them there is being just as political as anyone else. I've only met ixplanatl, politicians, and poets, and the lines are blurred between all three. And Nineteen Adze does not seem to understand the basics of the imago at all. This is a parasite culture, with immense power.
What we do have in play is a ruler with a 90% genetic copy running around, contraband neurological implants running around that appear to be Lsel's worst kept secret among the Teixcalaanli court, one of those devices that was sabotaged to under-go a factory reset before being delivered to the seat of power, and that device has been incorrectly referred to as a "resurrection" by someone close to the throne (I think the science minister?)
Mahit is a teddy bear filled with contraband that the emperor thinks will make him an immortal god-king.
The war, in addition to satisfying whatever dumb-shit Teixcalaanli politics is going on, also will likely wipe Lsel off the map, thus eliminating evidence.
Throughout history and around the world today, forward-thinking communities have pioneered alternative ways of living together, sharing property and raising …
In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.
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E-book extra: In-depth study guide.Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and …
