User Profile

Picking up from the end of the cliffhanger of "Hyperion," "The Fall of Hyperion" tells of what happens after the pilgrims finally reach the Shrike.

Unlike the previous book, which adopted the structure of the "Canterbury Tales" to tell the backstories of each pilgrim, "The Fall of Hyperion" has a somewhat more straightforward but still creative narrative style — one which shifts between multiple first person views while consciously granting one narrator a bit more omniscience than the rest. The result is a generally enjoyable and linear read.

That said, at least for me, I found that some of the plot developments require a fair amount of faith. It wasn't always clear how each character's actions affected the future that sent the Time Tombs into the past — to say nothing of the larger supernatural forces at play. Even so, the story itself was much more enjoyable than not and I had no difficulties reading to the end, even if I felt the need to suspend disbelief on several occasions.

"Character Limit" is an in-depth look into how and why Elon Musk bought Twitter (now X), along with what he did with and to the social network afterwards.

The first half of the book does an excellent job detailing the state of Twitter before Musk's buyout — its ethos under Dorsey, its struggles to grow and turn a reliable profit, its inability to innovate past its original 140-character product, and its sprawling multinational moderation team. The book then goes on to detail the choices Twitter's board faced when Musk offered to buy the company, including their legal responsibility to maximize shareholder value — and how that responsibility overrode any loyalty to the original mission of Twitter. The remainder of the book then details Musk's early reign at Twitter, including a neverending cascade of layoffs, declining advertising revenue, and increasingly erratic behavior from the company's poaster-in-chief.

The book is well structured and tells its story well. The authors do an excellent job of describing the events that led to the buyout of Twitter and Musk's subsequent behavior.

Even so, I liked this book more than I loved it. Since the book came out before Trump's reelection, it leaves the story at the nadir of Twitter/X's influence — and consequently misses Musk's reemergence (and likely subsequent fall). The book consequently prematurely dances on Musk's and X's grave.

I hope the authors consider writing a sequel.

In the 1960s, American liberals faced a crisis. After three decades of New Deal liberalism, which wedded government, labor and business together towards large common goals, it was becoming increasingly clear that there remained large gaps in class, race, gender, and other social issues. Additionally, many of the government agencies responsible for regulating corporations had become cozy with them, using their regulations to stifle competition while benefiting incumbents.

Ralph Nader wanted something different.

To his credit, he saw the need for more voices in government, more chances for input and participation, and more accountability for all parties. To provide those things, he started the public interest movement, which would fight in courtrooms across the country to protect and preserve the rights, safety, health and environment of Americans.

This book is the story of that movement — and how many of the strategic and tactical choices he made set the stage for the dysfunction we see today.