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Alastair McKinstry

amckinstry@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years, 9 months ago

Climate scientist, Green party, former councillor in Galway, Ireland, Branch chair of IFUT.ie in the University of Galway

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Alastair McKinstry's books

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John Reed: Ten Days That Shook the World (2020, International Publishers)

2020 Reprint of the 1922 Edition. "An American journalist and revolutionary writer, John Reed became …

Pretty much the definitive eye-witness account from an outsiders perspective. If you enjoyed this, check out China Meville's history too.

reviewed The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi (The Interdependency, #1)

John Scalzi: The Collapsing Empire (EBook, 2017, Tom Doherty Associates)

In the far future, humanity has left Earth to create a glorious empire. Now this …

Wonderful

Firstly, to agree with other reviewers the dialogue is excellent, witty, fast-paced. It keeps the story moving and its a strong story. I'm definitely getting the rest of the collection.

But the denouements and twists are beautiful, from the outcome of the mutiny in the prologue to the importance of peer review (!) revealed at the end of part two. Best laid plans falling apart because of different information is great.

The memory room is a nice device, too. As Sherlock had his Watson, Batman his Robin, I can see this century will have AI agents as the counterpart where the protagonist explains important bits of the plot. This needs to be done with care, and is.

But the overall arch is the best. The Empire is collapsing, the Emperox knows and has trusted experts explain the details, the sailors on the starships can see the "Flow" …