Techie, software developer, hobbyist photographer, sci-fi/fantasy and comics fan in the Los Angeles area. He/him.
Mostly reading science fiction these days, mixing in some fantasy and some non-fiction (mostly tech and science), occasionally other stuff. As far as books go, anyway. (I read more random articles than I probably should.)
Reviews are cross-posted on my website and I have a blog dedicated to Les Misérables.
Fediverse Main: @kelson@notes.kvibber.com (GoToSocial) Websites: KVibber.com and Hyperborea.org
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A nineteenth-century science fiction tale of an electric submarine, its eccentric captain, and undersea world, …
I am beginning to wonder if the abridged version I read at ~12 was mostly shortening the lists of names of fish species in the daily observations and trawls.
A nineteenth-century science fiction tale of an electric submarine, its eccentric captain, and undersea world, …
I read an abridged version ages ago. Time to finally read the whole thing.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 returns to the alternate Cairo of Clark's short fiction, where humans live and work …
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 returns to the alternate Cairo of Clark's short fiction, where humans live and work …
The Wind's Twelve Quarters is a collection of short stories by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, named after a …
Ursula K. Le Guin’s timeless and revered A Wizard of Earthsea is reimagined in a …
Fred Fordham's watercolor-style art is absolutely gorgeous. The adaptation plays to the medium's strengths, allowing the visuals to tell the story when possible, keeping Ursula K. Le Guin's prose when needed. Wide seascapes, rocky coasts, forested landscapes, people (not whitewashed! and dragons...
Fred Fordham's watercolor-style art is absolutely gorgeous. The adaptation plays to the medium's strengths, allowing the visuals to tell the story when possible, keeping Ursula K. Le Guin's prose when needed. Wide seascapes, rocky coasts, forested landscapes, people (not whitewashed! and dragons...
With birding more popular than ever, this clever pocket-sized “dictionary” is a unique gift that …
A delightful "dictionary" filled with the same style of humor and illustration that Mosco brings to her occasional comic strip Bird and Moon, and worth keeping out after you're done so you can always flip to a random page for a laugh.
A delightful "dictionary" filled with the same style of humor and illustration that Mosco brings to her occasional comic strip Bird and Moon, and worth keeping out after you're done so you can always flip to a random page for a laugh.
The Wind's Twelve Quarters is a collection of short stories by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, named after a …
Seanan McGuire’s New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-nominated October Daye series continues as Toby Daye is thrust once again …
This is just a story. It can't hurt you anymore.
Since she was three …
I did like this book, but not as much as I'd expected to.
At the level of plot, it's like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. On a character level, it's about trying to go through life knowing you're different from everyone around you. And thematically, it's about friends and family vs. the world, and vs. each other, and figuring out where the lines are between who you can trust and who you can't.
The prologue is not for the squeamish. But the rest of the novel is more eerie sci-fi and less horror.
It's mostly told from Stasia's (the plant person) point of view. Most of the other characters aren't...well, maybe I shouldn't say "fleshed out" when half of them are plant people, but while Stasia's puzzlement over their motivations supports the story thematically, it makes it less engaging. Though there is an interesting shift in …
I did like this book, but not as much as I'd expected to.
At the level of plot, it's like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. On a character level, it's about trying to go through life knowing you're different from everyone around you. And thematically, it's about friends and family vs. the world, and vs. each other, and figuring out where the lines are between who you can trust and who you can't.
The prologue is not for the squeamish. But the rest of the novel is more eerie sci-fi and less horror.
It's mostly told from Stasia's (the plant person) point of view. Most of the other characters aren't...well, maybe I shouldn't say "fleshed out" when half of them are plant people, but while Stasia's puzzlement over their motivations supports the story thematically, it makes it less engaging. Though there is an interesting shift in perspective as the advance vanguard becomes less human and more plant.
I also can't help but think of this as a more cynical, post-COVID take on some of the same themes as the Newsflesh trilogy. The author remarked recently that she no longer has the faith in humanity that we'd band together against an existential threat, and that echoed through my mind a lot while I was reading this.
From sci-fi visionary and acclaimed author Annalee Newitz comes Automatic Noodle, a cozy near-future novella …
Automatic Noodle is a short, joyful tale of creating the future you want out of the present you've been stuck with.
The main robots are all well-drawn, individual characters: The octopus-like search-and-rescue bot whose chemical sensors were perfect for analyzing taste and smell, who has fond memories of the falafel truck they worked at after the war (and is seriously into speculating cryptocurrency on the side). The bot with articulated arms and hands, who wants to make something worthwhile with them. The former bank teller, partly humaniform, who becomes more comfortable expressing her inner robot-ness as she explores logistics and supply chains. And the former combat robot, who finds himself tired of working in management and wants to get back into protecting people (both human and robot) and the restaurant, and discovers there are more ways to do that than just muscle (or rather servos) and ammo. The sentient …
Automatic Noodle is a short, joyful tale of creating the future you want out of the present you've been stuck with.
The main robots are all well-drawn, individual characters: The octopus-like search-and-rescue bot whose chemical sensors were perfect for analyzing taste and smell, who has fond memories of the falafel truck they worked at after the war (and is seriously into speculating cryptocurrency on the side). The bot with articulated arms and hands, who wants to make something worthwhile with them. The former bank teller, partly humaniform, who becomes more comfortable expressing her inner robot-ness as she explores logistics and supply chains. And the former combat robot, who finds himself tired of working in management and wants to get back into protecting people (both human and robot) and the restaurant, and discovers there are more ways to do that than just muscle (or rather servos) and ammo. The sentient car doing delivery gigs who has a thing for old media and will tell you exactly what's wrong with the offensive robot stereotypes in, say, Transformers.
Content warning Mild spoilers for the first chapter
Earth's "NVA" setup of constantly tormenting one person for the supposed benefit of society brings to mind Omelas, but several things make it worse: - It's clearly a deliberate choice, not a "necessary" evil. - They've trained the populace to enjoy NVA's torment, unlike Omelas where it's a secret shame. It's more like the daily two minutes of hate. - They keep swapping in new clones of the same person, using the threat of "She might be you!" as part of keeping women down. - The society isn't even that great anyway. At least with Omelas you can understand why people would want to rationalize their complicity in the system. That's the point of the story, after all. Here? it's explicitly fascist, though the characters from Earth noticeably don't say so until they're light-years away from it.
I just discovered there's a third book in the series. Looking forward to how this picks up on the threads in the epilogue from Interference.
I just discovered there's a third book in the series. Looking forward to how this picks up on the threads in the epilogue from Interference.
